The Analysis Topics form is displayed when the Add/modify topic option is selected from the ADVANCED ANALYSIS menu.
Note: Once a Topic field has been selected, and the Profile area of the Analysis Topics form has been clicked, the Profile Edit Form is displayed.
To open an existing Topic you must enter the TOPIC CODE of the existing topic. There is a search facility.
If you wish to create a new topic, enter in the new TOPIC CODE.
If no existing Topic has the same code, then the Create button will be enabled. Click this to begin to create a new topic.
The rest of this topic explains the procedures in Creating a new Topic.
Topic: A unique two-character TOPIC CODE (upper case).
Note: When naming a Topic, it is best to remember that the system will put all the Advanced Analysis Topics in alphabetical order. Therefore, to make a selection as clear as possible, it is advisable to keep the Topic code as clear as possible, and also it is worth giving topics that are alike sequential alphabetical codes, for example AB, AC, etc.
The Analysis Topics form consists of the following areas:
The controlling information for the Topic.
The following fields must be completed.
Name: Name of the Topic (up to 30 characters)
Directory: The Advanced Analysis files for a topic may be many and large. Therefore you can make them reside elsewhere on the disk using this field.
Symbolic links are set up so as to make them visible to the normal AA/00 data directory.
Periods: A topic has either 12 or 13 periods per time slice. Typically 12 months in a year or 13 lunar periods in a year or 13 weeks in a quarter.
Multi-company: Some raw files hold an accumulation of data from several companies. When this check box is set to a tick one of the axes must hold the field name COMPANY (see Y-axis), holding the number of the company concerned. (See Derived Logic )
Authentication Module: Along with Authentication Priority (below), this will provide security, limiting a user's view to only those companies they have the correct priority for. Enter here the 2 letter abbreviation for the module that the topic is relating to for example, Creditor's Analysis (CA) will be AC (Accounts).
Authentication Priority: See also Authentication Module above. Enter here the priority level below which a user should not be allowed to see this topic.
Clean next time: Clean formal files prior to next process? Either set the check box to a tick for Yes or leave blank for No.
Normal accumulating analyses do not zero. Hence this flag would be N. However, if you were to include orders taken but not invoiced as another inclusion type, the previous state of those in the formal files would need to be erased before replacing them with the current situation of orders taken. In this case, you would zero All.
If the topic was a 'snapshot' form of analysis, for example current age of stock, you would want to zero the current Month in the formal files prior to processing the raw data. You may also find a need to erase the current month onwards on some profiles, where "future" data may already exist.
This option is set to used (set the check box to a tick) if the Advanced Analysis view is not a continuous view.
If the Advanced Analysis is being built up a little at a time then this flag should be No, that is, no cleaning when the formal files are next processed.
Zero: This FLAG should be used in conjunction with the following:
Reference:
Profile => Includes Clearing path
Zero.
Possible flag combinations:
Clean next Time Zero
Left blank None
Set the check box to a tick All, Month, Forward, None
No: If the report is giving data that has to be accumulated every night then the option Clean next time will have to be flagged to N for No, thus ensuring that no data is lost from the formal file when the raw data file is processed.
In these cases, the (Profile => Include) zero flags must be set to N for None.
Set the Check box to a tick: If the option Clean next time has a tick in its check box then the Formal File will be partially or wholly cleaned every time the raw data is processed.
The options are according to the individual (Profile => Include) criteria and their specific zero flags.
Once you have data in a raw file, you may analyse that data in several ways, each one described by a profile.
A profile has an X-axis and a Y-axis, and each axis is hierarchically structured. Each level within a hierarchy has a descriptive label attached to it, known as X-labels and Y-labels, for example the name of the account or the company name. The label can come from any appropriate file in the system, or a special label file in the Advanced Analysis module can be defined if one does not exist elsewhere.
Each profile has an Inclusion field which can have up to 10 different inclusion codes with appropriate descriptions. Therefore, each profile can be split into 10 different inclusion sets.
Each profile can have up to 6 different Value Fields. The first 4 fields are numeric fields from the raw data file and the final two fields are derived calculation statements using the first 4 fields.
Each TOPIC can have up to 8 different PROFILES.
In a Topic, each Profile has a different view on the same data.
Set up one Timeslice entry for the current period (for example 2004). A Timeslice may have 12 periods (for example a year) or 13 periods (for example 13 weeks in a quarter) or lunar period definitions.
Timeslice references the PERIODS flag in the header.
If 12 is chosen, then 12 periods will be defaulted, if 13 is chosen, 13 periods.
Name: A name for the Timeslice can be defined by you. The name is normally a year. Set blank to delete
Start of timeslice: Enter first day of this Timeslice. If you choose 12 periods then the Timeslice will default all the Period end dates for the 12 periods of that year and 3-character short names for the months of the year calculated from the first day of the Timeslice.
Period end: Enter the last day of each period.
Note: Period dates and labels can be overwritten. You have ability to choose the first and last days of any particular period. Hence determining the period length, a period could be a week, fortnight, month, quarter, etc.
Label: A 3-character label field, that is defaulted with abbreviated names for the months of the year. The label can be altered to give your Timeslice meaningful period names.
Note: Advanced Analysis default will display the two most recent Timeslices/Datasets.
What is the data - Actuals, Budget?
Select Dataset.
Type in the DATASET for this PROFILE.
This field defaults to:
Actuals: Real values/data.BUTTONS
Exit: Returns you to the previous screen.
Shift: This menu option allows you to delete a Timeslice from a Topic.
Note:The effect of shifting all the Timeslices one to the left is that the Timeslice on the far left is deleted. Hence when you no longer wish to see the data for an old Timeslice on your Topic then it can be deleted. For example, in this period you may wish to compare the actual figures with last year's Actuals figures for the same period. But at the end of this year you may no longer be interested in the actual figure from 2 years ago, so you can delete any unwanted old Timeslices.
Delete: Allows you to delete the topic.
Help: Displays help on the current application using the default browser.
