Conversion Methods

When designing a currency conversion application, consider whether your business requires analysis and reporting on local currencies, or only on converted currencies.

Essbase supports two conversion methods:

• Overwrite local values with converted values

  Some applications require that only converted values be stored in the main cube. Local values are entered, and the conversion operation overwrites local values with common currency values. This method assumes that there is no requirement for reporting or analyzing local currencies.

  Because this operation overwrites data, load local values and recalculate the data each time you perform a conversion. This method is useful only for single (not ongoing) conversions.

• Keep local and converted values

  Most applications require that data be stored in both local and common currency (converted) values. This method permits reporting and analyzing local data, and data modifications and recalculations are easier to control. To use this method, you must define a currency partition dimension in the main cube.

Either of these methods may require a currency conversion at report time. Report time conversion enables analysis of various exchange rate scenarios without actually storing data in the database. The Currency Conversion module enables performance of ad hoc conversions in report scripts.