XPADTIME Time

Time dimension allows using different fiscal calendars for the entities.

Only fiscal calendars that are assigned to entities in Business Modeling or are defined as group calendars are available in OLAP. For each used fiscal calendar, an alternate hierarchy is created in XPADTIME.

The default hierarchy for the Time dimension is XPADTIME, which represents the standard calendar starting in January of the same year. Depending on the fiscal calendar’s start month and year type (same year or previous year), hierarchies can range from PY02 (Previous Year, starting in February) to SY12 (Same Year, starting in December).

Data in cubes are always stored at calendar period levels on a monthly basis. The calendar period levels are shared across all fiscal calendars and are used in alternate hierarchies.

The hierarchy uses the calendar period as the base level, aggregated to next fiscal period level, then quarter, half-year, and the year. For example, if the SY02 calendar is used, the first fiscal period starts in February of the same year.

Opening balances from the balance sheet accounts must be stored in the calendar period that is assigned to the first fiscal period 01 of the used calendar.

Additional periods such period 13, must be assigned to the calendar period which is used as the last fiscal period of the fiscal calendar.

This table shows the top nodes of each fiscal calendar:

Element ID Parent ID Weight Name
FISCAL_CALENDAR - - Fiscal Calendar
TOTAL_FY FiscalCalendar 0 Fiscal Years (<FY start month> - <FY end month>)
FY_YTD FiscalCalendar 0 Fiscal Years (<FY start month> - <FY end month>) YTD
FY_YTG FiscalCalendar 0 Fiscal Years (<FY start month> - <FY end month>) YTG

Next to periodical view (TOTAL_FY) a year-to-date (YTD) structure with cumulative periods and year-to-go (YTG) structure with remaining periods is set up.

Note: To manage entities use different fiscal calendars, you can create individual perspectives for each entity. To configure those perspectives, set the fiscal calendar as the default hierarchy in XPADTIME.

When fiscal calendar starts in January of the same year, the XPADTIME hierarchy applies. In this case, the fiscal calendar is a regular calendar. Next to the top nodes, this hierarchy has another root element CALENDAR that contains YTD (year-to-date) and Total_Time (periodical view).

This table shows attributes to link different levels of XPADTIME dimension:

Attribute name Attribute description
YTDElement Year-to-date element
PeriodicElement Periodic element
PeriodType Period type

Alternate hierarchies

22 hierarchies represent level structures for all possible fiscal calendars. In each of these fiscal calendars, the used totals and subtotals like FY for fiscal year, FH1 for fiscal half-Year 1, FQ1 for fiscal quarter 1, are the same. Only assigned calendar periods underneath are different.

These formats are used for hierarchy names:

  • PY02, PY03, ..., PY12: Previous year, starting in February and ending in December
  • SY02, SY03, ..., SY12: Same year, starting in February and ending in December