Allocations

Allocation is the process of splitting values derived from source data into multiple values and storing the values in target data.

You can use allocation calculations in planning and in data analysis to gain insights such as the following:

• Simulated costs, revenue, and profitability.
• Information for economic decisions, for example product mix, make or buy, or selling price decisions.
• Motivation for managers and employees, such as encouraging simple manufacturing processes and the sale of products with high profit margins.
• Justification for costs, such as determining a fair price for a product.
• Calculation of reimbursement amounts.
• Measurement of income and assets, such as cost inventories.

Your model needs an Unassigned member for each dimension other than account, version, date, and cross calculations, with # as the member ID. This member is created automatically when you create a new dimension.

In the application, you can create allocation steps and processes for planning models and then perform structured allocations. Values are then distributed from the source dimension, which holds the value to be allocated, to one or multiple target dimensions, which receive a portion of the distributed value. Depending on the allocation method you use, you can refine an allocation calculation by adding overwrites, filters on target dimension members, and weightings of various granularities.

You can run the allocation process on its own in a story, or add allocation steps to a data action to combine them with other structured changes such as copying data across models and applying scripted formulas.

If you want to make a couple of quick adjustments without setting up a structured process, you can also use the Planning Panel. See Using the Planning Panel for details.