COPA Config Notes

Basic configuration in COPA involves creation/maintenance of Characteristics, Value

Fields, and Operating Concern. This blog gives some of that background:

Characteristics

You can also

manually define new characteristics that you only want to use in Profitability Analysis. Since these characteristics have no

table of origin, their values are not automatically derived from other characteristics. You therefore need to define

derivation steps for them. The name of new characteristics must begin with "WW" and consist of 4 or 5 characters. Depending

on the desired attributes, you must choose one of the following variants:

* With own value maintenance

In most cases, you will define new characteristics with their own value maintenance. In this case, the system creates a

check table and text table. In the Customizing activity Maintain characteristic values , you can then enter characteristic

values and texts for these. Only those values maintained here are permitted values for that characteristic.
If the

values for a characteristic are only semantically unique when in conjunction with other characteristics, you can display this

fact by defining a dependency (characteristic compound).

To define this type of dependency, proceed as follows:
1.

When creating a characteristic, use the Display compound icon to switch to dependency display. At the top of the display, you

find the characteristic that has just been defined.
2. Use the Insert row icon to insert the same amount of empty rows as

the amount of higher-level characteristics that you would like to assign. Then enter the higher-level characteristics into

those rows.

Once you have saved the characteristic, you cannot make any changes to the dependencies.
If you would

like to display a multi-level dependency, you need once more to assign a higher-level characteristic to another higher-level

characteristic in the latter's characteristic value maintenance. However, when defining dependencies, you should avoid

ending up with complicated, multi-leveled chains of dependencies.
When you save, the system displays a dialog box in which

you can specify how the check table should be created. Normally you will want to to choose "Automatic", which means that the

names of the check tables are numbered sequentially with the name "T25xx" (where xx = number). You can also enter these

numbers manually in order to avoid naming conflicts when you transport the operating concern to another system. In that case,

you need to make sure that the numbers issued in these systems are not synchronous. For more information on transporting

these tables, see the section Transport objects.

* Without value maintenance
This option lets you

define characteristics with no check table. This means that there is no set of allowed characteristic values and texts.

Consequently, no validity check takes place for values of these characteristics.
These characteristics cannot be

used as receiver characteristics for period-based allocations.

* With reference to existing values

This type of characteristic is only required in special cases. Here you assign the characteristic to a data element that

already exists in the system. The characteristic takes on the attributes of that data element (texts, length, check table,

text table).

Value Fields

You define these values independent of any operating concern and any

client.

Before you create a new value field, you should take a look at the ones that already exist. It may be that you

can use a value field you have already define or one defined in the standard system.

Once you are in the "change"

mode, you can define a new value field by choosing the "Create" icon:

Enter a 4- or 5-character name that begins with

"VV" for your value field. Here you also need to specify whether this field is a quantity field or a field for currency

amounts. All the currency fields in any single line item use the same currency. This currency is defined in the attributes of

each operating concern. Each quantity field, on the other hand has its own field that defines the unit of measure. Thus you

can have quantities in different units in the same line item.

On the next screen, you can enter texts to describe the

value field, as well as how the values in this field are to be aggregated over characteristics of time . In most cases, you

will use the aggregation rule "SUM" (summation) to add up the values over periods. The aggregation rules "Last value" (LAS)

and "Average" (AVG) are only of significance if the value field is to contain a statistical non-cumulative

value.

Operating Concern

The structure of the operating concern is defined by the characteristics and -

in costing-based Profitability Analysis - by the value fields as well:

*

Characteristics

Characteristics are the segments of your organization for which you want to analyze your data

in CO-PA.
Several fundamental characteristics are predefined in every operating concern. These are called "fixed

characteristics". You can display a list of the fixed characteristics by choosing Extras -> Fixed fields.
In addition to

these predefined fields, you can define up to 50 of your own characteristics in each operating concern. You can select these

from a list of additional predefined characteristics, or you can create your own using the Customizing function Maintain

Characteristics.

* Value fields

Value fields are the fields in costing-based CO-PA in which the

system stores the amounts and quantities. They thus determine the structure of your costs and revenues.
An operating

concern can contain up to 120 value fields. The standard system contains a list of predefined value fields (such as "Sales

quantity" or "Sales revenue").
If you want to define additional value fields, you can do this using the Customizing

function Maintain Value Fields.

To add fields (characteristics or value fields) to your operating concern, select the

desired fields on the Edit Data Structure screen (right side of the screen). Then use the function Transfer fields to copy

these fields to the data structure. You can only transfer fields with an active status. AN operating concern cannot contain

two fields for which the meaning, the short text, or the field title overlap.

Once you have defined your data

structures, you need to activate them. When you activate the data structures, the system creates the tables for plan and

actual data in the database system.

If you choose to add new characteristics or value fields at a later stage, you

should note that these do not work retroactively. However, you can supply new value fields with existing planning data using

the "Automatic planning" function or the "Periodic valuation" function. To fill new characteristics retroactively, you need

to perform the "Realignments" function.