Analysis views are used to analyze information about dimensions from General Ledger entries, budgets, and cash flow forecast entries. As we have seen, not all dimensions are easily accessed. Analysis views are meant to access all the dimensions in the same easy way, in groups of a maximum of four dimensions at the same time. The four dimension groups may seem a limitation but aren't, since we can create as many analysis views as needed, combining all the dimensions we want.
Follow the given steps to create an analysis view:
The system will create one summarized analysis view entry for each G/L account, period, and dimension combination.
In the example, we will get one entry for each G/L account from Account Filter 40000..49950, for each month and also for each combination of dimension values of the CUSTOMERGROUP, DEPARTMENT, and SALESPERSON dimensions.
An analysis view is a fixed photo of the posted G/L entries grouped with specific criteria. Therefore, if you change any of the fields of the card (that is, the criteria are changed), the system will prompt you to delete the analysis entries and update them again.
You will also have to use the Update action to include new general ledger entries posted after you last updated the analysis view. However, you can also let the system update them automatically when new G/L entries are posted, by checking the Update on Posting: field found on the analysis view card.
Analysis views can be used in the analysis by dimensions functionality or as a source of account schedules. In this section, we are going to follow an example of each.
The analysis by dimensions functionality is used to display and analyze the amount derived from the existing analysis views. To set an example, perform the following steps:
CUST.REVEN
analysis view that we have created earlier in this chapter. Then click on Edit Analysis View from the ribbon bar.LARGE
in the CUSTOMERGROUP Filter field.
If analysis views are selected as source for account schedules, the amounts in the account schedules are calculated based on analysis view entries. Since analysis view entries are based on the general ledger entries, the result should be the same.
The difference is that, when analyzing account schedules, you can only filter the amounts based on global dimensions. But if you use analysis views as the source, then you can filter on any of the four dimensions selected on the analysis view card. These dimensions can be global dimensions, shortcut dimensions, or any other dimensions. To use analysis views as the source for account schedules, perform the following steps: