SAP Business Warehouse is an information modeling tool which can be used to analyze business data. To help analyze data in a more user friendly manner, SAP BW makes use of Key Figures. Key figures are used to describe any kind of numeric information from a business process level. There are various ways to describe key figures in SAP BIW. Key figures can be outcome of a business event such as sales, discounts etc. Key figures can also be looked as current status of something like output of a plant, weight of materials etc. Key figures are closely tied to a business process and its KPIs. SAP BW uses six different types of key figures namely:

1.Amount 2.Quantity 3.Number 4.Integer 5.Date 6.Time

Each one of the above key figures is stored in the meta data repository. The repository contains a technical as well as a business description of the key figure. In BW, key figures can be used in InfoCubes, ODS objects
and master data. A concept to keep in mind is key figures do not ahve attributes of their own. One can have as many key figures as neccesary. Which key figures to use can be decided based on the analysis and
reporting requirements of business. Keep watching this space! I would be discussing the types of key figures in one of my future posts.

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