Hub Types

Hub Types are an advanced modeling feature that establishes a one-to-many relationship between Financial Objects. Once the relationship has been established data can be shared between the Hub (the "one" in the one-to-many), and its Connections (the "many").

Example: You would want a depreciation line item on the Income Statement to aggregate the depreciation (Hub) calculated in Plant and Equipment FOs (Connections), without the model user The end user of the model, as opposed to the model designer. They, of course, could be one and the same. needing to write/change a formula each time a new asset is added.

You might also want many FOs to use data from a single FO as a basis for calculations

Example: Perhaps you have departments that contain Salaries and Wages (Hub), that is used by multiple expense types, such as benefits, travel, and office supplies (Connections) that are based on the Salaries and Wages in a department.

Hub Types can be created and/or used for any line item parameter of any unit type.

There are two parts to a Hub Type:

Hub - Aggregates data from all Connections and/or provides data to each Connection
Connection to Hub - Provides data to a Hub and/or uses data from the Hub as a basis for calculations

There are three steps involved in creating hubs and connections.:

Create a Hub Type (e.g. Depreciation)
Add a Hub parameter to a FO Type (e.g. a depreciation FO)
Add a Connection to Hub parameter to a FO Type (e.g. a plant and equipment FO)

Using Hubs and Connections to share information between financial objects

Whenever a Connection is added to an FO Type for a specific Hub type, you must select a default line item that will be supplied to its Hub. This may be all you need. However, there are many situations where you will want to share data between related FOs, making layers fast and easy. Here is a summary of the types of data flows and how to create them.

Data Flow	Number of Line Items	Method	Hub Role	Connection Role	Example
From Connections to Hub (Single)	1	Default line item in Connections	Aggregates data	Supplies data from a single line item	depreciation, interest
From Connections to Hub (Multiple)	1 or more	In the Hub, a formula using a Sum of Expressions	Aggregates data for one or more line items	Supplies data from any number of line items	Hub collects different types of expenses from Connections in different types of FOs
From Hub to Connections	1 or more	In the Connection, a formula using a variable Kind of: Hub Parameter. Allows access to one or more of the Hub's parameters.	Supplies data	Uses	salaries of a department, revenue of a product as a basis for calculations

Data Flow

Number of

Line Items

Method

Hub Role

Connection Role

Example

From Connections to Hub (Single)

Default line item in Connections

Aggregates data

Supplies data from a single line item

depreciation, interest

From Connections to Hub (Multiple)

1 or more

In the Hub, a formula using a Sum of Expressions

Aggregates data for one or more line items

Supplies data from any number of line items

Hub collects different types of expenses from Connections in different types of FOs

From Hub to Connections

1 or more

In the Connection, a formula using a variable Kind of: Hub Parameter. Allows access to one or more of the Hub's parameters.

Supplies data

Uses

salaries of a department, revenue of a product as a basis for calculations

Creating a Hub Type

Go to Model Infrastructure/Hub Types.
Right-click the group and select Add Hub Type.
Title the Hub Type.

Example: Let's say you want to create a hub for Depreciation

Go to Model Infrastructure/Hub Types.

Right-click the group and select Add Hub Type.

Title the Hub Type "Depreciation".

Adding a Hub parameter to a FO Type

Hubs can also be added via the Add button in a FO Designer for a FO Type.

Go to the FO Type you are working on, or create an extension of an existing FO.
Click on Add/Hub and select the type of hub you want to add. The hub parameter will be added.
By default, the Hub will be titled "<name of hub type> Hub". Now that the parameter has been added, you can use it within the logic of the FO.

Example: Continuing the depreciation example above, let's say you extended a Basic Depreciation FO.

Add the Hub parameter for depreciation as detailed above.

Click on the Depreciation parameter, exposing its settings.

Click on Add layer and select Formula Layer, exposing its settings.

Click on Step 1, exposing its settings.

For Kind, select Local Parameter.

For Parameter, select <hub type name> Hub.

Change the title of the parameter to Depreciation

Save the changes.

Adding a Connection to Hub parameter to a FO Type

A Connection to Hub can also be added via the Add button in a FO Designer for a FO Type.

Go to the FO Type you are working on, or create an extension of an existing FO.
Click on Add/Connection and select the line item parameter that will be supplied to hub. The parameter will be added and titled "<Name of hub type> Connection" by default. If one or more instances of an FO containing a Hub of this type exists, you can specify which instance to use as the default for this FO.
To activate this hub, you must select the hub type to be used (such as Depreciation).
You will want to rename this to something like "Depreciation Destination", as this parameter will appear as a drop-down list in the FO Instance An FO Instance inherits all parameters and any logic(formulas) contained in the FO. Any change in the FO is immediately updated in all instances., and you will want the model user The end user of the model, as opposed to the model designer. They, of course, could be one and the same. to know the purpose of this parameter.

Example: Continuing with the example, add the Connection parameter for depreciation to an extension of a Basic Plant and Equipment FO, to which you have added a line item parameter for Depreciation:

Click on Add/Connection to Hub/Depreciation and then select the Depreciation parameter.

The new parameter will be added and titled "Depreciation Connection". Rename the parameter as described above.

Using Hubs and Connections in FO Instances

If you create an instance of an object containing a hub, the hub parameter will be hidden from the model user The end user of the model, as opposed to the model designer. They, of course, could be one and the same.. The calculations are performed in the background. However, an instance of an object containing a Connection parameter will contain a drop-down list containing a list of every instance of a FO that contains a hub of that type, allowing the model user to select between them.

Setting a default Hub

You may want to make sure that a FO parameter always has destination (e.g. accumulated depreciation, depreciation).

Go to Model Infrastructure/Hub Types and select the hub type. Notice that there is a default hub. Select the default and save your changes.

Note: There must be at least one instance of a FO Type with a Hub of this kind.

You want one, and only one, hub

There are times when you don't want to give the model user a choice; you want the data to flow to a specific hub (e.g. you want all depreciation to flow to a single account). In this case, once the default is set, go to the FO Type containing the Connection parameter, click on it, and change its Visibility to Hidden. Now all instances will automatically be set to the default and the model user will be unable to select anything else.

FOs that contain a Connection to Hub may also specify a default hub. The default in the FO will take precedence over the default for the Hub Type.