Creating an Allocation Step

In SAP Analytics Cloud, you can create an allocation step by configuring a structured allocation in the data action designer as part of your data action.

Context

Allocation steps let you distribute values for members of a source dimension along members of a target dimension, using driver values or direct assignment. For more information, see Learn About Allocations.

Note

If your allocation step has a large number of rules and columns, you might get a warning message. To reduce the number of allocation rules and improve the performance of the allocation step, you can configure a specific hierarchy for each source, driver, and target dimension in the modeler and apply it to the allocation rules table. For more information, see Learn About Hierarchies and Learn About the Modeler.

Procedure

  1. In the data action page, select (Add Allocation Step).
  2. If desired, enter a Name and Description for the step.
  3. Under Soure Context, define the Filters and decide on the Write Mode.

    • If you want to filter the data to exclude some members from the allocation step, create filters by selecting +Add Filter. You can filter using members or parameters. Unlike allocation processes, data actions don't offer the option to apply filters using members when you run them. You can filter the allocation step here instead.

    • If you enable Keep Source, the source values will remain on the unassigned member. To learn more, see the “Keeping your source values” section of Build an Advanced Allocation Process.

  4. Under Driver Context, set your Reference Dimensions. To learn more, see the "Breaking your allocation down by reference dimension" section of Build an Advanced Allocation Process.
    Note

    Time as a reference dimension is optional and can be removed.

  5. Under Target Context, choose a Booking Account and a Write Mode. To learn more, see the "Booking values to a specific account" section of Build an Advanced Allocation Process.

    • Booking account is not available for measure models.

    • If you enable Overwrite Target, you will overwrite any existing values in the target cells. To learn more, see the “Overwriting your target values” section of Build an Advanced Allocation Process.

  6. Under Allocation Rules, choose your Source, Driver, and Target dimensions, and the hierarchies you want to use for each. Driver dimensions can be accounts or measures.
  7. Using and , continue adding and deleting Source, Driver, and Target dimensions as desired.
    Note

    You always need to have at least one source, driver, and target dimensions, so the delete option will clear the column, but not delete it. You will then need to add a new source, driver, or target dimension. For driver dimensions, there are default dimensions for account models and measure models.

  8. Start adding allocation rules. To add an allocation rule, select the first cell of the allocation rule table, and continue adding allocation rules as necessary. You can:

    • Type part of a member ID or description in the cell to see suggestions.

    • Select the icon to open the member selector.

    • Use the table toolbar to copy, paste, or delete rules. To duplicate a rule, choose Copy and then Start of the navigation pathPaste Next navigation step Append DataEnd of the navigation path. You can also use the toolbar buttons to copy and paste rules to and from other applications, such as Excel.

    • Add more than one member for each target dimension.

    • Filter allocation rules by choosing either Show Errors or Show Warnings, or by using the search field.

    • In the step, choose the icon to make the table wider.

  9. Select (Save Data Action).

Results

The allocation step is added to the data action. You can continue to add, manage, and reorder steps as needed.