Attributes and the DPO

Attributes store the data of the Detailed Planning Object (DPO) members. Attributes have three types: mandatory, default, and custom.

You manage attributes in the Administration panel.

Attribute properties

You use attribute properties to define how the attribute functions.

Each attribute has the following properties:

  • a Default Value
  • whether end users can edit its value
  • whether it can Vary By Scenario
  • whether it is Required data (by default this property is set to False)
  • formatting (for numeric and date values)
  • validation (minimum or maximum value, and whether a missing value is allowed)
  • conditions for data entry (for example, the Hourly Rate attribute is only available for viewing or data entry if the Employee Type attribute has the value of Hourly)

  • whether and how the attribute maps to a dimension Member Property in the detailed planning model (the mapping is required if the user wants to create reports in the model that include the attribute values)

     Note:   Member properties can only store a single value for an attribute across all scenarios/Versions in the model; if the attribute varies by scenario, FP&A will post data from the Default scenario.

  • for numeric values, a Minimum Value and a Maximum Value.

     Note:   Administrators can also define security access for each combination of user and DPO attribute.

Mandatory attributes

Mandatory attributes are present in all detailed planning models. They cannot be deleted and they cannot be modified other than having their names changed. The names appear italicized; if you edit the name, it appears in bold.
The mandatory attributes and their data types are as follows:

  • ID (Text)
  • Name (Text)
  • Comments (Text, Multi-Line)
  • Inactive (Yes/No)
  • Start Period (Member of a dimension)
  • End Period (Member of a dimension)
  • Any dimension in detailed planning (for example Organization, Job Position, and so on) but excluding Version, Accounts, Time, and Time Perspective.)

 Tip:  Optionally, you can enable automatic generation of IDs for the DPO.

Custom attributes

Custom attributes are user-defined. You can give a custom attribute any of the following data types:

  • Date
  • Numeric (floating point)
  • Integer numeric
  • List (A list of predefined values; for example, if there are five benefit plans, each employee can be assigned one of them)
  • Dimension member (For example, each employee can be associated with a single member of the Organization dimension)
  • Text
  • Boolean (True/False)

Conditional attributes

By default, all attributes are applied to all DPOs. For example, all employees will have a Starting date. However, you can optionally have an attribute apply to only a subset of employees.

 Example:  You could have a Commission attribute only apply to employees whose Position attribute is Sales Rep.

Scenarios and attributes

Attributes can vary by scenario. Because this behavior is typically needed for scenario-based planning, in new attributes the Vary by scenario property is enabled by default. For example, a Pay Increase attribute could be set to 4% in one planned scenario, whereas in another scenario it is set to 5%.

 Note:  There are attributes where the Vary by scenario property should be disabled. For example, Date of Hire or Gender should be the same in all scenarios.

If a saved attribute has its Vary by scenario setting changed to disabled, the values in the Default scenario are used, and are used to populate all scenarios.