Plan Structure Overview

A plan is a table that consists of measures and dimensions that stores financial data and enables you to use calculations in order to create budgets.

For example, your plan might look like the following table.

Example Plan 1
Quarter Q1
Period 001 002 003
Balance Type Budget Budget Budget
GLA Home Home Home
1020 - Cash in bank 800,000.00 3,000,000.00 1,100,000.00
1200 - Accounts Receivable 70,000.00 -350,000.00 1,042,244.73
1205 - Unbilled AR 0.00 0.00 -1,500.00
1470 - Deferred professional services costs 0.00 0.00 0.00

Plan Table Views

The plan table can be displayed in the following views:

  • Grid - displays row-level dimensions as a standard table, populating each dimension value in each row. You can reorder rows without restrictions. Grid view is suitable for plans that contain rows without a clear hierarchy and plans where the hierarchy is not important.
  • Tree - establishes a hierarchy by grouping together rows that contain the same row-level dimension values, starting from the top level. You can only reorder rows within their respective groups. By default, the lowest level rows contain the values and the groups are used to provide subtotals. Tree view is suitable for plans that contain rows with a clear hierarchy.

For example, your plan might look like the following table.

Example Plan 2A - Grid View
Quarter Q1
Period 001 002 003
Balance Type Budget Budget Budget
Trial Balance 1 Trial Balance 2 GLA Home Home Home
Assets Current Assets 1020 - Cash in bank 800,000.00 3,000,000.00 1,100,000.00
Assets Current Assets 1200 - Accounts Receivable 70,000.00 -350,000.00 1,042,244.73
Assets Current Assets 1205 - Unbilled AR 0.00 0.00 -1,500.00
Assets Current Assets 1470 - Deferred professional services costs 0.00 0.00 0.00

In this case, you might want to display the plan in tree view, like the following table.

Example Plan 2B - Tree View
Quarter Q1
Period 001 002 003
Balance Type Budget Budget Budget
Hierarchy Home Home Home
Assets 870,000.00 2,650,000.00 2,140,744.73
Current Assets 870,000.00 2,650,000.00 2,140,744.73
1020 - Cash in bank 800,000.00 3,000,000.00 1,100,000.00
1200 - Accounts Receivable 70,000.00 -350,000.00 1,042,244.73
1205 - Unbilled AR 0.00 0.00 -1,500.00
1470 - Deferred professional services costs 0.00 0.00 0.00
Note:

When creating a plan, you must select the table view. You cannot change the table view after creating the plan.

Dimensions and Measures

Plans can have up to six measures and up to 12 dimensions. Dimensions contain categorical data, such as company names, years, or quarters, while measures contain quantitative data, such as currency or time. Each cell in the plan table is a unique combination of dimension values and a single measure. The value of the measure is the numeric value displayed in the cell.

Column and Row Dimensions

Dimensions can be displayed as columns and rows.

Column-level dimension values are displayed in the table header, above the measure value cells. If a plan contains multiple column dimensions, the order of the dimensions establishes a hierarchy. The lower-level dimension values are grouped together under a common parent. In Example Plan 1, Example Plan 2A - Grid View and Example Plan 2B - Tree View, Quarter, Period, and Balance Type are defined as column-level dimensions.

In grid view, row-level dimension values are displayed in each table row, to the left of the measure value cells. In Example Plan 1, GLA is the only row-level dimension. Example Plan 2A - Grid View contains three row-level dimensions: Trial Balance 1, Trial Balance 2, and GLA.

In tree view, row-level dimensions establish a hierarchy. The lower-level dimension values are grouped together under a common parent. The group rows are also sometimes referred to as subtotal rows. The subtotal rows are automatically generated. By default, the value of the cells is calculated by summing the values that belong to the group. You can replace this formula with another formula or a numeric value. In Example Plan 2B - Tree View, Trial Balance 1, Trial Balance 2, and GLA are defined as row-level dimensions.

Measures Position

In grid view, measures are displayed as either columns or rows. In tree view, measures are always displayed as columns.

When measures are displayed as columns, an additional level is added to the table header, below the column dimension values. This additional level contains the name of the measure. This can be useful when your plan contains multiple measures that you want to compare in each dimension column. Example Plan 1, Example Plan 2A - Grid View and Example Plan 2B - Tree View, display measures as columns and the only measure is Home.

When measures are displayed as rows, the name of the measure is displayed in each row to the left of the measure value cells. In this case, each row can only contain a single measure, with the dimension columns providing different values for the measure. This can be useful when your plan contains multiple measures that you want to compare between rows. Example Plan 3 displays measures as rows.

Example Plan 3
Quarter Q1
Period 001 002 003
GLA Measure Budget Budget Budget
1020 - Cash in bank Home 800,000.00 3,000,000.00 1,100,000.00
1200 - Accounts Receivable Home 70,000.00 -350,000.00 1,042,244.73
1205 - Unbilled AR Home 0.00 0.00 -1,500.00
1470 - Deferred professional services costs Home 0.00 0.00 0.00

You can use all the same features, such as calculations, within the plan table, regardless of the measure position. The choice between the two depends on your business requirements and personal preferences.

Creating Plans

You can create plans in several ways:

  • Blank plan - Create a plan by manually entering your data
  • Data source - Create a plan by importing your data from an Analytics dataset
  • Template - Create a plan using a template to import data from a predefined Analytics dataset
Note:

Once you define the structure of the measures and dimensions of your plan, you cannot change it.