5 Allocations
5.4 Structured Allocations
In structured allocations, you create allocation processes that use steps and rules to distribute values from source dimensions to target dimensions, using drivers or direct assignments.
The workflow for structured allocations is as follows:
Table 20:
Task Where do I do this? How do I do it?
Create an allocation model with an op tional pool dimension
Modeler Allocation Models [page 102] Creating Dimensions [page 37] (Optional) Perform pool mapping Reports Creating Pools for Structured Alloca
tion [page 112]
Mapping Pools and Dimensions [page 113]
Task Where do I do this? How do I do it? Create an allocation process for the
model
Allocations Allocation Processes, Steps, and Rules [page 114]
Create allocation steps, define rules for the steps, and add them to the process
Allocations Creating an Allocation Step [page 115]
Creating Allocation Rules [page 117] Execute the allocation process Reports Executing an Allocation Process
[page 118]
5.4.1 Creating Pools for Structured Allocation
In an allocation model, you can optionally create pools in order to group costs. The pools are members of a pool dimension, so they become the source dimensions that contain the values to be allocated to the target
dimensions.
Once you create a pool dimension, you create members of the dimension to represent the groups of costs or values that you want to allocate, for example Services, Human Resources, or Logistics. You can create more than one pool dimension per model, but you cannot share pool dimensions between models. Pools are specific to their models.
In order to group the costs into a pool, you must map dimensions and dimension members related to the cost to that particular pool. For example, if you created a pool for the cost of IT Services, you would map to it the
dimensions that represented IT staff wages, or the cost of replacement equipment. You specify the dimensions to be mapped to the pools when you create the pool dimension. The Account dimension is always a mapped
dimension by default.
You map dimensions to pools in the Reports area or when working with a dynamic table in the Stories area, using a special layout called Pool Mapping. The pool mapping layout automatically includes all the dimensions you chose as mapped dimensions on the row axes, along with the pool dimension, so that you can expand dimensions and map costs to pools at a granularity that suits you. For example, suppose you selected the Cost Center and
Product dimensions as mapped dimensions when you created your pool dimension. This means that the Pool
Mapping layout will have the dimensions Account (by default), Cost Center, and Product on the row axes of the grid. You could choose to map the Cost of Good Sold account for all cost centers for all products to a single pool, or you could do more fine-grained mapping, such as mapping the cost of goods sold for a single product for a single warehouse to a cost pool.
Not all dimension members need to be mapped to a pool. You can assign the default pool dimension member UNASSIGNED to members you do not want to map to pools.
The Pool Mapping layout also allows you to create new pools on the fly.
Remember
Pools are optional in an allocations model. You can create allocation steps with source dimensions that are not pool dimensions.
Related Information
Mapping Pools and Dimensions [page 113]
5.4.1.1
Mapping Pools and Dimensions
You perform pool mapping in the Reports page or from a dynamic table in the Stories page, using a special layout called Pool Mapping.
Context
You have created a model with a pool dimension that has a number of members. When you created the pool dimension, you selected mapped dimensions in addition to the default, the Account dimension. You now want to map accounts and dimensions to the different pools.
Procedure
1. In Reports, open a view based on the model for which you want to map pools. Alternatively, in Stories, open a dynamic table based on the model.
2. In the Designer panel, choose the Layouts tab. 3. In the Layouts tab, select Pool Mapping.
4. If the model has more than one pool dimension, select the dimension for mapping in the Select Pool Dimension dialog, and choose OK.
The layout changes to have Account first on the row axis, followed by the other mapped dimensions, and then the pool dimension. Only the Category dimension is visible on the column axis.
5. If necessary, expand the hierarchies of the mapped accounts and dimension to locate the item that you want to map to a pool. Then, double-click in the pool cell for that item.
A drop-down menu with pool names is displayed.
6. To select a pool from the menu, start typing the pool name and select the pool from the auto-suggested matches. Alternatively, delete the current pool name to display all the pools in the menu and select from there.
7. To create a new pool, double-click in the pool cell, type the name of the new pool, and press Enter. A dialog asks you to confirm that you want to create a new pool with the name you entered. 8. Choose Create to create the new pool.
9. Repeat steps 5 and 6, and if necessary, 6–8, until you have completed the pool mapping, and then save your changes.
5.4.2 Allocation Processes, Steps, and Rules
For each planning-enabled model, you can create multiple allocation processes in the Allocations window, and define each process by adding allocation steps and rules.
Allocation processes can consist of a single step, or a sequence of steps. You execute the process in a report to perform its allocation steps on the data in that report.
An allocation step as a whole determines how values from one source dimension, say a pool of costs, is distributed among members of target dimensions. (It's possible to have multiple target dimensions.) The allocations for a step are governed by allocation rules. An allocation rule specifies that values in source dimension members are to be allocated to target dimension members using a driver. A driver is a variable, such as the level of activity or volume, that causally affects costs over a given time span. That is, there is a cause-and- effect relationship between a change in the level of activity or volume and a change in the level of total costs. For example, changes in the driver headcount affect salaries, or changes in square meters of floorspace affect rent. You can also choose the Direct Assignment option, which assigns all of the source member's value to a single target member.
Working with allocation steps
You can create an allocation step as part of a process, or create the step on its own and add it to a process later. To create an allocation step, you must specify a source dimension, which holds the values that you want to distribute. Then you specify a target dimension to receive the distributed values. You can also specify an overwrite dimension, which will allow you to create overrides for allocation rules. An override is a more specific allocation rule that takes preference over a more general one. For example, you could create an allocation rule that the travel costs for all cost centers is allocated to all products using the driver Revenue, except for the exception (the override) that for the United States cost center, the travel costs are directly assigned to the single product, Laptop.
Note
Allocation rules are executed in the order of the more specific first, not in the order in which you create them. It is possible to use the same dimension as the source and target for an allocation step. In this case, values will be reallocated from a source member to one or more members of the same dimension hierarchy. For example, you can use reallocations to take costs that have already been assigned to a software support department, and reassign them to all of the departments in your organization based on the number of support hours that they used. You can choose to perform multiple repetitions of the step, since some of the original value may be allocated back to the source member.
You can also specify a reference dimension for an allocation step. Reference dimensions enable you to use more fine-grained weights for the allocation because only weights matching a fact to be allocated in all reference dimensions will be used for its allocation. Consider the Time dimension, which by default is treated as a reference dimension. Therefore the allocations will use reference values broken down by time. For example, assume all Salaries are allocated to all Cost Centers, using the driver, Headcount, and that Time is maintained with month granularity. This means the Salaries costs will be further broken down to month level based on the Headcount specified per month.
Finally, you may want to exclude some accounts from the allocation step. For example, you want to allocate values for all financial accounts, but leave driver accounts unchanged. In this case, you can use the Filter by Accounts
feature to select only the financial accounts.
Adding rules to a step
Once you have created an allocation step, you can begin to add allocation rules to the new step. To create an allocation rule, you select a member of the source dimension, choose a driver (or direct assignment), and choose a member or members of the target dimension. If you have added an overwrite dimension, you can add an override.
Existing allocation rules can be deleted, copied, and edited using the standard icons in the step window page.
Working with processes
As you create steps, you can visualize the entire allocation process in the Steps Overview pane, which can be displayed or hidden by selecting Details. To rearrange the step order, select and drag steps on the tab bar of the allocation process page. You can also load existing steps based on the same model into your process.
Creating a sequence of multiple steps allows you to perform complex allocations, for example, allocating costs from pools to different projects and products, and then further allocating costs from those dimensions to different geographical responsibility centers.
Once the allocation process is complete and saved, you can open a report to execute the process.
Related Information
Creating an Allocation Step [page 115] Creating Allocation Rules [page 117]
5.4.2.1
Creating an Allocation Step
Create an allocation step to distribute values from a source dimension to one or more target dimensions.
Context
You have created a planning-enabled model and want to create allocation steps for a corresponding allocation process.
Procedure
1. In the navigation menu, choose Allocation.
All the allocation processes for planning-enabled models are listed in the Allocation Processes window. Each model can have multiple processes. The Allocation Steps tab also shows all of the steps that have been created.
2. Open a new step.
○ To create a step in an allocation process, open the appropriate process and select the Create Step icon (the plus sign), either on the tab bar or in the Steps Overview tab.
○ If you want to create a step without adding it to an allocation process yet, select the Allocation Steps tab and choose Create New Step (the plus sign). In this case, you must specify the corresponding model in the Create Step dialog. You can add the step to an allocation process when you are finished working with it.
3. In the Create Step dialog, enter a name and optional description for the step. If necessary, specify the model for the step.
4. In the Source section, select a Source Dimension from the list.
5. If you want to add an overwrite dimension, choose the Add icon (the plus sign), and then select a dimension from the Overwrite Dimension list.
6. In the Target section, select a Target Dimension from the list.
7. If you want to add multiple target dimensions, choose the Add icon (the plus sign), and then select a dimension from the additional Target Dimension list. Repeat this step until you have added the required number of targets.
8. If you selected the same dimension as a source or overwrite and as a target, specify the number of Repetitions
for the step. This allows you to run the step multiple times in the allocation process, which can be useful when allocating values across members of the same dimension.
9. To add a reference dimension, select Show Options and choose a dimension from the Reference Dimension
list. Select the Add a new reference dimension icon (the plus sign) next to the list to add another reference dimension.
10. If necessary, filter the accounts that the step applies to by selecting Show Options and choosing Set Filter. Then, select the members of the account dimension that you want to include in the allocation step. 11. Choose Create.
If you created the step in an allocation process, the new step opens on its own tab in the window for the allocation process. The tab is arranged in columns that display the source, overwrite, driver, and targets for the rules.
If you created the step from the Allocation Steps page, you can open an allocation process to load the step and then configure rules for it.
5.4.2.2 Creating Allocation Rules
You create allocation rules by specifying source dimension members, drivers, and target dimension members.
Context
You have created an allocation step and now want to create allocation rules for that step. In Allocations, you have opened the allocation process for a model.
Procedure
1. In the allocation process window, choose the allocation step for which you want to create allocation rules in the tab bar.
You can also select Load Steps to add existing steps based on the same model to the tab bar.
2. In the allocation step tab, choose the Create New Allocation Rule icon (the plus sign) in the top right corner of the tab.
3. In the Create Allocation Rule dialog, select a Source member, a Driver, and one or more Target members. If you select Direct Assignment as the driver, select only one target member. All of the source member's value will be assigned to that target member.
Your selections are listed in the Selected Allocation Rules section.
4. If you want to create an override, and you selected an Overwrite Dimension for the step, expand Overwrite in the Source column, and select a member for the overwrite dimension.
The rule will apply only to that member of the overwrite dimension.
For example, if your step assigns costs from account to a product dimension, you may have added cost center as an overwrite dimension. In this case, you can create one rule with travel costs as the source member, revenue as the driver, and all products as the target. A second rule could use travel costs as the source member and the North American cost center as the overwrite member, and directly assign the costs to the laptop member. In this case, the first rule would not affect travel costs for North America. Instead, they would all be assigned to the laptop product.
5. Choose Create.
The new rule is now listed in the tab for the allocation step. 6. Select Save Allocation rules.
Results
The allocation step now includes your new rule. You can continue to add rules to the step, or select an existing rule to copy, edit, or delete it.
5.4.3 Executing an Allocation Process
You execute allocation steps in a view in Reports or in a dynamic table in Stories.
Context
You have created an allocation process for a model and you now want to execute it.
Procedure
1. In Reports, open a view based on the model for which you want to perform allocations, or in Stories, add a dynamic table based on the model.
2. Select Allocate values Execute Allocation .
3. In the Execute Allocation dialog, select the Allocation Process that you want to execute, and choose a version from the Version list.
The selected process will be performed on this version. You can also type a version name to create a new private version.
4. If you created a new private version in the Allocation Process dialog, the Select Public Version dialog appears. Choose the public version that your private version is based on.
5. In the Confirm Scope Of Allocation dialog, choose how to filter the members that are affected by the allocation:
○ Use Point of View: The scope of the allocation step will be restricted using the filters that are currently applied to the view.
○ Refine Filters: For dimension that are not added to the grid, you can choose members that will be included in the allocation. By default, the current point of view is applied, but you can select dimensions from the list in the Selected filters dialog to choose members to filter.
○ No Filters: The allocation is performed on all members in the report.
You can choose Don’t show this dialog again to apply the same choice each time you execute an allocation process in the current report view.