Understanding your Longview database
Your company uses a large database containing its financial data. A Longview database consists of dimensions, hierarchies, and symbols. You can work with the application more effectively if you understand the basic concepts first.
In this chapter, you can find information on these main topics:
Dimensions
The Longview database contains a wealth of information, divided into different categories. For example, some of the information describes the accounts in the General Ledger, some the world-wide locations in which your company does business, and so on. Each individual bit of information is stored in a symbol. Symbols are organized in hierarchies.
In the Longview database, each broad category of data is called a dimension. A dimension is a set of similar elements providing a structure for information analysis. You can manipulate the display of dimensions to see exactly the combination of data you need.
ACCOUNTS dimension
The ACCOUNTS dimension contains symbols that represent the accounts in a Trial Balance. The ACCOUNTS dimension is the first dimension in the Longview database for our hypothetical company.
| Dimension | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ACCOUNTS | Contains symbols representing Trial Balance accounts. Usually listed down the left side of the document. |
|
TIMEPER dimension (TIME)
The TIMEPER dimension contains the concept of time references such as months, quarters, and years. The TIMEPER dimension is the second dimension in the Longview database for our hypothetical company
| Dimension | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| TIMEPER | Contains symbols representing time periods. Usually listed across the top of the document. |
|
Note: Depending on how your Longview system has been set up, your TIMEPER dimension may appear with another name—for example, TIMEPERIODS. Examples and illustrations in this guide may appear with either variation.
ENTITIES dimension
The ENTITIES dimension is the third dimension in the Longview database for our hypothetical company.
To understand the concept of the third dimension, imagine that you are stacking worksheets with accounts down, time periods across, and entities deep. This stack of worksheets can be compared to a cube of data, where each dimension of the cube (down, across, and deep) represents the first three dimensions in the database.
| Dimension | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ENTITIES | Contains symbols representing business locations. Represents the depth of the three-dimensional cube behind the ordinary flat workbook. |
|
CURRENCY dimension
The CURRENCY dimension contains symbols used in the data translation process (also known as foreign exchange). The CURRENCY dimension is the fourth dimension in the Longview database for our hypothetical company.
Note: Depending on how your Longview system has been set up, your CURRENCY dimension may appear with another name—for example, CURRENCIES. Examples and illustrations in this guide may appear with either variation.
| Dimension | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| CURRENCY | Contains symbols representing the various currencies used by your company. |
|
Almost all Longview databases contain a CURRENCY dimension. However, if your company deals solely with one currency, you may not have a CURRENCY dimension in your Longview database.
PRODUCTS dimension
The PRODUCTS dimension contains symbols that represent products manufactured by our hypothetical company. The PRODUCTS dimension is the fifth dimension in the Longview database for our hypothetical company.
| Dimension | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| PRODUCTS | Contains symbols representing the individual products sold by your company. |
|
CONTROLS dimension (VERSIONS)
The CONTROLS dimension contains symbols needed for various special tasks in the application. The CONTROLS dimension is the sixth dimension in the Longview database for our hypothetical company. The CONTROLS dimension is usually the last dimension in a Longview system.
| Dimension | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| CONTROLS | Also contains symbols required by your Longview system for allocations and scenarios, to view subsets of hypothetical data for planning and budgeting purposes. |
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Note: Depending on how your Longview system has been set up, your CONTROLS dimension may appear with another name—for example, VERSIONS. Examples and illustrations in this guide may appear with either variation.
Fixed symbols in each dimension
Each dimension needs a reference to an individual default symbol in the dimension. The fixed symbol is a single symbol selected in one of the fixed dimensions.
The default fixed symbol is known as the Dim#Set, where the pound sign ( # ) represents the number of the dimension (beginning with zero, not one).
Note: Depending on how your Longview system has been set up, your default fixed symbol may be name <dimension>_Default. Examples and illustrations in this guide may appear with either variation.
So, for example, the dimensions for our hypothetical company contain the following fixed symbols:
| Dimension | Order in database | Fixed symbol |
|---|---|---|
| ACCOUNTS | First | Dim0Set / ACCOUNTS_Default |
| TIMEPER | Second | Dim1Set / TIMEPER_Default |
| ENTITIES | Third | Dim2Set / ENTITIES_Default |
| PRODUCTS | Fourth | Dim3Set / PRODUCTS_Default |
| CURRENCY | Fifth | Dim4Set / CURRENCY_Default |
| CONTROLS | Sixth | Dim5Set / CONTROLS_Default |
Hierarchies
Each of the symbols in the Longview database relates in some way to other symbols. For example, the symbol Sales in the ACCOUNTS dimension intersects every symbol in all the other dimensions of the Longview database.
The relationship between individual symbols is called a parent/child relationship. The relationships as a whole are known as a hierarchy.
A hierarchy is a method of organizing symbols and their relationships to each other in their dimension. In a Longview database, a symbol can occur only once, and can reside in only one dimension.
In any hierarchy, there are four types of symbols.
| Symbol Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Leaf | Has no child symbols beneath it in its hierarchy. The value of a leaf symbol can be entered manually or by import, but it cannot be specified by a rollup like the value of a parent symbol. |
| Child | Has at least one level of symbols above it in its hierarchy. The total value of each child symbol specifies the value of the parent. A child symbol is often referred to as a leaf symbol, but it is important to remember that a parent symbol can also be a child symbol. |
| Parent | Has at least one child symbol beneath it in its hierarchy. The values of the child symbols specify the value of the parent symbol. However, some parent symbols are static, and therefore their value is not specified by their child symbols. |
| Root | Has no symbols above it in its hierarchy. Its value does not roll up to any other symbols. There is only one root symbol in any hierarchy. However, there may be more than one hierarchy in a dimension, and thus more than one root symbol in a dimension. |
In this component, a hierarchy looks like this
Symbol information
Every symbol in the Longview database is identified by characteristics, such as names and descriptions.
| Information type | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Condensed form of the symbol’s description. A symbol name can be from two to 31 characters in length. These short forms are specified when a Longview application is originally written. When referring to a specific symbol, the application identifies it by its symbol name. |
| Description | Text describing the purpose of a symbol in more detail than the symbol name. A symbol description can consist of a maximum of 100 characters. The Longview database can contain descriptions in additional languages for the same symbol. A symbol description in a language other than the primary language of your company is an alternate symbol description. |
Depending on how your Longview system is configured, you might see the name, the description, or both.
The way a symbol appears and operates in the application depends on its symbol characteristics. You specify symbol characteristics in Longview Application Administrator. For information on creating, modifying, and deleting symbols, see the Longview Application Administrator Guide.