Framework:CoPlanner cube designer

In this example, a user-defined profit and loss account is created as a CoPlanner cube according to the aggregate cost method. Apart from the representation of plan and actual values, the variance is to be calculated as an absolute value and in percent.

Entry  Click on the “My objects” directory with the right mouse button. From the “New” context menu, select the command “CoPlanner cube”

Framework, BI Center, creating a new CoPlanner cube

The dialog “CoPlanner cube” is displayed.

Framework, BI Center, name of the CoPlanner cube

Entry  Enter the name of the new CoPlanner cube, “My P&L”, and confirm by clicking OK.

The new CoPlanner cube object “;My P&L” is created and the CoPlanner cube designer is opened. The following screen is presented.

Framework, BI Center, CoPlanner cube designer

The CoPlanner cube designer contains four tabs.

• Data sources
• Dimensions
• Measures
• Preview

Ribbon

The icons in the toolbar have the following functions:

Framework, CoPlanner cube designer, Ribbon

Button	Action
	Save
	Save as Not in use
	Reload connectors During a session, changes in the OLAP database are only reloaded from the server after a click on this button.
	Search Search in the object tree

“Data sources“ tab

In this tab, the data basis is defined. The available data objects are shown in the left tree of the designer. These are arranged by CoPlanner tables, CoPlanner cubes and OLAP cubes. You can change the width of the tree by clicking on the right edge with the left mouse button. With the button held down, make the area bigger or smaller.

Framework, BI Center, changing the width of the object tree

Entry  As the data basis, choose the CoPlanner tables and “P&L_aggregate cost method_PLAN” and “P&L_ aggregate cost method_ACTUAL”. Using drag & drop, drag these tables to the working area.

Framework, BI Center, Structure and object selection

Properties in the “Data sources” tab

In the right part of the Designer, the properties of the data objects are shown.

Framework, BI Center, property of the data object

Alias

This text is shown.

IsPlanDependent

Provides information whether the data object is plan dependant, i.e. whether the data acquired by the user are written to the plan selected at login, or whether this characteristic is not relevant (actual data).

Special

CUSTOMROLLUP=LASTMONTHONYEAR;

Overrides the annual value in the time dimension and instead shows the value of the last month of the year.

CUSTOMROLLUP=FIRSTMONTHONYEAR;

Overrides the annual value in the time dimension and instead shows the value of the first month of the year.

CUSTOMROLLUP=LASTNONEMPTYMONTHONYEAR;

Overrides the annual value in the time dimension and instead shows the value of the last non-empty month of the year.

CUSTOMROLLUP=LASTCHILDONPARENT;

Overrides the value of nodes on the time axis (or a time subset) and instead shows the value of the last leaf element.

Hint  Is applied when time subsets are used.

CUSTOMROLLUP=FIRSTCHILDONPARENT;

Overrides the value of nodes on the time axis (or a time subset) and instead shows the value of the first leaf element.

Hint  Is applied when time subsets are used.

Entry  Give the table “P&L_aggregate cost method_PLAN” the alias “P&L plan” and give the table “P&L_ aggregate cost method_ACTUAL” the alias “P&L actual”. Activate the “Dimensions” tab.

“Dimensions” tab

The “Dimensions” tab shows all dimensions assigned to the data objects, whereas identical dimensions contained in the data objects are connected and assigned. Assigned dimensions are indicated with a green check , non-assigned dimensions or dimensions that cannot be assigned are shown on a grey background.

Framework, BI Center, Dimensions tab

You can break an assignment of the dimension by clicking on the corresponding element. In the same manner, you can also re-establish an assignment. To delete a dimension, all assignments must be broken first. Then the “Delete” button will show up next to the dimension, and the dimension can be removed.

Entry  Choose the “Sub_P&LACM” subset from the “Dimensions” tree.

The following screen is presented.

Framework, BI Center, Adding a subset

For both data objects, the assignment is shown on a grey background.

Entry  Click the black arrow in the grey element.

A dialog to select the subset opens. Only the possible assignments are shown in black.

Framework, BI Center, possible assignments

Entry  Select the entry Sub_P&LACM for both elements.

In the corresponding element, the “Manually assigned” icon is displayed. This data object is now linked with this subset.

Framework, BI Center, manually assigned subset

The dimension “P&L structure” is not required any more and deleted.

Entry  In the data objects, click on the elements “P&L structure” and break the assignment. Then the dimension can be deleted.

You will see the following screen:

Framework, BI Center, dimensions

Properties in the “Dimensions” tab

In the right part of the designer, the properties of the dimensions are shown.

Alias

This text is shown.

IsPlan

Provides information whether the dimension is the CoPlanner system dimension “Plan”. If the dimension is the plan dimension, it can only be applied to data objects if “IsPlanDependent”, has been set as the property of the data source.

Entry  Activate the “Measure” tab.

“Measure” tab

In the “Measure” tab, you define which measures are shown.

Hint  Please note that a measure cannot have the same denomination as a dimension

Here you also set the number format. This will be used for all later analyses.

Another possibility in this step is the display of cumulated values.

In this example, the values of the individual periods and the cumulated value are to be shown.

Entry  At first drag the “Value” element of the “P&L Plan” data object to the working area, and then the “Value” element of the “P&L Actual” data object. Repeat this procedure.

The following screen shows up:

Framework, BI Center, “Measure” tab

Entry  Highlight the first entry and under the property “alias” allocate the name “Plan value”. Enter “n2” under the “Number format” property for an integer with 2 decimal places.

Framework, BI Center, properties of a measure

Entry  Activate the second measure, “Value_1”, and allocate the alias “Actual value”, giving it the number format “n2”.

The measures “Value_2” and “Value_3” should now show the cumulated plan respectively the actual value.

Entry  Activate the third measure, “Value_2”, and allocate the alias “Plan value cum“, giving it the number format “n2”. Now from the list of the property “CumSettingType”, choose the entry “Fiscal year”, and from the list of the property “CumSettingColumn” choose the entry “Time”. The fourth element, “Value_3”, receives the alias “Actual value cum” and the same settings as the previous element.

Framework, BI Center, Properties of a measure, cumulated

Properties in the “Measure” tab

In the right part of the designer, the properties of the measures are shown.

AggregationsType

Specifies how subordinated elements are aggregated (projected) in the sum element above.

SUM: Subelements are added AVG: Subelements are averaged

Alias

This text is shown.

CalcBackExpression

As the name suggests, this special setting permits “back calculation”, for instance

calcback[MeasureTarget]=[Measure1]*[Measure2];

In the example quantity x price=turnover, let the quantity and the price be database fields and the turnover a calculated field. In order to determine the necessary quantity by entering a value in the ‘Turnover’ field, the following formula is used:

calcback [Quantity]=[Turnover]/[Price];

Quantity is the field whose value is changed – the formula after the “=” character provides the calculation of the new quantity. As it is always advisable, in the case of divisions, to prevent a division by 0, it is recommended to extend the expression as follows:

calcback [Quantity]=IIF([Price]=0,[ Quantity],[Turnover]/[Price]);

This now prevents a change of the ‘Quantity’ field if the ‘Price’ field is still 0 when a turnover is entered. Rewriting into several fields simultaneously is also supported – various CalcBack instructions are simply separated with semi-colons.

Hint  If a table and a writable column are additionally selected, this field will be written simultaneously as well.

Formulae in CalcBack expressions are to be defined like in the ‘Expression’ field (see below).

Expression

If the measure is calculated via a formula, it is shown here.

NumberFormat

Definition of the number format. The following are allowed:

• for integers: n0…n2, #.##0.00, etc.
• percentages: p0…p2, 00.00%, etc.

ReadOnly

Defines whether this column is to be write-protected.

CumSettingType

Setting of the cumulation. The following possibilities are available for selection:

• CalendarYear
• FiscalYear
• Ongoing
• Month
• Quarter
• Week

CumSettingColumn

CumSettingColumn offers the dimensions of the data source for selection over which a cumulation is to be performed.

ShiftCol

This offers the dimensions of the data source to which a time shift can be applied.

Shift_Interval

Number of periods that are to be shifted. A forward and backward time shift is possible and defined by using the (+/-)sign.

TimeDimType

Days/Calendar week/Month/Quarter/Year – defines the type of the period that is to be shifted.

Entry  Activate the “Calculated measure” tab

“Calculated measure”

You can create any number of “Calculated measures” and establish their calculation very easily with formula wizards. In the left tree there is the button to add new calculated measures. On the right, the properties of the calculated measures are shown. In this example, the variance between plan and actual values is calculated as an absolute figure and in percent, in each case for the individual periods as well as the cumulated values.

Entry  Create a new measure by pulling the “Add” button to the working area.

A measure is created. Open the formula editor by clicking the “Process formula” button. Simply use drag & drop to pull the desired measure to the formula wizard. All four basic arithmetical operations are permitted as calculations. Furthermore, the functions of the CoPlanner business economics formulae (FCT_TimeDimAdd, FCT_GetRecord, etc.) are available.

Entry  Highlight the first measure and allocate the alias “Variance”. As the number format, enter “n2” under the property “Number format”. Then at first use drag & drop to pull the “Plan value” measure to the formula wizard. Then write a “-“ sign and finally pull the “Actual value” measure to the formula wizard.

You are shown the following screen:

Framework, BI Center, creating a calculated measure

The second calculated measure should show this variance in percent.

Entry  Create a new measure and allocate the alias “in percent”. As the number format, enter “p2” under the property “Number format”.

Hint  The formula wizard supports the use of previously created calculated measures.

Entry  Enter “[Variance]” in the formula wizard and then the symbol for division, “/”. Complete the formula by dragging & dropping the measure “Plan value” from the tree to the formula wizard. Finally multiply this formula by 100.

Framework, BI Center, creating the calculated measure “in percent”

To establish the variance, both absolute and in percent for the cumulated values, proceed exactly as explained in the previous steps. As a result, you get the following appearance.

Properties for “Calculated measures”

In the right part of the designer, the properties of the calculated measures are displayed.

Alias

This text is displayed.

CalcBackExpression

See above.

Expression

Write-protected, shows the result of the formula wizards.

Numberformat

Entry of the number format

Entry  Activate the “Preview” tab.

“Preview” tab

In this tab, the result of the CoPlanner cube is displayed. In the tree on the left, the available dimensions and measures are displayed. They can be added to the analysis as a filter or measure by dragging and dropping or with a mouse click. The right part shows general properties of the analysis.

Framework, BI Center, “Preview” tab

Hint  If you activate the “preview” tab, all adjustments performed up to this point will be saved.

Entry  Assign the dimension “Sub_P&LACM” to the vertical axis, “Time” to the horizontal axis. As a filter, choose “Plan”, the “Company” and the “Cost Center” dimension. With the dialog “Select measure” , you can now define the measures that are to be displayed as well as their order in the axis.

Framework, BI Center, “Preview” tab, select measure