Reporting tree definition

A reporting tree definition is report component, also called a building block, which helps define the structure and hierarchy of your organization. It is a cross-dimensional hierarchical structure based on the dimensional relationships in your financial data. It provides information at the reporting unit level and at a summary level for all units in the tree.

This topic contains the following sections:

• Before creating a reporting tree

• Create multiple reporting trees

• Create a reporting tree definition

• Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box

• Rolling up data in a reporting tree

Management Reporter supports flexible reporting so that it is easy to make changes as your business structure changes. Reporting tree definitions can be combined with column definitions and report definitions to create a building block group that can be used by multiple companies. For more information about building block groups, see Building block group.

In Management Reporter, a reporting unit is used for each box in an organizational chart. For more information about reporting units, see the “Reporting unit structure” section in Manage reporting units. A reporting unit can be an individual department from the financial data, or it can be a higher-level summary unit that combines information from other reporting units. For a report definition that includes a reporting tree, one report is generated for each reporting unit and for the summary level. All of these reports use the row and column definitions that are specified in the report definition, unless the report definition specifies to use the reporting tree from the row definition.

Row and column definitions are important components in the design and functionality of financial reports. Reporting trees increase the power of the components and support flexible reporting as the business structure changes.

Financial reports that are not based on a reporting tree use only some of the capabilities of Management Reporter. You can use multiple reporting tree definitions with the same row and column definitions to view your organization’s data in various ways.

Before creating a reporting tree

Before you create a reporting tree, you must first determine which reporting dimensions your legal entity or company requires.

Consider how you have set up your structure, and then draw an organizational chart of your company. The organizational chart will help you visualize how to group the reporting units into one or more reporting trees.

Start with the lowest available level of detail, such as the departments and projects that are defined in the financial data. Add as many boxes to the level of detail, as needed, to show higher-level divisions or regions. Each box represents a potential reporting unit in any reporting tree that you create.

You must also consider the best way to build your trees. In Management Reporter, you can use an automated build process to create a reporting tree, or you can create a reporting tree. It is important to understand both methods before you design your trees. For more information, see Manage reporting units.

You can use the reporting units that are defined in your financial data system to add reporting units to the reporting tree definition.

Create multiple reporting trees

You can create an unlimited number of reporting trees to view your organization’s data in various ways. Each reporting tree can contain any combination of departments and summary units.

By rearranging the structure of the reporting units, you can create different reporting trees. You can then use the same row and column definition with each reporting tree, which lets you quickly create different financial report layouts.

For example, the following diagram shows a reporting tree that is basically the same as the reporting tree that is shown in the “Reporting unit structure” section of Manage reporting units. The difference is that the reporting structure displays an organizational structure that is divided by business function instead of by location. These two reporting trees demonstrate different perspectives on company operations.

If you create several different reporting trees, you can print a series of financial statements each month that analyze and present your company's operations in a variety of ways.

Create a reporting tree definition

The reporting tree definition contains the columns described in the following table.

Reporting tree definition columns

Create a reporting tree definition

1. Open Report Designer. On the File menu, click New, and then click Reporting Tree Definition.

2. On the Edit menu, click Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions.

3. In the Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box, select the check box for each dimension to include in the reporting tree. For a description of the sections in this dialog box, see Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box.

4. To create additional segments, such as breaking one segment into two shorter segments, click the correct location in a Character position field, and then click Split Segments.

5. To merge two segments into one segment, click in either of the segment boxes to merge the segments, and then click Combine Segments.

6. The hierarchy defines how dimensions report to each other and the range for each dimension. To change the hierarchy of the dimensions in the Segment hierarchy and ranges area, select the dimension to move, and then click Move Up or Move Down.

7. To specify a range of dimension values to add to the new reporting tree, in the Segment hierarchy and ranges area, follow these steps:

   1. In the From Dimension field for that dimension, type the first value in the range.

   2. In the To Dimension field, type the last value to use for this dimension.

8. For each dimension in the Segment hierarchy and ranges area, repeat step 7.

9. After you have finished defining how your reporting units will be brought into the new reporting tree, click OK.

10. On the File menu, click Save to save the reporting tree. Enter a unique name and description for the reporting tree, and then click OK.

Open an existing reporting tree definition

1. In Report Designer, click Reporting Tree Definitions in the navigation pane.

2. Double-click a name in the reporting tree list to open it. For a description of the columns and the information that is required, see the “Reporting tree definition columns” table in Create a reporting tree definition.

3. To view any building blocks that are associated with the reporting tree, right-click the reporting tree definition, and then select Associations.

Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box

You can also build a reporting tree definition from the dimensions in your financial data by using the Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box. To open this dialog box, open a reporting tree definition in Report Designer, click Edit, and then select Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions.

The Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box contains the following sections. To see example screenshots, see Example of Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box.

Section	Description
Reporting dimension segmentation	Use the Split Segments and Combine Segments buttons to change the number and length of segments. Note You can only combine segments that you have split. To combine multiple dimensions, use wildcard characters in your dimension values.
Include/Character position	Lists the dimensions that are defined in the financial data and shows the number of characters in the longest defined value for each dimension. Select a check box to include that dimension in the reporting tree hierarchy.
Segment hierarchy and ranges	Shows the dimension hierarchy. You can move the dimensions in the list to change their reporting order. Specify a range of values within each dimension in the From Dimension and To Dimension boxes. If you do not specify a range, all dimension values are inserted into the reporting tree. Note If you are using more than one dimension, only dimension combinations that have been posted to will be returned in the results.

Example of Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box

In this example, the Insert Reporting Units from Dimensions dialog box contains the following information. The results will return the combination of departments equal to and greater than 00 for all divisions.

The resulting reporting tree definition is sorted by Division and then Department. The dimension for the third reporting unit is Division = [000], Department = [00] , which identifies a reporting unit for accounts that are specific to the 000 Division and 00 Department.

Roll up data in a reporting tree

By using a reporting tree, Management Reporter can aggregate amounts from child reporting units at the parent reporting unit level. This inclusion is called rolling up the data.

The following rules are used to roll up amounts to parent units in a reporting tree:

• Within a reporting tree, child units must contain dimensions, unless it is a single-level tree. Parent units usually do not contain dimensions in a reporting tree.

  Note

  Specifying dimensions for both child units and parent units can cause duplication of data in the report.

• Reporting units that contain dimensions in the reporting tree correspond to the dimensions that are used in the row and column definitions. The combination of dimensions determines the amounts returned for that unit. For example, lines 6 and 7 in Example 2 will return only the values for department 00 and 01, respectively.

• The amounts for parent reporting units that do not contain dimensions in the reporting tree are determined from the child unit report and roll up the amount to the specified parent unit. For example, if the parent unit (see Total TWO in Example 2) has two child units (00 and 01) and does not contain dimensions, a report is generated for each child and the parent. The parent total is the sum of the two child amounts.

Examples of rolling up data

The following examples show possible information that is used in a reporting tree definition for an example of rolling up data.

Example 1

Example 2

See Also

Manage reporting units