Maintaining Longview hierarchies

Hierarchy maintenance refers to the maintenance of symbols in your system; their creation and deletion, the attributes and values assigned to them, and their relationships to one another. All these aspects of hierarchy maintenance can be performed by users with the necessary permissions.

This chapter provides information on the following topics:

• “Working with dimensions”
• “Working with symbols”
• “Duplicating a hierarchy”
• “Creating new symbols”
• "Duplicating a symbol"
• “Managing symbols”

Working with dimensions

The database contains a wealth of information, divided into different categories. For example, some of the information describes the accounts in your General Ledger, some the worldwide locations in which your company does business, and so on.

In the database, each broad category of data is called a dimension. More specifically, a dimension is a set of logically similar business elements, which provides a structural organization to analyze information. You can have a maximum of 16 dimensions in the database.

Your database

In most Longview systems, the primary dimensions are ACCOUNTS, TIMEPER, and ENTITIES. Sometimes the name of a dimension appears in a dialog illustrated in this documentation. For example, almost all systems contain a CURRENCY dimension. However, if your company deals solely with one currency, you may not have a CURRENCY dimension in your database.

Your system may also include a different number of dimensions. Our hypothetical database contains six dimensions, but your company may have as many as sixteen.

As you view the illustrations and instructions in this documentation, remember that the names and number of dimensions in your database may be different.

ACCOUNTS dimension

The ACCOUNTS dimension is organized, like all dimensions in the database, as a hierarchy, with inputs rolling up to subtotals, and subtotals rolling up to totals. The account symbols in your database can also be grouped together without a mathematical relationship.

The ACCOUNTS Dimension is the only dimension that uses the Balance Type field. Balance Types can be Credit, Debit, or Neither. Neither is the default value. Once symbols are placed within the hierarchy and become child symbols, the Balance Type has an impact on rollup weight and the ability to alter those weights according to the following rules:

Note: The only child symbol weights that are editable occur when the parent symbol’s balance type is Neither. All other combinations cannot be altered.

Your system probably already contains most of the account symbols your company needs. You may find, however, that you sometimes need to add a new account symbol to the system.

For general information on how to add, edit, or delete a symbol, see “Managing symbols”.

For the ACCOUNTS dimension, the valid values for the Type field are the following:

TIMEPER/TIMEPERIODS dimension

During installation of the system, the TIMEPER dimension required by your company was configured for you. The system keeps descriptions of time period symbols up to date automatically during period-end rollovers. Unless you change the structure of the fiscal year, you do not need to edit this.

Once time period symbols have been configured, you rarely need to edit them. However, you may need to do so if, for example, you need to create a new time period symbol, or if a time period symbol does not appear in the right order.

For general information on how to add, edit, or delete a symbol, see “Managing symbols”.

For the TIMEPER dimension, the valid values for the Type field are the following:

ENTITIES dimension

The ENTITIES dimension contains the world-wide locations in which your company conducts business.

Once entities are configured, you rarely need to edit them. However, if, for example, your company expands and opens a new office, you need to create a new entity symbol.

For general information on how to add, edit, or delete a symbol, see “Managing symbols”.

For the ENTITIES dimension, the valid values for the Type field are the following:

CURRENCY/CURRENCIES dimension

The CURRENCY dimension contains symbols used in the data translation process (also known as foreign exchange).

The CURRENCY dimension contains symbols representing the various currencies used by your company (such as total U.S. dollars or total euro), and symbols representing various data translation methods (such as Temporal or Current).

Almost all Longview systems contain a CURRENCY dimension. However, if your company deals solely with one currency, you may not have a CURRENCY dimension in your database.

For general information on how to add, edit, or delete a symbol, see “Managing symbols”.

For the CURRENCY dimension, the valid values for the Type field are the following:

Working with symbols

A symbol is an object representing a single item in the database. Symbols have properties such as a name, a description, a type, a weight, and others outlined in the table below.

These properties are displayed and managed on the Properties page.

Symbols exist in dimensions. Occasionally they stand alone, but usually they are grouped into hierarchies with parent-child relationships, sometimes many levels deep to a maximum of 47 levels. The symbol under which another is immediately grouped is called its parent, and those under which its parent is grouped (if any and including the parent symbol itself) are called ancestors. A symbol immediately under a parent symbol is called its child symbol; it, and any symbols grouped under it, are called the parent's descendants.

The highest symbol in a particular hierarchy is referred to as a root symbol. A symbol that has no child symbols, regardless of where it resides in a hierarchy, is called a leaf symbol. It is possible, even typical, for a symbol to be both a parent and a child. The only limitations on these relationships are that, by definition, no root symbol can be a child symbol, and no leaf symbol can be a parent symbol.

The hierarchical relationships of your symbols are displayed in the Contents window.

Details

Information concerning a symbol's ancestors and statistics is displayed in the Details window in its two tabs, Ancestors and Statistics.

Ancestors tab

The Ancestors tab enables you to quickly determine which symbols your selected Symbol is under all the way back to the root symbol. This is particularly useful in a complex hierarchy.

Note: This function searches for ancestors of the current instance of the symbol only. If the symbol belongs to more than one parent, only the current parent and ancestors are returned.

Statistics tab

The Statistics tab provides information about the number of data points of each data type the symbol intersects with. To gather Statistics, you can use the Tools > Collect Statistics menu option.

Searching for symbols

Many processes involving symbols require you to first locate and access them. In a dimension with many symbols, selecting a particular symbol out of the entire hierarchy can be time consuming and difficult. To make the process more direct, you can search for specific symbols using the Longview Application Administrator interface.

To use search for a symbol, follow these steps:

1. Ensure that the following prerequisites are met:
   • You must be logged into Longview Application Administrator.
   • You must be connected to the server.
   • You must have Symbols selected in the Server Explorer pane.
   • You must have a symbol dimension selected either in the expanded Symbols hierarchy in the Server Explorer pane or in the Contents window.

   When these conditions are met, the search icon at the top of the interface becomes active. Click the icon. The Search dialog opens.

   

2. Complete the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Name	This is the name of the symbol you are looking for. You can enter a full name, or a partial name. The search function returns all results that include the string you enter.
   Description	This is the description of the symbol you are looking for. You can enter a full description, or just part of one. The search function returns all results that include the string you enter.

   • To run the search, go to step 5. However, if you would like to include additional search parameters, continue to the next step.
3. Click Show Advanced. The Advanced Criteria section of the dialog opens.

   

4. Complete the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Type	Use the drop-down list to select one of the following: All Standard Carry Forward Static
   Virtual Status	Use the drop-down list to select one of the following: All Virtual Non-Virtual
   Weight	Use the drop-down list to select one of the following: All Positive Zero Negative
   Rollup Status	Use the drop-down list to select one of the following: All Receive Rollups No Rollups
   Attribute	Select this to search for a symbol with a particular attribute.
   = or <>	Specify an attribute value to include in or exclude from the search. = (equals)—Symbols with the specified attribute value are included in the search. <> (is not equal to)—Symbols with the specified attribute value are excluded from the search.
   Search	Specify the type of symbols to be returned in the search, using one of the following options: All—All symbols are returned in the search. Parent Symbols—Parent symbols only are returned in the search. Leaf Symbols—Leaf symbols only are returned in the search.

   • To close the Advanced Criteria section, click Hide Advanced.
5. When you have completed entering your search criteria, click Find. The results of your search are shown in the Search Results window, and any matching symbols visible in the Contents window are highlighted.

   

Duplicating a hierarchy

In some cases (for example, when you are setting up a system), you may want to create a duplicate of all symbols in an existing hierarchy. The most efficient way to do this is by using the duplicate hierarchy functionality. Symbol properties and descriptions are duplicated by the duplicate hierarchy functionality, but symbol access roles and attributes are not.

Note: No data is copied when you duplicate a hierarchy.

To duplicate a hierarchy, follow these steps.

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. In the Server Explorer pane, navigate to Symbols and select it.
3. Select the dimension that contains the hierarchy you want to duplicate. Its root symbols are displayed in the Contents window.
4. Right-click the symbol that you want to be the root symbol of the duplicate hierarchy and select Duplicate Hierarchy. The Duplicate Hierarchy dialog opens.

   

   Note: Maintenance must be turned off before you can duplicate a hierarchy.

5. Complete the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Prefix	Enter the characters that you want to precede each symbol name in the duplicate hierarchy. A preview of symbol names in the duplicate hierarchy appears in the Sample field. Note: Either a Prefix or a Suffix must be set. You can also set both a Prefix and a Suffix.
   Suffix	Enter the characters that you want to follow each symbol name in the duplicate hierarchy. A preview of symbol names in the duplicate hierarchy appears in the Sample field.
   Parent symbol status	Inherit current status—Select this option if you want parent symbols in the duplicate hierarchy to keep the same status as the original symbols. Set all to virtual—Select this option if you want all parent symbols to be virtual in the duplicate hierarchy.

6. Click Duplicate. A warning dialog opens.

   

7. Click Yes. A progress dialog opens.

   

8. When the duplicate hierarchy process is complete, a confirmation dialog opens. Click Close.

   

Creating new symbols

You may need to add symbols to the system beyond those in the existing hierarchy. This section explains how to create new symbols manually.

It is possible to add new symbols to the hierarchy of a dimension by means of importing three files (the item file, the description file, and the parent-child file).

For information on how to format and import these files, see “Preparing import files for symbols”.

To create a symbol, follow these steps:

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. Navigate to, and select, the symbol you want to assign as the parent for your new symbol.

   Note: To create a root symbol, ensure that no symbol is selected.

3. Choose File > New > Symbol. The New Symbol dialog appears.

   

4. If you are creating a new symbol directly from a parent symbol, proceed to step 5. If you are creating a root symbol, use the Dimension drop-down list to select the dimension into which your new symbol will be created.
5. For Name, type a name for the symbol. The name can contain a maximum of 31 alpha-numeric characters, can contain periods ( . ) and underscores ( _ ) and can be entirely numeric. The name must be unique in the system.
6. For Description, type a description for the symbol in the default system language. To enter descriptions in alternate languages, click the alternate language description icon. The Descriptions dialog appears, where you can enter descriptions for other languages enabled in your system.

   

7. For Type, select one of the following:

   Field	Description
   Standard	Use this option to make the symbol add up normally (for example, months adding to quarters adding to years). Most symbols are standard type.
   Static	Use this option when it does not make sense to total a hierarchy’s values—for example, for price symbols or wage rates. (The parent symbols of such symbols are used only to group symbols, not to aggregate their values.) Static symbols do not roll up in any direction, overriding any assigned weights.
   Carry forward	Use this option for balance sheet and cash flow account symbols. Note: This is available only for the Accounts and Time dimensions.

   Caution: If you do not select the proper type for the symbol you are creating, you may get inaccurate results when the system calculates the data.

8. For Balance type, choose one of the following:

   Field	Description
   Credit	Select this if the symbol is a credit symbol.
   Debit	Select this if the symbol is a debit symbol.
   Neither	Select this if the symbol is neither a credit nor a debit symbol. This is the default setting.

   Note: This is available only for the Accounts dimension. For more information on balance types, see “ACCOUNTS dimension”.

9. For Status, select one of the following:

   Field	Description
   Virtual	To designate a parent symbol as a virtual parent. Data for a virtual parent symbol does not get calculated by a partition recalculation or an enterprise restatement, resulting in a major improvement in database speed. The value for the virtual parent is not stored in the database. Instead, the value for the parent is calculated on the server side when it is queried. Note: This field is available only when the symbol is a parent symbol.
   Receive Rollups	To prevent a parent symbol from receiving rollup data from a child symbol. For example, if users need to submit monthly information and have it roll up to quarters but not the year, you can turn rollup off for the year symbol and save time during submission. After users have submitted all data, and before you perform an enterprise restatement, you would turn Rollup on for the year symbol.

   Caution: Before applying or changing the virtual parent symbol feature in the hierarchy, consult your Longview representative. Use caution before deleting or detaching child symbols under a virtual parent symbol. If you apply the virtual parent symbol feature incorrectly, you may cause your system to calculate totals incorrectly. Because the virtual parent feature affects the calculation of data in the database, you must be careful in designating symbols as virtual parent symbols.

10. For Sort Children, select one of the following:

    Field	Description
    Ascending by Name	Select this to designate sorting by name in alphabetical order.
    Descending by Name	Select this to designate sorting by name in reverse alphabetical order.
    Manually	Select this to designate that sorting is to be done manually by symbol priority.

11. Optionally, you can click the Attributes tab and assign specific values to the Attributes associated with your new symbol. It is not necessary to do this at the time a symbol is created. It is always possible to edit an existing symbol and modify its attribute values.
12. Click the Parents tab and review the settings for the new symbol.
13. To change the new symbol’s settings, complete the following fields. Otherwise, proceed to step 14.

    Field	Description
    Parent Symbol	Select this to assign the new symbol to a different parent.
    Virtual	Use the drop-down list to select Yes or No to designate the parent symbol as a virtual parent.
    Weight	Use the drop-down list to select one of the following: + (the symbol is added to its parent) -(the symbol is subtracted from its parent) 0 (the symbol has no mathematical effect) Note: For all dimensions other than the Accounts dimension, the default is +. For the Accounts dimension, the default is 0 when Balance Type is Neither.

14. Click OK. The symbol appears in the hierarchy.

Duplicating a symbol

Duplicating a symbol is a quick means of creating a new symbol with the same settings as an existing symbol.

To duplicate a symbol, follow these steps:

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. In the Server Explorer pane, expand Symbols, and select the dimension containing the symbol you want to work with. A list of all the symbols for the selected dimension appears in the Contents window.
3. Right-click the symbol you want to duplicate and select Duplicate. The New Symbol dialog appears.
4. Enter a name for the new symbol.
5. Enter a description for the new symbol.
6. Optionally, you can also make changes to the other settings associated with the symbol. The New Symbol dialog is pre-populated with the settings of the symbol being duplicated.
7. Click OK. Your new symbol appears under the same parent symbol as the original.

Managing symbols

This section explains how to modify symbols and their position in the hierarchy, and how to duplicate and delete symbols.

Assigning a symbol to a parent

Note: You can also use the Assign and Assign To menu options to assign a symbol to a parent. For more information see “Assign” and “Assign To”.

To assign a symbol to a parent, follow these steps:

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. In the Server Explorer pane, expand Symbols, and select the dimension containing the symbol you want to work with. A list of all the symbols for the selected dimension appears in the Contents window.
3. Select the symbol you want to assign to a parent and drag it to the required parent symbol. A small red arrow appears to indicate which symbol will be made the parent symbol if you release the mouse button.

   Caution: Assigning a symbol to a parent will result in data loss if the target parent is not a parent symbol yet.

4. When you have navigated to the target parent symbol, drop the dragged symbol onto it. A data loss warning appears if the target parent is not a parent symbol yet.
5. Click Yes. The symbols now have a parent-child relationship.

   Note: If you drag a symbol that is already assigned to a parent symbol, the hierarchy will not be moved, but copied under the new parent symbol. To move the symbol and its hierarchy, you must first remove it from its current parent symbol. For more information, see “Removing a symbol from a parent”.

Removing a symbol from a parent

Note: You can also use the Remove From Parent  menu option to remove a symbol from a parent. For more information see “Remove From Parent”.

To remove a symbol and its descendants from a parent, follow these steps:

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. In the Server Explorer pane, expand Symbols, and select the dimension containing the symbol you want to work with. A list of all the symbols for the selected dimension appears in the Contents window.
3. Navigate to the child symbol you want to remove from its parent, and right click it.
4. Select Remove From Parent. A confirmation dialog appears.
5. Click Yes.
6. The symbol, along with its hierarchy, becomes a root symbol (assuming the symbol does not belong to any other hierarchy).

   Note: If you remove all child symbols from a parent that has Virtual status, the symbol becomes a standard leaf.

Modifying a symbol’s properties

To modify an existing symbol, follow these steps:

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. In the Server Explorer pane, expand Symbols, and select the dimension containing the symbol you want to work with. A list of all the symbols for the selected dimension appears in the Contents window.
3. Double-click the symbol you want to modify. The Properties dialog opens with the General tab in view.
4. Locate the property you want to change, and make changes as needed.

   Note: If you do not have access to the child symbols of the symbol you are modifying, the Balance type radio buttons (Credit, Debit, and Neither) are disabled.

5. Click OK. Your changes are applied to the symbol.

Modifying a symbol’s attributes

To modify an existing symbol’s attribute values, follow these steps:

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. In the Server Explorer pane, expand Symbols, and select the dimension containing the symbol you want to work with. A list of all the symbols for the selected dimension appears in the Contents window.
3. Double-click the symbol for which you want to modify attribute values. The Properties dialog opens with the General tab in view.
4. Click the Attributes tab.
5. Locate the attribute whose value you want to change.
6. Click in the Value cell of the attribute and do one of the following:
   • Enter the value you want applied to that attribute for this symbol or remove the existing value.
   • If the value is another symbol, click the symbol selector button ( ... ). A dialog opens that allows you to select the symbol you want applied as the value for the attribute. Select it and click OK.
7. Click OK.
8. The value you have entered is applied to the attribute for that symbol. For more information on symbol attributes, see “Working with attributes”.

Deleting a symbol

Note: A parent symbol cannot be deleted. To make it eligible for deletion, remove its child symbols first. For more information, see “Removing a symbol from a parent”.

To delete a symbol from a dimension, follow these steps:

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. In the Server Explorer pane, expand Symbols, and select the dimension containing the symbol you want to work with. A list of all the symbols for the selected dimension appears in the Contents window.
3. Right-click the symbol you want to delete and select Delete. A confirmation dialog appears.

   Caution: If you delete a symbol, it cannot be recovered, and all data associated with it is lost. To restore a deleted symbol to the system, it must be recreated. Note that a symbol may belong to more than one hierarchy. Deleting a symbol deletes all occurrences of the symbol in all hierarchies. Use this function with caution.

4. Click Yes. The symbol is removed from the system.

Comparing symbol hierarchies

You can compare the hierarchies of two symbols in the same dimension.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Open Longview Application Administrator.
2. In the Server Explorer pane, expand Symbols, and select the dimension containing the hierarchy you want to work with. A list of all the symbols for the selected dimension appears in the Contents window.
3. Expand the symbol hierarchies to locate the symbols you want to compare.
4. Select the first symbol, hold down the CTRL key, and click on the second symbol to select it as well.
5. Right-click one of the symbols and select Compare hierarchies. The comparison of the hierarchies is displayed in the Search Results window.