SAP Business Planning and Consolidation unifies planning with data and processes for budgeting, forecasting, and reporting, plus financial consolidation. So you can further ensure the consistency and relevance of your plans and help to seed the best budgets and forecasts possible.

Key features and functions include:

• Familiar user experience – Patented Microsoft Office Tool integration and 100% thin client, Web 2.0 interface reduce ramp-up time and increase user acceptance. You can leverage Excel, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and Adobe PDF reports to access centrally located plans, budgets, and forecasts and improve organizational alignment.
• Predictive analysis – An inference engine, automatic root cause analysis, and cause/effect algorithms enable more accurate predictions and risk-adjusted planning for future plans linked to corporate strategy.
• Self-service business process flows – Pre-packaged process flows for common business processes, aligned to structured and unstructured data and easily modifiable via self-service, enable all stakeholders to participate in the value chain and follow requirements.
• Intelligent action panes – Action panes with discussion threads and unstructured data improve productivity by helping your users understand what actions to take, when and how to act, and why the actions are necessary.
• Top-down and bottom-up planning – The application provides a centralized forum for communicating organizational financial goals and objectives, along with tools for data collection and collaboration.
• Multidimensional modeling – Modeling functionality includes "what-if" and scenario analysis that enables your users to measure and assess future outcomes.
• Collaborative forecasting – The application enables bi-directional (horizontal and vertical) communication and manages interaction between plan stakeholders.
• Workflow management – Workflow management features allow versioning that helps track plan status and provides stakeholders with immediate access to the plan.
• Financial management – The application enables you to shave days and weeks off closing books with functionality for currency conversions, inter-company eliminations, multi-tier allocations, and journal entries, along with access to predefined business process flow templates that ensure a fast, accurate close. Plus, you can produce reports such as P&L, balance sheets, cash flow, and fixed assets, so you can get a comprehensive view of your financial landscape.
• Compliance management – SAP Business Planning and Consolidation includes functionality for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and standards compliance, including IAS, IFRS, FASB, and GAAP. Plus, the application can integrate with SAP solutions for governance, risk, and compliance to reduce the risk of fraud and errors and create a fully-documented audit trail.