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Some changes you make in Designer can potentially affect dashboards, favorites, and other items in Phocas that are connected to your database. For example, if you delete the Sales Rep dimension in Designer, this will cause a user's Sales Rep performance pie chart favorite to fail. Therefore, you should take particular care when deleting dimensions, properties, measures, streams, and dates. Renaming items is fine. For example, if you rename the Sales Rep dimension, the user's Sales Rep performance pie chart favorite will still work.

You can rename dimensions, properties, measures, and streams, to give a stream a more meaningful title.

Notes:

• In measures, if you are designing a source database for use in Rebates (the database that Rebates will interrogate), some characters must not be used in Measure names, as this can adversely affect rebate calculations. Measure names must only contain the following characters: "_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz". Spaces cannot be used.

Click the Edit button next to the item name, then enter a new title (name) and click Save.

You can set matrix mode column headings (known as 'captions' in the options menu on the grid) to default to name only. When you do so, users see only the name for the selected dimension and do not have the option of changing it, for example, to 'name and code' or just 'code', as the matrix captions option is disabled.

Click the Edit button next to the dimension name, then select the Hide Code checkbox and click Save.

By default, the items within the dimensions, properties, measures, and stream sections display in the order in which you map them. You can change this, to determine the order in which the items display in their respective menus in Phocas.

Click the item’s Move button, then drag and drop it in the new position.

For example, in the image below, the Budget stream is being dragged from next to Sales across to the right of Orders. This sets it as the third stream in the list in the user's menu.

You can also change the order in which items display in a dimension group (see section below).

Note about Map charts

The order in which properties are mapped, and their naming convention, will affect the results that users see when using the Map charts (Marker, Circle, and Heat) feature in Analytics. 

• Country 'AUS' does not map. Use 'AU' or 'Australia'.

• Use 'Due date' not 'Date due'.

To test mappable properties enter the string into https://www.openstreetmap.org.

You have the option to change the data type of items in the dimensions, properties, measures, and streams (and the date in some circumstances) database components. The data type options that are available depend on the component.

Changing the data type is particularly helpful for classifying your properties, as the data type can make a difference to the way data can be used / analyzed / sorted in Phocas.

1. Click the Edit button next to the item name, then select the required data type from the Type dropdown list.

   • Text - The default data type for dimensions and properties.

   • Number - The default data type for measures.

   • Boolean - Available for properties only. See below for more information about Boolean property types.

   • Date - See Map the date for more information.

   • Paragraph - Available for properties only. Useful if you have a property containing a lot of text, such as a product description, and you want users to be able to view and export it in full. In the Phocas grid, the text is truncated to 100 characters, but users can click items to view the full text in a separate window.

2. Click Save.

   

Note about Boolean property type results

These are not case-sensitive.

If you have a large list of properties, you can group them by prefixing the property name with the group name, a dash, and a right arrow (without spaces), like this: Name->

Click the Edit button next to the property name, then enter the group name prefix and click Save.

For example, suppose you want to group the properties Street, Country, and Postcode into a group named Address. After you add the prefix Address-> to the name of each property, users will see these properties grouped in the Property menu in Phocas.

You can group your dimensions for analysis purposes. A group can be anything that works for your business, as long as the data exists. For example, you might want to group your:

• Customers into regions or types, or even by which sales rep looks after them.

• Products by category and sub category.  

1. Click the mapped dimension. The Designer screen changes and you enter Dimension Mapping mode Design tab changes from the default Stream mode into Dimension Mode, where you can arrange your dimensions into groups.

2. Drag across the relevant raw data file from the data sources panel on the right.

3. Map the data file in the usual way, with two exceptions:

   1. A data box displays to the left of the raw data with a red heading. This represents the data you've already mapped. You need to link your raw data to it. Just locate the column that has the matching data and drag it across. The column heading will turn green.

      

   2. To create a dimension group, drag the raw data column on top of the appropriate dimension. For example, drag the Minor Section data file on top of the Product Dimension. It will then appear below, grouped.

      

4. Reorder the dimensions in the group, if required:

   1. Select the relevant dimension. The data files display from left to right across the screen and this determines the order in which they are processed during a database build.

   2. Drag the data files to change their position.

   

5. Exit Dimension Mapping mode Mode and return to the usual Designer screenStream mode: either click the dimension again or click on any blank space in the dimension box.  

You can set a dimension as a property. This ‘dimension’ property is different from and independent of the ‘transaction’ properties that you map to the database, so they do not display in the regular Properties section in Designer.

After mapping a dimension group (see section above), click the Edit button next to the dimension name, then select the required property from the Include as Property dropdown list and click Save. The newly created property will be named as per the title.

You can set a format to determine how a measure will display by default in the Phocas. Users can overwrite this by customizing the format of their own measures.

1. Click the Edit button next to the measure name, then select the required format list.

2. Either select an option from the Formatting dropdown list or select the Custom option and enter your own format.

3. Use the arrows to move to the settings for the next measure, if required.

4. Click Save.

   

Often, your raw data will contain only basic measures, such as cost, value, and so on. You can use these measures as the basis of a new 'calculated' measure, such as profit (value minus cost).

1. In the Measures section, click the green plus button.

2. Enter a title (name) for the new measure.

3. Enter a mathematical calculation using your existing measures. You can use the usual notation (+,-,*,/), and any of the other non-calculated measures in your expression. 

4. Set the data formatting, if required.

5. Click Save.

   

Note about measure titles for a Rebates source database

If you are designing a source database for use in Rebates (the database that Rebates will interrogate), some characters must not be used in Measure names, as this can adversely affect rebate calculations. Measure names must only contain the following characters: "_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz". Spaces cannot be used.

If you created a new period type, it becomes available for selection in Designer, where you need to select it and rebuild the database for the new period type to be available in Phocas.    

Select a period type

1. In the Date section, click the Edit button at the top.

2. In the Period Types window, select the checkbox of the period type.

3. Configure the moving period count for each period type if required (see below for more information).

4. Click Save.

   

Configure moving period count for each period type

You can dictate how many moments constitute a moving period (as used in Use Moving mode).

On a Month period type, this is typically 12 (the default), which will ultimately display what many refer to as a 'moving annual total'. However, you can select any value. For example, if you select 3, it makes the moving mode display rolling quarters instead of years.

For period types other than month, 0 (zero) is the default. Note that in Moving mode, 0 does not mean 'none'. It is more like a starting point, as Moving mode takes the number of moments in your active period, counts back that many 'moving' moments, and then adds those to each column. For example, a setting of 0 when using a period of the Last 7 days displays rolling seven days but switching to a period of the Last 30 days displays rolling 30 days.

In the Period Types window, click the More button next to a period type, use the arrows to select the moving period count and click Save.

Change the number of days to summarize

The default number of days summarized in a database is 31. Sometimes you need a different number of days to be summarized, for example to:

• compare daily month-to-date with the daily month-to-date previous year, or

• compare a 3-month daily breakdown with the same period last year.

1. In the Date section, click the Edit button at the top.

2. Select the Day checkbox and click the More button. Unless it has been previously changed, the number of days to summarize will be set at the last 31 days.

   

3. Use the arrows to select a new number of days.

   • This setting cannot be blank.

   • If you select zero, th12121212is tells Phocas that all available days are to be summarized. This is not a common setting but it can be useful, for example, if you wanted to compare a daily month-to-date with a daily month-to-date four years ago. If you do select zero, the build will take longer than usual.

     

4. Click Save.

Setting a stream as Balance Brought Forward gives the transactions an opening balance plus movements. This is typical in a Financial database, where the value in a General Ledger account for a selected month is effectively the sum of all prior transactions. It is also useful with Inventory Movements databases, which also typically have an opening stock 'as set by a stocktake' and adjustments in and out for receipts and dispatches.

Click the Edit button next to the stream name, then select the Balance Brought Forward checkbox and click Save.

You can use the synonyms option to customize the activity filter labels that appear in the Phocas grid. For example, in a Sales database, you might prefer the labels Sales and No Sales to Activity and No Activity, or in a Purchasing database you might want Purchases, No Purchases, and so on.

1. Click the Options button on the top right of the Design screen.

   

2. Enter your synonym and click Save.

   

You can tell Designer which Retained Earnings account code you want to use to calculate Retained Earnings for the Balance Sheet. When the database is being built, Designer uses the specified code to assign Retained Earnings to the correct place. If no code is specified, it creates its own code, called Retained Earnings. Only accounts within the Equity category will work.

1. Click the Options button on the top right of the Design screen.

   

2. Enter a value in the Retained Earnings Code box and click Save.