Maintain InfoObject Attributes

Several dimension properties are required by the consolidation engine of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation.

When you map the required InfoProviders into a consolidation model, all the underlying dimensions will automatically be referred into the dimension library. To ensure the correct operation of consolidation and related processes, such as currency translation, simulation, and eliminations and adjustments, several dimension properties are required by the consolidation engine of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, and you need to ensure that these properties are maintained in Business Warehouse so that they could be further mapped while creating the consolidation model in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation. You should also ensure that these properties are maintained with the appropriate values of the consolidation process for your business requirements.

Account Dimensions

The Account dimension defines the chart of accounts for the model and how these accounts are calculated and aggregated. Any dimension that is assigned the type A is considered an Account dimension. Each InfoProvider can have only one account-type dimension.

The following table details the account dimension properties:

Account Dimension Properties
Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
ACCTYPE	3	This property can have the following values: INC for income EXP for expense AST for asset LEQ for liabilities and equity
DIMLIST	20	Used to group the accounts for use in business rules. For example, using the DIMLIST property value can help reduce the size of the FXTRANS table. Several DIMLIST properties can be used for one dimension.
RATETYPE	10	This property determines the business rules to be applied when translating any given account from local currency to reporting or group currency. When left empty, no currency translation rules are matched and therefore, no translation will be performed. When the value is defined as the name of a currency translation rule, that translation rule will be applied in the translation.
ELIMACC	20	Used in the elimination process and represents the difference account to which the accounts to be eliminated are posted.

Note

In an OWNERSHIP InfoProvider, all required O_Account dimension members, including POWN, PCON, PCTRL, METHOD, and PGROUP, need to be maintained by an administrator.

Category Dimensions

The properties required in this dimension as described in the table below are for three business rules: currency translation, eliminations and adjustments, and copy opening balances.

For simulation purposes, or to analyze the variances from one set of data to another, you should mix-and-match different rates and values of different data categories from different periods. For example, a user might want to compare ACTUAL with BUDGET values when both are translated at the ACTUAL rates, or this year's ACTUALS with last year's ACTUALS, both being translated using last year's rates.

This can be done by either creating an additional simulation CATEGORY, such as Actual_at_Budget_rate or similar, or adding an extra dimension to the MAIN InfoProvider, where all the simulated cases can be stored.

There is no need to copy the input values to all models for all the desired simulations. A few definitions stored in some specialized properties of the CATEGORY or the FX simulation dimension inform the translation procedure where to read the input values and where to write the translated results.

To minimize the impact of the different simulations on the size of the database, it is also possible to tell the system to store only the difference between the default results and the simulated scenarios.

When using the simulation categories in the MAIN InfoProvider, simulated translations are stored in additional members of the Category dimension. These categories have non-blank values for one or more of the properties in the table below.

Any dimension that is assigned the type C is considered to be a Category dimension.

Category Dimension Properties
Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
FX_SOURCE_CATEGORY	20	The category for the source (LC) data. If blank, it is the current category.
RATE_CATEGORY	20	The category from which the rates are read.
RATE_YEAR	4	The year from which the rates are read. The value can be absolute, such as 2008 or 2009, or a relative value, such as -1, -2, +1, +2. If blank, it is the same as the source.
RATE_PERIOD	10	The period from which the rates are read. The value can be absolute, ssuch as DEC or FEB, or a relative value, such as -1, -2, +1, +2. If blank, it is the same as the source.
FX_DIFFERENCE_ONLY	1	If Y, only the difference between the default values and the simulated values is stored.

The business rules for copying opening balances can be controlled by assigning special properties to the category dimensions. If used, these properties affect the execution and are defined in the following table:

Special Properties for Category Dimensions
Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
CATEGORY_FOR_OPEN	20	Blank The category for the opening balances is the same. Not blank The ID of the category from which to read the opening balances.
OPENING_YEAR	4	Blank Read the opening balances from the year before the current year. Not blank Contains the year from which to read the opening balances. It can be an absolute or a relative amount.
OPENING_PERIOD	10	Blank Read the opening balances from the last period of the year. Not blank Contains the period from which to read the opening balances. It can be an absolute or a relative amount.

Audit Dimension

You should consider the following rules:

Mandatory for the elimination business rules.

The DATASCR dimension is required for elimination and consolidation business rules. For example, automatic elimination works only when you have a base level value of data source type A.
Mandatory for the consolidation business rules.

It is required as the results destination. For example, you can define, by source data source, a specific destination data source where the resulting postings should be posted.

Any dimension that is assigned the type D is considered to be an Audit dimension.

The following table details the data source dimension properties:

Data Source Dimension Properties
Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
IS_CONVERTED	1	Y The data source is converted. N The data source is not converted. G Converts the data source from the reporting currency to the group currency. That is, the members are copied from the reporting currency of the GROUP that is being translated into the currency member corresponding to the specified group.
IS_CONSOL	1	Blank Used for top adjustments of con solidated amounts . Y Standard setting to consolidate data.
DATASRC_TYPE	1	I - input M - manual journal entry A - automatic adjustment L - level This is used in consolidation by level to move prior level eliminations into a data source with property DATASRC_LEVEL of Y in the GROUP dimension.
COPYOPENING	1	Y (or blank) The member is copied. N The member is not copied.
OPENING_DATASRC	20	Blank The data source is the same as the source member. Non-blank Contains the ID of the desired destination data source for the copy.

Entity Dimension

The Entity dimension defines the organizational structure of the business units for your model and how the units aggregate. Any dimension that is assigned the type E is an Entity dimension. Each model can have only one entity-type dimension.

The following table details the entity dimension properties:

Entity Dimension Properties
Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
CURRENCY	20	Local currency used by the entity. This currency must be defined in the InputCurrency dimension.
INTCO	32	Used for maintaining the trading partner of an entity. Must be maintained together with the INTCO attribute of the Entity dimension.
FX_TYPE	20	Assigns a set of translation rules to an entity. Different entities can use different sets of rules. Optional.
CONTROL_LEVEL	1	Used on Controls to indicate the control level: 4 (or blank) – Comprehensive (the most strict option) 3 – advanced 2 – Standard 1 – basic Optional
CTRL_CURRENCY_NOT_LC	1	Used in Controls. If marked as Y, the controls validation will be performed on a user-specified reporting currency other than the local currency for this entity. This setting affects the loaded data level only.
ELIM	1	If mark as Y, it will be considered as an Elimination entity, which will be used to hold elimination results in US elimination or legal consolidation. Optional.
OWNER	60	Used for work status. Optional.

Intercompany Dimension

The Intercompany dimension (I) defines the intercompany codes for entities in consolidation and ownership InfoProviders.

Intercompany Dimension Properties
Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
ENTITY	32	Can be validated against the Entity dimension. Blank fields are allowed. Must be maintained together with the INTCO attribute of the Entity dimension.

Currency

The currency type dimension is required to report on local currency and translated values. The required property for currency dimension is the following:

Currency Dimension Type
Dimension Type	Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
R	CURRENCY_TYPE	1	CURRENCY_TYPE L - local currency R - reporting currency REPORTING (length 1) T - transaction currency Reporting: Y or blank

Group

The required properties for a separate group dimension are the following:

Group Dimension Properties
Dimension Type	Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
G	GROUP_CURRENCY	20	Can be any valid reporting currency. Used for currency translation. This property can only be used on CURRENCY members with the property CURRENCY_TYPE of G and, in this case, it must contain a valid ID from the CURRENCY dimension with the property CURRENCY_TYPE of R.
G	PARENT_GROUP	20	If you want to do the consolidation by level, you must indicate by this property the higher level group of each group. The presence of the property enables the Groups hierarchy. Though the property is populated with group hierarchy information, it does not generate a true hierarchy made up of members in the Group dimension. The property itself has no default value. The value you enter must be a valid ID from the Groups dimension. If this property is blank, the ownership-based hierarchy from the group dimension of the OWNERSHIP InfoProvider is used. The Groups hierarchy defined by this property is also displayed and used in Ownership Manager.
G	ENTITY	20	Blank or a valid Entity ID. Since Group is only a gathering of entities that does not store any amounts, it needs a corresponding entity to store the aggregated consolidated amounts. For example: Group member ID G_E1 has the Entity property value E1. It corresponds to Entity dimension member E1. If this property is filled with a valid ID, and the property STEntityORE_ENTITY is set to Y, the results of the currency translation for the current group are also copied into this entity. Note The ENTITY attribute should use the same InfoObject as the ENTITY dimension in the model. Also, the value entered in the ENTITY attribute should be a valid entity ID.
G	STORE_GROUP_CURR	1	Used for currency translation. Y By default the results of the translation into a Group currency are written in both the Group member and in the Currency member of the currency dimension. N (or blank) If only the Group member is to be stored, set this property to N.
G	STORE_ENTITY	1	Y If you want to store in the ID entered in the Entity property. Blank If you do not want to store in the ID entered in the Entity property.
G	STAGE_ONLY	1	This property controls the way the converted values are saved when performing a multi-level conversion of groups. This property can only take the values Y, E, or N (blank).
G	CURRENCY_TYPE	1	Specifies whether the Group member is a consolidation scope (CURRENCY_TYPE=G) or the default member for that dimension (CURRENCY_TYPE=N)： G - Group member N - Non-group member
G	FIRST_CONS_DATE	10	Blank Management model YYYYMM Indicates the month and year of the consolidation.

Flow Dimension

The flow type dimension is optional, but its use is highly recommended. This dimension allows you to track changes within account activities, such as opening balance, additions, subtraction, and currency translation adjustments. If you do not require this level of detail, leave the business rule tables blank for the sub-table field. Flow is similar to the movement type in SAP ERP.

If Flow is included in a model, you can use it in the following ways:

The currency translation procedure can detail the changes in the balance sheet generated by fluctuations in the exchange rates
The consolidation procedure can detail the eliminations applied to the movements of the balance sheet accounts.

Any dimension that is assigned the type S is considered a Flow dimension.

If you choose to use a flow type dimension, the following properties are required:

Flow Dimension Properties
Property Name	Length	Description of Property Values
FLOW_TYPE	12	OPENING - opening VARSCP - variation in scope (generic) VARSCPMETH - variation in scope method VARSCPPERC - variation in scope percentage VARSCPNEW - variation in scope; new company VARSCPLEAV - variation in scope; sold company CLOSING - closing NONE - no flow Blank - all other flows
DIMLIST	20	Used to group the flows for several business rules

Flow dimensions should contain dimension members that require the following FLOW_TYPE property values:

OPENING
CLOSING
VARSCP

Optional - All dimensions could be mapped with the ENABLEJRN property and the DIMLIST property. For detailed information about the property ENABLEJRN, refer to Limits to Dimension Members for Journal Entries.

Activities

To make sure every dimension (InfoObject) possesses the required dimension attributes for a consolidation scenario, you need to maintain the dimension structure beforehand in BW modeling tools. For detailed information, refer to Creating Characteristics.
To make sure the dimension master data is correct, you can maintain the master data either in BW modeling tools, or you can maintain the dimension master data directly in the SAP Business Planning and Consolidation web client. Refer to Dimension Management for details on how to maintain dimension master data.

After dimension (InfoObject) attributes and its master data are correctly maintained, you can further map those attributes when creating or modifying a consolidation model in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation. For detailed settings, refer to Create or Modify a Consolidation Model.