Dimension Setup

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Apliqo FPM allows to reflect your business structures using a company dimension, which is mandatory to use, The business structure is reflected in Apliqo FPM using the Company dimension and up to four additional business segments that can be used flexibly for cost centers, profit centers, departments, locations etc. You can access the setup screens through the Apliqo Settings menu -. The business segments might by the Cost Centers, Profit Centers, Departments, Customers, Products or Locations of the business. The business segment dimensions will define the level of detail data that is stored in the General Ledger cube for reporting and analysis. And the level of detail that is planned for revenue, expenses and the balance sheet.

To set up the Business Segment setup navigate to Administration > Business Segments.

General considerations

Each of the business segments will contain a hierarchical structure of consolidated and numeric elements. The consolidated elements sum up the assigned children. Only the lowest level (N or leaf elements) can store data. The minimum structure should include a root element (e.g. FIN Company Rollups), a dimension total (e.g. Total FIN Company) and a dummy element to store any data that is lacking the business segment detail. The "Total" element should always contain all numeric elements of the dimension so that no potential data points are missing when looking at the total.

The name of an element in the dimension can be an alpha-numeric string. If available the use of a technical code rather than just a description is recommended because an element cannot be renamed (it will have to be deleted and a new element created) and the element name also has to be unique within the dimension.

An unlimited amount of attributes can be stored for each dimension element for display or filtering purposes. There is three types of attributes: String (S), Numeric (N) and Alias (A, can be used instead of the element name and has hence to be unique as well).

The following attributes are mandatory: Description (S), Code and Description (A). For the company dimension in addition the attribute "CurrencyISOCode" (S) is mandatory and expected to hold a legal entities local currency ISO code (three digit, e.g. USD).

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General Considerations

Dimensions and Hierarchies

The leaf elements of a dimensions store the business data in the cube. This this smallest level of detail of the business data stored in Apliqo FPM.

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The company and business segments dimensions will contain at least one hierarchical structure that rollups up the leaf elements to a total consolidated element. That rollup will contain intermediary consolidated elements that will be sub-totals of the leaf elements that are the members of the intermediary consolidation. Within a hierarchy there can be multiple totals that rollup the leaf elements differently to express the business reporting and analysis needs. For example, a business segment is used to represent the Cost Centers of the business. One rollup of the Cost Centers may be by locations. While another rollup of the Cost Centers may be by Manager. At their Total consolidation the rollup contains the same leaf elements.

Alternated hierarchies can be created in the company and business segment dimensions that can be combined for reporting and analysis. Each alternative hierarchy contains one or more rollup of the leaf elements of the dimension as described above. Using the previous example two hierarchies would be created for cost centers by location and cost centers by managers.

Rollups verses hierarchies. Hierarchies can be combined to provide new insights. Have a cost center by location and cost centers by managers hierarchy means that these two hierarchies can be combined in the same report. This is not possible had

Using hierarchies instead of rollups means that a report of manages by locations can be derived from the cost centers dimension. Alternate hierarchies provide flexibility for reporting and analysis.

Required Elements

At a minimum a business segment dimension has the business segment hierarchy. The business segment hierarchy must have the consolidated total element of “Total FIN BSEG x” and the leaf element of “NA FIN BSEG x”. Where x is the business segment index.

The “Total FIN BSEG x” rollup in the business segment hierarchy must include all the leaf elements of the business. Other rollups and alternate hierarchies do not have to include all the leaf elements. The “Total FIN BSEG x” rollup is considered the correct total that all other totals are compared to.

Elements and Attributes

The principal name of the leaf element cannot be changed once the leaf element has been created. For this reason, it is recommended that system keys are used for the principal names of the leaf elements instead of business descriptions. These system keys may already exist within the business. Alias are used to give the leaf element a business description.

Deleting a leaf element can lead to a loss of data. To protect against data loss the leaf elements of a hierarchy are unwound from the rollup instead of being deleted. The rollup is rebuilt from the hierarchy definition defined stored in Apliqo FPM. Any leaf elements that are not part of the hierarchy definition becomes orphans in the hierarchy. These orphan leaf elements should be reviewed, and the hierarchy definition updated or manually deleted.

Generally, consolidated elements can be deleted. Numeric data cannot be stored against a consolidated element. String data, such as comments, can be stored against consolidated elements.

Elements can have aliases that can be used to give the element a business description. Aliases must also be unique within hierarchy. The default alias used in Apliqo FPM is “Code and Description”. “Code and Description” is a concatenation of the element principal name and the business description. Elements can have other attributes beside aliases. There are two types of attributes. Attributes that store string data and attributes that store numerical data. All business segment dimensions have “Description” which is a string attribute that stores the business description of the leaf element. String attributes do not have to be unique. Attributes are managed in the business segment maintenance pages.

Business Segments and Planning

Each business segment dimension has corresponding planning business segment dimension. The usage of the planning business segment for revenue, expense and balance sheet planning is set in the settings in the Plan Mapping tab of the Business Segment Maintenance page. The rollup of the planning business segment dimension is determined by the rollup in default hierarchy under “Total FIN BSEG x”. The leaf elements in the planning business segment hierarchy can be at any level of the business segment rollup. When defining the “Total FIN BSEG x” rollup please consider the impact the rollup will have on the planning business segment.

The planning business segment dimension uses the default hierarchy only. Alternate hierarchies are not used in the planning business segment dimensions.

At a minimum, a planning business segment dimension must have the consolidated element, “Total FIN BSEG x Plan” and the leaf element of “NA FIN BSEG x Plan”. Where x is the planning business segment index.

To migrate data between the General Ledger and the planning module a mapping between the business segment and the planning business segments are maintained when the planning business segment dimension is updated.

Related

Business Segments Captions

Building the Business Segment Structure (deprecated)

Override Attributes

Business Segments Security (deprecated)