Page 1 of 90 Citrix with TM1 Perspectives User Guide Produced by BICC Paul Simon and Nick Joyce May 2018 Version 018 1 Introduction 1.1 Citrix and TM1 Perspectives Citrix is a technology that enables users to access applications without them having to be installed on their desktops. It can also improve response times by minimising network traffic. BICC and UKSBS have set up TM1 Perspectives on Citrix and will be deploying this to EPM users. TM1 Perspectives allows users to perform adhoc analysis on the data in EPM, and to create reports in Excel that automatically reflect the latest EPM data. You can also send your forecast etc into EPM from an Excel spreadsheet via TM1 Perspectives, subject to security. 1.2 Figures shown in this guide The screenshots in this guide show figures but the figures were taken from the development environment and do not reflect real BEIS figures. Please ignore the figures. 1.3 Roll out The roll out of TM1 Perspectives will be phased over a period of time, to allow adequate time for the training that will be needed. This guide is intended as an aide-memoire, after training. The Citrix link is a web based link so although this guide refers to Cirrus, for those who have not been converted yet, it will also work on Evolve and Thistle laptops. 1.4 Management Accounts and Financial Accounts The guide primarily works with data from a Management Accounts point of view. If you are a Financial Accounts user, the concepts and techniques described in the guide will still be relevant to you. However, we recommend that you start any real work with the FA set of views in Applications\N_\510 Views\FA. See the section 42 Selections for Movement or Balance information, for information on the settings required for working with Balances used by FA rather than the Movements used by MA. If you use the views in the FA folder as a starting point, they are already set up for this. If your work needs Report Lines, opening balances or Non-TB then you must use the N_Report rather than the N_Central cube. For Management Accounts, you should also use the N_Report cube if you need to display splits by Economic Ringfence alongside other splits of the Account Dimension, or if you need to display splits by Control Budget alongside other splits of the Programme Dimension.
Transcript
Page 1 of 90
Citrix with TM1 Perspectives User Guide
Produced by BICC Paul Simon and Nick Joyce May 2018 Version 018
1 Introduction
1.1 Citrix and TM1 Perspectives Citrix is a technology that enables users to access applications without them having to be installed on their desktops.
It can also improve response times by minimising network traffic. BICC and UKSBS have set up TM1 Perspectives on
Citrix and will be deploying this to EPM users. TM1 Perspectives allows users to perform adhoc analysis on the data
in EPM, and to create reports in Excel that automatically reflect the latest EPM data. You can also send your forecast
etc into EPM from an Excel spreadsheet via TM1 Perspectives, subject to security.
1.2 Figures shown in this guide The screenshots in this guide show figures but the figures were taken from the development environment and do
not reflect real BEIS figures. Please ignore the figures.
1.3 Roll out The roll out of TM1 Perspectives will be phased over a period of time, to allow adequate time for the training that
will be needed. This guide is intended as an aide-memoire, after training.
The Citrix link is a web based link so although this guide refers to Cirrus, for those who have not been converted yet,
it will also work on Evolve and Thistle laptops.
1.4 Management Accounts and Financial Accounts The guide primarily works with data from a Management Accounts point of view. If you are a Financial Accounts
user, the concepts and techniques described in the guide will still be relevant to you. However, we recommend that
you start any real work with the FA set of views in Applications\N_\510 Views\FA. See the section 42 Selections for
Movement or Balance information, for information on the settings required for working with Balances used by FA
rather than the Movements used by MA. If you use the views in the FA folder as a starting point, they are already set
up for this. If your work needs Report Lines, opening balances or Non-TB then you must use the N_Report rather
than the N_Central cube. For Management Accounts, you should also use the N_Report cube if you need to display
splits by Economic Ringfence alongside other splits of the Account Dimension, or if you need to display splits by
Control Budget alongside other splits of the Programme Dimension.
1.1 Citrix and TM1 Perspectives .............................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Roll out ............................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Management Accounts and Financial Accounts ................................................................................................ 1
2.2 Elements ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
2.4 Consolidations and base level elements............................................................................................................ 5
2.5 Drill Down and Drill Up ...................................................................................................................................... 5
2.6 Dimension Subsets and Alternate Hierarchies .................................................................................................. 6
2.7 Cubes and Cells .................................................................................................................................................. 6
2.12 Linking TM1 to Excel - Slices and Active Forms ................................................................................................. 7
3 Logging in to Citrix ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
4 Logging in to TM1 Perspectives ............................................................................................................................... 10
4.1 Open Server Explorer for TM1 ......................................................................................................................... 10
4.2 Check or Change the Environment .................................................................................................................. 10
4.3 Connecting to TM1 .......................................................................................................................................... 12
4.4 If connecting to Non-Production Environments .............................................................................................. 13
5 Opening a Cube View from the Application Folders ............................................................................................... 14
6 Opening a Cube View from the Cube list ................................................................................................................. 15
7 Working in the Cube Viewer .................................................................................................................................... 18
8 Expanding in the Cube Viewer ................................................................................................................................. 20
9 Identifying dimensions in the Cube Viewer ............................................................................................................. 22
10 Moving a dimension from the Row Area to the Context Area ............................................................................ 22
11 Recalculating to refresh data ............................................................................................................................... 22
12.2.2 Selecting a Named Subset ....................................................................................................................... 25
12.2.3 Types of Subset ........................................................................................................................................ 26
12.2.4 Selecting elements using Filter by Wildcard ............................................................................................ 26
12.2.5 Selecting elements using Filter by Level .................................................................................................. 29
12.2.6 Sorting elements ...................................................................................................................................... 30
12.2.7 Saving a Subset ........................................................................................................................................ 31
12.2.8 Recording a Dynamic Subset ................................................................................................................... 32
12.2.9 Selecting all elements below a consolidation .......................................................................................... 34
12.2.10 Selecting elements using Filter by Attribute ....................................................................................... 36
12.2.11 Rearranging elements in the subset editor ......................................................................................... 37
12.2.12 Adhoc Consolidations – Roll Up button ............................................................................................... 37
14 Saving a View ....................................................................................................................................................... 40
15 Opening a View in TM1 Web ............................................................................................................................... 41
16 Snapshot a Cube View to Excel ............................................................................................................................ 42
17 Slicing a Cube View to Excel ................................................................................................................................. 44
18 Changing Context selections in Excel linked to TM1 ........................................................................................... 44
19 Action Button to Refresh data in an Excel TM1 Slice .......................................................................................... 45
20 Add some basic Excel formatting......................................................................................................................... 46
21 Add the capability to Show / Hide Workings ....................................................................................................... 49
22 Making Excel TM1 Reports more dynamic .......................................................................................................... 52
23 How data is linked from TM1 to Excel ................................................................................................................. 54
24 Modifying an TM1 Excel Report to show different data ..................................................................................... 55
25 Saving the Excel file to your Cirrus computer ...................................................................................................... 57
26 Saving the Excel file to your Evolve computer..................................................................................................... 59
27 Active Form Excel Reports ................................................................................................................................... 61
28 Drill down and up in an Active Form ................................................................................................................... 65
29 Other Active Form capabilities ............................................................................................................................ 65
30.1 No Dimensions on Rows or Column in Cube Viewer ....................................................................................... 66
30.2 View out of Memory ........................................................................................................................................ 67
30.3 No Values ......................................................................................................................................................... 68
30.4 Selected a subset but only one element is shown .......................................................................................... 69
Page 4 of 90
30.5 Must select a single element error .................................................................................................................. 70
30.6 Excel Cell displays *KEY_ERR instead of value ................................................................................................. 71
30.6.1 *KEY_ERR due to invalid DBRW parameters ........................................................................................... 71
30.6.2 *KEY_ERR due to DBRW reference issue ................................................................................................. 72
30.7 N_Report vs N_Central differences due to timing .......................................................................................... 74
31 GETTING HELP ...................................................................................................................................................... 75
31.2 IBM Documentation on the Web..................................................................................................................... 76
31.3.3 Help folder ............................................................................................................................................... 77
31.4 User Forum on the Web .................................................................................................................................. 77
32 Naming Conventions and Standards ................................................................................................................... 78
33 Standard Consolidations in Dimensions .............................................................................................................. 79
34 Standard Subsets ................................................................................................................................................. 80
35 Standard Views .................................................................................................................................................... 81
36 Version Dimension ............................................................................................................................................... 82
38 Time Dimensions.................................................................................................................................................. 84
39 Time Dimension Subsets ...................................................................................................................................... 87
39.1 Time Dimension Subset Prefixes...................................................................................................................... 87
39.2 Time Dimension Subset examples ................................................................................................................... 87
41 Org Unit Subsets .................................................................................................................................................. 89
42 Selections for Movement or Balance information .............................................................................................. 90
Page 5 of 90
2 TM1 Concepts
2.1 Dimensions A Dimension is a way of splitting the data. Some of the Dimensions typically come from the Segments of the Chart of
Accounts. For example, we have Dimensions for Accounts and for Programmes. There are also Dimensions for other
ways that we want to split the data such as the Version dimension with splits by Actual, Forecast, and Budget, and
the Effective Month dimension with splits by Month and consolidations for YTD, Full Years, etc.
2.2 Elements An Element is typically a code in the dimension. For example, in the Accounts there is an element called 51111001
which is Salaries - Permanent UK Staff. In the Effective Month dimension there is an element E_CL_2018-M04, where
‘E_’ is for Effective Month, ‘CL’ is for Calendar Year, ‘2018’ is the Year, and ‘M04’ is Month 4, ie April.
2.3 Aliases To make the Effective Month dimension more useful we define Aliases such as the CalMthName Alias
E_CL_2018-Apr so you can see the month name instead of the month number. The F4 Alias E_F4_2018/19-P01 tells
us that for the Financial Year starting in Month 4 ‘F4’, we are in the Financial Year ‘2018/19’, and we are in Period 1
in that Financial Year ‘P01’.
In the UCoA Account dimension the default Alias is MEMBER_CAPTION which gives the Code and its Description, eg
16532101 - Additions - Shares and Equities - Private Sector. There is also a DECC CODE DESCRIPTION Alias which
gives the DECC equivalent code and description eg 1653211601 - NCA - SHARES & EQUITY TYPE INVEST - ADDITIONS
(PRIV SEC)- ASIA CLIMATE PARTNERS LP. There is also a similar DECC Alias on the Org Unit dimension.
2.4 Consolidations and base level elements The business naturally has consolidations, eg a set of Accounts form the Financial Transactions consolidation; a set of
Programmes form the DEL-PROG consolidation. TM1 represents these consolidations by linking all the elements that
make up a consolidation to a special type of element called a consolidated element. A value entered into a base level
element is automatically reflected in the total shown against the consolidation. A consolidated element can be made
up of other consolidated elements forming a hierarchy. The example below shows part of the consolidation
hierarchy under ‘All Economic Ringfence Cap/Res Split’ in the N_UCoA_Account dimension.
2.5 Drill Down and Drill Up Drill Down means expanding a consolidation to see the elements that make it up. Drill Up means finding the parent
consolidations to which a lower level consolidation or base level element are linked.
Page 6 of 90
2.6 Dimension Subsets and Alternate Hierarchies Some dimensions can have thousands of elements. We usually only want to see a subset of the elements in a
dimension.
In TM1 it is possible to save a selection of the elements in a dimension and give it a name, eg in the N_Effective_Mth
dimension there is a subset called e_F4_Curr Year Pers YTD Tot, which shows the Current Year Periods (based on an
Financial Year starting in month 4), the YTD consolidation of periods up to the current period, and the Total Year
consolidation of those periods. The time related subsets are typically updated automatically when eg the month end
rollover occurs. There are separate subsets to allow Financial Accounts to have a different current period.
In the N_UCoA_Org_Unit dimension there is a subset e_All Org Units by Group Dir Base_Hier. This shows the full
hierarchy of Org Units broken down by Group, Directorate and base level Org Unit (Entity or Cost Centre). There is
another subset e_Legal Entities_Level which shows all consolidations at the Legal Entity level which provides an
alternative way of looking at the data used by Financial Accounts. The base level Org Units are the same, but they
are consolidated differently. We say that there are Alternate Hierarchies one by Group and Directorate and another
by Legal Entity.
Subsets can be dynamic so that they automatically update when new elements are added or when elements are
moved, eg a transfer of a Cost Centre from one Directorate to another.
The Alias to be used is part of the definition of a subset. For example if you usually want to see Accounts with the
DECC Code and Description then save a subset with that alias selected.
2.7 Cubes and Cells A set of dimensions is combined to form a cube. A combination of one element from each of the different
dimensions in a cube identifies a cell. A cell can hold either a number or text. In this cube the combination of the
consolidated element of Posting Entities, ‘All UCoA Posting Entity Hierarchies’, with the Activity ‘Local Input
Forecast’, the Posting Month ‘P_CL_2018-Apr’ and the measure ‘Required for this Posting Entity (1=Yes)’ identifies
the cell which gives us the value 41. This cell tells us the total number of Posting Entities that are required to provide
a Forecast in their Local Chart of Account, in the Posting Month of April 2018.
The values in a cell can be typed in, subject to having the necessary security rights. They can also be loaded from a
data source such as the Oracle General Ledger.
Page 7 of 90
2.8 Cube Views You can use a cube view like a pivot table. You can drag and drop the dimensions around to cut the data different
ways. However, this can be tedious to do every time. A particular arrangement of the dimensions in a cube can be
saved with a name so that it can easily be retrieved. As well as the arrangement of dimensions and their elements,
the definition of the view includes whether you want to suppress zeroes which means that rows or columns with all
0 values are not displayed. You can opt to suppress zeroes on rows but not columns and vice-versa.
2.9 Security In TM1 users are assigned to Security Groups. The Security Groups have different rights to view and enter data. This
allows tight control over who can see which data and whether they can modify that data or not. Security can be
changed dynamically. For example, when you submit a forecast the system is set up to automatically make the
forecast for that cost centre read only so that it cannot be modified unless the reviewer decided to reject the
submission. The forecast needs to be held static while it is being reviewed. We do not want a situation where the
forecast can still be modified after submission.
2.10 Rules and Consolidations As well as putting a value into a cell, a calculation rule can be defined to calculate a value for a cell from other cells
which may be in the same cube or a different cube. If a value is calculated you cannot enter a value into the cell. In
some cases rules will be used to prevent people from entering values into cells where they should not be allowed,
for example, budget into a non-budgetary account.
Similarly the value for a consolidation is derived by summing up the values of the base level elements below it. You
cannot enter values into a consolidation.
2.11 Spreading There are ways that appear to enter a value into a consolidation called spreading but in reality this really enters a
value into the base level elements below the consolidation. For example if a consolidation C is made up of base level
elements A & B with values 10 and 20 and you perform a proportional spread of 60 on consolidation C, then A will
change to 20 and B with change to 40 and the consolidated value on C will be 60. Proportional spread is just one of
the spreading options available. There are also options to hold certain values and float others. Spreading is an
advanced capability that is best avoided by beginners.
2.12 Linking TM1 to Excel - Slices and Active Forms Slices and Active Forms are ways to link data in TM1 to Excel so that the when the TM1 data changes, all a user
needs to do is to refresh their Excel sheet to see the latest data. Most of the input screens in EPM are built using this
technique.
2.13 Action Button These can be setup to do a simple Refresh of the data when clicked. Although probably more of a task for BICC than
end-users, they can also be setup to navigate to different workbooks, or to run processes to load data or update
workflow.
2.14 TM1 Web TM1 Web allows a Cube View or TM1 Excel Sheet to be displayed in a Web Browser such as Internet Explorer.
Page 8 of 90
3 Logging in to Citrix In your web browser eg Internet Explorer or Chrome and enter the URL https://epmcitrix.rcuk.ac.uk It is
recommended that you save this as a favourite. You should see the following screen.
Enter your EPM User Id and Password, then press ‘Log On’. This will log you in to Citrix. You will then be presented
with the following page.
Click on the Excel icon, you will then see a message to let you know that the connection is starting.
Excel will open with Add-Ins Ribbon showing a TM1 Menu 1.
1 There is a TM1 Ribbon but BICC have disabled this as it is not always reliable
Page 10 of 90
4 Logging in to TM1 Perspectives
4.1 Open Server Explorer for TM1 On the TM1 Menu above, click Server Explorer and you will see
Click the + alongside TM1 and you should see the TM1 Server which is still called BIS for historical reasons but is the
BEIS TM1 Server.
4.2 Check or Change the Environment In general you will be connecting to the Production environment (also known as the Live environment). However, if
you are asked to carry out some user acceptance testing or just want to experiment in a non-production
environment it is important to know how to change environment and how to check which environment you are in,
to make sure that you don’t accidentally enter your forecast into the Test environment, and that you don’t
accidentally enter test data into the Production environment. Before working in a Non-Production environment
please check with BICC first. BICC regularly copy Production back to Non-Production environments, and you could
lose your work if you do not advise us that you are using the environment. You also do not want to clash with other
users, for example, someone may be giving a training course using the Training environment or another
environment.
Page 11 of 90
To check or change the environment, on the TM1 Server Explorer File Menu select Options
Go to the Admin Host box. The pull down list should be set up with the various environments. If it isn’t for any
reason you can just type in the Admin Host from the table below.
The Admin Host details for the different environments are :
Environment Comment Admin Host
Production also known as Live
The environment you will use most since contains the latest up to date data for the EPM system.
VMEPMMODLIVE1
Development Probably will only ever be used by BICC and a few people in APAC and Management Accounts.
VMEPMMODDEV1
Test You may need this if asked to carry out user acceptance testing.
VMEPMMODTEST1
Training Used for training and an area where you can try things out.
VMEPMMODTEST2
Pre Production Possibly also used for user acceptance testing. VMEPMMODPREPRO1
With the appropriate server for the environment that you want to work in selected in the Admin Host box click OK to
close the dialog box. Then on the File Menu, click Refresh Available Servers.
Page 12 of 90
4.3 Connecting to TM1
Double click on ‘BIS’ (name of the TM1 server). This should bring up the login box
If you don’t see the BIS server, then click the + by TM1 to expand the list of servers. If it still does not appear, then on
the File Menu select Refresh Available Servers. If it still does not appear, check that you entered the Admin Host
correctly and Refresh Available Servers. If it still does not appear, raise a LanDesk ticket for BICC.
The login box looks like this.
Enter your usual EPM User Id and Password
Page 13 of 90
As you can see below, you are now logged into TM1 Perspectives and can see what is available to you. For end users,
Processes and Chores will not be visible, only Applications, Cubes and Dimensions.
4.4 If connecting to Non-Production Environments Click the ‘+’ to expand Applications
The first item below Applications shows the environment to which you are connected, and the date tells you when
this environment was last updated by copying back the Production environment. You can therefore tell whether the
environment will be suitable for the testing or experimentation that you need to undertake. If you need more recent
data, then contact BICC who can arrange to copy back the latest data from Prod. BICC will first need to agree this
with anyone else using the environment. If you are working in a non-production environment, please let BICC know,
otherwise your work may be lost if BICC copy back from production because they are not aware that you are working
in that environment.
Page 14 of 90
5 Opening a Cube View from the Application Folders Click the + to expand Applications, then N_ then 510 Views. You will then see various sub folders relevant to each
group of users. If you are looking at things from a Management Accounts point of view, ie Budgeting, Forecasting,
Movement in Actuals, etc, then you need the MA folder. Expand this and you will see a number of Cube Views.
The Cube Views with a prefix of N_Central or N_Report tell you whether the View is based on the N_Central or
N_Report cube.
You can double click a View to open it.
In general, you should always open Cube Views from the Application Folders. The reason for this will become
obvious when we look at the alternative next.
Page 15 of 90
6 Opening a Cube View from the Cube list Another way to open a Cube View is as follows:
Scroll down until you see Cubes and click the + to expand the list of Cubes
As you can see there are a huge number of cubes.
Page 16 of 90
Press N to jump to the first cube that starts with N_.
Page 17 of 90
You can just double click on the name of the cube and it will open the Default View on that cube. However, that may
not be the view that you want. Instead it is better to select the most appropriate view from the list of views.
Click the + alongside the N_Central cube then click the + alongside Views
Double Click the View that you want to see.
IMPORTANT : Avoid opening any views starting with ‘z’ as these are often system views used as data sources.
Opening them in the cube viewer may involve retrieving a very large amount of data resulting in an out of memory
error for you and poor performance for other users.
As you can see the number of Cubes and the number of Views defined on a Cube can be overwhelming for the
uninitiated. That is why we recommend the approach described in the previous section of accessing views from the
much smaller list in the Application Folders.
Page 18 of 90
7 Working in the Cube Viewer
Go back to the Application Folders and double click the view called N_Central_MA Forecast Var
On the rows, the view shows a break down by Economic Ringfence and within that by Control Budget. On the
columns we have the Current Period, the Current Period YTD, and the Current Year Total, and within that we have
the Current Forecast and Current Budget versions and the variance between them.
The items on the top are referred to by various names such as the Context Area, the Title Area or the Page Area. You
will see that the total for Organisational Units by Group is selected. We will explain the other items later.
The view may display a little differently for you. For example, if you do not have access to All Org Units then it will
automatically default to showing just the Group or Partner Entity to which you have access, and therefore the figures
displayed will be different since they will be the figures for that Group or Partner Entity rather than the figures for All
Org Units.
Context Area
Column Area
Row Area
Page 19 of 90
For example, this is the same view opened by a user who only has access to the Green Investment Bank Partner
Entity. The Org Unit selection automatically changes from All Org Units to Green Investment Bank. In this case
because no Forecast or Budget was entered in Period 01 (April) there is no data to display so those columns are
hidden because suppress zeroes is selected. (The Partner probably put all their forecast and budget into Period 12
and has not profiled it yet because this is the very start of the year).
Page 20 of 90
8 Expanding in the Cube Viewer Click the + on Financial Transactions
This shows all the base level Accounts that make up the Financial Transactions Economic Ringfence.
Page 21 of 90
To see the full description put your cursor between the N_UCoA_Account and e_Control Budget Top Levels tabs until
you see a double headed arrow and drag across.
Click the ‘-‘ by Financial Transactions to collapse it again
Page 22 of 90
9 Identifying dimensions in the Cube Viewer Hover the cursor over where it says e_Curr Forecast vs Curr Budget Var Last
You will see a tool tip telling you that this is on the N_Version dimension, and giving the name of the subset. You
could probably have guess that this was the Version dimension but it may not always be that obvious.
10 Moving a dimension from the Row Area to the Context Area Click and hold down the left mouse button on the version dimension tile and drag it to the context area. You will see
a double headed arrow indicating where you can drop the dimension – release the mouse button. You will now see.
11 Recalculating to refresh data Initially there is no data. This is because we have the cube viewer in manual recalculation mode. We would always
advise you to use it in this mode as you may be changing several selections and it is more efficient to change all the
selections then refresh the data rather than wait for the data to refresh after each selection. This approach also has
less impact on other users of the system. To refresh the data, click the Recalculate button here.
You will now see
As you can see, by moving the Version dimension to the context area, it has automatically selected the first element
in the subset on the Version dimension, since when a dimension is in the context rather than the row or column
area, only one element can be selected. The figures are therefore shown for the Version Curr Forecast.
Page 23 of 90
12 Changing selections
12.1 Selecting a different element from the pull down list in the Context Area You can click the pull down list on a dimension in the Context Area to select a different element, if the subset used
for the dimension has more than one element. On the Version dimension from the pull down list, change the
selection from Curr Forecast to Curr Budget.
Click the Recalc button and you will then see the following:
The pull down method is best only used for selecting from short lists such as different Versions, or more restricted
lists such as the Group level of the Org Unit dimension. For longer lists such as the full hierarchy of Accounts the
better approach is to use the Subset Editor which we will see next.
12.2 Selecting different element(s) via the Subset Editor The Subset Editor lets you select different subsets of the elements in a dimension. The Subset Editor can be used to
change selections in the Context, Row or Column Areas. You can have more than one element in the subset but as
we have seen, when the subset is on a dimension in the Context Area then you must select one element to be the
one that will be used for the display.
Double click the dimension tile N_UCoA_Account in the row area to open the Subset Editor. The Subset Editor will
open up.
Page 24 of 90
12.2.1 Subset Editor Toolbar
The following explains the tool bar of the Subset Editor. If you are not sure what an icon means, hover the mouse
over it and a tool tip will appear.
Show all elements
Cut Copy and Paste Sort Ascending or Descending
Undo and Redo a change Keep only selected element(s)
Remove selected element(s) from the subset
Save Subset Pull down list of named subsets Sort by Hierarchy Sort by position in dimension
Reset to saved subset selected in pull down list
Toggle to show or hide selected Alias Show parents of selected element
Pull down list of Aliases Show children of selected consolidation Show properties pane
Filter by Level Filter by Attribute Filter by View Filter by Wildcard
Level 0 selects base level elements in the dimension
Select Attribute eg Account Major Type and Attribute Value eg BS or I&E
Eg Select all elements where eg Actual Capital > 50
Select elements that match entered text where ‘*’ matches any characters and ‘?’ matches any single character
Collapse Hierarchy Expand Hierarchy Selected Expand Full Hierarchy Collapse Hierarchy for selected element
Expand Hierarchy below selected consolidation right down to base level
Expands the full hierarchy below all consols in the list
Page 25 of 90
The previous page gives a lot of information on one sheet. We will explain more fully the more commonly used
options.
12.2.2 Selecting a Named Subset
If you pull down the list of subsets there are a various options. The name should give an indication of what is in the
subset. The Default Subset will generally show the top level consolidation in the dimension. Subsets starting with e_
display the MEMBER_CAPTION Alias. Subsets starting with z_ do not show any Alias, just the code. On some
dimensions there will be subsets starting with MA which are primarily for Management Accounts, and those starting
with FA for Financial Accounts. If you are not sure what is in a subset, just select it and look at the elements.
The selected subset shows just the Budgetary (ie excluding Non-Budget) Economic Ringfence consolidations of
Account. You can see that Financial Transactions and General Capital make up Capital while Non-Ringfenced and
Ringfenced (typically Depreciation etc) make up Resource. The total of all the Budgetary Economic Ringfences is
shown at the top.
Click OK to close the subset editor and recalculate the Cube Viewer and you will see
Page 26 of 90
12.2.3 Types of Subset
12.2.3.1 Public and Private Subsets
Public Subsets are visible to all users. Only a TM1 Administrator can change a Public Subset. Therefore don’t worry
about any changes you make, you cannot overwrite or delete a Public Subset.
Private Subsets are those that you create and are only visible to you. You can update and save these. If you make a
mistake you will only affect yourself. Private Subsets are indicated by the little key hole symbol in the bottom right of
the icon, eg Subset1 below.
12.2.3.2 Dynamic and Static Subsets
Dynamic Subsets have an expression, which defines the elements that are included in the subset. This means that if
new elements are added or elements move from one consolidation to another, the subset is automatically updated.
Dynamic Subsets are indicated by the Funnel Icon, eg e_UCoA_Accounts Excl NB above, which shows all base level
Accounts excluding the Non-Budget ones.
Static Subsets do not have an expression and are typically only used for top level consolidations which are unlikely to
change, eg Total Accounts Top Level.
12.2.4 Selecting elements using Filter by Wildcard
If you haven’t already, double click to open the subset editor again on the Account dimension.
Click the Show All Button
Page 27 of 90
All elements in the dimension are shown. In general, you should always click the Show All button before applying any
Filters as the Filter will only be applied to the currently shown list of elements.
Click the Filter by Wildcard button
Page 28 of 90
In the dialog box that opens
Enter *Staff*
The wildcard ‘*’ will match any characters, as we have used this wildcard before and after the word ‘Staff’, this will
match any descriptions that contain the word ‘Staff’. (There is also a wildcard ‘?’ which matches any individual
character but the ‘*’ is more commonly used). Click OK. Only elements that contain the word ‘Staff’ remain.
Page 29 of 90
12.2.5 Selecting elements using Filter by Level
The previous Wildcard match returned all elements with descriptions that contained the word ‘Staff’. If we only
wanted base level elements we can Filter by Level for level 0 which is the bottom of the hierarchy.
Click the Filter by Level button. The dialog box will open.
Select Level 0, and click OK to select only base level elements.
The subset now only has the base level elements that have the word ‘Staff’ in the description. Note that if we just
wanted all base level elements regardless of whether or not they contained ‘Staff’ we would need to have clicked
the Show All button before Filtering on Level 0. However, in this case we want our Filter selections to be cumulative.
We can see that the elements are all there but we would prefer to have them in Account Number order.
Page 30 of 90
12.2.6 Sorting elements
Just click the A-Z button and the elements are sorted
Page 31 of 90
12.2.7 Saving a Subset
We have now made quite a few selections. We want to save the subset so that we can retrieve it without the need
to do the filtering and sorting again. Click the Save button.
Since we had a Subset Name in the box here, we get asked if we want to overwrite the existing subset. Even if you
did say Yes, as a Non-Admin user you would just get an error message telling you that you cannot change a Public
Subset. Click No. The following dialog box will appear. If you are not an Administrator, then the Private tick box will
be greyed out to show that you cannot save a public subset.
Type in the name of the subset eg ‘e_Staff related_Base’, where ‘e_’ indicates it is showing Aliases, and ‘_Base’
indicating that it only has base level elements. Click OK. The name of the subset now appears in the subset list.
Page 32 of 90
The better alternative given that we knew that we wanted to save the subset as a different name would have been
to select Save As from the Subset Menu
This then brings up the same Subset naming dialog box
12.2.8 Recording a Dynamic Subset
The problem with the previous subset is that it is likely that more Accounts will be created that contain the word
Staff. If we want the subset to be automatically updated when a new Account with ‘Staff’ in its description is added,
all we need to do is to select Record Expression on the Tools Menu
We then repeat the steps in 12.2.4 Selecting elements using Filter by Wildcard through to 12.2.6 Sorting elements.
We then press Stop Recording then click Yes in the following dialog box
Page 33 of 90
If on the View menu we tick Expression Window we will see
This is the expression that was recorded. When you have more experience you will be able to type expressions
directly into the Expression Window. The language used is called MDX and was invented by Microsoft, though there
are various extensions specific to TM1.
There is no need to look at the Expression Window every time you record a series of expressions. Hide the
Expression window by taking the tick off Expression Window on the View Menu.
We would normally just overwrite the existing subset definition with this dynamic one but in this case,
Select Save As on the Subset Menu and save the subset with _Dynamic on the end.
Note that the Save Expression box is automatically ticked to indicate that the MDX expression that we recorded
should be saved as part of the Subset definition. After saving, note that the name of the subset has the funnel icon
Page 34 of 90
indicating that it is a dynamic subset.
12.2.9 Selecting all elements below a consolidation
Record the following expression as per Section 12.2.8. Click Show All in the Subset Editor. Click Filter by Wildcard.
Enter the text ‘Capital’ with no wildcard characters as we want an exact match.
Click the Expand all Elements button
Page 35 of 90
This expands the full hierarchy for Capital
If you scroll down, you will see that the other consolidation below Capital, General Capital, has also been expanded.
On the Tools Menu select Stop Recording
On the Subset Menu select Save As and save the subset as eg ‘e_Capital_Hier’.
Record another subset start with the same steps as before, but when you have the hierarchy, Filter by Level 0 and
then click the A-Z sort. Stop Recording. Save the Subset as eg ‘e_Capital_Base’.
You now have two subsets, one with the full hierarchy under Capital and one with all base level elements under
Capital. Both are dynamic and will be automatically updated as new elements are added.
In practice, generic subsets like these are best created by BICC so that they can be created as Public subsets that
everyone can use.
However, if, for example you wanted to create a subset on the Org Unit dimension to get all the Org Units in your
own Group or Directorate, then this would be a way to do it.
Page 36 of 90
12.2.10 Selecting elements using Filter by Attribute
Click Show All, then click Filter by Attribute
From the Attribute list select Income Filter, and then from the Value list select Income.
Click OK and all Accounts with the Income Filter Attribute set to Income will be selected.
Page 37 of 90
12.2.11 Rearranging elements in the subset editor
Refer back to section 12.2.1 Subset Editor Toolbar. Experiment with the other options.
Cut, Copy and Paste let you move elements around to get the order that you want. You can also paste in elements
from a list in Excel. So long as what you paste in matches the underlying element name (For Chart of Accounts based
Dimensions this is typically the Code), or an Alias, then it will be added to the list. If you select an element before
pasting, and right click, you will see options to paste above or below that element.
If you click an element, release the mouse button, then click again, you can drag the element to where you want it. A
red line indicates the drop point.
If you click on an element and drag down you can select a contiguous range of elements.
To keep just the selected elements right click and select Keep or click the green tick.
To remove the selected elements right click and select Delete or click the red cross. Note that you are only deleting
the elements from the current selection. You will not be deleting the elements from the dimension itself.
12.2.12 Adhoc Consolidations – Roll Up button
Show all elements and select the first 30 or so. Click the Rollup button on the side. The subset editor will close and
you will be returned to the Cube Viewer. Click Recalculate.
An Adhoc Roll Up has been created, eg ROLLUP_ELEM_002 which gives the total of the Accounts that you selected.
You can click the + alongside it to expand it out to see the elements.
Page 38 of 90
12.2.13 Adhoc Consolidations – Insert Subset
Re-open the Subset Editor on the Account dimension. Retrieve the Default Subset. This will just show the top level
consolidation All UCoA Account Hierarchies. Expand this to see all the Alternate Hierarchies below this. Select just All
Economic Ringfence Cap/Res Split and click Keep.
On the Edit Menu, select Insert Subset.
A second Subset Editor will open. Expand the list and select just Financial Transactions, General Capital and Non-
Ringfence.
Click Keep and save the subset as Econ Ring FT GC NR. Click OK to close the second Subset Editor. You are now
returned to the first Subset Editor where the subset that you named appears as though it was a consolidation.
Click OK to return to the Cube Viewer.
The Subset you named and inserted appears as an adhoc consolidation. You can even drill down on it.
Page 39 of 90
However, you should only use this for Adhoc analysis. If you regularly need a particular consolidation, ask BICC to
create it as a real consolidation.
13 Cube Viewer Suppress Zeroes Retrieve the MA Forecast Var view by reselecting it from the pull down list in the Cube Viewer, click No to save
changes, and the original view will be retrieved. (Views work in the same way as subsets. Only Administrators can
overwrite a public view).
Drag the Effective Mth Dimension to the Context Area which will just select its first element, April 2018
Some combinations have disappeared because it is early in the year and most Forecasts have only been entered into
P12 not P01. To see all rows, on the Options Menu take the tick off Suppress Zeroes on Rows
Page 40 of 90
As you can see rows that have all zeros are now displayed.
The same approach can be applied to show columns that have been hidden due to zero suppression.
Note that particularly when working with large numbers of elements eg if you were working with the full hierarchy
under All Economic Ringfence Cap/Res Split right down to base level Accounts, then it would be important to always
suppress zeros otherwise the cube viewer would run out of memory and would not be able to display the view. It
would also probably be displaying a view that would be of little use to you as it might be hard to find the figures
amongst the zeros.
14 Saving a View To save a View, on the File Menu and enter the View Name.
Unless you are an Administrator, you will only be able to save Private Views. Private Views can only be seen by the
person that saved them. If you have a view that you will be using regularly and you want to share with colleagues,
contact BICC to make it public. BICC will ensure that standards are addressed with regard to naming of subsets and
the view before publishing.
You can save a Private Default View by ticking the Default box.
This Private Default View will automatically open if you double click on the cube in the list of cubes. Your Private
Default view will override the Public Default View that is defined for the cube. This can be useful if you always want
to work with a particular Org Unit that is not immediately shown in the Public Default View.
To open a view you have saved, see 6 Opening a Cube View from the Cube list.
Page 41 of 90
15 Opening a View in TM1 Web Even if your colleagues don’t all have Perspectives, once a view has been published, they can still access it in TM1
Web. Login to EPM. Click here
The Navigation Tree will open up.
Expand either the Applications folders and navigate to N_\510 Views\MA to see Management Accounts related
Views, or expand Views, scroll down to find the Cube you want, the one that we have just been working with is
N_Central, and then expand the views under that and click on one to open it.
Page 42 of 90
16 Snapshot a Cube View to Excel Return to Server Explorer and open the view N_Central_MA Forecast from the Application folders. Click the
Snapshot button to transfer the data to Excel
Page 43 of 90
Note that this is just transferring the view from the Cube Viewer to Excel. The data is no longer linked to TM1 and
won’t change if TM1 data changes. In general, you would only use this option to send data to someone who does not
have access to TM1 Perspectives.
Page 44 of 90
17 Slicing a Cube View to Excel Go back to the View, and this time click the Slice button.
This time the Excel sheet is dynamically linked to TM1.
18 Changing Context selections in Excel linked to TM1 To prove that the data is live linked back to TM1, double click alongside N_Version where it says Curr Forecast. This
will open the Subset Editor.
Click on Curr Budget and click OK.
Note that alongside N_Version, the selection is now Curr Budget. However, the figures have not changed. This is
because when the TM1 Add In is used, it puts Excel into Manual Calc Mode. This is so that you can make a number of
selection changes, without having to wait for data to be updated after each one.
Page 45 of 90
19 Action Button to Refresh data in an Excel TM1 Slice To refresh the data there are three ways.
Shift-F9 refreshes the current sheet.
F9 on its own refreshes all sheets in the workbook.
However, it is better to add an Action Button that the user can click to do this.
On the TM1 Menu select Insert Action Button
The Action Button Properties window appears
Select Calculate / Rebuild Only Then Automatically Recalculate Sheet
Swap to the Appearance Tab and change Run to Refresh. Click OK.
You now have an Action Button. Click it to Refresh the data.
Page 46 of 90
Note that the figures have changed to show the Budget instead of the Forecast figures.
20 Add some basic Excel formatting There is nothing TM1 specific in this section but not everyone is aware of all these Excel techniques.
Insert a Row at the top and enter a title “Forecast Report”. Click the A to make it bigger.
Select the first cell with a number and do Ctrl-Shift-End to select all the cells with numbers. On the Home Ribbon
select the Comma Style Number format
Page 47 of 90
Page 48 of 90
We don’t want to see repeating Row Headings so click on the first cell that has All Economic Ringfence Cap/Res Split
which should be A15. Select Conditional Formatting on the Home Ribbon and then New Rule. Select Use a formule to
determine which cells for format. Enter the formula A15=A14
Click Format. In the Font tab select the colour as White and click OK, and OK.
Use the Format Painter to apply this to all the cells below A15. You should see that repeating row headings have
effectively been hidden by using the conditional format to make the font change to white on a white background.
If it doesn’t work check that Conditional Formatting has not decided to put quotes around your formula.
Page 49 of 90
21 Add the capability to Show / Hide Workings On the Add-Ins Menu, you should see zTD_TM1_Utils2.
From the pull down menus select, Reporting then Show Hide with Markup then the Basic Markup option.
You will see that a row and column have been inserted at the start and HIDE appears in A1. The Forecast Report cell
has been given a Range Name of rTLC since this will be the top left visible corner of the report. The first numeric cell
has been given a Range Name of rFreezePanes since this will be the freeze panes point when we hide workings.
2 If not you can open this from Server Explorer in the Application Folders go to zTD\100 End User\800 Utilities\zTD_TM1_Utils.xlsm. You may need to confirm that you want to enable macros when you open this.
Page 50 of 90
We only want users of the report to be able to change the Org Unit and Version so we will move the other options to
a hidden area. We also want to hide the cube name. Insert two columns before column B and cut and paste the
items to be hidden to there. Copy HIDE into column A alongside the rows that you want to hide. Copy HIDE from A1
to B1 and C1 to indicate that these columns are to be hidden.
Now Ctrl-Shift-H hides the workings
The rows and columns that we marked with HIDE have been hidden. A Freeze Panes has been applied where we
wanted it. Something less obvious has also happened. The sheet has been protected to prevent accidental
corruption of any formulae or data. We need to do some further things.
Press Ctrl-Shift-S to show the workings.
We changed the headings of Org Unit and Version to make them a little friendlier, and put some grid lines around
them and changed the colour to green to indicate where users can double click to open the Subset Editor to change
the selection. We also need to unprotect the cells to make it possible for a user to change them. To do this, select
the two cells, right click and select Format Cells. In the dialog box, on the Protection tab, take the tick off Locked.
Click OK.
Page 51 of 90
Hide the workings again with Ctrl-Shift-H and confirm that you can change selections.
Typically when developing a sheet BICC will move all the hidden items up above the Report Title. They will colour the
hidden area in light brown and the area above the visible area of the report in pink. This just makes it easier to see
what is hidden and what is visible. They will also add a note to describe the report.
Page 52 of 90
22 Making Excel TM1 Reports more dynamic The Report has columns showing for the Effective Month dimension the Current Period, the Current Period YTD, and
the Full Year.
One problem with the report so far is that the Effective Months shown are static. We want the report to
automatically change when the Current Period Changes.
Add a HIDE in A17. Over each of the period related columns put 1,2,3.
In B17 enter BIS:N_Effective_Mth. BIS is the name of the server to which you are connected. N_Effective_Mth is the
name of the dimension. In the Range Name box give this a range name of rEffMthDim.
In C17 enter the name of the subset e_F4_Curr Per YTD Tot.
If you did not know the name of the subset you can go to the Server Explorer and see the name in the view from
which you generated the slice. You can also go to Server Explorer, expand Cubes, press N to just to the first N_ cube
then scroll down to N_Central, click the plus alongside the cube name, then alongside Dimensions to see the
dimensions in the cube and then click the + alongside the N_Effective_Mth and then Subsets to see all the subsets
defined on this dimension and then scroll down to the subset you want. Select the name and press Ctrl-C twice to
copy the name. (We will say more about naming conventions for the subsets later).
Give this a Range Name of rEffMthSub. We use the convention of starting all Range Names with an ‘r’ to avoid the
risk of a Range Name clashing with any reserved names in Excel such as formula names.
Page 53 of 90
Go to the cell that has the Current Period. Delete the text in it and replace it with the formula shown below
This formula says go to the Effective Mth dimension and from the subset referenced by rEffMthSub, get the element
at the position referenced by F17, which in this case is position 1. Display the element using its CalMthName alias,
which in this case makes it show Apr instead of the M01 month number.
Copy the formula to the other cells, replacing the YTD and Total Year values. Click Refresh.
The result is just the same. However, the key thing is that when this subset is automatically updated when the
Month End Rollover runs, the report will automatically change to show the data for May, and May YTD, and when
enough Month End Rollovers have been run, the Full Year will automatically change to E_F4_2019/20. With more
time we would probably use some Excel formula to make the period look more attractive eg insert a row below an
use =MID(H18,6,99) to cut off the E_F4_. Then we can HIDE the row that has the E_F4_2018/19 and just show
2018/19.
When the subset changes, not only will the headings change, but the data below will also be retrieved for the
different periods. Let’s see how that happens.
Page 54 of 90
23 How data is linked from TM1 to Excel Select the cell below the full year header and click into the Formula Bar
The DBRW is a special TM1-Excel formula. It was automatically generated when you clicked the Slice button from the
Cube View. The first parameter identifies the TM1 server and cube BIS:N_Central. The next parameters select an
element in each of the dimensions in the cube, in the order in which the dimensions are defined in the cube. You can
see this from Server Explorer
The Slice button also generated the DBRW with the appropriate reference type. Dimensions in the Context Area
have an absolute reference eg $E$15 for the Org Unit. Those on the row area are row relative references eg $D19 to
reference the Economic Ringfence consolidations on the rows.
Page 55 of 90
24 Modifying an TM1 Excel Report to show different data We want the report to show all periods in the current financial year, the YTD and the Full Year. To change the report
do the following
In C17 change the subset to e_F4_Curr Year Pers YTD Tot.
Select columns G and H. In the top right corner select the little black square and drag across to auto fill until the
number reaches 14.
This will copy the DBRW formula across. Because they were generated with the appropriate absolute, row and
column relative references, the copied DBRW formula will work correctly.
Click the Refresh button.
You should see
Ctrl-Shift-H to hide and you will see.
Page 56 of 90
As you can see we now have columns for all periods in the current year, driven from the subset we selected which
will be automatically updated when the year changes.
Page 57 of 90
25 Saving the Excel file to your Cirrus computer We now have a reasonably nice looking report. We want to be able to save it so that we can retrieve it each month
and refresh it to get the latest data.
In Excel, save your file as normal, by going to File, Save As.
In the list of folders, scroll until you see Local Disk (C: on EUDnnnnnn) where EUDnnnnnn is the number on the
bottom of your Cirrus Laptop. Please ensure that it says this as there will be two C: Drives – the one on the Citrix
Server, and the one that you need which is the share of the C: Drive on your Cirrus Laptop.
Page 58 of 90
Once it has been saved, then using File Explorer on your Cirrus Laptop, you can access the file as follows
You can then copy the file to SharePoint, OneDrive, or any other Drive connected to your laptop.
Page 59 of 90
26 Saving the Excel file to your Evolve computer For those of you who have not been migrated to Cirrus yet, in Excel save your file as normal, by going to File, Save
As. You will be presented by a screen warning you that an online application is attempting to access files on your
computer. Click ‘Permit All Access’
You will need to navigate to your Downloads folder. Your computer name may be different, but it will generally be
Local Disk (C: on *******). The format will be Local Disk (C: on<your cirrus computer name>)\Users\<your
username>\Downloads. Give the file a name and then click Save.
Page 60 of 90
Page 61 of 90
27 Active Form Excel Reports An Active Form is similar to a Slice but the main difference is that it is possible to expand and collapse consolidations
on the rows, and to have the formatting automatically applied based on criteria such as the level of the consolidation
in the hierarchy.
Go back to Server Explorer. Open the View MA Forecast Var. Drag the Control Budget (Programme) from the rows to
the Context Area. Drag the Effective Mths from the columns to the Context Area. Change the selection to the Full
Year Total. Recalculate. Click the Active Form button here.
An Active Form will be created from the view in Excel
Some rows and columns in Excel are hidden. There is a show format area option on the TM1 Menu but it is better to
use the zTD_TM1_Utils. On the zTD_TM1_Utils Menu, select Reporting, then Reveal Hidden Sheets, Rows and Cols.
Page 62 of 90
You will see :
In the format range, the first column has a Format Id that matches to the Format Id by each row in the data area. So
the Format Id 0 has a light blue background and that is why the cells in the data area with that Format Id have a light
blue background.
We want to add some conditional formatting to the variance column Curr Forecast vs Curr Budget
Select cells E2 to E7. On the Home Ribbon select Conditional Formatting. Select ‘Format only cells that contain’.
Select ‘Cell Value’ then ‘greater than or equal to’ then enter 0.
Page 63 of 90
Click the Format button. On the Fill tab select green.
Repeat the process to add a rule for Less than 0 being Red. As black text doesn’t show up very well on Red also select
a White font.
Add an Action Button as you did in Section 19 Action Button to Refresh data in an Excel TM1 Slice, but this time as
we are doing it for an Active Form we need to select Rebuild Sheet. Click the Refresh Button and you should see:
The conditional formats that we entered in the format range have been automatically applied to the cells in the data
range.
Repeat the Basic Markup for Show/Hide Workings that we did in section 21 Add the capability to Show / Hide
Workings. The only issue is that this time it may get the rTLC Range in the wrong place.
Page 64 of 90
To make the rTLC range name refer to the correct location, go to the Formula Ribbon and click Name Manager.
Select the rTLC Range Name then click in ‘Refers To’, then click the cell with the report title Forecast Variance
Report. Click the tick to update the cell reference.
It is possible to alter the Format Ids used in the Format Range, and you can also alter the formula used alongside the
data rows to derive the Format Id. There are lots of possibilities, but these are a more advanced topic.
For now just enter HIDE into the appropriate cells and remember to format and unprotect the visible selections (the
cells in light green below). You should then have something like the following:
Page 65 of 90
28 Drill down and up in an Active Form Double click Financial Transactions. You will see it expand to show the underlying Accounts
Double click on Financial Transactions to collapse it again.
29 Other Active Form capabilities This is a more advanced topic but just to give you a flavour of what can be done
You can toggle the suppression of zeros on the rows.
You can dynamically change the subset used to define the rows to show different subsets of that data.
You can incorporate MDX expressions into the rows to get arbitrarily complex selections, including things such as
showing the Top 10, or Top 10% highest variances of Org Units.
You can incorporate Slices with the Active Forms to show data from two different cubes. The DBRW formula
retrieving data from the Slice will be copied down as the Active Form rows expand.
You can add Excel Formula linked to the cells retrieved by the Active Form.
You can show more than one Active Form or a Slice on the same Sheet so that when a Context Area selection is
changed then all the Active Forms and Slices linked to that same Context Area selection also change.
Page 66 of 90
30 TROUBLESHOOTING This section explains some common problems that you may encounter and how to resolve or avoid them.
30.1 No Dimensions on Rows or Column in Cube Viewer If you have a view that looks like this
Then there is no dimension on the rows for you to drop another dimension alongside.
To cure this, drag a dimension to the rows area until you see a thick light blue line, and then you can drop the
dimension there.
To avoid this issue it is best to swap an existing dimension on the rows with one from the Context or Column Areas
by dragging the dimension to the centre of the tile. In this way the dimension on the Rows will be swapped with the
dimension that you dragged in, and you will not get a situation where there are no dimensions on the rows.
The same applies to the situation where there is no dimension on the columns. Again a thick blue line will appear
when you drag a dimension above the columns indicating where you can drop the dimensions.
Page 67 of 90
30.2 View out of Memory You see this error when recalculating a view.
Click OK to acknowledge the message. You will be returned to the view that you were working on but it will not be
calculated.
There are two likely causes for this.
a) You have a view with eg elements from two or more large dimensions on the rows such as Org Unit,
Account, and Programme on the rows, and you have recalculated the view without first clicking the suppress
zeroes. Without zero suppress on the rows you will have approx 1000 Org Units, with 6500 Accounts, with
5600 Programmes making a total of 36 billion rows combined with however many columns you have. Most
of these will be zero as we don’t use every Account with every Org Unit and Programme. Turn on zero
suppression by clicking in the cube viewer and all should be well when you recalculate again
b) You have accidentally opened a view that is intended for system use rather than display. Avoid opening
views starting with a z_.
Page 68 of 90
30.3 No Values This is the opposite of the previous error – fewer results than you are expecting rather than too many.
This will happen if you have zero suppression turned on overall or possibly just on rows or columns (See Options
Menu in the Cube Viewer) and either your selections genuinely have no data or there is a mistake in the selections.
If we look at the Cube View behind this error, we can see that we have selected the Hist Forecast version but the
Posting Month is still P_Starting Balance. If we want to see an Historic Forecast then we need to select the Posting
Month in which the Historic Forecast was made.
Page 69 of 90
30.4 Selected a subset but only one element is shown For example, you have a cube view with Accounts in the row position and you want to select the subset e_UCoA
Accounts_Base to show all Accounts on the rows. You open the subset editor
But before clicking OK, you clicked on one or more of the Accounts. When you click OK and recalculate the Cube
View you see
Instead of seeing all Accounts, only the one that you clicked on got selected. The issue is that since you selected an
Account, TM1 assumes that it was that Account that you wanted, instead of the subset. If you did want the subset
then there are various ways to avoid this
a) Re-open the Subset Editor, re-select the subset, Click OK without clicking on any elements in the subset.
b) Open the Properties pane by clicking the button at (A), and click in the right hand properties pane (B). This
will deselect all elements in the left hand pane. Close the Properties pane by clicking (A) again. Click OK to
close the Subset Editor.
A
B
Page 70 of 90
30.5 Must select a single element error This error can arise if you are making a subset selection for a dimension that is in the Context area and you select
more than one element or no elements.
To cure the problem, click OK to close the error message. Select one and only one element and then you will be able
to click OK to click the subset editor. You can still have more than one element displayed in the subset but one and
only one must be selected. If you then move the dimension to the rows or columns then all the elements in the
subset will be displayed. However, with the dimension in the context area, one and only one element must be
selected.
Page 71 of 90
30.6 Excel Cell displays *KEY_ERR instead of value
30.6.1 *KEY_ERR due to invalid DBRW parameters
If you see a *KEY_ERR in Excel then this is likely to be because you have a DBRW formula that has an invalid value in
one or more parameters. See Section 23 How data is linked from TM1 to Excel for an explanation of DBRW formula.
To help identify the invalid parameter you can use the zTD_TM1_Utils utilities.
Select the cell where the *KEY_ERR occurs. On the Add-Ins ribbon, select zTD_TM1_Utils then ChkDBFormula
The following will appear
This lists all the dimensions in the cube. The DType column indicates C for consolidations, and N for base level
elements. We are interested in the one that says ERR. This identifies the parameter that is not a valid member of the
related dimension, N_UCoA_Account. We can see that we have mis-typed General Capital as General Captial. Click
Page 72 of 90
the Close button to close the TM1 DB Formula Checker. Correct the spelling error and then when you recalculate the
spreadsheet the *KEY_ERR should be gone.
30.6.2 *KEY_ERR due to DBRW reference issue
This is the sort of error that you are only likely to encounter when you get a bit more adventurous with your
spreadsheets.
In this case, we started with a general slice but we only ever want this sheet to show data for the current period, so
we have decided to retrieve the current period from the zTD_Info cube, in cell C15. This is then referenced in cell
E20, and the DBRW formula that retrieve the data reference cell E20.
If we use the zTD_TM1_Utils ChkDBFormula again, we see :
There is no obvious parameter to the DBRW in error. In particular it is telling us that the selection for the
N_Effective_Mth dimension is valid.
However, if we read the red text at the bottom, it should give us a clue as to the problem.
Page 73 of 90
If we close the TM1 DB Formula Checker and look at the value that we are retrieving from the zTD_Info cube, we can
see that the formula that has been used is a DBRW formula.
The problem is that the result of this formula, E_F4_2018/19-P01 is being referenced via another cell in the DBRW
formula that we are using to retrieve data from the main N_Central cube. The DBRW formula batches up values and
sends them in one block across the network to minimise network traffic. Because of this in needs to have all the
parameters resolved. However in this case we have used a DBRW to get the Effective Mth and this in turn is
referenced as a parameter to the DBRW on the N_Central cube, so the DBRW for the N_Central Cube has an
unknown value for Effective Mth, because it is trying to resolve it all in a single pass.
The cure for this problem is to change the formula used to retrieve the Effective Mth from a DBRW to a DBR. This
will ensure that the DBR formula is used to first get the current effective period from the zTD_Info cube, and then
this can be used as a parameter in the DBRW formula to get the value from the N_Central cube. With this change in
place, everything works and the numbers retrieve correctly.
Page 74 of 90
30.7 N_Report vs N_Central differences due to timing Data that is entered directly into the N_Central cube will only be transferred to the N_Report cube when it is
submitted. There may therefore be timing differences between the figures in the two cubes.
The only data items that are entered directly into the N_Central cube are :
a) Central Forecast in UCoA typically entered by Group Finance
b) Central Forecast Adjustments in UCoA to Forecasts that were submitted in Local CoA
c) UCoA Actual Balance Adjustments to data submitted in Local CoA
Data that is entered in Local CoA (eg Actual Balance, and Forecast) updates the N_Central and N_Report cubes as
soon as it is submitted, assuming no mapping errors.
This does not affect budgets since budgeting is carried out in the Draft Budget Version which only exists in the
N_Central cube. Budgeting is typically only completed when all the detailed budgets match the allocations. When
Management Accounts decide to transfer the Draft Budget to the Curr Budget the process updates the Curr Budget
Version in both N_Central and N_Report at the same time.
Typically once month end is completed around Working Day 8 then the two cubes should be in step for a time.
However, as we typically then do the month end rollover which re-opens the system for forecasting again, there may
still be differences although it is unlikely that anyone will enter forecasts until the 20th of the month at the earliest.
Page 75 of 90
31 GETTING HELP
31.1 TM1 Manuals In Server Explorer on the Help Menu you can get access to the TM1 Manuals
The most useful manuals for end-users are likely to be :
a) Users Guide
b) Reference Guide
When you open a manual you may see
Click Allow Blocked content.
Page 76 of 90
The most useful section is likely to be the Worksheet functions list in the TM1 Reference Guide
31.2 IBM Documentation on the Web http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27021893
This has links allowing you to download the manuals in Adobe PDF format. Our current version of TM1 is 10.1, which
is getting a little old now. We are planning to upgrade soon.
31.3 Application Folders In the Application Folders, go to \Applications\zTD\100 End User\
The sub folders below this give extra options…
31.3.1 Get Error Detail
If you get an error after running a process while working in EPM, in some cases the error will just tell you that
records were rejected. However, the process will typically have stored detailed information on the errors. The sheet
in this folder lets you get the detailed errors for the last error that occurred when you ran a process typically by
clicking an Action Button on a sheet in EPM.
31.3.2 Utilities
This is where you can find the zTD_TM1_Utils.xlam set of utilities if they are not already loaded.
32 Naming Conventions and Standards The following sections give more information about the dimensions in the cubes, standards for dimension structure,
naming conventions for consolidations, subsets, and views. They will help you to understand how to use the
information in the cubes more effectively.
However, if you need more information, please ask BICC.
Page 79 of 90
33 Standard Consolidations in Dimensions The main dimensions, typically those representing the main Chart of Accounts splits, all share some common
consolidations. There will always be a single top level consolidation called All <dimension name> Hierarchies.
As you can see from the properties pane the various different hierarchies that are below the top level consolidation
all have a weight of 0 apart from one which has a weight of 1. The values from the consolidations are multiplied by
the weight before being added into the top level consolidation. This ensures that there is no double counting.
The standard elements are
Example from Org Unit Explanation
All UCoA Org Unit Hierarchies Weight of 0 used to stop double counting
All UCoA Org Units Consolidation of all base level elements. We carry out Daily Tests on alternate hierarchies such as All Org Units by Group to ensure that the total on these is the same as the total on the All consolidation. Any mismatch probably indicates that an element has not been linked into the alternate hierarchy correctly, or that there is double counting in the alternate hierarchy. This sort of issue is normally caught by BICC before any UCoA changes are released to the Production environment.
zz_Alternate Hierarchies of Org Units
Generally used as a grouping for for small hierarchies that do not contain all elements in the dimension eg All UK RI.
Page 80 of 90
Example from Org Unit Explanation zz_Orphaned UCoA Org Units Any element that is not linked to a hierarchy other than the default
All hierarchy will be considered to be an Orphan. Orphans should be investigated as they indicate something that should be linked in to a real consolidation. We pick these up in the Daily Tests. However, at present a lot of the Orphans arise from the old dims that do not have orphan handling. Until we have the time to resolve this, it will continue to be a problem that can lead to us missing real Orhpans. However, these are likely to be caught by the checks on totals mentioned before.
zz_Not Applicable UCoA Org Unit Used when the value is not applicable, eg on Analysis 1 it is not applicable on budgeting because we don't budget by the Analysis 1 segment.
zz_Unknown UCoA Org Unit Not used here. Might be used if we had a case where an element was currently unknown but might be known later.
zz_Select UcoA Org Unit Used as an initial element selection to prompt the user to select a different element. Security prevents anyone from entering data into this element.
34 Standard Subsets Subset Prefixes
e_ Means in english - typically showing the code and its description.
z_ Means showing the code only.
Standard Subsets Explanation
Default Typically set to the top level element eg All UCoA Org Unit Hierarchies.
e_UcoA Org Unit_Top The top level element eg All UCoA Org Unit Hierarchies.
e_UCoA Org Unit_Orphans List List of Orphans.
e_UCoA_Org Units_Base All base level Org Units.
e_UCoA Org Units_Base_Excl_Std
This is a standard subset that includes all base level elements excluding the std elements like the zz_Select element, ie only the real elements.
e_UCoA_Org Units_Base_and_Top All base level elements followed by the top All Hierarchies element.
e_UCoA_Org Units_Top_and_Base The top All Hierarchies element followed by all base level elements.
e_UCoA_Org Units_Hier The full hierarchy under the Top element. NB elements that appear in more than one hierarchy will only be shown once.
There is a similar set of standard subsets starting with z_. The only difference is that these don't show the Alias
giving the description.
Page 81 of 90
35 Standard Views There are two types of views; those that are intended for display and those that are used by the system to select
data for export, etc. Those that are designed for system use start with a ‘z_’ and should not be opened.
All cubes should have a Public Default View that opens when you double click the cube. If the Public Default View
does not suit your purposes, you can save a Private Default View that will open when you double click the cube
instead of the Public Default View.
Views intended for display start with e_ or a prefix indicating whom they are intended for such as MA, FA, FPA, UKRI,
etc. Views intended for display will typically use subsets that display an Alias, rather than the raw Element codes.
The Application folder \Applications\N_\510 Views and its sub folders have views and some spreadsheets that you
can use as starting points for creating new views.
The \Applications\N_\510 Views\FA\Naming Conventions\ folder has a document FA Views and Sheets Naming
Conventions.docx, which describes the Naming conventions and most of the views in the folder.
Page 82 of 90
36 Version Dimension Version Explanation
Actual Balance Balances loaded for MA or FA. For MA use this with the measure Management Balance incl Eliminations and for FA use with the measure Statutory Balance incl Eliminations.
Approved Actual Balance Only for FA. In general Partner data is only copied to Approved Actual Balance once it passes through all validations and reaches the Finalised stage. EPM Journals and Core data go there immediately.
Mgmt Actual The Movement calculated from the Actual Balance. Use this with the Measure Management Movement Final.
Prior Mgmt Actual Just copies the Mgmt Actual from last year to current year to make comparison to Prior Year easier.
Curr Forecast The Current Forecast
Hist Forecast Historic Forecasts. Use with the N_Posting_Mth dimension to select the month in which the Forecast was made.
Curr Budget The Current Budget
Hist Budget Historic Budget. Use with the N_Posting_Mth dimension to select the month in which the Budget was set.
Draft Budget Working version for Budgeting so that Budgets can be amended and only copied across to replace the Curr Budget version when Management Accounts say so. In general this will only be when the detailed budget matches the allocated budget.
Variances
eg Curr Forecast vs Curr Budget
Curr Budget - Curr Forecast (Always second minus the first)
Variance Ratios
Eg Curr Forecast vs Curr Budget Ratio
Variance divided by second eg Curr Budget
Variance RAG Status RAG means Red, Amber Green
eg Curr Forecast vs Curr Budget RAG Status
1 is Green a Postive Variance Ratio > 10% -1 is Red a Negative Variance Ratio < -10% 0 is Amber a Variance Ratio in the middle between 10% and -10%
Page 83 of 90
37 Measures Dimensions The Measures dimension is always the last dimension in the cube. For any N_ prefixed cube, it will be called the
name of the cube with ‘_Meas’ as a suffix.
Measures can be Base Numeric, Consolidations or Text (which also gets called String)
Key Measures in the N_Central and N_Report cubes are :
Balance based measures :
Statutory Balance incl Eliminations
Management Balance incl Eliminations
These include the Balance Loaded and all Journals. The only difference is that one has Financial
Accounts Eliminations journal and the other has Management Accounts Eliminations journal.
The base measure is Balance Loaded eg raw data from Partners before any EPM Journals.
Movement based measures :
Management Movement Final
The base measure is Movement Loaded. This is calculated in EPM by a complex calculation called the
Movement Calculation from the Balances. The result goes to a measure called the Movement Calc. This is
copied over and stored in the Movement Loaded measure. The Movement Loaded from past periods forms
part of the calculation of the Movement Calc for the current period. This ensures that the historic movement
never changes, and any changes due to eg revisions in the opening balance for the Financial Year are only
reflected in the current period.
Page 84 of 90
38 Time Dimensions There are two Time Dimensions.
The main one is the N_Effective_Mth which defines when things take effect.
The other one is the N_Posting_Mth which is used for Budgeting and Forecasting to define when the Budget or
Forecast was made. It is used so we can see how accurately we have predicted the future eg to compare the
Forecast for the Full Year position for 2018/19 that we made in Period 06 of 2018/19 with the Forecast made in
Period 09 of 2018/19. We use the Hist Forecast version to do this.
Where the Posting Mth is not required we record data against the P _Starting Balance element of the
N_Posting_Mth dimension.
The Effective and Posting Mth dimensions have identical structure. The only difference is that elements in the
Effective Mth Dim start with E_ which those in the Posting Mth Dim start with P_
The elements are listed in order
Page 85 of 90
The Default subset has the top level consolidation. Expanding this out we can see:
Under E_All Effective Mths there are two sub hierarchies
E_All Cal Effective Time Types Calendar Years starting in January.
E_All Fin4 Effective Time Types Financial Years starting in Month 4, ie April.
Potentially more Financial Years can be added. Eg at one time it looked like we would need a Financial Year starting
in Month 9 for the Academic Year.
Both the Calendar and Fin4 hierarchies have identical structures. The suffixes have the following meaning.
Suffix Explanation
YHQM Year, Half Year, Quarter, Month
YM Year. Month
YTD Year to Date consolidations
RYFD Rest of Year from Date, eg if Current Period is December this would be January to March
YTD_Ave YTD Average eg Dec_YTD_Ave is Dec_YTD / 9
RYFD_Ave Dec_RYFD_Ave is Dec_RYFD / 3
Run_Rate This is the YTD_Ave * 12 to give a full year prediction if spending continues at current rate.
CTD Cumulative to Date. This is used to get a Balance from a Movement, where the initial balance would be in E_Starting Balance.
OTD Opening Balance to Date. Effectively the CTD for the period before.
MAT Moving Annual Total. Sum of 12 periods up to and including the given period
MAA Moving Annual Average - MAT / 12
Diff Used to get Movement between two Balances - selected period minus period before
Page 86 of 90
The example below shows how E_F4_2015_Jun_YTD is derived
The example above shows the CalMthName Alias. There is also an F4 Alias showing periods in the Financial Year
beginning in month 4.
Page 87 of 90
39 Time Dimension Subsets Both N_Effective_Mth and N_Posting_Mth have the same set of subsets.
It is important that you use the predefined subsets as they will be automatically updated by Month End and Financial
Accounts routines to reflect the current periods. Using them will save you a lot of work.
39.1 Time Dimension Subset Prefixes
e_CL_ Calendar Years using CalMthName Alias
e_F4_ Financial Years using CalMthName Alias eg E_F4_2018-Jul
x_F4_ Financial Years using F4 Alias eg E_F4_2018/19-P04
z_CL_ Calendar Years with no Alias, month is eg M01
z_F4_ Financial Years with no Alias
39.2 Time Dimension Subset examples
Example Explanation
e_F4_Curr Year Pers YTD Tot Current Year Periods with Current YTD and Full Year Total
e_F4_Curr 5 Year Pers Tot Current 5 Years Periods with Yearly Totals - used for Future Years Budgets or Forecasts
x_F4_Fin Act Curr Prev and Prev Prev Per The Financial Accounts Current Period (P09 or P12), Prev Year P12 and Previous Previous Year P12
x_F4_Tier 4 Curr Per The Current Period for Tier 4 data collection.
If you are not sure what a subset contains, just select it and review the elements.
Page 88 of 90
40 Source dimension The Source dimension indicates where the data came from:
The Key consolidations are:
Consolidation Explanation
S_All Management Account Balance Sources Used for MA Balances
S_All Management Account Sources Used for MA Movements
S_Consol Cash Flow Used for FA Corporate Reporting
S_PO Cash Flow Used for FA Partner Reporting, with Balance Loaded Measure to exclude EPM Journals
S_Partner Tier 4 Cash Flow Used for Tier 4 Reporting
Page 89 of 90
41 Org Unit Subsets There are numerous subsets defined on the N_UCoA_Org_Unit dimension. This just highlights some of these.
Subset Explanation
Common Subsets e_PENnnnn Org Units_Top_and_Base The Posting Entity Consolidation and the Base level Org
Units that make up Posting Entity nnnn where nnnn is from the PENnnnn form rather than the Oracle Id. To find the PENnnnn number for an Entity just open the subset on N_UCoA_Posting_Entity and it is on the end of the description, eg Local Better Regulation Office - PEN0005
e_PENnnnn Org Units The Base level Org Units that make up Posting Entity nnnn
e_UKRI Org Units_Hier The hierarchy of Org Units that made up the UKRI consolidation.
E_Posting_Entities The Posting Entity level of the Org Unit dimension
Financial Accounts Subsets
e_APAC Report Hier Lists all Legal Entities and consolidations in the order required for APAC reporting
e_Legal Entities from Oracle List of Legal Entities that get their data from UKSBS Oracle
e_Posting Entities_with Finalised TIer 4 Dynamically changing list of Posting Entities that have a Finalised Tier 4 submission
Management Accounts Subsets
e_All Groups Top Level GDB Top level Org Unit in the All Org Units by Group Dir Base Hierarchy (The GDB hierarchy) (which excludes _Input elements for Budget Allocations), and the immediate level below which are the Groups.
e_All Org Units by Group Dir Base_Hier The full hierarchy below All Org Units by Group Dir Base.
e_All Groups and Directorates Gives the top of the All Org Units by Group hierarchy (which does include _Input elements), then lists all the Groups, and then all the Directorates after the Groups, not within the Groups
e_All Groups and Directorates_Hier Gives the hierarchy under All Org Units by Group hierarchy down to Directorate level
e_Directorates_GDB The Directorate level in the GDB hierarchy
e_Directorates_GDB and Org Units The Directorates level followed by the base Org Unit level in the GDB hierarchy
e_Groups_and_Top All Org Units by Group and the Groups below it e_Groups_and_Total The Groups followed by the total All Org Units by Group
E_Top_and_Org Unit Level Similar to Top_and_Base but excludes _Input elements
Page 90 of 90
42 Selections for Movement or Balance information Appropriate selections of elements need to be made in four dimensions to get the appropriate data for APAC -
Financial Accounts, or Management Accounts reporting purposes. The following is a guide to likely combinations for
different types of reporting.
User Group
Dimension Explanation
N_Version N_Posting_Mth N_Source Measure – N_Central_Meas or N_Report_Meas
Consol Cash Flow represents the overall BEIS level Accounts. We will generally be reporting this using the measure that includes EPM journals
S_PO Cash Flow Balance Loaded For both PO Cash Flow and Tier 4 Cash Flow we generally want to exclude any EPM Journals so that the figures will match the POs own General Ledger. Therefore we set the measure to Balance Loaded.
S_Partner Tier 4 Cash Flow Balance Loaded
Management Accounts
Actual Balance P_Starting Balance
S_All Management Account Balance Sources
Management Balance incl Eliminations
Management Accounts in general work on a Movement rather than a Balance basis so you would only need to look at the Balance to explain how the movement was calculated. You generally would not report on this.
Mgmt Actual P_Starting Balance
S_All Management Account Sources
Management Movement Final
The Mgmt Actual version holds the movement calculated from Actual Balance. Prior Year Mgmt Actual just copies forward last year’s Mgmt Actual to enable easier comparison without the need to also vary the Effective Mth. Draft Budget allows users to amend the budget without immediately affecting the Curr Budget. Curr Forecast will have Mgmt Actual YTD then forecast for remaining months of the Financial Year. The key thing is the Full Year Forecast
aka Outturn.
Prior Year Mgmt Actual
Curr Forecast
Curr Budget
Draft Budget
Hist Forecast Posting Mth in which Forecast was made
The Curr Forecast is copied to the Hist Forecast during the Month End Rollover, just before the Current Posting Month is advanced to retain the final position of the Forecast made in that month.
Hist Budget Posting Mth in which Budget was set
As above but this time Curr Budget is copied to Hist Budget.
