Manage dimension groups

Administrators with both the Databases and Sync user permissions can manage dimension groups for a database in the Designer module. This page outlines how to manage groups in the Financial Statements module when you have permission to manage custom statements.

Customize your dimension groups to enhance the analysis capabilities in your financial statements. Change the name of a group to something more descriptive, delete a group that is no longer in use, or add a new group to meet your business needs.

Your changes are saved in the underlying database design and, therefore, available to all users who have access to that database. Your dimension groups are included in favorites and dashboards and are also available for use in the Analytics module.

Before you start - some definitions

Dimensions are subsets of data. They give organization and structure to your data and form the basis of all analysis in Phocas. Each dimension contains multiple entities (also called items or values). For example, a common dimension is Country and its entities can include Australia, the UK, and the USA.

In Financial Statements, you see the list of dimensions on the left of the grid. You use these dimensions to add levels and filter the data to focus on specific items. The list contains two classes of dimensions:

Top-level dimensions: This is the top item in each dimension group. For example, Account, Branch, and Cost Centre. The transactions are mapped to these dimensions.
Dimension groups: Also called child dimensions or sub-dimensions, these additional dimensions are based on the top-level dimensions. For example, Region, Country, Company, and Branch Manager are sub-dimensions of the Branch dimension.

Why add dimension groups?

As dimensions are a way of grouping data, additional dimension groups are useful for many reasons, but they’re particularly valuable:

If your business has a long list of things, such as lots of departments or cost centers. For example, you could create groups for each type of store (franchise or independent) or each size of store (small, medium, or large).
If your business is project-based. You can have individual groups for each project.
If you want to analyze consolidated results. You might want to group your entities in a certain way to help with your analysis.
If you want to reclassify items, something that might be unavailable in your ERP.

Watch this video to learn how to manage your dimension groups within Financial Statements or read the detailed instructions below.

Manage dimension groups.mp4

Get started with groups

You start in the same way whether you are adding groups to create new dimensions, editing existing groups, or simply viewing a group's composition.

Open the Groups window: Click the Settings button > Groups in the top-right corner.
Select the top-level dimension for which you want to manage groups, for example, Company. Each entity in that dimension is displayed as a row in the grid. If any dimension groups exist for that dimension, they are displayed as columns in the grid. In the following image, the Company dimension has seven rows (entities) and two groups: Country and Size. The top-level entities are assigned to an entity in each group.

Find specific entities (sort and filter)

The example above is very basic. It’s likely that your top-level dimensions contain many entities, and therefore, there are many rows in the grid. If there are a lot of entities, to manage the groups more easily you can:

Click a column header to sort the items by that condition in ascending or descending order.
Use the filters to limit the number of items that are displayed in the grid:
- Properties: Properties give you information about the dimension, which helps you to assign the entities to the applicable group entities. Select the checkboxes of the properties you want to see in the grid.
- All (activity): The dimension might contain entities for which there are no transaction activities. It is still possible to map such entities. Select Activity, No Activity, or All as required.
- Keyword: The search box allows you to find a particular entity row quickly. As you type a keyword, the grid contents are filtered to display only the items that match. Often you don’t need to enter a whole keyword, as the search results are so fast.
- Mapped and unmapped: As you assign entities to a group, you can filter the grid by a specific group column, so you only see the unmapped entities (the entities you have yet to assign to the group). Click the menu button in the column header and select VISIBLE > Unmapped. Filter by mapped entities in a similar way.

Add a group

You can add a new dimension group from scratch or clone an existing group to save time and reuse the data for another group. Cloning is useful when you want to create a new group that’s very similar to an existing group. For example, if you have a group that updates each year, such as Market Strategy, you can clone that group and append its name with the year, then reassign the entities in the group as required.

Clone a group

In the Groups window with the required top-level dimension selected, click the menu button in the column header of the group you want to clone and select Clone. The new group column (clone) with a default name is added to the grid. Proceed to edit the group.

Add a new group from scratch

In the Groups window with the required top-level dimension selected, click the Add button. A new group column with a default name (Dimension 1) is added to the grid.
Change the group’s default name to something more meaningful, for example, Country. Click the menu button in the column header and select Rename. The header becomes editable. Overwrite the default name and click out of the header to apply your changes.
Assign the applicable top-level entities to entities in the group:
- Save time by assigning multiple entities to a group entity at the same time. Use the sort and filter tools (see section above) to locate the specific items, then select their rows (click and drag to select all rows in a series).
- Type the new entity's name into the yellow box in the group column and press Enter. In this example, you select the three Australian company rows and type Australia (entity) into the Country (group) column.
- After you add one or more entities to the group, you can select from that list of entities when assigning the subsequent top-level entities to the group.
Repeat the above steps (1 to 3) to add more groups and assign the applicable entities. In this example, you add another group for the size of the company, which can be small, medium, or large.
Select one of these options:
- Click Save and close to save your changes without triggering a database build. Your changes will take effect on the next database build.
- Click Build Now to rebuild the database immediately and apply your changes. After a successful build, you’ll receive a message asking you to refresh the page, and then you’ll see the new dimensions.

Rename or delete a group

In the Groups window with the required top-level dimension selected, you can rename or delete the dimension groups as follows:

To rename a group, click the menu button in the column header, select Rename, overwrite the name, and then click out of the header to apply your changes.
To delete a group, click the menu button in the column header, select Delete, and click Delete to confirm.

Export groups

Export the data in the grid for easy validation with other sources.

In the Groups window, with the required top-level dimension selected, click Export in the bottom-left corner. The file downloads to your computer. Click the file to open it in Microsoft Excel.

You can use the exported file as a template to update the group data for that dimension. See Import groups below.

Import groups

Rather than manually adding or editing your group data, you can import it from a Microsoft Excel file. The best starting point is the group export file (see Export groups above) for a dimension, which acts as a template to work from. You can edit the data in the file as required, such as add new groups and entities or change the group-entity assignment, then import the file to quickly update your group data.

Export the file and make your changes, or create your own group data file, then save and close the file.
In the Groups window, with the required top-level dimension selected, click Import in the bottom-left corner.
Locate and select your file, then click Open.
In the Groups import window, review the imported data. The applicable dimension is automatically selected for you but you can change this if required. Select Ignore for any columns you don't want to import. Click Apply.
Select one of these options:
- Click Save and close to save your changes without triggering a database build. Your changes will take effect on the next database build.
- Click Build Now to rebuild the database immediately and apply your changes. After a successful build, you’ll receive a message asking you to refresh the page, and then you’ll see the updated group data.

View the new dimensions in Financial Statements

After you add the groups and rebuild the database, you’ll see the new dimensions in the dimension list under the top-level dimension. You can then use these dimensions as you would use any other dimension during your analysis.

View the new dimensions in Designer

If you're an administrator with access to the Designer module, you can also view the new dimensions in the database design. In Financial Statements, click the blue menu button next to the database name and select Design database. In Designer, the dimensions are displayed underneath the corresponding top-level dimension. A lock icon indicates that these dimensions cannot be edited here, as they are managed in Financial Statements.

The following video is useful for administrators or users who look after the design of the financial database.

View dimension groups in designer - admin.mp4