Aggregation Functions

Dimension aggregation

By default, Lucanet xP&A will take the Sum of each dimension item's value to aggregate the variable. However, there are examples where Sum does not make sense, e.g. if you have split Bonus % by Department, it might be more appropriate to see the average of the Departments' Bonus %, not the Sum.

For more information on dimension aggregation, see Dimension Aggregation.

Time aggregation

In charts and tables, and in roll-up columns in the spreadsheet, Lucanet xP&A automatically rolls up a variable's values across time.

For example: If your model is monthly and you have a revenue variable, then xP&A can automatically summarize the total revenue in each year or each quarter. The time aggregation function determines how this roll-up happens, and whilst the default is Sum, there are examples where you would want other methods (e.g. for balance sheet items like Cash, you would want to take the final amount for the 2023 balance, not the sum of all the 2023 balances).

Data aggregation

The data aggregation function on a variable connected to data determines aggregates transactions within each data item linked to a variable. This is usually always going to be Sum (which is the default), but there are examples where you might want it to use Average, Median, Initial, Final, or Count instead.

Example:

If you have daily cumulative data in your data source, and are pulling that into a weekly or monthly model in xP&A, Sum wouldn't make sense (as that would be adding multiple cumulative numbers together), so you might choose Final instead. E.g.

2022-12-20 Cumulative User Count 33

2022-12-21 Cumulative User Count 35

Sum would return 68 whereas Final would return 35 (the true ending users for the week/month).