SAC Release 2026 Q2 (QRC2): asymmetric reporting and the decoupled Data Panel

SAP Analytics Cloud 2026 QRC2 started rolling out mid-May, and it changes how a few things actually work rather than just adding options. The story editor gets a redesigned right-side panel, the new table build experience finally supports asymmetric layouts, and SAC Planning picks up a long-requested event that fires before user input is processed. Here is the full breakdown, feature by feature.

Asymmetric reporting: the headline change

The most significant addition is asymmetric reporting in the new table build experience, delivered through visibility filters. For any structure on a table — Account, Measures, or Cross Calculations — you can now apply a visibility filter to individual members and decide which inner hierarchy levels are visible and whether totals appear. The moment you filter structure members individually, the table axis becomes asymmetric: different measure layouts per account, different cross-calculations per scenario. The classic pattern that used to need workarounds — "I want actuals + budget + variance for revenue, but only actuals for headcount" — is now first-class behaviour, with no scripting and no modeling contortions. This enables finance-style P&L views and combined actuals/forecast reporting natively. For other hierarchical dimensions (everything except Account), the same visibility filters apply but keep the table symmetric, giving you a clean way to control depth without losing consistency.

To ease adoption, SAC now actively nudges you toward the new table build experience: open an optimized story with tables in edit mode and it prompts you to switch in a single click (you can decline and keep the previous experience for that session).

The decoupled Data Panel

QRC2 introduces a decoupled Data Panel that you can access independently of the Builder and Styling panels. Previously, data access, chart building and styling were tightly intertwined in one panel; moving between them meant shifting context repeatedly, which got cumbersome in complex stories. Now a simplified right-hand toolbar gives quick, separate access to Data, Builder and Styling. It is not as flashy as a new chart type, but it creates a clearer mental model and makes navigating a big story noticeably less tiring. It complements the new drag-and-drop chart building so the data experience is as flexible as the visualization layer.

Composite versioning

Composite designers can now manage up to 10 versions of a composite, and restore or revert to previous versions through the version history whenever needed — though only one active version can be used in a story at a time. This mirrors the story versioning that arrived in QRC1 and brings the same safety to reusable composite artifacts: quick recovery to a stable version, less disruption for story viewers, and safer iteration when updating shared components.

Planning: the onBeforeDataEntryProcess() event

For planning teams, QRC2 delivers a long-requested hook: the onBeforeDataEntryProcess() table event. It executes before user-entered values are sent to the backend, which means you can run validation checks at the point of entry — rejecting or flagging bad input before it is committed rather than cleaning it up afterward. For anyone who has chased after-the-fact validation, this is the architectural piece that finally makes input guarding clean.

New Data Export and Import APIs in the Job Monitor

Automation gets several real gaps closed:

• Data Export API + Delta Calculations are now visible in the Job Monitor, so you can check the status of extraction and delta jobs that use the Data Export Service.
• Data Import API can now import fact data into existing private versions on Seamless Planning models.
• Data Import API can also import master data into Seamless Planning public dimensions that reside in a SAP Datasphere space.

Modeling and smaller upgrades

• Enhancements to Average and Count exception aggregation — relevant if you rely on exception aggregation (see our guide to exception aggregation over the time dimension).
• A new Member Selector dialog for calculations and units in modeling.
• Recent and favorites in the Open and Save dialogs, to resume work faster across key workflows.
• Another round of Just Ask natural-language refinements.

What to do with QRC2

Asymmetric reporting is the one to plan around: if your finance tables have been shaped by the old symmetric constraint, revisit them — a modeling compromise that lasted years just got much smaller. Planning teams should evaluate onBeforeDataEntryProcess() for input validation, and automation owners should check the new API monitoring in the Job Monitor. As always, validate on a private test edition tenant first. For the full-year context see the 2026 release index, and for what came before, the QRC1 2026 breakdown.

Sources: SAP Analytics Cloud Release Highlights (sap.com), the official "Sneak Peek into SAP Analytics Cloud release for Q2 2026" and the "What's New in Modeling, Integration & Calculations QRC2 2026" post on community.sap.com. Feature scope reflects the QRC2 2026 general availability.