Understanding Allocations

1. Understanding Allocations Brian Chizever Cognos Corporation

2. Terminology • Allocations • General usage: to apportion among a group • Cognos Finance: a set of specialized steps in the calculation process • Allocation Table • The set of allocation rules for a specific submission • An Allocation • One step in the allocation process • Allocation Line • One rule in the allocation table • This rule may perform one or more steps in the allocation process

3. Allocation Levels • Determines when the allocation is executed • Level 1: Occur after submission rollups and currency translations and before all other calculations • Levels 2-8: Each allocation level forces another round of Input Component and Rollup Component calculations. • Level 9: Occur after all other calculations are completed. No other calculations will occur after level 9 allocations. • The minor (decimal) portion is used to order allocations within a major level

4. Allocation Types • There are six allocation types • By Account: Use another account as a basis to determine the percentage of the source value that is assigned to the target • By Specific Proportion: Use a specified weight as a basis to determine the percentage of the source value that is assigned to the target • Combine: Add the sum of all source values and assign that sum to the target • Distribute: Copy the source component/account value and assign that value to the target account for each target component • Duplicate: Copy the source account value and assign that value to each target account within a component or set of components • Reverse: Copy the source values, reverse the sign and assign that new value to the target

5. SA TA SA SC TA SA SA TA TA By Account • Used to assign a value to the target component/account based on the value found in another account in the target component

6. SA TA wt1 % SA SC wt2 % TA SA SA wt3 % TA TA By Specific Proportion • Used to assign a value to the target component/account based on weights specified for in the Allocation Table

7. SC TA SA SC SA TA TC SA TA SC TA SA Combine • Sum several source values and assign the result to the target.

8. SA TA SA SC TA SA SA TA TA Distribute • Copies data from the source to the target(s)

9. SA TA SA TA SA TA Duplicate • Copies values from the source account to the target account within multiple components.

10. SC SA SA Reverse Sign TA TA Reverse • Copies data from the source to the target and reverses the sign

11. Component Hierarchies

12. Demonstration 1 & 2 • Demonstration 1 • Allocate Rent By Account and Reverse in 2 lines • Demonstration 2 • Allocate Rent By Account and Reverse in 1 line • Allocate By Account & Allocate By Specific Proportion • If some weights are negative and some positive, treat it as two separate allocations • Those targets with positive weights get the source amount allocated • Those targets with negative weights get the reverse of the source amount allocated

13. Demonstration 3 & 4 • Demonstration 3 • Same as demonstration 2 (Allocate Rent By Account and Reverse in 1 line), but add a line for Postage and a line for IT Expenses • Demonstration 4 • Same as demonstration 3 but all in one line using Allocation map • Large performance improvement because number of file reads are writes are greatly reduced • Eases maintenance because component groups are selected once instead of multiple times

14. Allocation Map • If you have multiple allocation lines that only differ by accounts, use an Allocation Map to merge the lines • Faster performance • Eliminating file reads and writes is the single biggest performance gain you can get • File Storage • Each submission is a file • Within each file, a record contains all accounts and periods for a single component group • Easier to maintain • Only one line instead of multiple lines • Ensures that multiple allocations use the same component set

15. Demonstration 5 • Demonstration 5 • Ease maintenance by using dependency • If more children are added to the calculated item, the allocation table doesn’t have to change

16. Set Dependency Levels • Self • Just use the selected item • Input • Replace the selected item with all the input items which roll into it • Has the effect of replacing one component group with many component groups • Eases maintenance by ensuring the allocation is based on the current hierarchy • Each input item uses the weight specified for the parent • Rounding Error • If set to “No”, each input is “No” • If set to “Yes”, the first input is “Yes”, all others are “No”

17. Demonstration 6 & 7 • Demonstration 6 • Same as demonstration 5 but add three additional lines for remaining hardware products • Demonstration 7 • Same as demonstration 6 (allocating from multiple target component groups), but merge into one line of the allocation table

18. Multiple Source Component Groups • Some allocation types use multiple source component groups • Combine • Duplicate • Some allocation types use a single source component group • By Account • By Specific Proportion • Distribute • Reverse • For those that use a single source component group, we allow the specification of multiple sources • This is treated the same as multiple lines in the table with each line using a single source component group • Merging lines by using multiple sources for these allocations may: • ease maintenance • have a slight performance improvement • create more allocations than intended

19. *MATCH • *MATCH means to use the same item for the target as was specified in the source • This is mostly used when specifying multiple source component groups

20. Demonstration 8 • Demonstration 8 • Same as demonstration 7 (allocating from multiple target component groups), but use hierarchy for source • Hierarchy makes maintenance easier • Hierarchy makes it very easy to create a large number of allocations • Possibly without realizing it

21. Demonstration 9 • Demonstration 9 • Similar to demonstration 8 (allocating from multiple target component groups), but use component library for source

22. Libraries for Component Groups • For each dimension, a library or single item is selected • If no dimensions use a library, this is converted to a component group with one row • The library is loaded at the time the calculation is performed • If a library cannot be found, the allocation is skipped and an appropriate message is written to the log. • When specifying libraries be aware of the path since the calculation may be started from different machines • The library may be either static or dynamic • If dynamic, the hierarchy of the submission being calculated is used • All items have a weight of one and dependency set to “Self” • If multiple dimensions use a library, each item in each dimension is paired with each item in the other dimension • For example if dim1 has a library with 3 items and dim2 has a library with 2 items, there will be a total of 6 (2x3) component groups.

23. Performance • Minimize file access • Use Allocation Maps • Be aware of “exploding” nature of hierarchies • Executing allocations based on calculation flags • In version 7.3 and earlier, all allocations were executed • In version 7.3SP4 we added logic to skip allocations if the data had not changed • Must be run if any data changed • Source or Target component group • Source, Target, or Basis account • Set flags manually iff the allocation table changes (similar to Currency Translation and Submission Rollup Tables) • Setting the Target Value to “Add” forces a lot of work to determine which allocations can be skipped

24. Target Value Option • Overwrite • This is the normal action • The new target value replaced any existing value • Add • The new target value is added to any existing value • Mostly used to allocate multiple rules into the same account • Insert an allocation to ensure the initial value is zero • Avoid if possible • Interferes with the ability to skip allocations based on calculation flags

25. Source Value Option • Copy • This is the normal action • The source value is retained after the target is written • Move • The source value is set to zero after the target is written • Removes the need for a Reverse allocation • Makes the calculation non-restartable • Only use for intermediate values

26. Create Component Groups Option • Yes, create component groups for allocation. • Should (almost) always be used for these types: • By Specific Proportion • The sum of the values in the targets should equal the value in the source. This may not happen if you don’t create new component groups • Combine • The created sum may be first value in the target component group • Reverse • The reversal may be the first value in the target component group • No, ignore component groups that do not already exist in this submission. • Mostly used for Distribute • If you want a rate in multiple components, you may only input into one of them and use Distribute to copy it to the other components • If those other components have no other data, you don’t want to create them just for this • This option is ignored for • By Account • If the target doesn’t exist, the basis is zero so the target would not receive a value anyway • Duplicate • If the target doesn’t exist, neither does the source so there is nothing to do

27. Compare Allocations • Compare the allocation tables in two submissons • Lines in submission 1 but not in submission 2 • Lines in submission 2 but not in submission 1 • Lines in both submissions that match • Lines in both submissions that are different • Option for how many differences the line has between the two submissions before it’s considered a different row • Option for which columns are used in the comparison • For example, may not care if the comment is different