Working with Dimensions and Members

Dimension members exist in a parent-child relationship, and you may have multiple levels or generations of child members for a single dimension. The dimensions and members are represented in a hierarchical format, with child members aggregating up into the parent member.

The dimension tree displays the dimension members and their children for the selected dimension.

You can add members as children or siblings on the Dimension Hierarchy:

Child—A child member has a parent member above it. In the example above, Account 34000 is a child of IncomeStatement.
Sibling—A sibling member is a child member that is added at the same level or generation as another child member and has the same immediate parent. In the example above, Income Statement and BalanceSheet are sibling members under the Account parent.

You can work with members as outlined below:

To add members, see Working with Dimensions and Members.
To modify members, edit the details for the member in the appropriate column on the Dimension Hierarchy.
To delete members, under Actions, select Delete, or click Delete . A confirmation message is displayed, and you click OK to confirm the deletion.

Caution:

When all changes to the dimensions have been completed, the changes must be deployed to the selected model. See "Deploying Models and Dimensions" in Creating a Custom Application.

Dimension Members

After you create dimensions on the Application Dimensions and Models tab, as outlined in Creating a Custom Application, you add the dimension members from the Hierarchy tab. The dimension members represent sets of related points of data under a dimension. For example, in your Account dimension, members might represent account numbers.

You must create at least one member for each dimension to store data. At a minimum, you must create both a Time and Account dimension for a model. Each dimension type is allowed a maximum number of members, as outlined in the following table:

Table 5-1 Maximum Number of Members

Dimension Type	Maximum Number of Members
Account (Required Dimension)	5,000
Currency	100
Entity	25,000
Generic	50,000
Scenario	30
Year	20
Time (Required Dimension)	73 — The time period limit of 73 allows for the following: 52 weeks 12 months 4 quarters 2 halves YearTotal Beginning Balance (begbal) Time Period (the dimension name itself)

Table and Detailed Views

The Dimension Editor offers two views to display the hierarchy for all members in a dimension. You may view, add, edit, and delete members and their associated properties for the selected dimension using either view, which you can toggle.

Table View: From the Dimension Hierarchy screen, select the Table View icon to view the hierarchy as a table. Click the Member Name or associated field to activate data entry. You can rearrange the property columns by dragging the column titles.

Note:

To view additional Alias tables from this view, you must switch to the Detailed View.
Detailed View: From the Dimension Hierarchy screen, select the Detailed View icon to view the property details for the selected member as a list. Click the Member Name to activate the data entry fields.

Note:

You cannot rearrange property columns on the Detailed View. You must perform that task on the Table View.

Dimension Properties Table

For each dimension member, you must set the associated properties that govern how the member performs, such as how child members are aggregated to parents, how member data is stored, how to assign an alias name to simplify identification of members, and so on.

The member properties are assigned from the dimension Hierarchy tab. The standard properties apply to all dimension types; however, the Account and Scenario dimensions require some additional properties. See the appropriate properties for each dimension type, as outlined on the Dimension Properties tables below:

Dimension Properties for All Dimensions

Table 5-2 Dimension Properties for All Dimensions

Properties for All Dimensions	Description
Member Name	Enter the unique member name.
Alias	Optional: Enter an alias name for the member to enhance the readability of the hierarchy. For example, if the member name displays only account numbers, then you can enter an associated account name to describe the account you are viewing. Additional alias table are listed only in the Detailed view. To create additional alias tables, see Creating Additional Alias Tables.
Consolidation	Assign member consolidation properties to each member to determinehow child members are aggregated to their parents. Available consolidation options: + (Addition) - (Subtraction) * (Multiplication) / (Division) % (Percent) ~ (Ignore) ^ (Never)
Data Storage	Set to determine how data values are stored for a dimension: Auto — Sets the proper data storage for the member. If the member is a parent, it is set to calculate, and if the member is bottom level, it is set to input or store data.. Shared— Set to designate the member as a shared member, where the member appears more than once in a dimension as part of an alternate hierarchy.
Created On	Displays the date on which the member property was created.
Modified On	Displays the date on which the member or property was modified.

Dimension Properties for Scenario Dimension

Table 5-3 Dimension Properties for Scenario Dimension

Scenario Dimension Properties	Description
Scenario Type	Standard — Member where scenario data is entered (leaf node) or a parent member Variance – Comparison of two scenarios, with the variance expressed as a numerical value based on the Account type (Expense or Nonexpense). Variance Percent – Comparison of two scenarios, with the variance expressed as a percentage value based on the Account type (Expense or Nonexpense). See Creating a Custom Application for details on Variance Members.
Variance Member1	Select the first Standard scenario member that you want to compare to Variance Member 2.
Variance Member2	Select the second Standard scenario member that you want to compare to Variance Member 1.

Dimension Properties for Account Dimension

Table 5-4 Dimension Properties for Account Dimensions

Account Dimension Properties	Description
Time Balance	Select a time balance method to determine the calculation method of parent members in the Time dimension. See Working with Dimensions and Members below this table. None—The value of a parent is based on the formulas and consolidation properties of the children of the parent. First—The parent value represents the value of the first member in the branch (often at the beginning of a time period). Last—The parent value represents the value of the last member in the branch (often at the end of a time period). Average—The parent value represents the average of the values of the child members. Note:If Time Balance is selected, you must set a skip option.
Skip Option	If you set a time balance as first, last, or average, then you must set a skip property to control what happens when the application encounters a missing value or a value of 0. See Working with Dimensions and Members below this table.
Skip Option (continued)	Skip Option for First and Last Time Balance only, select one of the following options: None—For a First or Last Time Balance only, data is not skipped when calculating the parent value. See Figure 2 below. Missing—#MISSING data is skipped when calculating the parent value.
Skip Option (continued)	Skip Option for Average Time Balance, if #MISSING data is encountered when calculating an average, it divides by the number of members with actual values, rather than the total number of members. Therefore, setting the skip property to none or #MISSING does not affect the calculation.
Variance Reporting	Variance Reporting—Determines how the account is being tagged for Scenario variance reporting: Expense—The Variance member 1 amount (for example, Actual) is subtracted from the Variance member 2 amount (for example, Budget) to determine the variance. Nonexpense—The Variance member 2 amount (for example, Budget) is subtracted from the Variance member 1 amount (for example, Actual) to determine the variance. For more information, see Creating a Custom Application.

Figure 5-1 Time Balance Example

Figure 5-2 Skip Options Example

Adding Dimension Members

Add the dimension members and specify the properties from the Hierarchy editor. You can also modify or remove members.

To add members to a dimension:

From the Home page, select an option:
- Library, and then Application
- Application
Click the application name, or select Open from the Actions menu to open the application.
From the Application Overview, select the Dimensions and Models tab , and then click the name of the dimension for which you want to add members; for example, Account.
In the Dimension Overview, select the Hierarchy tab , and then select the Table View . You can also add members and properties using the Detailed View .
Optional: On the Hierarchy tab, select View and then Columns to see the columns that represent the properties for the selected dimension. See the Working with Dimensions and Members.

To edit the columns, select View, then Columns, and then Manage Columns. From the Manage Columns dialog box, select the columns you want to hide or show, and then click OK.
On the Hierarchy tab, take an action to add a new member:
- Click Add Child to add a member under the selected member.
- Click Add Sibling to add a member at the same generation as another child member, with the same immediate parent.
- Under Actions, select Add Child or Add Sibling.
- Under Member Name, click the right arrow beside the dimension name.
For each property except Scenarios, select the values for the new member. The available properties change depending on the dimension selected. See Working with Dimensions and Members.
Optional: For Scenarios dimensions only, under Scenario Type property column, click the name of the scenario type to display the Scenario Type selection dialog box, and then perform the following steps:
1. From Scenario Type, select the type of scenario you want to create:
  - Standard – No additional selection is required.
  - Variance – Comparison of two scenarios with the variance expressed as a numerical value.
  - Variance Percent – Comparison of two scenarios with the variance expressed as a percentage.
  For more information, see Creating a Custom Application.
2. For Variance and Variance Percent scenario types, select the Variance Member1 and Variance Member2 that you want to compare. Only Standard-type Scenario members are available for Variance Member 1 and 2.
3. Click OK. The selected members for the comparison are listed under Variance Member 1 and Variance Member 2.
Optional: For Account dimensions only, select the properties for the account:
- Under Time Balance, select None, First, Last or Average. If Time Balance is selected, you must select a Skip Option.
- Under Skip Option, select None or Missing.
- Under Variance Reporting, select Expense or Non-Expense to determine how the account is being tagged for Scenario variance reporting.
For additional information, see Working with Dimensions and Members.
Optional: Repeat the procedure to add additional new members.
Optional: To rearrange the Property columns on the Hierarchy, select the Table View , and then click the Property column title, such as Member Name or Consolidation, and drag the column to the new location.

Note:

You cannot perform this task on the Detailed View.
Optional: To resize the Property column, hover near the column title until the sizing icon is displayed, and then drag the icon to size the column as required.
Optional: To modify the location of members on the Hierarchy, see the following sections:
Click Close.
Select Actions, then Deploy, and then the model name to update the model.