What are Dimensions and Hierarchies?

Dimensions

Dimensions are user defined groupings of items such as Accounts, Departments, or Scenarios that are used to “slice and dice” different data sets using Cube. By default, all companies are setup with the following dimension types:

1. Accounts - A dimension type that can refer to:
1. Traditional General Ledger accounts such as “Sales Revenue”
2. Formula or calculation accounts such as Gross Profit (Revenue - COGS)
3. Operational accounts such as “Sales per Rep”
2. Department - A dimension type referring to organizational departments, such as Sales, Marketing, or Finance.  
3. Scenario - A dimension type that refers to the type of data:
1. Actuals
2. Budget
1. Base Budget
2. Best Case Budget, etc.
3. Forecast
1. January Forecast
2. February Forecast, etc.
4. Time - A dimension type that refers to the Month, Quarter or Year 

Hierarchies

All dimensions in Cube follow a Hierarchy - the levels in which a dimension is stored / used. For example, Prepaids rolls up to Current Assets, which roll up to Total Assets, which roll up to the Balance Sheet:

Account

     Balance Sheet

          Assets

               Current Assets

                    Prepaids