I’m S.Sreejith and I’m a Financial Planning Consultant at Applexus Technologies.

The SAP Analytics Cloud’s allocations feature is a useful tool for businesses to allocate values gathered on one object to a number of other receiving objects depending on a driver. What instructs the system on how much of the collected value to allocate to each receiving object is a driver. For instance, based on each department’s performance from the previous year, a company wants to distribute its profit among them.

Whether you are a seasoned SAP Analytics Cloud user or a novice to the platform, this blog post will give you a comprehensive understanding of data allocation in SAP Analytics Cloud and effective techniques for using allocation in your data analysis efforts.

Use cases examples:

• Based on the budget proportions in the current year’s budget values, you can assign the following year’s budget throughout the cost center budgeting process.
• Based on the quantities of a similar product that were sold last year, a retail chain can divide the quantities among its stores when launching a new product.
• To carry out a what-if investigation into the product mix depending on profit margins.
• To transfer costs from one account to another in order to allocate costs, either 1:1 or based on a percentage

Now, let’s explore how to leverage the standard allocation feature to partition data based on the driver.

Note: Planning is available only for the imported data and not on live connections

Step 1: Uploading the dataset & Enabling planning

1. Upload a dataset in the model
2. After uploading the dataset, check for the availability of a date field in the toolbar to enable planning
3. Then check enable planning option

Step 2: Creating a story from the planning model

Create a story and gather all the necessary dimensions and measures to showcase in the table for planning

Step 3:  To run planning, the next step is to create a version under version management

Click on the ellipsis icon (…) and select “Version Management”. On the Version Management page, you can view the available public and private versions and create new ones if needed. For example, here we have a version called “test”.

Step 4: Developing an allocation process and specifying the allocation step and rule based on the requirement

In this allocation part, it contains mainly 3 areas:

1. Allocation process refers to the overall method of distributing values
2. Allocation step refers to a specific set of rules and formulas used to distribute values
3. Allocation rule refers to individual formulas or calculations used within a step to allocate values

Next step shows how we can setup the allocation process

In this allocation stage its role is to assigning the bonus from one department to another based on performance profit. To disperse the bonus, it is defined in the filter and allocated based on performance profit. If the maintain source is not enabled, no value can be viewed at the source, and if the overwrite target is not enabled, the allocated value is added to the existing value.

For example, to allocate a bonus from one department (Human Resources Department) to five other departments based on their respective performance profits, the following steps were followed.

Step 5: Calling and Running allocation in the story

The next step is to call the allocation process by clicking on the ellipsis icon (…), selecting “Allocate,” and then running the execute allocation process.

Once the allocation process has been executed, the table’s color will reflect the changes made. In this example, the bonuses of the other five departments are allocated based on the ratio of their respective performance profits, with the bonus value from the Human Resources department added accordingly. To perform this allocation, follow the steps outlined earlier and then use the ratio of performance profit of each department to determine the value of the bonus to be allocated.

For example, let’s say we have a total bonus of $40 to distribute among five departments based on their respective performance profits. The ratio of performance profits for these departments is (1:2:3:4:5).

To calculate the distribution of the bonus, we first add the ratio values together to get the total ratio value: 1+2+3+4+5=15. Then, we divide the total bonus by the total ratio value: $40/15=2.99.

Next, we allocate the first bonus amount of $2.99 to the department with the lowest ratio value, which in this case is the first department. We add the allocated bonus amount to the department’s current bonus value of $13.33, resulting in a new bonus value of $16.

We then calculate the next bonus amount of $2.99 by multiplying it with the ratio value of the next department (which is 2 in this case): 2.99*2=5.32. We add this bonus amount to the department’s current bonus value of $16.67, resulting in a new bonus value of $22.

We repeat these steps for each department, allocating the bonus amount based on its ratio value and adding it to the department’s current bonus value.

Note that in the allocation result, the source value becomes zero because the “keep source” option was not enabled in the allocation step. If this option were enabled, the source value would still be present. Similarly, the “overwrite target” option was not enabled, so the result was added to the existing value instead of overwriting it.

Conclusion:

SAC Analytics Cloud provides a comprehensive solution for businesses of all sizes, with customizable dashboards, advanced reporting features, and easy-to-use collaboration tools. With its advanced capabilities, intuitive design, and seamless integration with other SAP solutions, SAC Analytics Cloud provides users with the means to transform data into actionable insights and drive business growth. So, if you want to tap into the power of data to maintain a competitive edge, start using SAC Analytics Cloud today!

Please feel free to share any feedback in a comment under this blog post and if you have any further questions on SAP Analytics Cloud be sure to leave a question in the community also here.