Load Financial Data into the Trial Balance cube

The first step is to import the "raw" data into the FIN General Ledger TB cube, which mirrors the dimensional structure of the FIN General Ledger cube except for an additional FIN Delta dimension. Refer to the following table to determine the dimension that the raw financial data should be loaded in the FIN General Ledger TB cube:

Cube Dimension

Usage

Cube Dimension

Usage

FIN Delta

This dimension has two N elements: Source and Current, with a calculated "Delta" between the two to allow for incremental loading of data. The direct import of data always has to happen on the "Source" element.

FIN Version

Always use the ACT version to load the financial data.

FIN Currency

Data always should be loaded to the "LOCAL" element in the local currency of the company in question.

T Year-Month

The lowest level represents a financial period / month, e.g., 2022-M01, that the data needs to be loaded to. M01 represents the first period of the financial year used in the system, i.e., if a financial year starting in January has been configured M01 is January. Likewise, M12 represents the last month of the financial year. Optionally a period M00 can be used to load opening balances to and a period M13 is available to load end-of-year journals.

FIN Company

The data is loaded to the company elements as set up as part of the dimension setup covered in an earlier chapter.

FIN BSEG 1...4

The maximum available four business segments can be used at the customers discretion. The data import happens to a N level element within these dimensions. If a business segment is not used or the information not available for some of the records the data is to be loaded to the default / dummy elements, e.g., "NA FIN BSEG 1".

FIN OCoA

The data has to be loaded to a N level element in the operational CoA dimension. As far as the Trial Balance itself is concerned it will be a descendant of the main balance sheet rollup (C3_MGMTTB) but the same concept also applies to the import of statistical accounts.

Scale

This is a reporting dimension, the "BASE" element always has to be used for importing the data.

Time Analysis

This is a reporting dimension, the "BASE" element always has to be used for importing the data.

FIN Consolidation Value Measure

In the context of the TB cube the "TB - Trial Balance" consolidation is what will get further processed. The import should target a N level element underneath this consolidation and depending on the source system there is mainly two scenarios:

  1. Use the pair of "DR" and "CR" for debit or credit amounts, they will flow into the TB measure as debit minus credit.

  2. Use the TB Load measure to import data from one value column, which in the source would have negative as well as positive numbers.

Pre-built connectors

There are a number of pre-built connectors available for different source systems, which will accelerate the data import as well as the build of dimension structures. Those connectors are sometimes able to connect via the source systems API and also offer additional features like drilling down to transactions in the source system.

If a connector for your source system is available it is preferable to make use of it. Please refer to the connector-specific documentation for the setup steps and the detailed functionality.

Custom import process

If a pre-built connector is not available or custom requirements rule the usage of a connector out the go-to approach would be to handle the data import into the TB cube by developing an ETL process using the TM1 standard scripting tool Turbo Integrator. This is a development task that requires in-depth knowledge of the proprietary language and should furthermore follow Apliqo's best-practice guidelines. For more information please refer to the the Apliqo FPM developer guide.

Upload from Excel

Especially for prototyping and smaller datasets and where a full automation of the data imports is not a requirement or not feasible, uploading the data from an Excel template can be a viable option.  The standard Apliqo UX component for Excel Uploads can be used for this purpose. The setup is relatively straightforward and can even cater for different template layouts as long as the general guidelines of using the appropriate elements for all dimensions described above is being followed.