Creating Models

The Models page lists all existing models that have been created and is the starting point for designing new models. Alternatively, models can also be created on-the-fly in Data Integration.

Context

An overview of the steps to manually create a planning model is given here. Some changes can be made only during this design phase – that is, up to the point where you save the model for the first time and an initial report is generated. Once the design is complete you can populate the model with data.

Procedure

1. Create the basic model by choosing New Models (the + icon) from the toolbar on the Models page. 2. In the Create Model dialog, enter a name and description for the model. For a planning model, select the

checkbox Planning Enabled, and then choose Create.

3. The Time and Categories dimensions are built into planning models. You can modify the default settings as required:

a. Set the Lowest Granularity time period for the model – that is, the time period on which your data will be based: year, quarter, month, or day.

b. Choose a start and end date for the timeline for the data.

c. Basic categories are predefined: actual, budget, planning, forecast, or rolling forecast. Choose the frequency (year, quarter, month) that will be used as the basis for these categories.

d. For the Forecast category, choose the forecast range period (quarterly or yearly). The range for the rolling forecast is defined in relation to the current date as a number of periods in the past (Look Back) and a number of periods in the future (Look Ahead).

4. Set up the account dimension for the model by either selecting an account from the list of existing dimensions or creating a new one from scratch. Optionally, you can add an organizational dimension to your model and also other generic dimensions. See Explore Dimensions for details of all dimension types.

5. Set the model preferences: from the menu of the wrench icon, choose Preferences, and enable all of the specific features you need, such as data auditing. Note that only the Privacy setting can be changed later once you have saved the model.

6. Set the Data Access restrictions for each dimension as described in the following subsection.

Related Information

Planning Models and Analytics Models [page 14] Design Options: Model Preferences [page 18] Data Access [page 36]

Explore Dimensions [page 20]

3.2.1 Creating Models Using the Planning Wizard

An additional method for creating models is the Planning Wizard, this is available on the Home screen for first time users and is permanently available in Stories as an option when adding a Dynamic Table to a grid.

The Model Planning Wizard provides a template to create one of three types of plan, when you create the plan the model behind the wizard is also created on the fly at the same time. You can enter data for the new model directly in the grid of the dynamic table. The three types of plan are:

● Basic Financial Plan

● Custom Plan

A plan in a dynamic table has a simple grid structure of columns and rows and the template prompts you to enter text values which are added to each column. The Basic Financial Plan, for example, offers predefined columns for Accounts, Regions and Products.

When you have entered all the plan details and selected OK to continue, the plan and the model are created. The model that is created is added to the Modeler list page and contains the dimensions (columns of the plan) and the line details (dimension members) which you entered in the template. A dimension type is automatically assigned to each dimension that is created and the new dimensions are named automatically as

<ModelName>_<DimensionType>. Additional information from the wizard is saved in the dimension Description value.

The wizard also requires you to enter information about the frequency of data updates. This information is used to automatically create a time dimension for the model.

3.2.2 Data Access

You can restrict access to the data of reports by setting read and write permissions for individual values. This feature is optional and can be activated for any dimension in the model.

Context

You can enable Data Access restrictions by selecting the Enable Data Access Control checkbox in the Edit Dimension Preferences dialog. Once this has been activated, two additional columns (Read and Write) are added to the grid of the dimension so that individual settings can be applied to each row. You can select one or more users (or simply all users) who will have access to the data from a list box.

Procedure

1. Select the dimension that you want to modify and choose Preferences from the toolbar.

2. In the Edit Dimension Preferences dialog, select the Enable Data Access Control checkbox and choose OK. 3. You can now use the two new columns Read and Write to control access to all rows of the grid by selecting

one or more users in either or both of the columns.

You can see a summary of all dimensions in the model and the data access settings from the model Preferences menu (Wrench icon). Select the Data Access option that displays a list of dimensions. This information is read only; the data access setting can be changed only in the Dimension Preferences dialog.