In SAP Analytics Cloud, dimensions represent master data in general. Product, cost center, and employee are all examples of dimensions. A model can have several dimensions.
On the other hand, a measure represents transactional data (quantitative). In a classic account model, model values are stored in a single default measure, and you use the account structure to add calculations, specify units, and set aggregation types for all the data. In the new model type, you can add and configure multiple measures with aggregation and units to fit your data.
Data in a model
In the table above, the LocalCurrency measure refers to an amount in the currency of the entity (company), for example, a US company with a labor expense of 3550 USD. The GroupCurrency measure is used to store the values in the corporate currency, for example, if the US company has a German parent who operate in Euros.
Semantically, an account may be referred to as a measure because it fulfills a similar purpose, however, accounts are not measures, they are part of master data.
Measures are quantitative:
- Examples: amount, quantity, price, number of people
- Import models store measure values (numbers)
- Measures contain settings for: aggregation and currency
- Restricted measures are refreshed on the fly:
- Examples: Actual Revenue, Plan Revenue, Expense for 2024
- Restricted measure results are not stored
- Calculated measures are also refreshed on the fly:
- Examples: Gross margin %, Calculated Price
- Calculated measure results are not stored
Dimensions are qualitative:
- Dimensions represent master data
- Examples: Cost center, account, product
- How do accounts relate to measures?
- Accounts are used to describe measure values
- In the data table above, the CE0004010 labor account identifies the measure mount value of $250,000 as a labor expense
