Ubiquitous Dimensions in Accounting Systems

DIMENSION EXAMPLE HIERARCHIES WITHIN THE DIMENSION

Financial/Legal Requirements:

1. Company Parent, Subsidiary

2. Account
Natural account group, sub-group, and account Number
(e.g. Expenses contains LaborCosts, contains Wages)

3. Accounting Period
Fiscal Year, Fiscal Quarter, Month

Financial Management / Accountability Dimensions:

4. Transaction Type Transaction Type (such as Actual, Budget, Forecast, Tax)

5. Budget / Performance
CEO, Division, Region, Department, Workgroup, Employee (varies)

Operational Requirements:

6. Product or Service Product class, subclasses, products 

(Product ID is key to many valuable Joins into Transaction table. )
7. Customer Customer Class, Customer (Client)

(Most costs and revenues in the enterprise originate in systems where the Customer ID can be captured. The Customer ID is key to many valuable Joins into Customer table )

8. Vendor
Vendor Class, Vendor

(Theoretically, most costs other than labor can be captured along with a Vendor code or class of Vendor.)

9. Job or Activity
Job Class, Job
(Accounting for profits and losses by activity is essential in many companies)

10. Geographic/Location
National unit, region, city, etc. (varies)
(Cross joins such as product by location are essential in many companies)

 

 

more stuff like this:  

http://www.gldialtone.com/hypercub.htm 
http://www.gldialtone.com/datamart.htm  
http://www.gldialtone.com/dimensions.htm 
http://www.gldialtone.com/rootledgerXML.htm