About Dimensions

Dimensions are a concise, intuitive way of organizing data. Each dimension is an attribute containing members, representing variations of the data. For example, the Region dimension might include the members North, South, East and West.

A dimension member is a part of a dimension—a dimension within a dimension. For example:

• January 2005 or 1Qtr05 are members of the dimension Time.

• Wholesale and Retail are members of the dimension Distribution Channel.

• Base, Optimistic, and Pessimistic are members the dimension Scenario.

Account instances are unique intersections of dimension members within accounts where values are stored. For example, Sales of Radios/Retail Stores, or Sales of Clothes/Retail Stores might be instances of the account Sales.

Creating User-Defined Dimensional Structures

Caution:

When dimensional accounts contain data, adding child members deletes all data in the parent member.

Use these rules when naming dimension or members:

• Dimension names are validated against other dimensions.

• Member names must be unique—even across dimensions.

• Members are not case sensitive (South=souTh=SOUTH).

• Member cannot share names with dimensions.

• Dimension and member names can contain alphanumeric characters, spaces, hyphens, slashes, periods, commas, and colons.

To create user-defined dimensional structures:

1. Select Accounts, then Dimension, and then Maintenance.

2. Option: To create dimensions, click Add Sibling and enter a name.

3. Option: To create members, select a dimension, click Add Child, and then enter a member name.

4. Option: To create nested members, select a member, click Add Child, and then enter a member name.

5. Click OK.

Deleting Dimensions or Members

Caution:

When dimensional accounts contain data, deleting child members deletes all data in the parent member.

To delete dimension or members:

1. Select Accounts, then Dimension, and then Maintenance.

2. Select a dimension or member.

   Dimension and member children are also deleted.

3. Click Delete.

4. Click OK.

Assigning Dimensions to Accounts

When you assign a dimension to an account, those dimensions become another way of storing detailed information within the account.

To add one or more dimensions to accounts:

1. On the Accounts spreadsheet, select an account.

2. Select Accounts, then Dimension, and then Assign Dimension.

3. In Available Dimensions, select one or more dimension and click Add.

   Selected dimensions move from Available Dimensions to Assigned Dimensions.

4. Optional: Select a dimension in Assigned Dimensions, and click Remove to remove dimensional assignments.

5. Click OK.

   Strategic Modeling adds an instance of that account for each member. In the example following, the account Other Operating Expenses (v1090) is assigned to the dimension Time, and displays instances for each member: Year, Month, and Week. See Viewing Dimensional Accounts.

Allocating Aggregate Amounts to Lower-Level Values

When data is entered in dimensional accounts and outputs are calculated, you can enter aggregate amounts at top or mid-level accounts and allocate them to the lower-level members in proportion to the lower-level values. These outputs are backsolved for inputs for the lower-level members.

To allocate dimensional accounts:

1. On the Accounts spreadsheet, select an aggregate dimensional account.

   For example: Sales/Stereos

2. Select Accounts, then Dimension, and then Account Allocation.

3. In New Amount, enter the amount of the aggregate account.

4. Click OK.

   Strategic Modeling allocate amounts to each year in proportion to the outputs for the Current Amount value. For example, you could change the allocation of the aggregate for 2001 by entering the New Amount of 40. Strategic Modeling backs into dimensional data. For example, the New Amount of 40 is divided equally into each account dimension combination for 2001.

   Time Period	Current Amount	New Amount
   2001	20	40
   2002	40	80
   2003	10	20
   2004	50	40
   2005	30	10