Client at a glance
The client is a global manufacturing organization with multiple legal entities, plants and cost centers across Europe. Budgeting and forecasting cycles involved controllers from many company codes, with SAP acting as the system of record — while most of the work still happened in Excel.
Region
EMEA
Entities in scope
12 company codes
Users
40+ controllers & managers
Main challenge
Excel-based budget consolidation
The challenge: budget consolidation in Excel
The entire budget process was driven by spreadsheets. Local controllers received pre-filled Excel templates, filled them in, and sent them back via email. The central finance team then manually merged everything into group views.
SAP stored only the final numbers. All scenarios, iterations and comments existed outside the ERP — resulting in no single source of truth, no version control, and limited transparency.
Typical pain points
- Too many Excel versions with conflicting numbers
- Manual consolidation and error-prone checks
- Late submissions and difficult coordination
- Broken formulas leading to incorrect results
- No clear audit trail for changes
Why Excel was no longer enough
Excel remained useful locally, but at group level it simply could not handle the complexity and speed required. Finance leadership needed:
- Consistent structure across entities
- Better control over changes and approvals
- Fast scenario iterations
- Auditability and transparency
Rather than replacing Excel fully, the client wanted to keep it — but wrap the entire process in a controlled SAP-centric workflow.
Solution: DMW-RUN as the consolidation engine
The client implemented DMW-RUN as the central engine for template distribution and consolidation. Templates were generated from SAP structures, completed by controllers, and uploaded back via DMW-RUN — with automated validation and full audit trail.
DMW-RUN – Mass Data Automation
- Upload Excel templates
- Pre-load validation
- Simulation mode
- Full audit trail
DMW – Validation & Transformation
- Reusable validation rules
- SAP-aligned transformations
- AI / rule / Python based logic
- For BAU + migration
LoV-MAP – Value Mapping (optional)
- Harmonised GL accounts
- Reduced mapping errors
- One source of truth
Before vs after DMW-RUN
Before – Excel chaos
- 23+ Excel files per cycle
- Manual consolidation
- Copy–paste risks
- Low transparency
- Stressful month-end closing
After – controlled automation
- Single upload process
- Validation before posting
- Standardised templates
- Full audit trail
- Predictable monthly rhythm
Thinking about automating your SAP budgeting or forecast process?
We can prepare a focused PoC using your SAP structures and sample data — so you can see DMW-RUN in action before committing.
Results: measurable impact in the first cycles
Once the process stabilised, budgeting cycles became significantly faster, more predictable and less dependent on manual work.
Consolidation time
–92%
From several days to under one hour
Incorrect uploads
–80%
Errors stopped in validation, not in SAP
Controllers' effort
–50%
More time for analysis, less for admin tasks
Audit readiness
100%
Clear trace of uploads & adjustments
“We didn’t want a new planning system. We wanted our existing SAP and Excel setup to finally behave like a controlled process. DMW-RUN gave us exactly that – without a multi-year project.”
— Group Controlling Manager
What you can take from this project
- Excel can stay – but wrapped in a controlled SAP workflow.
- Using existing SAP structures speeds up implementation.
- Validation at upload time protects data quality.
- A full audit trail increases trust in financial numbers.
The same approach works for forecasting, cost allocation, headcount planning, and other SAP processes where Excel is still heavily used.
Want to explore a similar setup in your SAP landscape?
Share your current budgeting or mass data challenge and we’ll prepare a focused PoC concept — including DMW-RUN, DMW and LoV-MAP where relevant.
Get a 30-day SAP Data PoC
