Concept: Merged Cube Sheets

Merged cube sheets
combine the dimensions and uses the data of up to 3 other cube or modeled sheets.

Why Use Merged Cube Sheets

Use merged cube sheets to:

Create calculated accounts without having data present in the sheet. Usually, a lack of data in the cube's standard accounts forces formulas to evaluate at zero. Merged cube sheets bypass this rule by using the data presence of the source sheets.

Plan using simpler source sheets that include only necessary dimensions. Then, you merge the simpler sheets to bring together complex data across the multiple dimensions from your source sheets.

You can also use merged cube sheets in other ways. However, the complexity of your model increases and it may cause unexpected behaviors.

Allocations across dimension values using formulas.

Source of calculation identifiers for other cube sheets to activate their cube calculations.

Chain of merged cubes. Example: Merged Cube 1 used as a source for Merged Cube 2.

Example of Merged Cube Sheet

To calculate revenue, you need to know quantity and price at multiple dimensions, such as customer, region, product or more. If these dimensions have several values, this can become a time consuming task to complete in 1, massive sheet. You can break down the planning into simpler sheets with 1 or 2 dimensions.

Build a modeled sheet with only the Customer
dimension to forecast quantity. Enter or import the total products each customer will purchase without breaking it down by each product.

Build a cube sheet with only the Product
dimension to forecast the prices and the mix for each product without breaking it down for each customer.

Your merged revenue sheet brings these two sheets together so you can see the quantity times the price for each customer and each product.

Characteristics

Merged cube sheets are a type of cube sheets. You build them the same way you build regular cube sheets with some additional steps and limitations.

Merged cube sheets:

Don't support data entry. They're always read-only.

Require at least 1 calculated account. The data entry override option isn't available for this account.

Only allow account groups, calculated accounts, and metric accounts.

Can combine up to 3 source sheets. Source sheets must be modeled or cube sheets. Contact us if you must increase the maximum.

Can only contain the dimensions that already exist in the source sheets.

Must contain any dimensions that are common to all its source sheets. Example: If both sheets contain the Product dimension, the merged cube must also contain the Product dimension.

Can't have cube restrictions.

Only calculate the intersections of dimensions that are populated with data in the source sheet.