Mapping between entities

Leico Lemus

Is there any way we can map an entity member to two or more different categories within a separate entity?

If so, what would be some methods to achieve this?

Thank you.

Bart Scott

The entities could not be related, but if they are separate entities you can use a mapping cube. The mapping cube (integer) is made up of Entity 1 and Entity 2, it can have multiple "mappings" from the one entity to the other (value of 1 if mapped, 0 if not mapped), then you can have a source cube with entity 1, have a procedure that uses that mapping cube to walk the data to another cube made up of both entities.

Dataflow:

Block A - Cube with Entity 1 and other entities
Block B - Mapping Cube with only Entity 1 and 2
Block C - Dest cube with Entity 1 and Entity 2 and same other entities

C = A*B

Bart Scott
CFO Solutions LLC

Leico Lemus

Hi Bart,

Thank you for your response. Just wanted to confirm. The entities in question on our end are related. Would this pose a problem to your proposed resolution?

Thank you,

Leico Lemus

Bart Scott

When setting up a relationship between entities it is many to 1 when going from Entity 1 to Entity 2. So a member in entity 1 can ONLY have 1 parent in Entity 2. It is not possible to have a member from a lower entity roll into more than 1 parent in Entity 2.

So not sure you can have a relationship between the entities and do what you want. The only other way is potentially use a mixture of rules on top of entity 2, in order to "display" the same data multiple times. For example you have Accounts in entity 1 rolling into an Asset parent in entity 2, but then there is a rule that reverses that Asset amount out under Net Profit to walk to EBITDA. For reporting purposes this does work, as long as the rule is applied on the block within the report, but the data isn't "duplicated" and those accounts still only have 1 actual parent relationship within Entity 2 (i.e the Asset member, not the reversal for EBITDA).

Hope that helps explain things a little bit better, but if there is a use case you are specifically looking to try and solve, it would be helpful to understand what you are attempting to do.

Bart Scott
CFO Solutions LLC

Leone Scaburri

Hi @Leico Lemus,

in case you want to create a mapping between members of the same entity you could consider the usage of a replicated entity. This is a common situation with a bill of materials where some items are components of another item.

Leico Lemus

@Bart Scott Would you be able to further explain this solution you have provided regarding rules. Just to summarize and clarify: we have 2 related entities at play. One entity is our GL Accounts and the other entity consists of our P/L categories. We would like to know if a GL Account (member of GL Accounts entity) may map to let's say Investment Banking Fees and Equity Research Fees (two members of P/L entity)? Once again the entities are related. If this is possible, we would appreciate a detailed explanation of how to achieve the result. Thank you Bart.

Leico Lemus

@Leone Scaburri May you please explain your response further? Please see below for a detailed example of what we are looking to achieve.

We have 2 related entities at play. One entity is our GL Accounts and the other entity consists of our P/L categories. We would like to know if a GL Account (member of GL Accounts entity) may map to let's say Investment Banking Fees and Equity Research Fees (two members of P/L entity)? Once again the entities are related.

Thank you.

Bart Scott

If they are related, you have to pick 1 parent for a member. So for example you may have your GL123 rolling to investment fees in the Reporting Account as it's parent. You can have a rule on Reporting Account that sets Equity Research Fees = Investment Fees, but I suspect you only want specific accounts out of the Investment Fees and not the whole amount. So you would have to break investment fees into multiple parts, the part you want to break out and duplicate, versus the part you do not. This creates a fairly ugly and cumbersome entity, relationship and rule. If you have need to do multiple mapping it is always best to keep the two entities unrelated, and setup a reporting cube with both entities so the data can be properly put within the reporting cube where it is needed. This is also quite common when you need more than just account to control the Reporting Account needed within the application (i.e this account from these departments goes to Direct Labor and the same account from other departments goes to overhead labor as an example).

Bart Scott
CFO Solutions LLC