03.03 Simple Hierarchies

Overview

Hierarchies in FastClose are about two things:

allowing the designer to create “value add” hierarchy structures over otherwise flat data.
controlling the layout and display of data in the down axis to produce well laid out reports.

FastClose includes a powerful hierarchy engine to do this. Most commonly the hierarchy system is used to create a structure over the main accounting dimension but it can be used to construct a hierarchy over any dimension in the ERP.

Here is a video, or read below.

Hierarchy

Switch to the “Insert” tab, and select “Hierarchies”…

…which will display the hierarchy list dialog:

Only one hierarchy can be active at any one time though many may be defined. The active hierarchy is the one currently selected.

Hierarchies can be built by hand or imported from definitions held within the ERP.

Hierarchies are used to combine leaf level data, aggregating it to create information that was not stored in the ERP. For example, post code, could rollup to town, could rollup to county, could rollup to state or country. Hence, whilst there isn’t a summary record in the ERP holding sales at a county level, with a hierarchy you could define, calculate and display it.

The selected hierarchy definition can be displayed by clicking on the “Edit” button.

Importing a Hierarchy

Clicking on the “Import Hierarchy” button in the dialog presents the user with a list of all the hierarchies defined in the underlying ERP.

Even though a predefined hierarchy may not match the user’s precise needs, it is often a good starting point from which to then edit, build and design something that does meet the requirement.

With a hierarchy successfully imported, it can be rapidly examined by clicking on “Edit” and expanding the structure on the right hand side of the dialog, alternatively, closing the dialog and running the report to see the results in the grid.

FastClose provides “Import Options” that allow the structure to be flattened to varying degrees during the import process.

Running a Report and Expanding / Collapsing Nodes

Hierarchies are only active in dimensions that are placed in the down axis, so ensure the dimension is positioned correctly using the “Row / Columns” dialog. In the case of the Accounts dimension / Segment 1, this is usually already the case.

When a report with a hierarchy is executed, the impression of a structure is given by varying the amount of indentation that is given to each label in that dimension.

A hierarchy displayed "Parent Last"

The same Hierarchy, displayed “Parent First”

The user is provided with a +/- control in each item that has children, to allow the user to show or hide them. The entire hierarchy can be expanded or collapsed at once to a certain depth by picking the level desired from a right click menu on the grid.

Parent’s are displayed before or after their children by setting a checkbox on the hierarchy or in the “Display” tab in the main FastClose window.

Building & Editing Hierarchies

Imported hierarchies are rarely exactly what the user needs so it is usually necessary to do some editing of the structure, or to build it from scratch.

If building a hierarchy from scratch, the user should select “Add Parent/Child Hierarchy” in the “Hierarchies” dialog. The user also needs to choose the dimension that the hierarchy will reside in at this point. Then the “Edit Hierarchy” dialog will be displayed.

In the centre of the dialog, are “Add Sibling” and “Add Child” buttons that can be used to add new nodes to the structure. If adding a sibling, new items will be added next to the currently selected item, or if adding a child (which can only be done to a so called “aggregated” node), beneath.

The hierarchy supports the following node types:

Aggregated – Use this node to add a node to the hierarchy that will then have children added to it.
Range – Position a Range node to add a range of members from the ERP at a particular point in the hierarchy. Eg: 1000:2999 would add any members in the number range of 1000 to 2999
Wildcard – Position a Wildcard node to add all members from the ERP that match a particular pattern eg: AB* would add any members whose first two characters are “AB” followed by anything else.
Calculated – Most commonly used to place a calculated item into a hierarchy. For example in a chart of accounts, ratios such as Gross Margin %. A calculated node is also useful to select members that don’t form a contiguous group in the dimension.
Whitespace / Label – A whitepace / label node can be used to insert a row of whitespace into the report, or a row of whitespace with a label at any point in the hierarchy.

In addition, hierarchies also support leaf nodes. These are added from the list of all the members in the hierarchy dimension that is displayed on the left hand side of the dialog. Double clicking on a member will add it at the currently selected location.

Best practice:

If possible use aggregated nodes with ranges over wildcards, calculated nodes or single lead nodes.

They will automatically pick up new codes that are added to the ERP without the need to edit and save the report.
They won’t pick up codes of random length eg: 1* will pick up 10, 100, 199, 1000 etc… In account hierarchies, the longer codes often imply more granular data.
Calculated nodes can achieve the same thing but don’t provide an expansion control on the row to reveal the constituent data points.

Node settings vary depending on the type of node but the common controls are shown below:

Hierarchy Validation

FastClose will validate the hierarchy when closing the dialog to check for any obvious issues. Where the system detects that data would be included twice between two different non-calculation nodes for example, it will provide an error message to help the user track down the problem which could otherwise lead to “double-counting”.

In addition there is also a hierarchy report tool in the dialog. This checks the hierarchy against the source dimension looking for members that have not been included anywhere in the hierarchy. This can be useful where the user wants to determine the degree of completeness of the structure.

Limitations

Though many hierarchies can be defined, only one can be in use at a time.
Hierarchies only work with dimensions placed in the down axis.

Exercises and Tutorial Survey

03 Simple Hierarchies - Exercises.pdf

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