Longview Database Basics
Your company uses a large database to contain its financial data. A Longview database consists of dimensions, hierarchies, and symbols. You can work with Longview more effectively if you understand the basic concepts first. The database contains a wealth of information, divided into different categories. For example, some of this information describes the accounts in your General Ledger, the world-wide locations in which your company does business, and so on. The basic units of the database are symbols. Symbols are organized in hierarchies, and hierarchies are organized in dimensions.
Dimensions
The Longview database is a multidimensional database, which allows you to relate data on many different levels. For example, you can input and view data by location (ENTITIES) or by time period (TIMEPER). In the Longview database, each broad category of data is called a dimension. A dimension is a grouping of like symbols or similar business elements providing a structure for information analysis. You can manipulate the display of dimensions to see exactly the combination of data you need. For example, the time period dimension contains all symbols associated with time periods.
Note: The dimensions in your database are configurable and may have been renamed to closer match your business needs. The general concepts remain standard for all systems.
Active Dimensions
When viewing an input app or report, the dimensions displayed are known as active dimensions. Although Longview databases are multidimensional, you do not have to view all dimensions. For example, in a standard Income Statement report, you can choose to view accounts listed vertically and time periods listed horizontally. Using this example, only the ACCOUNTS and TIMEPER dimensions are active dimensions.
Fixed dimensions
When viewing an input app or report, the dimensions that are not displayed are known as fixed dimensions. For example, in a standard Income Statement report, you can choose to view accounts listed vertically and time periods listed horizontally. In this example, the ACCOUNTS and TIMEPER dimensions are active dimensions, and all other dimensions (ENTITIES, DETAILS, CURRENCY, SEGMENTS, ELEMENTS, and CONTROLS) are fixed dimensions.
Note: You can view only one symbol at a time in the Fixed dimensions.
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.
Longview Tax Dimensions
DETAILS Dimension
The DETAILS dimension contains symbols that allow you to break out national tax information into additional components.
In a tax provision and multi-regional provision system the DETAILS dimension also contains the symbols for combined reporting breakdown for national tax.
In a multi-regional provision system, the DETAILS dimension also contains symbols representing the regions.
SEGMENTS Dimension
The SEGMENTS dimension contains symbols that allow you to break out national tax and regional tax information into additional components.
ELEMENTS Dimension
The ELEMENTS dimension contains symbols representing the movement in tax accounts during the period. The ELEMENTS dimension includes symbols for the gross and net (under ASC/US GAAP) and gross, net, and recognised amounts (under IAS/IFRS).
CONTROLS Dimension
The CONTROLS dimension contains symbols used in the processing of events. The CONTROLS dimension also contains symbols used for loss and credit expiration and utilization tracking.
In a multi-regional provision system, the CONTROLS dimension contains symbols for additional breakdown of regional taxes similar to the combined reporting breakdown.
Longview Close and Plan Dimensions
DATAVIEWS Dimension
The DATAVIEWS dimension contains symbols used to separate general ledger data from various corporate and consolidation eliminations and adjustments required to generated financial statements.
SCENARIOS Dimension
The SCENARIOS dimension contains symbols representing different forecast and budget scenarios.
Additional Dimensions
Your system may contain up to ten additional dimensions configured specifically for your consolidation and/or planning process. These additional dimensions are between the DATAVIEWS and CURRENCY dimensions.
Hierarchies and Symbols
Symbols in the Longview database are related. The relationship between individual symbols is called a parent/child relationship. The relationship as a whole is known as a hierarchy. A hierarchy is a method of organizing symbols and their relationships to each other in their dimension.
A symbol can occur only once, and can only reside in one dimension. Symbols are defined according to the relationship they have with other symbols.
In this component, a hierarchy looks like this:
In any hierarchy, there are four types of symbols, as described below:
| Symbol Type | Description |
|---|---|
Child |
A child symbol 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 | A parent symbol has at least one child symbol beneath it in its hierarchy. The values of the child symbols determine the value of the parent. However, some parent symbols are static, and therefore their value is not specified by their child symbols. |
| Leaf | A leaf symbol has no 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. A leaf symbol may also be referred to as a child symbol. |
| Root | A root symbol has no symbols above it in its hierarchy and 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. |
A symbol is a plane of data within the Longview database. Symbols identify specific cells within a hierarchy and are used to store information in the Longview database. An example of a symbol is an account named Sales or a time period named March.
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 must be unique and 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 can specify symbol characteristics in Longview Application Administrator.
For information on creating, modifying, and deleting symbols, see the Longview Application Administrator Guide.
Symbols and Data
A data point is the intersection of one symbol from each dimension.
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.