SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Reviews & Ratings 2024

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Popular Features

View all 25 features

Management Reporting (36)
8.0
80%
Forecasting (36)
7.8
78%
Excel-based Reporting (35)
7.7
77%
Management reporting (36)
7.6
76%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Provides a very user friendly dashboard with information readily available
It could be a little easier to manipulate within the data

Leigh Watkins

Senior Accountant

Southwire Company (Electrical & Electronic Manufacturing, 5001-10,000 employees)

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Pricing

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SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)

N/A

Unavailable

What is SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)?

Entry-level set up fee?

No setup fee

Offerings

Free Trial
Free/Freemium Version
Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

33 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

Budgyt

$499

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What is Budgyt?

Budgyt is a platform made to simplify business budgeting. With built-in functions designed for data integrity, team collaboration, and scenario planning & analysis, Budgyt is presented as an optimized budgeting experience that rids users of complex, error-prone spreadsheets and the time-consuming…

PlanGuru

$99

per month

What is PlanGuru?

PlanGuru is budgeting, forecasting and financial analytics software for SMB's, Nonprofits and the Accountants/ Advisors that work with them.

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Features

Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting

These activities are designed to assist with both data-driven operational, short-term planning and strategic long term planning

7.6

Avg 8.3

8.1
Long-term financial planning
(32) Ratings
3-5 year financial plan with cashflow.
8
Financial budgeting
(33) Ratings
Annual budget for revenue and operating expenses, headcount/compensation, capital expenses, projects, etc.
7.8
Forecasting
(36) Ratings
Combining actuals and budgets, rolling forecasts, driver-based models.
6.6
Scenario modeling
(32) Ratings
Financial or operational modeling of alternate future states and planning for each.
7.6
Management reporting
(36) Ratings
Budget vs. actual or forecast, P&L’s, performance over time, between products etc.

Consolidation and Close

Consolidation of data from multiple entities with currency management, reporting and audit trails.

7.8

Avg 8.0

8
Financial data consolidation
(33) Ratings
Consolidating data from several entities into a single statement using US GAAP, IFRS or other standards.
7.8
Journal entries and reports
(28) Ratings
Ability to enter journal entry adjustments and produce reports showing all journal entries for a specific period.
8.3
Multi-currency management
(25) Ratings
Ability to handle foreign currency conversions during consolidation.
7.8
Intercompany Eliminations
(28) Ratings
Matching and elimination of intercompany revenue, expenses, and balance sheet accounts.
6.9
Minority Ownership
(20) Ratings
Consolidate financials full or partial ownership of subsidiaries, equity pick-up.
7.9
Local and consolidated reporting
(30) Ratings
Ability to report against individual business entities and the consolidated umbrella entity.
8.2
Detailed Audit Trails
(27) Ratings
Tracing changes to data and processes that were run.

Financial Reporting and Compliance

Financial statements and regulatory filings

Avg 8.2

8.1
Financial Statement Reporting
(32) Ratings
Creation and production of balance sheets, income statements, cash flows, other schedules
8
Management Reporting
(36) Ratings
Tools facilitating creation of internal ad hoc or standard reports.
7.7
Excel-based Reporting
(35) Ratings
Ad hoc or formatted reports using MS Excel.
8
Automated board and financial reporting
(27) Ratings
Tools to help automate creation of regulatory reports such as SEC filings and board books.

Analytics and Reporting

Dashboards and scorecards for KPI monitoring and benchmarking

8.4

Avg 8.0

8.9
Personalized dashboards
(21) Ratings
Create custom dashboards and reports without the help of IT or administrators.
8.9
Color-coded scorecards
(19) Ratings
Track and analyze performances with interactive, color-coded balanced scorecards.
8.5
KPIs
(30) Ratings
Select from a library of more than 6,000 key performance indicators, and incorporate KPIs into your planning process.
8.7
Cost and profitability analysis
(26) Ratings
Cost and profitability analysis provides data for business decision making.
8.7
Key Performance Indicator setting
(23) Ratings
Ability to set key performance indicators for measuring progress towards goals.
7
Benchmarking with external data
(18) Ratings
CPI, daily exchange rates, industry KPIs. with scheduled data refreshes.

Integration

Ability to integrate with external applications.

Avg 8.3

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Product Details

About
Integrations
Competitors
Tech Details
FAQs

What is SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)?

The SAP BPC software is designed to help users plan and achieve a faster, more accurate close. The SAP BPC software aims to help users spend more time growing their business and less time closing books. The vendor’s value proposition is that their software delivers planning, budgeting, forecasting, and financial consolidation capabilities in a single application. This, in turn, enables them to easily adjust plans and forecasts, speed up budget and closing cycles, and ensure compliance with financial reporting standards.

According to the vendor, with SAP BPC users can:

•Make better decisions based on what-if analyses and scenario planning

•Use collaboration tools to improve accountability and planning accuracy

•Shrink cycle times, close the books faster, and align their plans with strategic goals •Get real-time access to data in SAP S/4HANA Finance

•Run on their platform of choice – SAP BW/4HANA, SAP NetWeaver or on Microsoft •Engage in further visualization and predictive analysis leveraging SAP Analytics Cloud in a seamless manner

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Features

Show Unsupported Features

Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting Features

Supported: Long-term financial planning
Supported: Financial budgeting
Supported: Forecasting
Supported: Scenario modeling
Supported: Management reporting

Consolidation and Close Features

Supported: Financial data consolidation
Supported: Journal entries and reports
Supported: Multi-currency management
Supported: Intercompany Eliminations
Supported: Minority Ownership
Supported: Local and consolidated reporting
Supported: Detailed Audit Trails

Financial Reporting and Compliance Features

Supported: Financial Statement Reporting
Supported: Management Reporting
Supported: Excel-based Reporting
Supported: Automated board and financial reporting

Analytics and Reporting Features

Supported: Personalized dashboards
Supported: Color-coded scorecards
Supported: KPIs
Supported: Cost and profitability analysis
Supported: Key Performance Indicator setting
Supported: Benchmarking with external data

Integration Features

Supported: Flat file integration
Supported: Excel data integration
Supported: Direct links to 3rd-party data sources

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Screenshots

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Integrations

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Competitors

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Technical Details

Deployment Types	On-premise
Operating Systems	Windows, Mac
Mobile Application	No

Frequently Asked Questions

Oracle Hyperion, Wolters Kluwer CCH® Tagetik, and Anaplan are common alternatives for SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation).

Reviewers rate Personalized dashboards and Color-coded scorecards highest, with a score of 8.9.

The most common users of SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).

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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(274)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)

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Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why

November 19, 2019

SAP BPC, the SAP product made easy for financial users

Juan Carlos Crespo

Head of Business Intelligence

RCD Hotels (Hospitality, 1001-5000 employees)

Score 10 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Currently we use both functionalities of SAP BPC: Planning and Consolidation.

Planning: With BPC we manage the financial budget across all the business units of the Company. We configured standard interfaces with the GL of our ERP (SAP R3) so we can easily measure the actuals vs. the annual plan. With the use of the EPM add-in for Excel, the financial users can create, consume and share reports.
Consolidation: With the interfaces from the General Ledger to BPC it is easy to acquire information (balances) for reporting purposes. Also, we have configured business rules such as inter-company eliminations, adjustments or journals, so by executing a package from the EPM add in for Excel the consolidation team has been empowered and there is no IT involvement in the process.

Pros and Cons

User friendly, with the use of the EPM add-in for Excel, business users can work in a familiar environment.
SAP Analytics Cloud easy and native integration for dashboarding purposes.
Can manage several business scenarios (versions): actuals, plan, forecast, etc.
For Consolidation, there is a required dimension for auditing purposes (audit trail) so it is useful for internal and external audits.

EPM add-in is only available for the Microsoft Windows Operating System.
In order to open or refresh an inform, it is required to have the EPM add-in for MS Office already installed.
Difficult to configure, ex. Script logic for ad-hoc adjustments.

Likelihood to Recommend

In a traditional company that uses SAP ERP it is well suited. You can also acquire data from non-SAP data sources but it requires some technical skills to achieve this. It is great for reporting within Excel, can create local members (KPI) within reports, and has the advantage of all the functionalities that MS Office provides.

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Feature Ratings

Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting (5)

100%

10.0

Long-term financial planning: 100%
10.0
Financial budgeting: 100%
10.0
Forecasting: 100%
10.0
Scenario modeling: 100%
10.0
Management reporting: 100%
10.0

Consolidation and Close (7)

100%

10.0

Financial data consolidation: 100%
10.0
Journal entries and reports: 100%
10.0
Multi-currency management: 100%
10.0
Intercompany Eliminations: 100%
10.0
Minority Ownership: 100%
10.0
Local and consolidated reporting: 100%
10.0
Detailed Audit Trails: 100%
10.0

Financial Reporting and Compliance (4)

82.5%

8.3

Financial Statement Reporting: 100%
10.0
Management Reporting: 70%
7.0
Excel-based Reporting: 100%
10.0
Automated board and financial reporting: 60%
6.0

Analytics and Reporting (5)

68%

6.8

Personalized dashboards: 50%
5.0
Color-coded scorecards: 50%
5.0
KPIs: 100%
10.0
Key Performance Indicator setting: 80%
8.0
Benchmarking with external data: 60%
6.0

Integration (2)

100%

10.0

Flat file integration: 100%
10.0
Excel data integration: 100%
10.0

BI Standard Reporting

N/A

Ad-hoc Reporting

N/A

Report Output and Scheduling

N/A

Data Discovery and Visualization

N/A

Access Control and Security

N/A

Mobile Capabilities

N/A

Return on Investment

Data process unification was the major benefit in our case, prior to BPC it was difficult to unify the budget information of each business unit across the Company, now we have deployed standard input schedules (forms).
Now, for better or worse, BPC is our standard, the normal way to work.
We have the idea that BPC in the short term will be replaced by SAP Analytics Cloud.

Ease of Integration

First integration is difficult, must need a SAP Business Warehouse specialist to configure data sources from the General Ledger standard extractors and integrations from the ERP to the BW (back-end database of BPC).

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management and IBM Cognos Planning

We selected BPC because our Company is SAPified from the backbone. Has native and proven integrations so to start we only have to activate the pre-installed SAP Business Content and configure based in our current metadata (entities, chart of accounts, intercompanies, cost center, etc.).

Other Software Used

SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP ERP, SAP Fieldglass, Concur Travel and Expense, QlikView

Easy Tasks

Reporting with the EPM Add in for MSOffice
Data management and execution of processes
Metadata management

Difficult Tasks

Ad-hoc adjustments need script logic
Strong financial knowledge is a must for the consultant that is going to implement SAP BPC.
Need a BW specialist first-time configuration.

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Usability

Unlike other SAP traditional products, SAP BPC was meant to be simple and familiar to financial users.

May 18, 2018

SAP BPC is Dying

Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology

Computer Software Company, 5001-10,000 employees

Score 7 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SAP BPC is used to support financial consolidations by Accounting team and for budgeting & forecasting (Capex, Headcount, Opex, Integrated Financial Planning) by FP&A team. It is used across the whole organization.

Pros and Cons

BPC NW version can use the functionalities of SAP BW for ETL and data warehousing.
Complex business requirements and logic can be built using SAP ABAP.
Can be scaled and support huge volume of data using SAP HANA capabilities.

SAP should focus on delivering one single product for planning, consolidation and budgeting needs rather than providing a large list of options to choose from.
The product is not very user-friendly compared to other cloud competitors. There is a heavy dependency on IT teams.
SAP BPC should come up a pure cloud option.

Likelihood to Recommend

SAP BPC is well suited for complex planning and consolidations needs where the underlying transactional system is SAP ECC. It suits well if the organization has separate teams with BPC, ABAP, BW, Basis, Hana skillset.

SAP BPC is less appropriate for organizations using Agile methodology. It is not suitable for organizations in a hyper-growth cycle as the installation and implementation is time-consuming. It will not work for organizations where the planning and budgeting needs keep changing frequently. The UI of SAP BPC is not very intuitive and very difficult to set up a dynamic dashboard for senior executives and officials of CxO.

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Feature Ratings

Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting (5)

64%

6.4

Long-term financial planning: 70%
7.0
Financial budgeting: 70%
7.0
Forecasting: 70%
7.0
Scenario modeling: 60%
6.0
Management reporting: 50%
5.0

Consolidation and Close (7)

68.57142857142857%

6.9

Financial data consolidation: 70%
7.0
Journal entries and reports: 70%
7.0
Multi-currency management: 70%
7.0
Intercompany Eliminations: 70%
7.0
Minority Ownership: 60%
6.0
Local and consolidated reporting: 70%
7.0
Detailed Audit Trails: 70%
7.0

Financial Reporting and Compliance (4)

65%

6.5

Financial Statement Reporting: 70%
7.0
Management Reporting: 50%
5.0
Excel-based Reporting: 90%
9.0
Automated board and financial reporting: 50%
5.0

Analytics and Reporting (6)

10%

1.0

Personalized dashboards: 10%
1.0
Color-coded scorecards: 10%
1.0
KPIs: 10%
1.0
Cost and profitability analysis: 10%
1.0
Key Performance Indicator setting: 10%
1.0
Benchmarking with external data: 10%
1.0

Integration (3)

90%

9.0

Flat file integration: 90%
9.0
Excel data integration: 90%
9.0
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources: 90%
9.0

BI Standard Reporting

N/A

Ad-hoc Reporting

N/A

Report Output and Scheduling

N/A

Data Discovery and Visualization

N/A

Access Control and Security

N/A

Mobile Capabilities

N/A

Return on Investment

The total cost of ownership is high
Even a simple upgrade project can run into months
Unstable roadmap introducing the new product every year adding the ever-growing list of options to choose from

Ease of Integration

With SAP NW, BW and HANA.... integration is very robust and stable.

Alternatives Considered

Anaplan, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP HANA and SAP ERP

Anaplan UI is much better than SAP BPC. Anaplan is user-friendly and upgrades are handled automatically as it is in the cloud.

Other Software Used

Anaplan, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP HANA

Users and Roles

400

Financial Planning and Analysis

Support Headcount Required

SAP BPC
SAP BW
SAP ABAP
SAP HANA
SAP BASIS
SAP Architect

Business Processes Supported

Complex Gross Margin Allocations
Automating month-end tasks
Automating access provisioning

Innovative Uses

Automated access provisioning
Encrypting NPI's product price and details
Automating month-end and QTR-end process

Future Planned Uses

Financial Consolidations
Cash Flow Statement
Fund Flow Statement

Likelihood to Renew

Products Replaced

Yes

Excel

Key Differentiators

Product Features
Prior Experience with the Product
Vendor Reputation
Analyst Reports

SAP BPC is best suited for SAP ECC, SAP BW & SAP HANA customers.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

Select a cloud player like Anaplan

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Vendor implemented
Implemented in-house
Professional services company

Column 5 was the main implementation partner. But we had an expert BPC architect from SAP and expert/experienced in-house technical project manager.

Implementation Phases

Yes

We did Capex, Opex & Headcount in Phase 1.
We did Unit and Revenue Margin, Gross Margin and P&L in phase 2.

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled

There was a dedicated change management team.

Implementation Issues

Handling business requirements on web interface without using EPM add-in
Performance of logic
Automating updates to 70 master data properties during month-end and QTR-end

Implementation Rating

The implementation was carried out in two phases spread over a period of 4 years with 2 upgrades in between. We also had multiple upgrades to HANA.

Training Types Used

Online training
In-person training
Self-taught

In-Person Training

SAP BPC training content and trainers are very good. The training is structured and provides a very good understanding of the product features and functionalities. I attended 6 separate training sessions of week-long or more. I had very good experience in all the sessions. The training is organized very well.

Online Training

SAP Training contents are very good, informative and exhaustive.

Ease of SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Training

We need the training to learn the product functionalities and best use of features.

Product Configurability

There is a huge dependency on IT team.

Configuration Lessons

Let the design and architecture be handled by BPC experts from SAP (level 7 consultants).

UI Customization

No - we have not done any customization to the interface

Extensibility and Customization

Yes - we have added extensive custom code

We had 20+ Badi's in Phase 1 and 40+ Badi's in Phase 2.

Additional Customization Considerations

There was also customization for SSO on the portal, Automating access provisioning, Encryption for NPI's, Automating month end and qtr-end process.

Premium Support

Support Rating

We need a big support team with various skillset like BPC, ABAP, BW, HANA, FICO etc

Bug Resolution

Yes

Yes.

Exceptional Examples of SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) Support

We are in a Mac environment and decided not to use EPM add-in tool. SAP Product team in China helped in adding more features and functionalities for going with a web-only version.