COPA: Diff between Characteristics and values

[Former Member]

Hello SAP Gurus,

Could you please explain me with an example about what's the difference between "Characteristic" and "value" in COPA.

And also the objective of using COPA as compared to CCA or PCA.

Suitable reward points shall be awarded.

Thanks and Regards,

Sreeni.

[former_member188826]

When you buy a car, the dealer registers your address, city of residence, age and tracks amongst a few information, whether you are financing it or paying it outright. When the dealer evaluates the sale made to you through COPA, the car price becomes a <b>'Value'</b>. Other attributes, like city, age, name, mode of finance, etc becomes the <b>Characteristics</b>. The cost of the car also flows as value in copa, to help analyze the gross margin.

When the dealer wants to analyze, later all sales and margin made by, customers of certain age, particular city, etc, you can get it done.

[Former Member]

ANother example of Characteristics and value fileds are:

Ur company has sold 100tablets of Zeita for 200USD to a customer whose id is 1000 situated in NJ in US

so here the Value fileds are Qty and Revenue which are 100 and 200USD

Charactetics are Customer No 1000 State NJ and Country US Product ID Zeita.

The combination of Product ID, Cutomer, state and Country is called profitability segment.

[Former Member]

Hi,

Characteristics are the criteria in Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) according to which you can analyze your operating results and perform differentiated sales and profit planning. The combination of t characteristics in an operating concern is called a Profitability Segment.

Value fields are only required in costing-based Profitability Analysis. These are the fields that contain the currency amounts and quantities that you want to analyze in CO-PA. They represent the structure of your costs and revenues.

for further information check the link:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_46c/helpdata/en/7a/4c388e4a0111d1894c0000e829fbbd/content.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_46c/helpdata/en/7a/4c389b4a0111d1894c0000e829fbbd/content.htm

Moreover regarding the objective of using COPA

(CO-PA) enables you to <b>evaluate</b> market segments, which can be classified according to products, customers, orders or any combination of these, or strategic business units, such as sales organizations or business areas, with respect to your company's profit or contribution margin.

The aim of the system is to provide your sales, marketing, product management and corporate planning departments with information to support internal accounting and decision-making.

Hope it helps.

regards,

Lily