Defining a Custom Rule Target

After you have created a custom rule definition, edit the rule to define the target range for the custom calculation and the formula to execute for all cells in the target range.

To define a custom rule target:

  1. On the Waterfall Setup tab, select a custom rule, and then click Edit.

    Utilities Expense Adjustment custom rule highlighed with Edit selected

    The rule is opened with the required Account and Entity dimensions, the optional Currency dimension if you have a multicurrency application, and any custom dimensions in your application displayed. (If you have defined and enabled a Rule Set Context or a Model Context, any dimensions defined in the Rule Set Context or a Model Context are not displayed. See Understanding Model and Rule Set Context.)

  2. Click Open Configuration icon to open the Rule Configuration panel where you can see the information you defined in the rule definition.

    Utilites Expense Adjustment custom rule with the Rule Configuraiton panel displayed

  3. Click Formula, and enter the MDX formula for the custom rule.

    After you enter a formula, click Validate to ensure that the formula is valid, and then click Save.

    See Formula Syntax for Custom Rules and Skipping Empty Tuples to Optimize Calculations for information on how to create the formula.

  4. Select a member or members for each target dimension.

    You must select a member for every dimension. If a dimension does not apply to the data in your rule, select the No<dimname> member. See Dimension and Member Requirements When Creating Rules.

    Note:

    The dimension you selected for the Result Dimension is not included as a target dimension since a member from the result dimension must appear in the left hand (results side) of the formula.

    To select members for a target dimension:

    • Click in the Target column next to a dimension to enable the Edit button, and then click Edit.

      Sample Target information

    • In the Edit Target Component panel, define the target members for the dimension by doing one of the following:

      • Click Member Selector to open the Select Members dialog box, where you can select the members to add to the target dimension. See Using the Member Selector.

        Select Members dialog box FAC8200 selected for the Account Dimension

        Tip:

        Selecting an upper-level member selects all the descendants of that member. For example, if you choose "All Accounts", then your selection is really all the Level 0 descendants of "All Accounts". The rule will execute an allocation for each level-0 member. Selecting an upper-level member eliminates the need to pick each specific member individually.

      • Enter member names, one per line, in the Dimension Members area.

        Dimension Members displaying the FAC8200 and CC1001 members

        Tip:

        If you have a list of members in an Excel spreadsheet, you can copy these members from Excel, and then paste them into the Dimension Members area. The members will be added to the dimensions to which they were assigned when the dimensions were created. See Adding Members to a Dimension.

  5. Optional: To segment rules into smaller rules to execute separately, select Calculation Segmentation next to the dimension.

    Calculation segmentation enables the calculation to process rules with a very large data range, which would otherwise be too large for Oracle Essbase to process. Calculation segmentation is enabled for up to two dimensions in each rule.

    Account dimension showing Calculation Segmentation selected

    Tip:

    Use Calculation Segmentation only when your range is extremely large and sparsely populated. As a best practice, you should call support before proceeding with this option.

  6. Click Save to save the information you have added for the target.

Tip:

  • To view details about the rule configuration, click Open Configuration icon to open the Rule Configuration panel.

  • The numbers in parenthesis to the right of each member indicates the number if level 0 descendants. This helps you identify the size of the range you are defining.

  • The default sort order for the dimensions is set to Designer. If you need to compare the data on this page to Smart View or another data output, change the sort order from Designer to Outline so that the sort order is the same as the sort order in Smart View or your other data output.

    Sort By drop-down menu

  • See Managing Filters for Target Members for information on how to filter the target members used in a rule.