Introduction

Who is Extended Business Analysis for?

Extended Business Analysis lets you look at the performance of your enterprise beyond a single company-wide Profit and Loss, Sales, and Balance Sheet view. It best suits businesses more complex businesses, selling multiple products in multiple locations. If your business operations are straightforward, Extended Business Analysis may not be necessary.

• A Dimension called Location can have Dimension Elements representing its business locations.
• A Dimension called Customer Category can have Dimension Elements representing categories such as Retailer, Wholesaler, Distributor, Internet, Industrial).

• A Dimension called Department can have Dimension Elements representing departments such as Clothing, Footwear, Food, Drinks, and Pharmacy.
  
  

What are BI Codes?

After Dimensions and their elements have been set up, you can then create BI Codes and tag them against the relevant dimension elements. BI (Business Intelligence) Codes are analysis tools that can be recorded against transactions. You can limit their use to specific GL Codes only. These BI Codes then act as markers against which system data can be summarised later in various BI reporting in the Report Manager. The label BI Code can be changed as suits your business needs.

For example, a BI Code for use in the final stage of Manufacturing in the Northern Branch could be NOR-A02-QCL, broken down as follows.

• Northern Branch as the element NOR in the Dimension Location.
• Manufacturing Division as the element A02 in the Dimension Activity.
• Department as the element QCL (Quality Control) in the Dimension Department.

Do not create unnecessary BI Codes, for example, if a branch doesn’t sell a particular product there is no need to combine their Dimension Elements.

BI Code Administration

You must have the correct permissions to set up and manage BI Codes. Dimensions, Elements, and BI Codes can also be imported using the Data Importer. You must have the admin user role to do this.

1. In the Group layer, against the relevant Entity, go to Actions > Maintain Menu Profiles.
2. Tick Data Importer, Dimensions, and BI Codes for the relevant User Profile. BI Codes can be set up and managed at the group or entity level and can be the same or different in each entity.

You can set up BI Codes at Group or Entity level. If you use the same BI Code name in multiple entities, it must be tagged with the same Dimension Elements for Consolidated reporting to work correctly. If desired, you can enforce the setup and management of BI Codes centrally. 

1. In the group layer, click Consolidation Manager.
2. Tick Centrally Manage Dimensions & Elements. All BI Codes set up at Group level will automatically be available in Entities. 

We recommend setting up BI Codes in a test environment first to ensure all reports are running correctly before switching to a live system.

See:

BI Analysis Overview (14.0) - AIQ Academy on Vimeo 

 Add / Edit Dimensions and Elements (14.1) - AIQ Academy on Vimeo 

 Add / Edit BI Codes (14.2) - AIQ Academy on Vimeo 

 BI Reporting (14.3) - AIQ Academy on Vimeo

BI Code Importer‍ 

Setting up and Administering Group and Entity Users‍ 

  How do I Implement Job or Project Analysis using Extended Business Analysis? 

  How do I use Code Maintenance to Control the Behaviour of the System? 

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BI Code Best Practices

Set up BI Codes as defaults

Set up BI Codes at the Master Record level (Customer, Supplier, and Item) so that they become defaults. This ensures accuracy and reduces data entry for transactions. However, you can still override BI Codes on individual transactions.
 

Enforce BI Code use

You can enforce the use of a BI Code for transaction entries against General Ledger Codes. However, an advantage of not enforcing the entry of BI Codes is that you can introduce Extended Business Analysis gradually. You could implement the system initially without any Business Analysis, then add it for Revenue GL Codes, and then extend it to Expense Codes.

1. Go to General > Add/Edit GL Codes.
2.  Tick Use BI Code. If you do not tick this, the GL Code will not require a BI Code, but you can still add one during transaction entry.
3. Complete the other details and click Process.
   
   

Avoid Overly Complicated BI Codes

If you have Dimensions:

• Region
• Branch
• Product Group
• Product Type

The temptation here is to set up your BI Code as RE-BR-PG-PR:

• RE represents the Region.
• BR represents the Branch.
• PG represents the Product Group.
• PR represents the Product Type. 

However, in this example, this would create redundancy. Glasgow is only in Scotland and Televisions can only belong to a Product Group Electrical. Therefore, it is not necessary to include the Region Code and the Product Group Code in the BI Code. The Code should only comprise BR and PR which can then be tagged to the Region and the Product Group (as well as to the Branch and Product Type).

Remember that other parts of the system might meet your requirements instead of the proposed Dimensions. For example, the standard Sales and Purchasing Analysis Reports can accommodate Product Type.

Modify and Merge Dimension Elements  

As your enterprise evolves, you can:

• Add new Dimensions.
• Add new Elements to existing Dimensions for new Branches, or Product Groups. 
• Deactivate redundant BI-Codes. 

You can also merge Dimension Elements if Branches close or amalgamate. Do this by re-attaching the old BI Codes to the new Dimension Element. In the example below we are merging the Coventry Branch with the Manchester Branch by tagging the Coventry BI Codes as Manchester. This must be done for all Coventry BI Codes unless only some Departments are being merged. 

You have the option to retain, for historical purposes, the transactions with the redundant BI Codes or to convert and transfer them over to the new BI Codes. If you want to prevent the use of the old Codes in the future, you should de-activate them (see Editing and Deleting BI Codes section previously).
 

Use BI Codes without Dimensions 

If your Company has quite limited requirements in Business Analysis, you can use just the BI Codes without any attached Dimensions.  

Alternatively, you can implement Business Analytics in a limited way to start with and then, as the need for more extended analysis and reporting grows, add Dimensions as needed.

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Using BI Codes in Transactions, Reports, and Budgets

Using BI Codes in transactions

Here is a Purchase Invoice entry with a BI Code:

BI Codes (and GL Codes) on transactions let you identify the Location, Customer Category, Department, or other Dimensions you set up. Every transaction line using BI Codes carries the following:

• General Ledger Expense/Revenue Code.
• BI Code, such as BRI-INT-CLO.
• Up to six individual Dimension Element Codes, all of which are individual database access keys, such as BRI, INT, and CLO.
  
  

Using BI Codes in reporting

You can build reports or queries using any or a combination of the eight separate access keys (BI Code, GL Code, and six Dimension Elements). In the previous example, you could enquire or report on the performance of all Sales to Retail Type Customers in the Manchester Location, or all Internet Customers by Department.

Reports are available in three locations, both at Entity and Group levels:

• Go to Reports > Report Manager. Enter BI in the search field to view a list of the available reports or click Extended Business Analysis.
  
  
  
  
• Go to General > GL Explorer. Here you can perform quick reports using a single Dimension Element.
  
  
• Go to General > Transaction Browser. Depending on the stage you are at in the month-end process, you can edit the BI Code and then rerun the reports. Click Edit against the relevant transaction, followed by the pencil icon. Edit the BI Code and click Process Edits and rerun your reports.
  
  

Using BI Codes in budgets

When you enter Budget data against General Ledger and BI Codes, it will be available for inquiry and reporting purposes against the Actual data.

To enable the production of budgets at GL Code level, combined with BI Codes:

• Go to General > Download Budget Template. Tick Include BI Code Analysis.
  
  

See:

 How do I Use the General Ledger (GL) Explorer?‍ 

 Report Manager‍ 

 How do I Setup and Maintain General Ledger and Analysis Budgets?‍ 

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Set up Dimensions and Elements

Step One: Set up the naming convention 

You can rename the term BI Code to one which suits your business, for example, Cost Centre.

1. In the blue banner, go to Analysis > Dimensions to open the Business Intelligence Setup screen.
2. In the Add & Tag BI Code tab, enter the name you want BI Codes to have in your company and click Save. This new name will now be used throughout the system, for example, in transaction entry. 
   
   

Step Two: Set up your Dimensions

1. In the Set up Dimensions tab, click (+ Add New Dimension).
   
   
    
2. In the Dimension Name field, enter a Dimension relevant to your business. Element code length ensures that the subsequently combined BI Code is not unwieldy.  You will get an error if you make the code longer but not if it is shorter.
3. Repeat the process to add as many other Dimensions as needed.

Step Three: Set up Dimension Elements

1.  In the relevant Dimension tab (in this example, Branch), click Add Element.
2.  Enter the 3-letter Element Code for that Dimension, along with a description. 
   
   
    
3. Click Save. After this, only the name can be updated. The Element Code cannot be changed. However, Elements can be deleted if they have not been tagged to a BI Code used in a transaction. 
   
   
    
4.  Repeat the process to add all the elements needed to each of the Dimensions you set up.
   
   

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Create BI Codes  

Now, you can combine the Dimension Elements you created to produce BI Codes. Only make combinations that reflect your reporting requirements. Reducing the number and scope of BI Codes makes it a lot easier for users to select the correct one during data entry.

Create BI Codes

1. Go to Analysis > Dimensions.
   
   
    
2. In the Add & Tag BI Code tab, click Add BI Code to open the Edit BI Code screen.
   
   
    
3. Complete the Code field (normally made up of the Dimension Elements separated by dashes) and the Description field. 
4. Under Tag BI Code to Dimensions, use the dropdowns to tag the BI Code with each of the appropriate Dimension Elements.  
5. Click Update. 
6. Repeat the process with the remaining BI Codes.

Migrating from previous Coding Systems

You may, for historical or other reasons, already have a BI Code system with a different logic than Dimensions and their Elements. The example here, 2902, uses numbering. Set up the required Dimensions and Elements, name the BI Code with what you are currently using (2902), and tag it with the Elements.
 

 

See:

  How do I Implement Job or Project Analysis using Extended Business Analysis? 

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Edit and Deactivate BI Codes

To Edit a BI-Code:

1. Click Edit beside the entry you want to modify.
   
   
    
2. In this example, we are changing the Customer Category of one of the BI Codes. When you click Save, all the existing transactions with the current code will change to the new code. To retain the existing Codes, click Cancel when prompted and create a new BI Code for all subsequent transactions.
   
   

To Inactivate or Reactivate a BI Code:

You cannot delete a BI Code unless it has not been used in a transaction, but you can make it Inactive. Inactive BI Codes are still accessible for reporting.

1. Click Edit beside the entry you want to inactivate.
2. Tick or untick Inactive as needed.
3. Click Save.
   
   

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