Using Dimensions

Zuletzt aktualisiert am 01.03.2025

Overview

Dimensions are xP&A’s most powerful concept. This topic conceptually explains dimensions so that you can use them in your models.

A Dimension is Basically a List

Suppose you are building a financial model for your online coffee business. You sell 10 different products (SKU), each with a different price.

In xP&A, you can create a dimension called SKU with each product as its own item:

Category 'SKU' with category items Category 'SKU' with category items
Dimensions Let You Break Your Variables Down

In a spreadsheet you would create a row for each product, and a column for Price:

Products with prices in a spreadsheet Products with prices in a spreadsheet

In xP&A, you can create a single Price variable, broken down by your SKU dimension:

Variable 'Price' with category 'SKU' Variable 'Price' with category 'SKU'
Dimensions Flow Through Your Formulas

Suppose that you have to pay 20% in taxes on each sale, and you want to calculate your post-tax revenue for each product.

In a spreadsheet, you would have to create 10 new rows and do a separate calculation for each product.

In xP&A, you can simply do the calculation once, and xP&A will automatically calculate it for each dimension item separately.

Calculated category items Calculated category items
Dimensions Can be Modified On-The-Fly

Suppose that you add a new product to your offering.

In a spreadsheet you would have to find every instance of your product list in your model, insert a new row in the right place, and then fill in the correct formula for it.

In xP&A, you can simply add your new product to your SKU dimension, and xP&A will automatically include it wherever the SKU dimension is used.

Dimensions Can be Linked to Each Other

You think about your products falling into two different groups: Coffee beans and Coffee equipment.

In xP&A, you can create a dimension called Product Group, link it to the SKU dimension, and then assign each SKU to a Product Group:

'SKU' category 'SKU' category
Dimensions Facilitate “Lookup” Operations

Suppose that your taxes are not just 20% across all products, but that there is a different tax payable on food (e.g. coffee beans) versus coffee equipment.

In a spreadsheet, you would do the following:

  1. Set up a lookup table between SKU and Product Group
  2. Break your tax assumption out into separate values for each Product Group
  3. Replace your tax calculation formulas with VLOOKUPs (or similar) to use the correct tax amount for each product
     

In xP&A, you can simply apply the Product Group breakdown to your Tax variable, and xP&A will automatically use the correct tax amount for each product in your downstream calculations.

Applying the 'Product Group' breakdown to the tax variable Applying the 'Product Group' breakdown to the tax variable

Price is broken down by Product while Tax percentage is broken down by Product Group, but xP&A lets you multiply them directly without any manual lookups.

Dimensions Let You Slice and Dice Easily in Charts and Tables

Suppose that you have your monthly revenue broken down by SKU and want to create a stacked bar chart showing your monthly revenue broken down by Product Group.

In a spreadsheet, you would have to first “pivot” your data (using formulas and copy&pasting) and then chart the pivoted version of the data.

In xP&A, you can simply create a chart of your Revenue variable, and then pivot the data directly on the chart without any setup.

Chart to the variable 'Revenue' Chart to the variable 'Revenue'
Dimension Values Can be Overridden

Every business is messy, and sometimes you will need to hardcode certain values or set different formulas for different periods.

You can override any dimension value by simply clicking and typing into the relevant cell. This is a useful 'escape hatch', but should be used sparingly!