Release 11i
Part Number A96138-01
 Contents |
 Index |
| Oracle Financial Analyzer User's Guide Release 11i Part Number A96138-01 |
|
This chapter describes how to create and maintain financial data items.
You need to know the information in this chapter if you are one of the following:
This chapter includes the following topics:
Financial data items are database objects that are used to store or calculate financial data values. There are two types of financial data items:
A stored financial data item can accept data in the following ways:
A formula financial data item contains a formula that calculates values based on the values of one or more stored financial data items. For example, you might create a formula financial data item called Budget Variance whose values reflect the difference between two stored financial data items, Actuals and Budget.
The values of a formula financial data item are calculated and displayed in a report or graph that includes the financial data item. Because the values are based on another financial data item, whose values may change, the values of a formula financial data item are not permanently stored in the system. They are calculated based on their associated stored financial data items.
There are two types of formula financial data items:
As an administrator, it is your responsibility to maintain the financial data items that your users access in the shared database that you administer. When you create or modify a financial data item and want other users to be able to access it, you must distribute the financial data item to the shared database and to other users.
As a Budget workstation user, you can create and modify financial data items for personal use. You can modify financial data items that your administrator has created for you, but you cannot save the modifications unless you assign a new name to the modified financial data item and retain the original. Also note that you cannot submit data to the shared database if it is associated with a financial data item that you have created in your personal database.
You choose Financial Data Item from the Maintain menu to create a new financial data item. This opens the Financial Data Item dialog box. From this starting point you can perform the following functions:
The following example shows the Maintain Financial Data Item dialog box with information for a stored financial data item, Actuals.
The following example illustrates a formula financial data item that calculates the variance between a financial data item called Budget and a financial data item called Actuals. Both of these financial data items are dimensioned by Time, Line and Organization.
The formula, located in the Formula box, is:
(act-bud)*line.bw
where:
act is the object name of the financial data item Actuals.
bud is the object name of the financial data item Budget.
line.bw specifies the Line dimension, which includes a B/W Variance Indicator. When you create a dimension that includes support for a B/W Variance Indicator, a .BW object is created in the database.
Using line.bw in the formula allows the signage of the variance to be correctly displayed.
The Budvar financial data item would appear in a report, as shown following. The negative variance that results from using line.bw in the formula is displayed in parentheses.
The following example illustrates a formula financial data item that calculates every Line Item as a percentage of the Revenue Line Item for the financial data item Actuals for every Time and Organization.
The formula, located in the Formula box, is:
act/act(line'A4000')*100
where:
act is the object name for the financial data item Actuals
line is the internal identifier representing the Line dimension
A4000 is the internal identifier representing the Revenue line item
Thus, act (line'A4000') represents the Revenue line item for every dimension that makes up the Actual financial data item.
The following report shows the results of this calculation.
For more information on creating financial data items, see the following topic in the Financial Analyzer Help system: "Creating Financial Data Items."
Sparse data occurs when many data cells in a financial data item contain NA values. For example, if a financial data item contains information that is dimensioned by Product and Market, it is likely that the data will be sparse because not all products are sold in all markets.
There are two methods for specifying how sparse data is handled in a Financial Analyzer database:
When you choose Sparsity in the Maintain Financial Data Item dialog box, you are prompted to choose the method that you want to use.
Note: If you are not an experienced user, Oracle Corporation recommends that you use the Sparsity Wizard. If you select a dimension for sparse data handling that is not actually sparse, you may experience increased data access time and decreased data processing performance.
When you create a stored financial data item, you must pay attention to the order in which you select the dimensions that comprise the financial data item. The dimension order determines how data is stored in Financial Analyzer, which in turn affects performance and storage in the Financial Analyzer database.
The order that you specify for the dimensions in your financial data items should depend on whether the data in the financial data item is dense or sparse.
When data is dense, the Time dimension should be the last dimension in the financial data item definition.
When data is sparse, Oracle Corporation recommends that you follow these guidelines:
<Time <Account Organization Product>>
where Account, Organization, and Product are in the composite.
If a financial data item has four dimensions: Account, Organization, Product, and Time, and only the relationship between Organization and Product is sparse, then the order of the dimensions could be:
<Account Time <Organization Product>>
where Organization and Product are in the composite. Also, one period's data is typically loaded and solved at once.
Alternatively, the order of the dimensions could be
<Account <Organization Product> Time>
where Organization and Product are in the composite. Also, one period's data is typically loaded and solved at once.
You choose Financial Data Item from the Maintain menu to modify financial data items in your personal database. This opens the Maintain Financial Data Item dialog box, from which you can perform the following functions:
Changing the way sparse data is handled can have a dramatic impact on the performance of your database. Oracle recommends that you modify sparse data handling after careful analysis of the dimensions and financial data in your database.
Reasons to change the way sparse data is handled on your system include the following:
In this example:
The following report shows the Budget financial data item. Note the number of NAs, indicating sparse data.
Note: When you modify sparsity, reports and worksheets do not change; your NA values still appear. This report is shown to demonstrate the concept of a sparsely populated dimension.
If the financial data item in this example was created without changing how sparsity is handled, all of the NA values would be stored in the database, as shown in the following illustration.
If, however, the dimensions Product and Organization were defined as sparse dimensions when the financial data item was created, the NA values would not be stored, as shown in the following illustration.
In this example, you would want to modify sparsity handling so that Product and Organization are sparse dimensions.
If you distribute a financial data item for which sparse data handling has been modified, it may take some time to process because the data within the financial data item has to be reassigned in the database.
If you delete a financial data item, you must distribute the structure with a Delete from System action. This deletes the structure from the shared database and from the personal databases of all of your users, including any administrators immediately below you in the reporting hierarchy. Administrators below you in the reporting hierarchy should propagate this change by distributing the deletion to their shared database and to the personal databases of their users, and so on down to the leaf nodes. If they choose not to do so, they can retain the structure for their own use, but they can never submit data associated with the structure into your shared database.
If you delete a financial data item and then attempt to define a financial data item with the same object name before distributing the deletion, the system prompts you to specify whether to process the deletion.
For more information about maintaining financial data items, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
The copy data feature enables you to copy data from one financial data item to another. You can use the copy data process as a mechanism for moving data from one financial data item to another, or you can make use of a set of options that allow you to modify the data in addition to copying it.
You can use Financial Analyzer's copy data feature to perform the following types of tasks:
An administrator can copy data within his or her personal database, or between the personal database and the shared database.
The Operational Mode in the Options dialog box indicates how the data is copied. If the Operational Mode is set to Administrator, data is copied within the administrator's personal database. If the Operational Mode is set to Workstation, data is submitted to the Task Processor and copied within the administrator's shared database.
Users of Budget workstations can copy data only within their personal database.
You choose Copy Data from the Tools menu to copy data. This opens the Copy Data dialog box, where you specify the source financial data item and the target financial data item and select the dimension values that you want to copy.
In some cases, the source and target items are different. For example, when you are populating a new financial data item with data from an existing item, the source and target are different. In other cases, the source and target items are the same, such as when you are altering the data within a single financial data item.
Note that you can increase or decrease the data by a specific amount or percentage when it is copied from the source to the target. Alternatively (when the source and target are the same), you can set the data values to N/A, effectively deleting the data from the financial data item.
The following illustration shows the Copy Data dialog box with specifications to copy data from the Budget financial data item for one time period to the Budget financial data item for another time period, with an increase of 5%.
If you periodically copy the same data, you can save the information as a copy data profile. A copy data profile captures the selection information in the Copy Data dialog box and saves it for reuse. You can apply the saved profile at a later time -- either exactly as is, or as a template for copying similar data.
To name and save a copy data profile, define the data slice to copy and choose Save Profile in the Copy Data dialog box. To retrieve a list of saved profiles, choose Profiles.
For more information about using the Copy Data feature, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
|
 Copyright © 1996, 2002 Oracle Corporation. All Rights Reserved. |
|