Overview of Oracle General Ledger Balances Cubes

A balances cube stores financial balances in a multidimensional database for interactive reporting and analysis. A ledger has a chart of accounts, calendar, currency, and accounting method.

When the accounting configuration process is submitted for a primary or secondary ledger that uses a new unique combination of chart of accounts and calendar, a balances cube is created.

The following figure shows the components of a ledger and that the accounting configuration process creates the balances cube.

This figure shows that a ledger consists of a chart of accounts, calendar, currency, and accounting method. The accounting configuration process creates a balances cube for a primary or secondary ledger.

Balance cubes are named after the chart of accounts they contain.

A balances cube:

Stores financial balances in a multidimensional cube for real time, interactive financial reporting and analysis.
Preaggregates balances at every possible point of summarization, ensuring immediate access to financial data and eliminating the need for an external data warehouse for financial reporting.
Is uniquely identified by a combination of the chart of accounts and accounting calendar. Average balances are tracked in a separate balances cube.
Is automatically synced by the following general ledger processes: posting, open period, and translation.
Consists of a set of defining business entities called dimensions. Dimensions in a cube determine how data is accumulated for reporting and analytical purposes.
Are referred to as an application or database connection in the user interfaces for Financial Reports, Smart View, and Calculation Manager.