Type of analysis required

Understanding and using the analysis capabilities will greatly enhance the quality of information and reporting available in your system.

It is worth taking time to consider your analysis requirements. Identify your reporting and information needs early in the planning process, and then design the analysis structure accordingly.

You must decide whether static or transactional analysis provides you with the information you need, in the most efficient way.

For example, if you want to report on sales performance by area, you would start by defining an analysis dimension called Area and then set up all of the sales area codes as analysis codes for this dimension. You then have two choices of how to apply this analysis. You could analyze the static data by entering the appropriate area code on each ledger account and customer. Alternatively, you could achieve the same result by analyzing all sales-related ledger transactions, entering an area code on each sales related posting. Both these methods allow you to report on sales performance by area.

It is important to understand the difference between these two types of analysis.

• the first alternative, analyzing the ledger accounts, is an example of 'static analysis'. Each ledger account has only one sales area code assigned to it. This means you must create a different sales account for each sales area and post your ledger transactions to the sales account for the appropriate sales area. Using this method, every posting to an account is for the same sales area and you have instant access to the total sales by sales area because this is the account balance. However, if you have a large number of sales areas, or areas that change frequently, you are creating a large number of accounts, perhaps unnecessarily.
• the second alternative, analyzing the ledger transactions, is an example of 'transactional analysis'. You have a single sales account and on each posting to this account you enter the appropriate sales area as an analysis code. You can view the total sales value at any time which is the account balance. You can also use the inquiry and reporting filter capability to analyze the postings for a particular sales area to obtain the total sales by area.