Hyperion Financial

Management: Zero View and

Default View Settings

First of all, the attribute applies only to flow accounts (revenue, expense, and flow). The
setting tells HFM how to interpret missing values. For the vast majority of HFM applications,
Actual data is loaded YTD. For performance reasons we do not want to load zeros, and so we
suppress them in the data load process. If a cell had a value last month, and there is no value
in the current month, a setting of "YTD" tells HFM that the missing value should be
interpreted as YTD zero. In order to accomplish this, HFM will derive a negative value on a
Periodic basis, in order to arrive at a YTD zero.

The same holds true for data coming from journals. If you post a journal to an intersection in
one period, and do not post any journals to the same intersection in the next period, the
ZeroViewForAdjs setting "YTD" tells HFM to derive a negative number in the adjustment node
to arrive at a YTD zero for the intersection. This is the main reason why most HFM users don't
need reversing entries -- HFM will reverse the vast majority of adjustments based on this
setting.

When either is set to Periodic, the situation is very different. HFM will interpret the missing
data as a Periodic zero, and on a YTD basis it will simply carry forward the previous period's
YTD amount. This is most common for Periodic scenarios such as Budget or Forecast.

One of the most common areas of confusion in Hyperion Financial

Management (HFM) has been the Scenario application setting for
the Default View and Zero View. Peering back into the history of
Hyperion Solutions, you will find this setting has existed in all the
Consolidation products, such as Hyperion Enterprises missing
values setting under Categories. They are not new features and
are a fundamental to HFM.
ZEROV I EWFORA D J A ND ZEROV I EWFOR NONA D J
There are two ZeroView settings in HFM. The ZeroViewForNonadj is a
setting which applies to the <Entity Currency> Value dimension. The
second is the ZeroViewForAdjwhich applies a setting to the <Entity Curr
Adjs> Value dimension member.
The derived data that results from the ZeroView settings commonly appears
in HFM as a slightly grey numeric value, as opposed to a black display found
with standard data.

Before we explain what it does, lets talk about why we need it.

Part of Hyperion Financial Managements financial intelligence is its Account

Types. These types help to manage data flowing through the chart of
accounts and support variance reporting.

Revenue
Expense
 Asset
Liability
Balance
Flow
GroupLabel
Currency
BalanceRecurring
The Revenue, Expense and Flow Account types are referred to as flow
accounts and tend to support Profit and Loss reporting. As such, they are
supported by the View dimension. The View dimension allows data to be
viewed, keyed or loaded as YTD or Periodic amounts. Data entered as
periodic sales of $1000 to all months would allow users to view December as
Periodic $1000 or YTD $12,000.

Example 1:

The ZeroView setting informs the HFM Scenario how to handle data for a flow
account when no data is loaded to a Period. No data is not a zero; it is a
blank, non-existent value.

Example 2:

If data was loaded from your source system for Jan as $1000, how should
HFM calculate Feb? There are two options using the ZeroView settings which
are YTD or Periodic. The first option is the YTD setting for
the ZeroViewForNonadjs attribute.
Choosing the ZeroView setting as YTD, HFM will fill the period following with
a derived value as zero YTD.
Example 3 ZeroView as YTD:

Recall that Flow accounts can be viewed as Periodic or YTD, what does Feb
look like as Periodic? If there is $1000 YTD in Jan and zero YTD in Feb, there
must have been a change in periodic activity. Therefore, the Feb Periodic
value would be $-1000 to arrive at YTD zero.

Example 4 ZeroView as YTD:

The second option is to set the ZeroView settings as Periodic. This setting
addresses the same properties of flow type accounts. In this instance, the
following period will have a zero applied as a Periodic zero, which is the
activity. This setting is common on the Budget and Forecast Scenarios. The
data result is the entry flows through all the periods because the YTD value is
derived from the Periodic activity.

Example 5 ZeroView as Periodic:

Example 6 ZeroView as Periodic:

How does one determine which setting is correct for their application?
Typically, we analyze how the data load file is constructed. For example, for
flow accounts that may be adjusted to zero, are they included in the file?
Does a periodic version of the file supply zero items as the year-to-date
negative offset? The most common setting is to set the ZeroView as YTD for
Actual data loads.

A good example why we would set the ZeroView to YTD in Actual would be if
data was re-classed month-to-month or a new account is used. In the
example below, a different account is used in Feb compared to the data
supplied in Jan. The ZeroView setting as YTD will automatically assume the
Feb amount is to be YTD zero.

Example 7 ZeroView as YTD:

If the Scenario was set to Periodic for the ZeroView, the application would
have incorrect results for Feb as 2000. The data would flow through all the
Periods, and in this case, theSales account should be zero for Feb. The
original account would require a -1000 Periodic or 0 YTD entries to clear the
value in Feb on account Sales.
Example 8 ZeroView as Periodic:

The ZeroViewForAdjs setting applies to how HFM Journal entries will

function for missing data and how they affect future periods.
For Journal adjustments we see the same impact on the data within the
<Entity Curr Adjs> Value member. The YTD setting will essentially reverse
the Journal in the following period by applying the YTD offset to the Journal.
Example 9 ZeroView as YTD:

In cases were a prior period is being adjusted, the YTD setting will keep the
YTD values of future Period, such as Feb, constant. As an example, if the
original value were 1000 in Jan and 1000 in Feb, the Feb YTD amount would
be 2000. A journal posted to Jan would impact the Jan results, but the Feb
YTD amount of 2000 would not change. In the example above, what is
adjusted is the Periodic amount from 1000 to 500. Therefore, to see the
impact on all periods, the Journal would need to be created and posted in all
periods going forward.

Journal adjustments with the ZeroView setting for Journals as Periodic will
allow the impact of the Journal to affect the YTD results in the future periods.
Because of this, to reverse the affect in a future period a reversing Journal
entry is required.

Example 10 ZeroView as Periodic:

Therefore, when viewing data within HFM as a YTD or Periodic view, the
grey offset values are the result of your Scenario settings for
ZeroViewForNonadjs or ZeroViewForAdjs. These amounts impact your YTD
and Periodic results in Local and Translated amounts.
D EFAULT VI EW
The Default view determines what View will be applied to the <Scenario
View>. When opening a Grid, form or report, this is the default member
that will display.

Because of this, it is important when writing reports or comparing data, a

specific view be chosen. The <Scenario View> results will vary by the
design of each Scenario.

The default view also is a concern for Rules in HFM. This setting sets the
basis of calculations.

As an example, if there was a Rule that simply called for estimated bonus
to be a percent of sales after we attained our goal of $1000.00, the
calculation would vary by Default View on Scenarios.

In the example, the YTD Scenario will calculate a result because it is

calculating Rules off the YTD value of $1500. The Periodic Scenario does not
calculate the Rule because it is driven off the Periodic value of $500.

Careful attention to Rules development and the utilization of the Dynamic

Sub Routine in rules can help to minimize issues caused by differences in the
Default View settings.