Data Warehouse Overview

The Solver Data Warehouse provides a friendly user interface to create and maintain a database application for financial and operational reporting and planning. With minimal experience in data warehousing, users can quickly create a database solution storing financial data and make customizations to this data for reporting purposes. Import other types of data to do financial reporting on operational data to get additional information on how your business is operating.

Highlighted Features and Functionality

The Data Warehouse comes with the following key features

1. Solver allows for up to 1000 custom dimensions. This is denoted as d_Dim999.
2. Solver allows for unlimited number of modules
3. Solver supports an unlimited dimension codes to one dimension.
4. Consolidation and currency translation processes
5. Business rules (XML files) that perform additional transformations
6. Single, global fiscal calendar
7. Pre-build connectors to many systems.

Menu and Interface

The Data Warehouse consists of 5 submenus for specific tasks.

• Overview: Displays the modules and dimensions that have been created by your organization.
  • Dimensions by Module: Displays the list of modules and the dimensions assigned to each one
  • Modules by Dimension: A listing of all dimensions and the modules they are assigned to. This view may show dimensions not visible on the Dimensions by Module view because they are not assigned to any module.

• Currency: within the currency menu are three submenus for Rate Types, Rate Configuration and Monthly Rates.
  • Rate Types
  • Rate Configuration
  • Monthly Rates
• Data Explorer: view data that has been uploaded into Solver. Data Explorer provides unrestricted access to data and is not tied to permissions set in Data Access. Permissions can be assigned to this menu, giving you control of who can access this menu
• Data: within the Data menu are four submenus to help you import data into Solver.
  • Integrations: A listing of integrations from a source system into Solver
  • Rules: Custom process created by you or a consultant to do additional transformations of data after the data has been loaded into Solver.
  • Jobs: Group and bundle the integration and rules into a job and schedule them to run throughout the day via the jobs menu.
  • Event Log: view the last 30 days of job & integration executions. View error details when your integrations fail to complete for troubleshooting purposes.
    • You may request additional days back by submitting a request to Solver Support.
• Configuration: consisting of five submenus, use these menus to do the initial configuration of the Data Warehouse and maintenance at any time.
  • Modules: View and maintain modules and their attributes.
  • Dimensions: View and maintain dimensions and their attributes.
  • Modules Schema: Assign dimensions to the modules that have been created.
  • Period Configuration: define the periods that will be used in Solver.
  • API: enable the API, allowing you to connect Solver to Power BI, Tableau or any other source that can accept an OData feed.

Configure your Data Warehouse

Configuring your Data Warehouse includes the following steps

1. Create your fiscal calendar
2. Create your modules and dimensions
3. Import your data

NOTE: The following sections require that the logged-in user has been assigned Can Manage Configuration permissions. Please reference this article for more details on permissions.

Create Your Fiscal Calendar

An organization’s fiscal calendar is one of the first tasks that needs to be completed in the Solver product. Solver’s advanced period configuration wizard is fully customizable to meet almost any fiscal configuration. The wizard supports the following configurations:

• Standard 12-period calendars. Begin on Jan 1st and end on Dec 31st where each month represents a period
• 4-4-5, 4-5-4, 5-4-4 period configurations
• Many non-standard, “fiscal” configurations
• 13-53 Period configurations

The one configuration that Solver’s period wizard does not support multiple fiscal calendars. For these configurations, please contact Solver Support (support@solverglobal.com). 

Creating and Maintaining Periods

Upon logging into Solver and navigating to the Data Warehouse menu, if periods are not configured, on the Overview page, users are informed to configure their periods. Click the Period Configuration link to begin

1. The Period Configuration wizard starts by providing a brief overview of the steps. Click Get Started to begin.
2. A popup will appear asking users to select the first fiscal year to configure. This is typically going to be only a couple years prior to the current calendar year, in order to load historical data. If you are unsure, you can always add years later.
3. After clicking Continue, the fiscal year configuration will appear. It defaults to a standard calendar configuration where each period is representative of its respective month (ie the month of January represents Period 1). Users have the ability to change the following
   • Number of periods per year.
   • Period labels (January, February…)
   • Calendar start dates
   • Calendar type
   • Weekday when the fiscal week begins
4. After configuring your periods as needed, click Create Periods in the bottom right-hand corner. This will create your first fiscal year. There are some action buttons to be aware of here.
   • Reset all Periods: This button only appears when there is no data in the database. Click this button if you need to reset the entire Period configuration
   • + icons: Add prior years or years into the future. Users are able to add up to 10 years at one time. Upon clicking the + icon a drop down will appear allowing the user to select up to 10 years. Once an option is clicked, the screen will refresh with the number of years to be added.
   • Edit YYYY: Click this icon to edit the selected fiscal year (in blue text). Within editing a select fiscal year, users will also have the option to delete that specific fiscal year. This action is found in the bottom right hand corner of the Edit YYYY screen. Note that this individual fiscal year deletion functionality is only available for the very first or most recent fiscal year.

Adding Fiscal Years

Users are able to add up to 10 years at one time.

To add fiscal years to Solver

1. Navigate to Period Configuration.
2. Click the + icon next to the years configured in your Period Configuration.
3. Upon clicking the + icon a drop-down will appear allowing the user to select up to 10 years.
4. Once an option is clicked, the screen will refresh with the number of years to be added.

The generated periods inherit the most recent fiscal configuration and are automatically saved. If you need to modify the calendar simply click Edit to make changes to the configuration.

Deleting Periods

Users may delete fiscal years from within the Period Configuration window. Users may delete a fiscal year once all data associated with the fiscal year is removed from your Solver tenant. This data can be found in any of the modules you have created. Users must delete the most recent year(s) first.

To delete periods

1. Navigate to Period Configuration
2. In the upper left-hand click the most recent fiscal year that has been created and click Edit to the right.
3. In the bottom left-hand corner will be the option to delete periods.
4. A popup will confirm this action. Click Yes, Delete to delete the fiscal year or No, Cancel to exit

Creating Modules and Attributes

Modules, also referred to as factsets, store your transaction information such as General Ledger and General Ledger Detail. Solver comes with these two modules out of the box with the ability to create an unlimited number of modules. At the very top of the Configuration > Modules menu, users will see a count of the number of modules that have been created.

Creating a Module

To create a new Module:

1. Navigate to Data Warehouse > Configuration > Modules
2. Click on the (+) icon.
3. In the popup that appears, type in the module name and click Create
   • Module names are limited to 128 characters and should not include any special characters beside dash, underscores and spaces
4. The application will create the module. The user will be taken to the module attribute page.
5. The attributes page will list all default attributes for the selected module in the top half of the screen. The labels, custom names you define, are modifyable but the attributes in this section cannot be deleted.
   
   The bottom half of the menu shows attributes that have been created by users in your tenant. These custom attributes may be edited or deleted by anyone with Can manage configuration permissions.
   
   • Editing field names will appear throughout the app upon refreshing or reloading the application.
   • Deleting attributes will be removed from the application immediately. Deleting attributes may result in reporting errors so make sure to check with your report writers that it is okay to delete these attributes.

Module Attributes

The Module Attributes page is where users customize the different data associated with existing modules. The three customizable areas are:

1. System Fields
2. Custom Fields

System Fields

The system fields section shows all the default system attributes found for the current module being edited. Each attribute contains the following details:

• System Name: Displays the database name for the particular system attribute.
• Field Label: Displays the friendly name seen in the Solver Portal for the particular system attribute.
• Data Type: Describes the type of data the particular system attribute can carry.
• Visible: Describes whether the particular system attribute can be seen in the Solver Portal.
• Updated: Describes when the particular system attribute was last modified.

To make edits to system attributes:

1. Select the desired system attribute and click Edit.
2. The Edit System Attribute Field modal appears. Enter a new name in the Field Label text box if making a change to the label seen in the Solver Portal.
3. Select/deselect the Visible checkbox as desired to adjust whether this system attribute is seen in the Solver Portal.
4. Click Save to close the modal and apply the new changes to the selected system attribute. Click Cancel to close the modal and discard the changes made to the selected system attribute.

Custom Fields

The custom fields section shows all the custom attributes found for the current module being edited. Each attribute contains the following details:

• System Name: Displays the database name for the particular custom attribute.
• Field Label: Displays the friendly name seen in the Solver Portal for the particular custom attribute.
• Data Type: Describes the type of data the particular custom attribute can carry.
• Visible: Describes whether the particular custom attribute can be seen in the Solver Portal.
• Updated: Describes when the particular custom attribute was last modified.

Creating a Module Attribute

1. Click Add.
2. The Create Module Attribute Field modal appears. Enter a new name in the Field Label text box. This name will be displayed in the Solver Portal.
3. Select the Data Type dropdown to see the available data types. Click on the desired data type this attribute will carry.
   • Note that once created and saved, the Data Type dropdown cannot be modified. Ensure the desired data type is selected before continuing.
4. Select/deselect the Visible checkbox as desired to adjust whether this custom attribute is seen in the Solver Portal.
5. Click Save to close the modal and create the new attribute. Click Cancel to close the modal and stop the new attribute creation.

Edit a Module Attribute

1. Select any custom attribute and click Edit.
2. The Edit Module Attribute Field modal appears. Enter a new name in the Field Label text box if changing the custom attribute name. This name will be displayed in the Solver Portal.
3. Select/deselect the Visible checkbox as desired to adjust whether this custom attribute is seen in the Solver Portal.
4. Click Save to close the modal and save the new changes made to the custom attribute. Click Cancel to close the modal and discard the changes made to the custom attribute.

Delete an Attribute

1. Select any custom attribute and click Delete.
2. The Delete Custom Module Attribute modal appears.
3. Click Save to close the modal. The custom attribute will no longer appear in the Custom Fields table.
4. Click Cancel to close the modal without deleting the custom attribute. Confirm that the attribute is still seen in the Custom Fields table

Modifying a Module

To modify the details for a module:

1. From the Configuration -> Modules screen, select the desired module to be edited.
2. Click on the pencil icon
3. The user will be taken to the module attributes page, where they can edit the details of this module such as label names and existing module attributes.

Deleting a Module

Deleting a module will delete all of the data in the module and is a non-reversible action. Discuss with your technical resources and/or your implementation partner before proceeding.

1. From the Configuration -> Modules screen, select the module to be deleted.
2. Click on the trash can icon.
3. A popup will appear confirming the action to delete the module. Click Delete to delete the module.

The module will no longer appear in the list and has been successfully removed from the application.

Dimensions

Dimension help detail a transactions. The best way to think of a dimension as compared to an attribute, in relation to a transaction, a dimension rarely changes. So for example, accounts rarely change but the dollar amount associated can change. Dimensions have the following functionality:

1. Dimension list display dimensions
2. Trees
3. Rollups

Creating a Dimension

To create a dimension

1. Navigate to Data Warehouse > Configuration > Dimensions
2. A listing of all default dimensions and already created dimensions will appear.
3. Click the + icon to create a new dimension. In the popup that appears, type in a name and click Create.
   • Dimension Names can be changed at any time and are reflected throughout the application.
   • Changing a dimension name may impact your integrations to Solver API, consult your technical resources and/or partner to verify the impact of changing a name.
4. Users will be taken to a screen displaying the attributes of the dimension. By default there are several attributes that exist including Code, Description, Alias, Source, Created On, Created By, Updated On and Updated By. These attributes cannot be deleted.
5. In the bottom half of the screen, a list of custom attributes (UDF###) will appear.

Creating a Dimension Attribute

Dimensions attribute are useful in grouping or describing additional properties of a dimension code. To create a dimension attribute

1. Navigate to the Data Warehouse > Configuration > Dimension > Click on the dimension you wish to add an attribute to > Edit.
2. In the bottom of the screen a list of already created custom dimension attributes appear. click the + icon to create a new Dimension Attribute.
3. In the popup that appears, give the dimension attribute a name and define the data type.
   • Dimension names can be changed at any time; dimension data types cannot be changed after creation.
   • Use the appropriate data type for the data that will load into this attribute. Choose the smallest data type possible to meet your need for the best performance optimzation.
     • Short Text supports up to 50 characters
     • Long Text supports up to 512 characters
     • Comment is “unlimited”
4. Users have a couple options after defining the dimension attribute
   • Save & Close: this creates the dimension attribute and closes the window.
   • Save & Add Another: this creates the dimension attribute and resets the window allowing users to create another attribute.

Deleting a Dimension Attribute

Users can delete a dimension attribute. Deleting a dimension attribute deletes the data and attribute from the dimension. Deleting a dimension attribute can impact other parts of the application, discuss with your technical resources or implementation before deleting a dimension attribute.

1. Navigate to the Data Warehouse > Configuration > Dimension > Click on the dimension you wish to edit .
2. In the bottom of the screen a list of already created custom dimension attributes appear. Click on the attribute you wish to delete.
3. Click the Trash Can icon to delete the attribute.
4. A popup will appear confirming the action. Click Delete to delete the dimension attribute.

Deleting a Dimension

Users may want to delete unwanted dimensions. Deleting a dimension may impact multiple parts of the application, discuss with your technical resources and/or implementation partner before deleting a dimension attribute.

Before you begin

1. A dimension must be unassigned from all modules. See the modules schema section for information on how to unassign a dimension from a module.
2. Solver cannot restore a single dimesion and its data. Delete a dimension only if you are 100% sure it is no longer used throughout your implmentation.

To delete a dimension:

1. Navigate to the Data Warehouse > Configuration > Dimension > Click on the dimension you wish to delete.
2. In the action bar, click the Trash Can.
3. A popup will appear confirming the action. Click Delete to delete the dimension.

Module Schema

The module schema ( Data Warehouse > Configuration > Module Schema) screen allows users to assign dimensions to a module. Using the above configured Modules and Dimensions, assign the dimension(s) to the module(s) that it should be associated.

• it is common that dimension can be associated with many modules.

Module Schema loads with dimensions listed vertically and modules listed as a column header.

• A green dot indicates that the dimension is associated to the module.
• A gray dot indicates that it is not associated to that module.

Adding a Dimension to a Module

To add a dimension to a module

1. Navigate to Data Warehouse > Configuration > Module Schema
2. Click the Edit icon at the top of the screen.
3. The interface will update, display checkboxes.
4. Click the checkbox that aligns with the Dimension that should be associated to a module.
   • Multiple edits can be made while in the Edit session.
   • Enabling a dimension on the General Ledger will automatically enable it on the General Ledger Detail by default. Users can uncheck the module from the General Ledger Detail if the dimension is a General Ledger only dimension
5. Once all changes have been made, click Save. Depending on the amount of data in the module, the process to update the schema may take a minute.

Removing a Dimension from a Module

Users are able to remove a dimension from a module. Removing a dimension can impact other places in the application, consult with you technical resources and/or your implementation partner before proceeding.

1. Navigate to Data Warehouse > Configuration > Module Schema
2. Click the Edit icon at the top of the screen.
3. The interface will update, display checkboxes.
4. For a dimension that is checked, click the checkbox to unassign that dimension from the module.
   • Multiple edits can be made while in the Edit session.
5. Once all changes have been made, click Save. Depending on the amount of data in the module, the process to update the schema may take a minute.

Overview > Dimensions

From the overview Dimensions menu, users can see all created dimensions and edit the dimension codes associated to a dimension. Users can also maintain a dimension by

1. Data integration (Data Warehouse > Data > Integrations) is an automated way to maintain dimensions.
2. The Overview > Modules view display all Modules and the Dimensions associated to the module. Each dimension listed is a hyperlink to that dimensions list view where you can edit the dimension codes.

Create and Maintain Dimension Code

The Data Warehouse allows users to fully maintain their dimension codes. These actions can be

1. Add a dimension code
2. Edit an attriubte of a dimension code
3. Delete a dimension code

To create a dimension code

1. From Overview > Dimensions, click the dimension to be maintain.
2. A listing of all dimension codes that have already been created will appear.
3. In the action bar, there are a couple options
   • + to create a new code
   • Export
   • Delete
4. Click the + icon the create a code.
5. In the list a new line will appear and you can add a code. A code value is required.
   • Dimension Codes are limited to 50 characters.
   • It is recommended to only use Dash (-) and Underscore ( _ ) for special characters.
6. Type in a code value.
   • Tab to navigate across the row adding attributes properties
   • As you tab across a line, each entry is automatically updated.
7. Hit enter once you have completed the information about the Code you are adding
8. A new line will appear, continue the process, adding another code
9. Once you have added all dimension codes, click the Cancel button to exit.

Editing a Dimension Code

1. From Overview > Dimensions, click the dimension to be maintain.
2. A listing of all dimension codes that have already been created will appear.
3. Simply click into a value that you would like to edit the data.
   • Copy / Paste is supported
   • Backspace / Delete will clear out the data

Deleting a Dimension Code

Users can delete a dimension code once the reference to that dimension code has been removed from the entire application. When attempting to delete a dimension code that exists somewhere in Solver, users will be informed of the module(s) the dimension code is assocaited to.

If the dimension code has been removed from all data, to delete a dimension code:

1. From Overview > Dimensions, click the dimension to be maintain.
2. A listing of all dimension codes that have already been created will appear.
3. In the action bar, click the Trash Can.
4. A confirmation window will appear, click Delete to proceed with deleting the code.

Dimension Trees

Dimension Trees display dimension codes in a hierarchical (“tree”) format.

To create a dimension tree

1. From Overview > Dimensions, click the dimension to be maintain.
2. At the top of the page, click Trees.
3. On the left side of the screen, there are two options
   • From the dropdown, choose an existing tree that has been created
   • Click the +New icon to create a new tree from within the interface or display to option to import a tree.
4. Once you have decided between an existing tree or creating a new tree, the main grid will refresh with the codes of the tree.
5. The tree interface uses drag and drop functionality. Drag a dimension code from the right hand side to a level of a specific level of a tree.
   • A blue line will indicate where you are inserting the code.
   • Dragging a field over an already existing level of a tree, will put the code as a child of that code.
   • Holding the Shift will allow you to do a multi-select, choose multiple code that you can then drag from the right hand side to the left hand side.
   • Codes that are duplicated are highlighted with purple text.
     • Duplicate codes are not an issue, the purple text is used to help identify these codes compared to single use codes.
6. Once all changes to the tree have been made, click Save found in the action bar.

Exporting a Tree

Users can export a tree to view its structure and to also use it as a starting point for creating a tree import file. To export a tree

1. From the Dimension > Tree > Select a tree from the dropdown
2. In the action bar, click the More Actions button and choose Export.
3. A .csv file of the tree will be saved to your Downloads location on your computer.

Importing Trees

Users may find that importing a tree may be easier, especially when maintaining a large tree. Users can export a tree as a starting point or create a .csv file from scratch. The import file should have the following headers on row 1.

• These headers must exist on row 1

Level 1

Level 2

Level N

Ownership

Description

• “Level N” represents a new column for each level of your tree. Solver supports up to 7 levels in a tree.
• Description is optional and is included as part of the Export.
• Ownership: default to 100%. For organization doing Percent Ownership, type in the percent ownership value of the code, related to its most direct parent.
• Under each level, type in the Code. Each Code must exist in the dimension list.

Below is a visual of an import file that represents the tree show at the top of this section.

Save the file as a .csv. The file name is used for the tree name.

To import the tree

1. From the Dimension > Tree
2. In the action bar, choose +New > Import.
3. Your file browser will load and select the tree import file.
4. Upon import, Solver will do one of two things based off the file name.
   • If the file name does not match an existing tree, the tree will be imported.
   • If the file name matches a tree. Users will get a prompt confirming that Solver should update the tree. If you wish to not update an existing tree, cancel the process, rename the file and import the tree again.

Delete a Tree

Users can delete a tree. To delete a tree

1. From the Dimension > Tree
2. In the action bar, choose More Actions > Delete.
3. Users will get a prompt confirming deletion of the tree. Click Delete to delete the tree.

Tree Best Practices

Trees define a parent/child relationship. It is likely that you will need to create code on the dimension that are specific to tree creation. You can see this is in the above image with the code “TOP” to indicate the top of a tree. This is not a valid code from an account perspective.

For organizations working with Minority Interest, Solver’s tree feature supports percent ownership that can be found under node properties. Each code that is dragged in is initially assumed to be 100% owned. The same code can be dragged in multiple times and users can use the Node Properties to define percent ownership.

• the total percent for a single code across an entire tree cannot exceed 100%.

Data Explorer

Data explorer allows users to query for data in Solver. Typically this menu is used by technical resources to quickly verify that data has successfully loaded into Solver. Data Explorer allows users to

1. Easily view data in your Solver tenant
2. Delete Data from your Solver tenant

Data Explorer displays only 10,000 rows. Use filters to find the specific transactions you are looking for. If you need to view more than 10,000 rows of data, you will need to be granted permissions to Ad Hoc Reporting.

Data Explorer is a full data permissions feature. Access to this menu should be given to select users who can see all data inside solver.

Users must have Can View Data Explorer Permissions to view data in this menu. Additionally, with the permission “Can delete data from data explorer”, users can delete data from this interface.

• Solver cannot restore just the subset of data that is deleted from Data Explorer. Assign this permission to users who are strictly responsible for managing data.

Viewing Data In Data Explorer

Navigate to Data Warehouse > Data Explorer. Data Explorer Loads to your General Ledger and the right hand pane loads to apply filters. Filters can be applied in one of two ways.

1. At the bottom of the right hand pane, there is a New filter button that allows users to add a filter.
2. When viewing the results of your filters, click the filter icon in the column headers to open the right hand pane and apply additional filters.
3. Apply as many filters as you need and click Apply. Additionally there is the option to clear all filters to reset the data.
4. Once you click Apply, Data Explorer will query for your data. Depending on the size of your data, this may take some seconds to complete.
   • Filtering on Module Attributes does take longer to process than filtering on dimensions
5. Data Explorer uses paging to load data into the UI. Users can set the number of transactions per page at the bottom of the screen. The more transactions to a page, the longer it will take to load the data. Users have the following options:
   • 1,000
   • 5,000
   • 10,000
   • 50,000
   • 100,000
6. Click through the pages to view the transactions of the module.

Deleting Data

To delete data from Data Explorer

1. Navigate to Data Warehouse > Data Explorer.
2. Filter for the data you would like to delete.
3. Select the row(s) of data you would like to delete.
4. Click More Actions > Delete in the action bar to delete the selected rows.
5. A popup will appear confirming that you want to delete the data, click Ok to continue and delete the data.