Enterprise Resource Planning Blogs by SAP
Get insights and updates about cloud ERP and RISE with SAP, SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and more enterprise management capabilities with SAP blog posts.
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
thomas_meder
Employee
Employee

The built-in analytics is one strength of SAP Business ByDesign. For your daily work, there is another great feature: The Excel Add-In. One functionality of it is reporting.

Nevertheless, there might be some confusion about accessing reports and report types. I'd like to share some insight into this miracle.

Not the Excel Add-In

First of all, there is one capability that has nothing to do with the Excel Add-In, but does open them in Excel, like a print out. In case you need a static representation of a report you have opened - just click on Download - Report in Microsoft Excel® in XML Format.

The report will open in Excel, and you will be able to format or add calculations.

Opening a Browser Report in the Excel Add In

A more interactive representation is either to use a report in Excel via Add-In. In the report view of each work center, you first select the report and then View With > Microsoft Excel. Important: The Excel Add-In should already be installed on your machine.

Alternatives to access reports that are also available as browser-based ones are those:

  • When viewing the report in the browser, choose Navigate To > Microsoft Excel



  • In the Excel Add-In, choose the ribbon SAP BUSINESS BYDESIGN (this is how it will appear - all upper case), Insert Report, will add a report to your Excel workbook.

         

In all these cases, your personally defined views and selections will be available in both - the browser and Excel.

Workbooks

Also more comprehensive representations, such as whole workbooks, can be used with the add-in. There are three types of workbooks.

  • Public workbook - A workbook that is either predelivered with the solution or that has been defined by your key user analytics.
  • Personal workbooks - A personal workbook is either a workbook created and saved by you, or a modification of a public workbook that you have stored in the solution.

Your personal workbooks will appear in the report list of the home work center. You might have already discovered it, but there is an additional button:

  

  • Design workbooks - When creating the Excel Add-In, SAP's developer felt that there must be an authoring view for the key user analytics as well. This is comparable to the work center Business Analytics and can be used to define a report, before publishing it.
    Publishing is easily - just change your design workbook to Public Workbook (before, make a Personal Workbook a Design Workbook).


         

A Workbook is another great way to use ByDesign's Analytics. You can either store it in the solution, on your hard disk or sent via e-mail. The recipient is either able to see the data you have derived or is able to refresh - in case he has sufficiant access rights.

You can open workbooks either from the Work Center Home (there also your personal ones) or from the report lists of other work centers (public workbooks). When you are already in Excel, the SAP Business BYdesign ribbon will give you a button Open.

2 Comments