Creating Dimensions

The dimension is the core building block of an Narrative Reporting application. It is a data category used to organize business data for the retrieval and presentation of data.

The Dimension type determines the type of business data that will be gathered and reported by the system, such as entities, currency, time periods, and so on.

Each application must include at least two dimensions:

One Time dimension
One Account dimension

You do not need to use all dimension types in your model. There are no restrictions on the number of additional dimensions or dimension types you can create, although you can only enable up to 20 dimensions in a model at one time.

When a dimension is edited, the dimension is locked to prevent concurrent editing. When a lock is applied, you see a lock icon next to the dimension name on the Dimensions and Models tab or in the dimension title on the Overview tab. When you close the edit dialog box, the lock is automatically removed. Dimension locking is applied in the following situations:

When a dimension is selected for editing.
When a dimension is being edited during the member/dimension selections for data grants. These locks are obtained at the dimension level and are based on which dimensions are in use at that moment.
When a bulk operation is performed on a application, associated dimensions are locked.

Standard Dimension Types

There are seven standard dimension types:

When a lock is applied, you see a lock icon next to the dimension name on the Dimensions and Models tab or in the dimension title on the Overview tab. When you close the edit dialog box, the lock is automatically removed.

Table 4-1 Standard Dimension Types

Dimension Type	Description	Dimensions per Model
Time	Represents reporting time periods, such as quarters and months. This dimension is required.	1
Account	Contains items that you want to measure, such as profit or inventory. This dimension is required.	1
Currency	Provides a list of currencies available for reporting.	0–1
Entity	Describes the structure of the users organization, such as departments, groups, locations, and so on.	0–1
Scenario	Enables you to view data in a selected perspective, such as Budget, Actual, Forecast, and so on.	0–1
Year	Defines the range of years that apply to this application.	0–1
Generic	Customized, user-defined dimension type can represent any dimension type that you require for your organization, such as product, customer, segment, and so on.	0 –18 (This maximum is based on the assumption of 20 dimensions per model, with the mandatory Time and Account dimensions, and no other dimensions.)

When creating your dimensions, you are offered two Setup Preferences to decide how you want to populate the dimensions in your application:

After a dimension is created, it can be edited manually in the Dimension Hierarchy or updated using a dimension build flat file.

Typical Setup Preferences

Typical setup preferences provide a set of predefined selections for each dimension type, except Generic. As the Dimension Type is selected, the screen changes to display the predefined properties that correspond to that selected dimension. The following table displays the predefined members for each dimension type.

Table 4-2 Typical Setup Preference Members

Dimension Type	Predefined Members
Account	Select the account types you want to use: Income Statement Balance Sheet Cash Flow Statistics
Currency	Select the Currencies your organization uses. The Currency code and country name are both displayed.
Entity	Select the entity types you want to use: Statutory Reporting Management Reporting
Scenario	Select the scenario you want to use to calculate the variance or variance percentage between the selected Variance Scenario pairs. Variance expresses the difference as a numerical value, and %Variance expresses the difference as a percentage. The following scenarios are available, and can be used for comparison: Actual (Standard) Budget (Standard) Forecast (Standard) Actual vs. Forecast (Variance) Actual vs. Budget (Variance) Forecast vs. Budget (Variance) Actual vs. Forecast % (Variance Percent) Actual vs. Budget % (Variance Percent) Forecast vs. Budget % (Variance Percent)
Time	Select the Base Time Period (Monthly or Quarterly) and the Start Month for the period. If the period begins in a month other than January, you can choose to include the period from January to December. You can include a Beginning Balance (begbal), if required
Year	Select a Start and End year.
Generic	No predefined options are available for a Generic dimension.

Custom Setup Preferences

Rather than building dimensions with the Typical Setup Preferences that use predefined properties, Custom options enable you to populate your application, using one of these methods:

Import metadata from an existing database using a dimension build flat file to customize the dimensions for your organization and application. If you decide to load from a flat file, you must format the file according to the Narrative Reporting file formats. For details on formatting existing metadata files for use in Narrative Reporting, see Load and Extract Dimension Members.
Define dimensions manually in the Dimension Hierarchy. For details on working with the dimensions and their properties, see Manage Dimensions Using the Hierarchy Editor.

To create a dimension:

On the Home page, click the Application icon.
Click the name to open the application.
On the Overview, enter a name for the application, and an optional Description.
Select the Dimensions and Models tab .
From the Application drop-down, select Create Dimension.
On the Create Dimension dialog box, under Type, select any of the Standard Dimension types that are available for the application. See Creating Dimensions.

Caution:

An Account and a Time dimension must be created for the application.
Optional: Rename the dimension, and enter a description.

The Name cannot exceed 80 characters, and the Description cannot exceed 255 characters. The name and description must be alphanumeric, cannot start with a numeral, and cannot contain the following characters: / \ [ ] : ; | ^ ‘ < > = + & *
Optional: From Add Model, select a model to which you want to apply this dimension. You can select a model later.
From Default Access, select the baseline access that you want to apply to all users who will have access to this dimension:
- Read
- None
If necessary, you can apply specific access for selected users and groups later. See Grant Access.
Select the Setup Preference that you want to use to create your dimension:
- Select Typical to create a dimension for the selected type using predefined properties. You need to choose the properties that you want to use for the selected Dimension Type. See Typical Setup Preferences.
- Select Custom to load metadata from an existing dimension build flat file for the new dimensions, or use the user interface to manually define members and hierarchies. See Custom Setup Preferences.
Select a Save option to create the dimension.
Repeat the steps in this procedure for each dimension that you want to create for the application.

You do not need to create all dimension types for your application at once, and you can add other dimensions later.
After you have added the new dimensions to the application, from Dimensions and Models , review the dimensions that you created. The dimensions are listed down the left side of the screen below the application name.