BW Basics

Agenda

BW Overview………………………………………..... 3

Accessing BW Reports……………………………..... 6

Entering Selection Criteria………………………….. 15

Working with Variants……………………………25

Report Workbooks…………………………………... 31

Customizing Reports…………………………………36

Saving and Refreshing Workbooks……………….. 44

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 BW Overview

What is Business Warehouse (BW)?

BW is SAP's data warehousing tool for ad hoc data analysis

Why use BW?

Shorter report run times; Better analytical and strategic reporting
Better formatting; Report results are in MS Excel format
Users can focus on data to meet their unique reporting needs

Things to note about BW:

Resides on its own server
• Separate User ID and password required
• Information is uploaded from SAP R/3 to BW twice a day
Mostly summary level data
The types of reports available depends on the role(s) you have been
assigned
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 BW Overview

Summary

Strategic
Decision-Makers
Strategic
Reporting
LEVEL OF DETAIL

Tactical
Decision-Makers

Analytical (BW) Reporting

Super-Users
/ Analysts
Transactional

Functional
Users /
Operational (R/3)/Transactional
Specialists
Reporting

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R/3 Reports
Highly structured layout
Drill down to transactional level data
Real time information
In same system and menu paths as R/3
transactions
Opens report within R/3 window
(occasionally in MS Excel format but
without functionality)
Special Ledger reports in Report Painter
are difficult for users to build
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BW Overview – BW vs. R/3 Reporting
BW Reports
Able to be customized
Mostly summary level data
Data is refreshed on a schedule
Log on to a different system
Opens MS Excel to view/manipulate
reports
All custom designed at SPE
 Agenda

Accessing BW Reports
BEx Analyzer (BW)

Login to BW
Opening a BW Report
“SAP BEx Open” window
Using “Search for Report” features

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 Accessing Reports - Open BEx Analyzer

Start > Programs > SAP Front End>Business Explorer > Analyzer
(Programs menu paths may vary)

Before opening BEx

Analyzer, be sure
MS Excel is closed.

If you don’t have Business Explorer on your PC, call the Help Desk (x42188) for installation.

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 BEx Analyzer

Business Explorer (BEx) Analyzer open in Microsoft Excel

BEx toolbar and menu options available

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 Login to BW

If you are not logged on to BW when you open workbooks, you will be
prompted to log on. From the SAP Logon window:
1. Select “BW/SEM Production – BPR” system
2. Click OK; The “SAP Logon BW/SEM Production – BPR” window appears.

3. Verify Client field is set to “555”

4. Enter your BW user ID
5. Enter your BW password
6. Click OK

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 Verify BW Login

Using the Settings button

To verify if you are logged on to BW, click the “Settings” button

A check mark next to ‘BW server connection’ indicates you are logged on

To log on/off directly,

click “BW server connection” in the list

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 Open a BW Report

From the BEx Analyzer Toolbar, click on the “Open” button

Select “Workbooks” from the list to access a list of BW reports

Note: Individual users are selectively granted authorization to access data for specific areas, create queries,
run queries or view workbook reports based on their business role. To request a BW ID and/or change
security access visit the SAP Global Support site on mySPE and click the “SAP Security” link under the
“Request Forms And Submission Process” section for the proper forms.

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 Open a BW Report – “SAP BEx Open…” window

Search for the desired report

through any of the following:
History – reports you’ve
recently used
Favorites – personally
created reports
Roles – reports arranged by
functional area

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 Open a BW Report – Find a BW Report

Using the Description / Technical Name field

1. Click in the Description field

2. Enter one of the following options:
• Full name of the report
• Partial name
• Keyword
• T-Code

Examples:
• “GD13”
• “Cost”
• “Special Ledger Summary”

Note: No asterisk (*) is needed when using partial names to find a report in BW
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 Open a BW Report – Find Function

In the BEx Open window…

1. Click the Find button

2. Enter one/more of the
following options:
a. Search String: The name or a
portion of the name of the report
b. By me: Reports created by you
c. By user/user name: Select reports
created by certain user
d. Time Interval: Report created within
system specified time period
e. From: Report created within user
specified time period

Note: No asterisk (*) is needed when using partial names to find a report in BW

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 Agenda

Entering Selection Criteria

What are “Selection Criteria”?

Entering Selection Criteria

Required Fields
Entering Single Values & Ranges
Entering Multiple Values
Using the Operators
Deleting Selection Criteria

Personalization Variables
Working with Variants

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 Selection Criteria

What are Selection Criteria in BW?

It is how you tell BW what data you want to see

What good Selection Criteria will do for you:

Speed up report processing
Give you more targeted results

Things to note about Selection Criteria:

BW remembers the data you entered the last time you ran the report
You can save your commonly-used selection criteria as a “Variant” for future
use in the same report

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 Entering Selection Criteria – Required Fields

Fields with an asterisk (*) are required fields. A value needs to be entered
before the report will run
Example: Period/Fiscal Year, Company Code & Currency Type
If you enter the values “001/2008” in the Fiscal Period/Year field and Currency Type “00”
and run or “Execute” the report, you will view all records for April of Fiscal Year 2008 in
their transactional currency

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 Entering Selection Criteria – Single Values & Ranges

To view a range of records, enter a starting value in the first data entry field
and an ending value in the second field
Example: Enter “001/2008” in the first field and “003/2008” in the second field to view records
from April – June of 2008

To view records matching a single value, enter data in only the first field
Example: Enter “1281” in the Company Code field to view records for only “Sony Pictures
Television”

Entering search values in more than one field combines the criteria
Example: Entering the above criteria will produce a report showing the total costs incurred by
the all Sony Pictures Television Profit Centers from April – June of 2008

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 Entering Selection Criteria – Multiple Values

The Multiple Selection button is used to enter multiple sequential or non-sequential

values or ranges to either include or exclude from the records displayed
Example: If wanted to view only the records for SPHE Australia and SPHE UK click the Multiple
Selection button and enter the corresponding company codes “5094” & “5122”.

Note: When there are

multiple entries, the
box below the arrow
of the ‘Multiple
Selection’ icon will be
green

Click Execute to save the values and return to the selection criteria screen

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 Entering Selection Criteria – Uploading Values Lists

After opening the multiple

selection screen:
1. Create a .txt file with the list of
variables in a column
2. Click the “Import from .txt file”
icon (located at the bottom of
the Multiple Selection screen)
3. Locate the .txt file you created
and click “Open”
The variables in the .txt file will
populate the Multiple Selection
screen

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 Entering Selection Criteria – Using Operators

Another way to create a range of values is to use an Operator

1. Click the Operator menu button

2. Select an Operator from the list:
• = equal to value (default)
• <= less than or equal to value
• > greater than value
• < less than value
3. Enter a data value in the first
data entry field for the selection
criteria

Example: The criteria listed above will display all records from April 2008 to the current date. Another
way to create this range is to enter 001/2008 in the first criteria field and current date in the second.

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 Deleting Selection Criteria

To remove selection criteria…

Click in the criteria field and press the [Delete] or [Backspace] key on
your keyboard.
OR
Click the trash can button at the end of the criteria row to remove ALL
criteria for the field (including all multiple selection entries)

In the example above, clicking on the trash can for the Company Code criteria field
would delete both values “5000” and “5999”

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 Selection Criteria - Personalization Variables

Do NOT use the Personalize Variables button!

If is yellow or you see the button, you have saved a personalized variable. The report
will continue to run with the data values you entered and saved until you turn it off!

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 Working with Variants

What is a Variant?
A set of often-used selection criteria saved under a single name for
easy access

Things to note about Variants:

Variants are workbook specific
Other users can see and use a variant you create
Dates (Period, Fiscal Year) should generally not be included in the
variant since it will change frequently
Name the variant according to the selection criteria, not the report

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 Working with Variants – Create a Variant (1 of 2)

There are 2 steps to creating a BW Variant…

Step 1:
1. Enter Selection Criteria
2. Click Save button

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 Working with Variants – Create a Variant (2 of 2)

Step 2:
1. Enter a Variant name
• Limited to 30 alpha-
numeric characters
• Names over 14
characters are not
always supported
• Cannot include symbols
(except underscore “_” )
or spaces
2. Enter a Description
• Limited to 59 alpha-
numeric characters

3. Click Save button

Note: While you can select individuals Selection Criteria fields to save in your Variant, we ask that until
you are more experienced with the Save Variant screen that you leave all “Save Values” as Yes

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 Agenda

Report Workbooks
Executing (Run) Workbooks

BW Report Components

BW Cover Page

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 Report Workbooks

What is BW Report Workbook?

An Excel workbook connected to a BW query which pulls data
from our SPE data from various InfoProviders
Do we use BW queries directly? No. The SAP Global Support
Reporting team asks that you use only BW Workbooks

Things to note about BW Report Workbooks:

Workbooks are limited to 65,000 rows of records
Workbook can be saved on BW server or to your local PC/network
Some workbooks are set-up to refresh automatically when you
access them. Others you may need to refresh manually to get the
most-up-to-date data

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 Executing Workbooks

Before you Execute (run) a report, it’s a good idea to check your
Selection Criteria for errors
1. Click the Check button , then…

2. Click the Execute button

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 BW Report Components

Analyzer
Toolbar
Navigation
Area

Characteristics
Key Figures
Results
Area

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 Agenda

Customizing BW Reports
Working with BW Characteristics

Filter a BW report

Drilldown (add Detail) in a BW report

Formatting in BW

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 Agenda

Saving and Refreshing BW Reports

Save a BW report to Favorites

Save a BW report to a Local PC or Network drive

Refresh a BW report

Single report workbook

Multiple report workbook

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 Save a BW Report to a Local PC or Network Drive

Workbooks can be saved to your PC or network drive like any other

Microsoft Excel file
Can be viewed and manipulated using standard Excel functions without BEx
Workbook data can be refreshed when accessed via BEx Analyzer

Save as you would an Excel file:

1. Click the Save button in the
Microsoft Excel toolbar; the
“Save As” window appears
2. Select a location to save the
workbook
3. Enter a file name
4. Click Save

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 Refreshing BW Workbooks

Once you have your worksheets set up as desired, they can be refreshed with
up-to-date data individually, or all at once as needed.

Refresh a Single Workbook Refresh All Tabs in a Workbook

Click anywhere
outside the report
and click:

Click anywhere inside

the report and click:

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 Refreshing BW Workbooks

Things to note:

When you refresh data, the position of the current highlighted cell
is very important.
If you want to refresh a single worksheet, click anywhere inside the shaded
area of the report you want to refresh.
If you want to refresh all worksheets in a workbook, click anywhere outside
the shaded areas you want to refresh. The system will ask you to confirm
that you want to refresh all the worksheets in the workbook.

Also note that some multi-tab custom reports for specific SPE
processes/projects will require you to click on a cell labeled
“Query Not Calculated” before refreshing. Training on those
reports, such as the IMSM General Marketing Budget Package, is
included with the processes/project.

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 Questions & Answers

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 Getting BW Help

There are many resources available to help you with BW

1. Visit the SAP Global Support website on

mySPE to find BW Quick Reference Guides,
troubleshooting tools, etc.

2. Ask your Super Users (refer to the list provided

to identify the Super Users in your department).

3. For technical problems accessing SAP, call the

Helpdesk at 310-244-2188.

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