BPM Admin Guide

Aging Principles Setup

This section describes the steps you need to follow to set up aging principles.

What is an Aging Principle?

Beginning with version 2.1 (internally 16.0) you must set up aging principles in Maconomy to be able to run the various aging reports (WIP Aging, AR Aging, AP Aging, and variants). A number of BPM Reporting reports also require this setup, even though they are not-as such-aging reports. This includes the various transaction sub-reports to the aging reports and, in general, job cost, AR, and AP reports that show balances.

Note: The functionality is only used and available in BPM Reporting.

An aging principle is a named collection of aging periods. Each aging period marks the start and end of a period. Periods can either be backward- or forward-looking. You use backward-looking periods to display aged figures that have passed the statement date; you use forward-looking periods to display figures that are after the statement date.

Periods can also be open intervals such that it is possible to report on aged figures that are more than 90 days old. For each period you can provide a title that appears as the header for the aging column in the aging reports.

Each aging principle states whether the periods are measured in months or in days. In addition, it states whether or not aging is based on the entry date.

Tip: For information about how to set up aging principles, see the Maconomy Reference Manual or single dialog online help.

Changes to the Standard Reports

From Maconomy version 2.1.5 and 2.2.1, all standard reports that use an aging principle no longer prompt users for an aging principle. Maconomy assumes that certain aging principles have been set up.

Customized Reports

If you are upgrading to Maconomy 2.2, you should note that customized reports typically use the aging objects that were available before Maconomy 2.2. Those aging periods are hard-coded, and the reports prompt users to indicate whether they should use the entry date. The hard-coded aging objects are deprecated as of Maconomy 2.2. They are located in the DEPRECATED universe class and have "DEPRECATED" as a suffix to their titles.

Note: These aging objects are no longer maintained and are not included in the universes after the release of version 2.2. It is therefore important to migrate customers' reports to use aging principles instead.

Mandatory Aging Principle Setup

Version 2.1 of BPM includes a collection of dashboard components that you can combine in different ways to create performance dashboards on company and customer levels. These dashboards are also embedded in the Workspace Client for the solutions.

Some of the components assume a specific kind of aging principle. The following procedure shows you how to create that kind of aging principle.

To set up that aging principle:

  1. Open the Option List workspace.
  2. In the Option List No. field, enter Aging Principles.
  3. Enter Dashboards in the Name field.

  4. Open the Aging Principles workspace.
  5. Create an aging principle; use any appropriate name.
  6. Enter Aging Principles in the Option List field.
  7. Enter Dashboards in the Selected Value field.
  8. In the table, create four periods. Enter an appropriate title and choose appropriate settings.

Beginning with version 2.1.5, standard reports do not prompt you to select an aging principle. Reports that require an aging principle assume that you have set one up, and that you can indicate it via the option list and selected value, as explained in the preceding steps.

These aging principles assume the same Aging Principles option list as described in the preceding procedure:

  • WIP Aging reports - Designated by having the value WIP Aging in the Selected List field.
  • AR Aging reports - Identified by having the value AR Aging in the Selected Value field.
  • Aging reports - Identified by having the value AP Aging in the Selected Value field.

Utilization-Specific Setup

To take full advantage of the utilization facilities in Business Performance Management Reporting (including the Utilization and Realization reports and the Utilization universe), you must set up activities and employees to comply with the assumptions that are made.

Employee Utilization Pop-Up Literals

Some utilization figures are calculated by using the employee utilization pop-up that is defined on activities. BPM Reporting complies with the PSO setup, and you should set up Pop-Up Literals accordingly.

To set up employee utilization pop-up literals:

  1. Open the Popup Fields window.
  2. From the drop-down list for Popup field, select Employee Utilization Levels.
  3. Insert the lines that are shown in the following figure.

  4. For each activity, assign the appropriate pop-up value for Employee Utilization, as shown in the following figure.

    If other employee utilization literals are needed, you must insert them in the Popup Fields window (see the figure that follows step 2 in the preceding procedure). You can then customize the objects in the Custom Utilization Figures class to use the literals.

Fixed Hours Setup for Employees

Fixed hours are calculated from the week calendars, from the employee revisions, or as the minimum of fixed hours that are defined on both. Therefore, you must assign a week calendar to each employee and set up fixed hours for both week calendars and employees.

To set up fixed hours for employees:

  1. Open the Week Calendars window.
  2. For each week calendar to be referenced by employees, ensure that all of the necessary days within the weeks show the appropriate fixed working hours.

  3. Open the Employees window.
  4. For each employee, assign a week calendar number to the current employee revision.

  5. Assign employee-specific fixed working hours.

Derived Dimensions for Employees

In utilization and realization reports, you can drill down on employees' dimensions. This is different from other reports, where you drill down on the dimensions of transactional entries that to which standard dimensions are assigned. For drilling down to be meaningful, you must assign values for all ten standard dimensions for each employee.

To set up derived dimensions for employees:

  1. Open the Derived Dimensions window.
  2. For each employee that is displayed in the upper pane, assign values to all ten standard dimensions in the lower pane.

    Note: Previously, you were required to enable split weeks on time sheets. BPM version 2.1 and newer can handle split weeks being enabled or not enabled.