Interface Settings Error, Business Objects Planning, Templates

[Former Member]

Hello all,

I am getting an error in interface settings whenever I have tried to run a template.

I have searched these forums and wikis and been googling for days and have not found anything even remotely relevant.

This company is using Business Objects Planning, version 11.10.1325.0

Platform is Windows Server 2003 SP2. Excel version 11.0

They have been using BOP for two years. They have been manually copying actuals data (i.e. historic data) into the template-derived workbooks for budget and forecast and them saving them for users. The consultants did not leave them with templates that loaded historic data from the SQL server, nor did the consultants even tell them about write-back (save-to-database) reports (which are what I am used to building).

In the short term I have been asked to get their templates working properly.

A week ago I logged a request with the consultants (SAP gold partners) but have yet to hear back.

We have tried starting at the basics and building a very simple template that follows the examples given in the users guide.

(i.e. the Planning Professional Edition Plan Administrators Guide, note that the consultants did not leave copies of the guides that matched the BOP version, so I downloaded the correct editions for this installation, but the basics are the same.)

So I have a template that has account ("ACC" for this organisation, "ACCT" in the Guide) in cell A1.

Row 1 then contains the Other Column to write back to in cell E1 (ESourcePY for this test), and Row 1 is even coloured pastel green.

Row 2 is coloured pastel yellow just like in the Guide and contains "Control Row for Interface" in cell B2 and the Time Series to read from in cell E2 - SSANYB_TOT, which basically means NYB_TOT for this company.

Rows 3 - 6 are coloured purple and cell B3 holds "Summary Print control Row". I have tried "SRCPrintControl" in cell H3 and I have tried without it. I have tried "Monthly Print Control Row" in B4 and I have tried without it (and SRCPrintControl in H4).

And then I have a number of natural accounts in cells A21:A24, I have tried using just one ACC and I have tried them on different lines, but in the end I put them on the same line as the ones in the Guide start at.

I have also tried with and without "HDR" in the cells in the H column.

My Settings sheet has been exactly as the one in the Guide, and I have tried with only a Summary in the Printing section, deleting the Monthly stuff, I have also tried changing the Border Columns and Rows but I am not too sure that is relevant.

The relevant sheet in the Interface Setting book is exactly as the one in the Guide but using the local Time Series and Target Sheet Name etc., although I have tried using the write-back target (ESourcePY) Other Column in the Target Column Name instead of SSANYB_TOT as shown in the Guide.

There is one difference; this organisation is not using Standard Planning Methodologies (no client I have seen uses them) and so that cell (B11) is empty.

But all I ever get, no matter how many variations or modification I try is :

"Error in interface settings of Default Interface interface on control row or column in temp1 sheet. Do you want to continue?"

Can anybody please shed some light on what is missing?

Thanks in advance,

Kai

P.S. This seems to lose all format/structure when uploaded, but it is all in paragraphs with white space when I write/edit it.

Edited by: Kai Richmond on Feb 22, 2010 6:00 AM

[Former Member]

NOT ANSWERED

But a month and no answer means that obviously no-one on this planet, including the SAP help desk, knows the answer.

Business Objects used to have a really good help desk based in Singapore. Yeah, their consultant partners in Australia were not very good, but the help desk was very helpful and proactive.

Now that SAP has acquired the product the 'gold partners' are still useless but the SAP help desk is just a joke. The help 'portal' is just a door to a void, the responses are very tardy, and the majority of the points they raise have already been answered by me in previous communications to the same staffer. Obviously they don't read your replies.

I have already advised one client away from purchasing this product and I cannot see how in good conscience I could ever recommend BOP (or SAP) to any client in the future. Cognos is good, but IBM has no mainframe finance package; so I think that Oracle and Hyperion Planning are probably going to be the way of the future now.

Edited by: Kai Richmond on Mar 17, 2010 12:43 PM

[Former Member]

Hi Kai - I can't tell if you have received an answer on this topic or not. I use a software product called Budget Advisor (from Kaufman Hall Associates) that runs on BOP and have write-to-database reports that work. Just curious if you were ever able to get your reports working? I could share these reports to see if a difference could be identified between a working and a non-working report. Let me know if you are interested. Thanks...Jeff

[Former Member]

Further to the above; if I put "SRCControl" in cell J12 and then "Start" in J27, "End" in J28, and "ACCT=10005" in K27 - i.e. add a variable section to the template in addition to the fixed section in Rows 21:24, then I get no error message, but I get no data either. Note that this company does not want a variable template, they want a fixed one only.

- Kai

[Former Member]

Further further to the above;

This applies to the test environment, when tried with a similar test template in the production environment the workbook returns zeroes, even though a data edit shows that there are non-zero amounts in the accounts being tested.

Note that I cannot ascertain any differences between the test and production test templates or interfaces.

- Kai

PS - I note that formatting is working today...

Edited by: Kai Richmond on Feb 24, 2010 9:42 AM

[Former Member]

Okay, I have refined this to a point past the above.

I have "ACC" in cell A1, a list of valid accounts in A9:A12, three of which I know contain non-zero amounts, two time series in J1 and J2, the J2 one being also in the interface settings sheet (as is "ACC"), and "SRCControl" in L2. Nothing else.

I open the budget workbook, I select "Budget to Open", I select Planning/Interface..., I select "Yes" to "Overwrite the active budget data", and then I get "No data found to process."

Now this is in the help files: Interface Error Messages, 1. No data found to process. Cause: No database records matched the general filter in the interface settings workbook. Resolution: Make sure it is defined appropriately.

Problem? The general filter cell is empty! So how can it be excluding the data?