Purpose
The execution of Forecasting and Replenishment in F&R requires someinput from external systems. Parts of this input are information aboutpast and future promotions from the SAP Retail system to predict futuredemand. This technique is also known as causal based forecasting. Ittakes into account the fact that the future demand is influenced byother factors than only the past demand. By looking at the historicoccurrence of these factors and their impact on the past demand, thesystem can calculate the potential effect on future occurrences.
To supply F&R with the required data, this report selects promotion datafor relevant article/site-combinations and transfers these data asDemand Influencing Factor (DIF) Occurrences to F&R.

Prerequisites
You must activate the transfer of DIFs to SAP F&R under "Maintain BasicSettings for Data Transfer" - sub screen "DIF Parameters for Promotions"- checkbox "DIF Active" in Customizing (customizing path: IMG >Integration with Other mySAP.com Components > Forecasting andReplenishment > Maintain Basic Settings for Data Transfer).
You have to maintain the settings for creation of DIF occurrences(customizing path: IMG > Integration with Other mySAP.com Components >Forecasting and Replenishment > Maintain DIF Occurrence Profiles forPromotions).
DIF Occurrences can be of different types, e.g. Boolean or Correctional(Additive or Absolute Correction Value). You have to define incustomizing which promotion types are mapped to which DIF IDs.

• Boolean: A Boolean DIF occurrence consists of only two possible
situations: the DIF is either valid or not. The DIF has discreteoccurrences without a value (e.g. promotions). The system evaluates theeffect on the consumption of a location product that was caused by a DIFoccurrence in the past, e.g. a lift-up factor of 1.5 caused by apromotion. Whenever an occurrence of the same DIF ID is going to happenin the future, the system will apply this effect on the forecast. Thistype is suitable for mapping events such as public holidays, vacations,sports events and retail promotions.

• Absolute Correction Value: The correction value replaces the forecast
values during the time period of the occurrence.
Example: Planning data of a sales promotion in a push process(containing the normal demand).

• Additive Correction Value: The correction value is added to the forecast
values during the time period of the occurrence .
Example: Planning data of a sales promotion (not containing the normaldemand).
For some DIF types the promotion quantities have to be determined andtransferred. In the DIF Customizing profile, settings can be made todefine whether and how the promotion quantities are to be determined.When transferring the DIF occurrence to SAP F&R, this value istransferred to the SAP F&R DIF interface (as a header attribute ofthe DIF occurrence).

Selection
In general, only data for article/site-combinations stored in tableFRE_DB_ART_SITE will be processed. With the settings on selection screenthe data selection and data transfer from this specified amount will beaffected.
The selection parameters of the selection sub screens "Promotions" and"On Sale Period" are optional. If there are no entries entered all F
R-relevant information will be determined and sent to fr.If there are entries, e.g. a range of promotions, only for those givenpromotions an initial data load of DIF occurrences will be performed. Ifyou enter values in the selection criteria "On Sale Period", only thosepromotions will be transferred initially to F&R as DIF occurrenceswhose promotion sales start and / or end date lay within the definedtime horizon.
An F4 Help is available for the selection criteria "Promotion"
The checkbox complete data transfer in the sub screen "Checks" is usedto determine whether all relevant DIF occurrences for promotionsaccording to the selection criteria are deleted in ERP and F&R andre-transferred newly (checkbox checked) or whether the transfer willonly be done for new article-site-combinations whose promotions matchthe selection criteria(checkbox unchecked). Changes to already sent DIFoccurrences, i.e. 'old' combinations of article and site according tothe prior sending are not checked and therefore ignored.
For further information see the F1 help of the respective fields.
The "Transfer Settings" sub screen defines the target system.
The "Options for Parallel Processing" sub screen controls the transferof data. The Records per Package parameter specifies the size of workpackages in parallel processing.