Groups

A Group is an organizational element and creates no line items on its own. When a group is created it inherits the FO Type Restrictions, Units and Period Type Specifies the method of rollup e.g. quarters and years. Duration: Sums all included period values Instant: Last period value of the parent. After the new group is created, it in turn can have groups created inside it so you can create an entire hierarchy. A common use for groups is to create product lines, customer channels, or departments. Also see organizational styles that can be used to create alternative groupings.

 

Exploring a group

Sometimes it's useful to explore the contents of a group to learn more about what it contains. Right-click a group and select View Group to open it in a separate panel on your workspace. You can optionally drag the group (or most any Navigation Tree item) to the desired location on your workspace. Clicking the + sign next to the Title column offers a number of options including being able to add columns for:

 

Other available options are:

  1. Select
    1. Multi-select by clicking on a check box, holding down the shift key and selecting another checkbox.
    2. Click "Operation" and select the desired action:
      • Delete the selected items
      • Move the selected items to top, bottom, or another group
      • Change FO Type
      • Cancel selection
  2. Export Table (HTML)
  3. Renumber (used to change the order of FOs)

Whenever you add a new column, you can temporarily sort the list by clicking on the column title.

 

Reorganizing and moving group members

Reorganizing

Members of a group, including all sub members, can be regrouped and sorted based on a wide range of criteria. From the group's menu select Reorganize, alternatively, you can drag and drop subgroups and its members to your desired location.

 

Regrouping criteria

  1. Flatten into one group
  2. Group all into one group
  3. By first word in title
  4. By last word in title
  5. By primary line item of account number segments
  6. By FO Attribute
  7. By Hub

Sorting criteria

  1. By Title
  2. By FO Attribute
  3. By Hub
  4. By increasing or decreasing value for some period, span and scenario

 

Any number of grouping levels can be defined.

Example: You might want to group by one FO Attribute, and then within those groups to group by some other criteria, such as another FO Attribute, and so on.

  1. Click on Reorganize in the group menu.
  2. Select the criteria to be used for Level 1 and select the sorting method to be used.
  3. If you want to add groups within each of these groups, click Add another ORGANIZING level and specify the grouping criteria for this level and how it is to be sorted, and so on.

Tip: Reorganize groups for computational purposes. Use organization styles for determining how groups should be rearranged and displayed in reports.

Moving specific objects

Individual objects can be moved by dragging and dropping in the Navigation Panel, or with manual options in the Panel Menu under Edit, Move:

  1. Select Up to move the object up in the list
  2. Select Down to move the object lower in the list
  3. Move to another group.

 

A selection of objects can be moved. To do so:

  1. Click on the + sign next to Title column in the group.
  2. Click on Select. A checkbox will appear next to each item in the list.
  3. Check the boxes for the items you wish to move. When you do, an Operation button will appear at the top of the column of checkboxes.
  4. Select between:
    1. Move selected items to top
    2. Move selected items to bottom
    3. Move selected items to <another group>

Tip: if you want to select multiple consecutive items at the same time, you can do so by selecting the first item you want selected, holding down the "Shift" key and clicking on the last item you want selected. The Shift key acts as an extend key to extend a selection from the first item through to, and including, the last item you select.

 

Listed items may also be reordered within a group. To do so:

  1. In a group, to the left of the Title column is a column containing the numbered (#) list of objects
  2. Click on any number(s) and change the value to change its location in the list.
  3. Save your changes and the list will be reordered.

Groups in User Defined

Unlike groups created under a Financial Statement Primary Element, under User Defined assumptions you must specify the type of group to create.

  1. Organizational Group
  2. Ratio Group (percent)
  3. Ratio Group (other)
  4. Duration Period In a rollup, sums all included period values Group
    1. Specify the Unit type
  5. Instant Period In a rollup, returns the value of the last period Group
    1. Specify the Unit type

 

User defined groups may also have FO Type restrictions.

Organizational Group

An Organizational Group is only available in User Defined and, as the name suggests, is used for organizing FOs. It does not provide a summation and cannot be referenced in a Formula Layers as such.

Ratio Groups

This is a special class of groups, used only for Ratio FO Instances of the same type (percent or other). Note: Ratios cannot be added to User Defined directly, they must be placed in a Ratio Group.

Duration and Instant Period Groups

Unlike Organizational Groups, both Duration and Instant Groups will provide a summation of its contents and can be referenced in a Formula Layer. Any group of this kind must also specify the Units of its contents. Note: Duration or Instant Line Items cannot be added to User Defined directly, they must be placed in either a Duration or Instant Group

 

Related Links:

Report Specifications

Ratio FO Type

Organization Tree

Panels

FO Type Restrictions