Financial Management
12
Rule Basics
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
Describe rules files
Describe the types of rules
Use objects and functions in rules
Use variables in rules
Load and extract rules
Use Rules Editor
About Rules
Financial Management rules provide powerful, customized calculations
that you can use to perform the following tasks:
Calculate data that cannot be calculated through a hierarchical
aggregation, such as ratios or variance analyses
Perform complex currency conversions and calculate exchange rate
differences or other calculations necessary for consolidation
Prevent data entry for a specific cell
Perform allocations from a parent entity to a list of base entities
Enable data entry to a parent entity
Perform custom consolidations for statutory reporting requirements
Types of Rules
There are eight types of rules in Hyperion Financial Management:
— Calculate - Calculate rules are executed when you perform calculations and consolidations.
You use calculate rules for the following tasks:
Set and clear values from accounts
Perform calculations on the fly
Conform to statutory requirements
— Dynamic - Dynamic rules enable you to create ratios that accurately calculate YTD and Periodic
values that are not accurately calculated by the aggregation of base member values.
— Allocation - Allocation rules execute when you allocate data from one source to multiple
destinations.
— Input - Input rules enable input at the parent entity level.
— No Input - No-input rules prevent input at the base entity level, thus reserving the base cells for
calculations.
— Translate - Translate rules execute when you perform translations. Translation rules can
override default exchange rates.
— Consolidate - Consolidate rules perform nonstandard consolidations. Consolidate rules are
most commonly found in statutory applications.
— Transactions - Transaction rules enable you to post to accounts and scenarios from the
intercompany transactions module.
You place the rules for each type in a separate subroutine in the rules file.
Rules Files
Rules are stored in text files.
You use VB script syntax to write rules.
You save rules files with the .rle extension.
After you create a rules file, you load it into a Financial Management
application.
Objects and Functions in Rules
Objects represent elements of a Financial Management application,
such as dimensions.
Functions represent actions that a rule can perform, such as retrieving
a value.
You write rules statement by applying functions to objects.
Not all functions are valid for all objects.
Object Function
[Link] This statement uses the Currency function to
retrieve the default currency of an entity.
[Link] The Currency function is invalid here because
scenarios do not have currencies.
Assigning Values to Accounts
The most frequent use of a rule is to assign a value to an account.
You use the Exp function with an account expression to assign values
to accounts.
The Exp function expects a destination value left of the equal sign and
a source value right of the equal sign.
[Link] “DestinationValue=SourceValue”
You can use account expressions within Exp to specify the source and
destination values.
[Link] “A#Sales=1500”
[Link] “A#Cash=A#Cash.P#Prior”
Account Expressions
An account expression uses a dimension keyword to specify a value or
a set of values.
A dimension keyword is separated from its values by a pound sign (#).
Dimensions are separated by periods.
A#NetRevenue
A#Cash.P#January.E#USA.C1#OpeningBalance
Setting Values for Multiple Accounts
You can create expressions that set values for multiple accounts.
Use the ALL keyword to assign values to all accounts.
If [Link] = True Then
[Link] "A#ALL = A#ALL.P#Prior“
End If
If you omit the account from the destination expression, values are
assigned to all valid account intersections with the specified custom
and ICP members.
[Link] "C1#Network = C1#Network.P#Prior“
Sets values for all accounts that have a valid intersection with Network.
Adding Variables to Rules
Variables store values that can be accessed repeatedly by different
rules in your rules file.
You use a Dim statement to define a variable.
You can define as many variables as you need.
After you define a variable, you write an expression to assign it a value.
Dim aStartBalance
aStartBalance = 500
Loading and Extracting Rules
You can scan
rules before
loading them.
Creating Rules in Rules Editor
Rules Editor provides a graphical interface for creating rules.
You can use Rules Editor to
verify the validity of the Visual
Basic Script syntax, the
metadata, and the destination.
If the destination is not valid,
an error occurs.
After you scan the file, you
can load it directly into the
application from Rules Editor.
To scan a rules file from
Rules Editor, select HFM >
Scan rule.
Adding Members to Rules
Select members to
add to the rule.
Click to insert the
selected members at the
current cursor location.
Adding Functions to Rules
Function Wizard provides a template for each function.
Use Function Wizard, within Rules
Editor, to select objects and functions
for rules.
Function Wizard provides a template
for each function.
When you select the object and
function that you want to use, the
arguments for the function are
available for coding.
Rules Display Options
You can customize the appearance of each rule element to make your
rules file easier to read.
You can change the color and
font of the following parts of a
rules file:
Text
Text selections
Numbers
Operators
Comments
Strings
Statements
Financial Management methods
Visual Basic objects
Properties
Events
Functions
Constants
Financial Management objects
Summary
In this lesson, you should have learned how to:
Describe rules files
Describe the types of rules
Use objects and functions in rules
Use variables in rules
Load and extract rules
Use Rules Editor
