Setting Up Point of View

What is Point of View (POV)?

Point of View (POV) is a setting for each dimension that controls data displayed in a report. It is a user-specific method of modifying the page level settings to desired dimension members.

The modification may be to narrow or widen the scope of the page level settings. POV is for Financial Reports, Dynamic Reports, Report Collections, and Financial Package Publisher.

If you apply the Point of View (POV) setting to a dimension and save the report, the applied POV setting is retained when you navigate to another page or login to the application the next time.

When you open a shared report with POV settings defined by another user, the report is displayed with the applied POV setting.

The Apply/Remove POV setting on the report is retained:

• When you Save As or Copy a report.
• In a Dimension based report and reports with Substitution Variables on the Page axis.

How to Set Up POV?

To set up the POV, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Report Administration > Point of View.
2. Select a Reporting Area from the drop-down.
3. Click the Browse button to select dimension members and select the member from the Hierarchy. 
4. Click Save.

How to Apply POV to a Report?

To apply POV to a reports, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Reports.
2. Open any of the Report Types: Dynamic Report, Report Collection or Financial Package.
3. Click Apply POV from the toolbar.
4. Run the report. POV selections are applied at runtime.
5. POV will be reflected for page-level dimensions in the report.

Use Case 1

Let's say you have a report with dimensions used in the header and footer section of the report. Then, you apply POV to those dimensions. This results in POV member selections displayed in the header and footer sections of the Dynamic Report. If you apply POV on a dimension member selection for a page axis in the layout area, the original dimensions will still be displayed, but the report will run with the POV selections.

Use Case 2

Let's say Company and Location dimensions are used on the page axis for a Balance Sheet report. User X applies POV for the Balance Sheet report. Originally in the Dynamic Report Member Selections, Canada is selected for the Company dimension and Alberta for the Location. However, user X selects British Columbia for Location. When user X runs Balance Sheet, POV is applied resulting in output for Canada and British Columbia. However, if the same report is run by user Y (who does not have POV applied), the result is output for Canada and Alberta.

Order of Priority for Member Selections

The table provides the order of priority applied for member selections on page dimensions in different reporting artifacts when executed. For example, POV > Dynamic Report means the system will apply user POV selections (if POV is applied on the report and if member selections exist in the POV) for the specific page dimension. If POV is not applied or POV selections don’t exist on the page dimension, then the system applies the member selections made in the Dynamic Report Member Selector interface.

What to do if the Report Total Errors When POV is Applied or Removed?

If a report uses the Sum function to display the totals and then POV is applied to the Report, the Sum function in this POV applied report will not display correctly and will instead display a red exclamation mark and the message, "Data cannot be displayed as the member(s) used in the formula do not exist in the report". This happens as the Sum function tries to calculate the total based on the rows in the original report and as there will be some missing rows, it fails. This will also happen in case any other function like Average or Count is used within the report by using the Edit Formula option

So, if the report is returned to its original state by applying or removing POV then the functions will calculate correctly. In case it is required that the functions correctly calculate in the POV applied report, then the workaround is to click the Edit Formula option from any cell which displays the red exclamation mark and the row selection needs to be made again before clicking OK.