Apliqo FPM reflects the organisational structure of the business using the Company and up to four additional business segment dimensions. Let’s break down the key points of the company dimension:

1. Balancing Entity: The Company serves as the balancing entity. A balancing entity is where the sum of the debits and credits in the Monthly Trial Balance equals zero. This balance is checked each month when the Trial Balance is loaded into Apliqo FPM. If the company does not balance the FPM Administrator needs to approve the difference before it is loaded to the General Ledger.

2. Local Currency: Apliqo FPM performs currency translations for reporting and analysis in a single currency across the group. The company will transact in a local currency. The company’s currency code is maintained in the CurrencyISOCode attribute for the company. The company’s trial balance is loaded to the LOCAL element in the FIN Currency dimension. The local currency amount is translated to the reporting currencies by knowing the currency code of the company and the monthly exchange rate to the reporting currency. Planning is done in the local currency of the company against the LOCAL element in the FIN Currency dimension.

3. Total FIN Company: The FIN Company dimension must have the consolidated element Total FIN Company. All companies must rollup to the Total FIN Company consolidation. Other totals and sub-total can be added to the FIN Company dimension to meet the reporting requirements of the business.

4. NA FIN Company: The FIN Company dimension must have the leaf element NA FIN Company. This is used in Apliqo FPM to store data that is not associated with any company.

5. Attributes: Attributes are additional information about the company. The CurrencyISOCode is an attribute that is used to translate a value in the company’s local currency to the reporting currencies so that all company can reported and compared using a single currency. Attributes can also be used for alternate descriptions of the company. The standard Apliqo FPM attribute for business description is Description and Code and Description. If required attributes can be translated to the regional languages of the client.

The Company dimension plays a crucial role in Apliqo FPM ensuring the accuracy of financial reporting and currency conversions.

Managing the Company Dimension

You can access the Company setup through the page: Administration > Business Segments > FIN Company. The Company setup page is divided into tabs.

Open

• FIN Company: Shows the current structure of the Company dimension and the attributes of the dimension elements.

• Automation: The settings and the steps to build the FIN Company dimension. The FIN Company dimension can be built from a csv file, a SQL query (ODBC source), from another dimension, or using the attributes of another dimension, using a custom process or from the Definition tab (cube). Each step in the automation can have one of these sources. Each automation step is executed in order.

• Definition: Allows the FPM Module Administrator to define the parent-child relationship between elements in the Company dimension to build the Company hierarchy.

• Security: Create security groups for the company dimension.

• Attributes Override: Override the default value of the attributes of the company.

Automation Tab

In this section we are going to set up FIN Company dimension using the Definition tab. Starting with a clean install of Apliqo FPM, the minimum setup of the Company dimension is already defined. Click on the Automation tab. Step 1 is already fill out. Under the Update Steps, the first step is sourced from the ‘Cube’ which is accessed in the Dimension Definition tab.

Click on the Cube icon to open the popup to see the automation step settings.

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Automation Step 0001

In the popup there is:

• A comment field to add notes about the step. Enter “Standard elements (Index 0001)” as a comment.

• Any Step, except the first step, can be disabled by select 'Y' in the Step Disabled field.

• Tracking data that was gathered when the step was last executed.

• The Source Index. This is the Source Index used by this automation step in the dimension definition (Definition tab).

• The Template Type is how the relationship between the parent element and the child element is maintained in the dimension definition.

  ByRollup - The layout of the dimension definition closely represents how the hierarchy is presented in the subset editor. Elements on the same column are in the same level of the rollup. Elements in the next column to the right are components of the element in the previous column the directly above the element.

  ByParentChild - On each row the Dimension Definition page, the parent relationship to the previous column to the left. Multiple levels of the rollup can be defined on a single row.

  Compact - Is the same as ByParentChild except only the direct relationship between the parent element to the child element is defined on each row. Multiple level of the rollup needs to be defined on separate rows.

• The list Attributes that are managed for this source index in the Dimension Definition.

Dimension Definition

The Dimension Definition has number of pages or Source Indexes that can be used to define the roll up. For this automation step the Source Index, 0001 is being used.

The Template Type is ‘ByRollup’. The Template Type determines how the parent-child relationship is calculated in the Dimension Definition tab.

Building the FIN Company Hierarchy

Click on the Definition tab. Select the FIN Company dimension and the 0001 Source Index.

The Template Type determines the layout of the parent-child relationship. The ‘ByRollup’ closely represents how the hierarchy is presented in the subset editor. Starting from the top of the rollup in the Level 1 column. The next level down in the hierarchy is listed in Level 2 columns on a subsequent row. Level 3 of the hierarchy is in the Level 3 column and so on for each level in the hierarchy. Elements that are in the same column are on the same level in hierarchy. Elements in the next column are components of the element that is in the previous column the directly above the element. Empty rows are ignored when building the dimension.

Up to 30 level can be defined. Click on the ▶ button to add a level. Click on the ◀ to delete the last column.

The vType column determines the element type. The vWeight sets the component weight of the element in its consolidation.

In the example above, the first line, first column is the Total FIN Company element. This is a consolidation. On the second line and in the second column the NA FIN Company element appears. This is leaf element because it has the vType of 'N'. NA FIN Company a component of the Total FIN Company consolidation.

Click on the ▶ (Add Level to Rollup) will add a column to the table. Click on the + (Add Row) to insert rows in the table. The grid will only show you the next 150 rows after the selected Row Index. Change to row index to see the next 150 rows.

Attributes

When the automation Source Type is Cube, the attributes can be maintained in the Dimension tab. Each Source Index can have their own attributes. The ‘Code and Description’ and the ‘Description’ attributes are standard attributes used across Apliqo FPM to give the elements, the company codes in this case, a business description. The ‘CurrencyISOCode’ attribute is required for the FIN Company dimension to calculate the reporting currencies from the Local currency.

Add an Attribute to the Dimension Definition

Each Automation Step that uses the Cube Source Type can manage attribute values. The follow walk-through will show you how attributes can be added in the Definition tab.

Notice the Attribute Name is at the top of the attribute column. The [A, S, N] indicates the attribute type, then the attribute name appears, followed by the localisation, if a localisation was chosen when the attribute was added.

Deleting an Attribute from the Dimension Definition

The following walk-through shows you how an attribute can be deleted from the Dimension Definition.

Adding a step to the Automation

The following walk-through we will add the company ‘1000’ to the Company dimension. This will be the balancing entity that we will load the trial balance against in subsequent topics.

Element Sorting

The default element sorting in a dimension is by input. In the following walk through we change the sort order of the elements in the dimension.

Automatically Remove Empty Consolidations

As the dimension changes over time consolidated elements become orphaned from any hierarchies in the dimension. This can make the dimension messy and confusing. Generally, it is safe to delete these orphaned consolidated elements. In our example the consolidated element FIN Company Rollups is an orphaned element in the FIN Company dimension. In the following walkthrough we change the Automation Settings to automate the removal orphaned consolidated elements.

Conclusion

You have set up the FIN Company dimension for the Xeno AG company. You learn the importance of the FIN Company dimension to Apliqo FPM. Its required elements and attributes.

We have introduced the Business Segment management screen. We have set up the FIN Company dimension using the Dimension Definition to manage the rollup and attributes of the FIN Company dimension.

Next

Business Segments Automation Settings

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