Dimension

Owned by Migration
Last updated: Apr 19, 2016 by Nadica Gaber (Unlicensed)
2 min read

Introduction

In an OLAP cube, a dimension is a data element that categorizes each item in a data set into non-overlapping regions. An OLAP dimension provides the means to "slice and dice" data. Dimensions provide structured labelling information to otherwise unordered numeric measures. For example, "Customer", "Period", and "Product" are all dimensions that could be applied meaningfully to a sales receipt.

Every Source Systems has a set of dimensions, which are mapped to the CXO-Dimensions. This article gives some insight which dimensions are required and how they should be mapped.

CONTENT

CXO-Cockpit Dimensions

CXO-Core Dimensions

The following dimensions are required for a properly working CXO-Cockpit application:

CXO-Dimension Code

Source System Example

Description

ACC

Account, Measure

Account is the key dimension for any financial system, many CXO-Cockpit logic is built around the Account dimension.

ENT

Entity, Company

The Entity dimension should provide the main organization structure.

YER

Year

The Year dimension should contain the reporting years, these can be fiscal years like 2012, 2013.

PER

Period, Month

The Period dimension is typically structured by full year, quarters and months.

VIW

View, Periodicity

The View dimension should provide YTD and Periodic views. Sometimes it happens that a source system does not have this dimension or that it is joined with another dimension. In this case a Dimension Split can be configured.

Highly Recommended Dimensions

The following dimensions add a great amount of functionailty to the CXO-Cockpit reports, but are not required.

CXO-Dimension Code

Source System Example

Description

CAT

Category, Scenario

The Category dimension should categorize data like Actual, Budget, Forecast. This dimension is normally required to do variance analysis, but in case it is missing, most reports can use time variances (Previous Period, Previous Year) instead.

VAL

Value, Currency

The Value or Currency dimension allows you to view reports in multiple currencies.

VER

Version

The Version dimension allows you to create reports that compare different versions of the forecast or budget.

A01, A02, A03,....

Product, Customer, etc

These are free to choose analytical dimensions. Analytical dimensions give great power to the CXO-Cockpit reports for downdrilling, slicing and dicing. The free analytical dimensions can also be used to assign any Source Systems dimension that cannot be assigned to any other CXO-Dimension Code.

Optional Dimensions

The following dimension occasionally occur in Source Systems.

CXO-Dimension Code

Source System Example

Description

RAT

Rate

This dimension can be used to compare the categories using different exchange rates like Actual Rate or Budget Rate.

ICP

ICP

The ICP (Intercompany) allows you to create reports for intercompany analysis.

GAP

GAAP

The GAAP dimension allows you to create reports that compare two different GAAP´s like USGAAP and IFRS.

FLO

Flow (Balance Sheet)

The Flow (Balance Sheet) dimension works like a free analytical dimension and shows the different Balance Sheet Movements in a separate dimension.

MEA

Measure (not account)

The Measure dimension is mosthy used to calculate data over other dimensions like the ´Rolling 12 Month´measure which accumulates the last 12 months using multiple years.

 

See Also

Dimension Mapping