The data in CalPlanning is organized into dimensions. Dimensions are like columns in a spreadsheet or fields in a database. The CalRptg database, which contains plan and actual data from CalPlan, has 11 dimensions:
Dimensions are made up of members. Most dimensions have members organized into multiple levels, which can be referred to as a hierarchy. For example, the Period dimension has one member for each month. These members roll up to quarters, and the quarters roll up to a member called YearTotal.
Account
The Account dimension has the same detail level accounts that are used in BFS, and also includes some summarized accounts that can be used for strategic planning. There are two hierarchies for the Account dimension in CalPlanning:
- The Primary Account Hierarchy is used in all applications and SRECNA reports.
- The Primary Account Hierarchy is the same as BFS except for a few minor exceptions:
- Financial Aid or Scholarships and Fellowships: Moved from Comp to Non-Comp
- Other Employee Comp: Moved under Benefits
- Parents added under Staff Salaries: Career, Contract, Casual
- Room and Board: Moved under Auxiliary
- In the Alternate Account Hierarchy, the recharge account has been moved out of expenses to a stand-alone account group in order to facilitate analysis. In BFS, Recharge Income is coded as a contra expense account.
Entity
Entity represents organizational units sourced from BFS (Campus, Divisions, Departments, and DeptIDs). The BFS org segment is preceded by 1_ in CalPlanning for UC Berkeley and by J_ for Office of the President. The lowest level of the entity dimension is the DeptID; the code for DeptIDs are always numeric in contrast to the higher levels which may be alphanumeric. Examples:
- 1_LS1HU – L&S Arts & Humanities
- 1_HENGL - English
- 1_12616 - HENGL Rdg & Composition Instr
Scenario
Scenario differentiates between the types of financial data available to create, edit, and read. Scenarios support variance analysis over plan types. These scenarios are most frequently used:
- Actual contains historical data
- Forecast is the current fiscal year budget
- Operating Budget is the future fiscal year budget
Version
Versions are iterations of scenarios created over the planning process. The Working version is where analysts do their work, e.g. to update the current year forecast for future months or to create the operating budget for a future year. All other versions are snapshots of the data, which are read-only.
- Initial is a read-only snapshot taken at the beginning of a scenario and year lifecycle
- Working is the editable iteration for plan creation and revision
- Prior Month is a read-only snapshot used with the forecast to provide visibility to the closed month’s forecast after the actual data is loaded Taken at the last business day of the month
- Q1, Q2 & Q3 Submissions are read-only snapshot of reforecast data
- Planner Submission read-only snapshot of financial data taken after a plan due date, staging version
- Final is a read-only snapshot of financial data taken after a plan is finalized or monthly actuals are available. Final is the only version available for data in the Actual scenario.
Year
Year is the fiscal year, which runs from July to June. The fiscal year that begins in July 2023 and ends in June 2024 can be referred to as 2023-24 or FY24.
Period
Period includes members for each month and summary members for quarter and YearTotal. It also includes a member for beginning balance. Be aware if you leave this dimension at the highest level (Period), you will be including beginning balance.
Time Series
- The Time Series dimension allows you to report on a specific period (Periodic $) such as a month or a quarter (periodic) or a cumulative period of time such as quarter to date (Quarter-to-Date $) or year to date (Year-to-Date $).
- When the Period is YearTotal, the Time Series members Periodic and Year-to-Date will yield the same results.
- Inception to Date can be used to show values since inception, even if inception was prior to the year selected. This is a valuable feature when reporting on contracts and grants.
- The Time Series dimension also has options to show report values in thousands or millions.
- Time Series is specific to CalPlanning reporting modules; this dimension does not exist in planning modules.
Fund
At the highest level, the Fund dimension is organized into Current and Non-Current funds. Because non-current funds such as those used for debt service or capital projects will not be used in the operating year, it is a best practice to select Current Funds when reporting on the Forecast or Operating Budget scenarios. If you leave the Fund dimension at Total Funds, your report will also include Non-Current Funds. Most SRECNA reports are preset to Current Funds.
- If you would like to exclude Contracts and Grants in your reporting, there is a member in the Alternate Fund Hierarchy called Current_Funds_Excluding_C&G
Chart 1
The Chart1 dimension represents the Chartfield1 used in BFS and Cal Answers Financials.
- Chart1 members are prefixed with a C1.
- In CalRptg, all Chart1s are available for reporting on actual data.
- For planning, CalPlan includes a subset of Chart1s originally identified by campus leaders for planning.
- Most planners on campus use C1_Summary for planning; it is the only Plan Only member in the Chart1 dimension.
- Some planners have utilized individual Chart1s for planning.
Chart 2
The Chart2 dimension represents the Chartfield 2 used in BFS and CalAnswers.
- Chart2 is available for reporting in CalRptg; it is not used for creating plans in CalPlan.
- Best practice: when not reporting on an individual member, we recommend selecting Chart2, which is the top of the hierarchy, to include all data.
Program Code
- Program Code, which is called Function in BFS, is available for reporting in CalRptg; it is not used for creating plans in CalPlan.
- Best practice: when not reporting on an individual member, we recommend selecting Program_Code, which is the top of the hierarchy, to include all data.