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Adaptive Planning
Concept: Level Dimensions and Attributes

Concept: Level Dimensions and Attributes

When you associate levels with custom dimensions, you create level dimensions. When you tag levels with attributes, you create level attributes.

Simplify Formulas

Level dimensions and attributes simplify formulas. Example: Instead of referencing the 10 levels in the Northwest Region, you can reference Northwest Region and automatically include all the data of the 10 levels.

Create Alternate Hierarchy

Level dimensions and attributes also create various ways of looking at the data that you collect for your levels. We call this variation an alternate level hierarchy.
Example: Your level organization reflects the departmental structure of your company, as shown in the first column of the table. With this structure you can see the totals for each department: G&A, Product Development, and Sales. The locations of the departments are in different regions of the United States. To report on totals for regions across departments, tag departments with Region attributes. Now, you can report on rollups of the regional data across departments, as shown in the last column. We total untagged levels as Uncategorized in the alternate hierarchy.
Level Hierarchy by Department
Alternate Level Hierarchy by Region
G&A
  • Finance (tagged with
    West Coast Region
    )
  • Human Resources (tagged with
    East Coast Region
    )
  • Legal (tagged with
    East Coast Region
    )
  • IT
Product Development
  • Operations (tagged with
    East Coast Region
    )
  • Engineering (tagged with
    West Coast Region
    )
  • Product Management (tagged with
    West Coast Region
    )
Sales
  • East Coast Sales (tagged with
    East Coast Region
    )
  • West Coast Sales (tagged with
    West Coast Region
    )
  • Midwest Sales
  • South West Sales
East Coast Region
  • Legal
  • Human Resources
  • Operations
  • East Coast Sales
West Coast Region
  • Finance
  • Engineering
  • Product Management
  • West Coast Sales
Region (Uncategorized)
  • IT
  • Midwest Sales
  • Southwest Sales

Naming Convention Best Practices

  • Include the word
    Level Dimension/Attribute
    in the name of the dimension or attribute . Example: the attribute name is
    Region Level Attribute
    instead of
    Region
    . Now, you can easily filter the levels with attributes in cube sheets. The reports are also easier to read.
  • Differentiate the name of the levels from the level dimension or attribute values. Example: Name the sales levels:
    West Coast Sales
    or
    West Coast Sales Level
    . Name the dimension or attribute values:
    West Coast Region
    or West Coast Region Dimension.
  • Avoid using words that are common formula commands, such as
    This
    .
  • Avoid emojis.