1. A method comprising: initiating a feeder class from a plurality of feeder classes specifying a protocol, format, and language for transferring data between a predetermined business intelligence system or enterprise resource planning system and a user interface, the initiated feeder class transferring, through a processing device, data associated with data field identifiers included in a function linked to the initiated feeder class that is executed at the business intelligence system, the function manipulating data stored in the enterprise resource planning system; responsive to a user selecting a subset of the data field identifiers, restricting a selection of business process steps in the enterprise resource planning system to those steps involving the selected data field identifiers; applying a user supplied value of data associated with the user selected data field identifiers to a business planning function associated with the restricted selection of business process steps to calculate a performance metric of a selected business process step, the business planning function representing a step in an automated business process executed by the enterprise resource planning system; and automatically updating the calculation to reflect a change to at least one of the user supplied value, the user selected data field identifiers, and the selected business process step.