Using Dimensions
Last updated on 2025-03-05
Overview
Dimensions are xP&A’s most powerful concept. This topic conceptually explains dimensions so that you can use them in your models.
This article contains the following sections:
- A Dimension is Basically a List
- Dimensions Let You Break Your Variables Down
- Dimensions Flow Through Your Formulas
- Dimensions Can be Modified On-The-Fly
- Dimensions Can be Linked to Each Other
- Dimensions Facilitate “Lookup” Operations
- Dimensions Let You Slice and Dice Easily in Charts and Tables
- Dimension Values Can be Overridden
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:
Dimension 'SKU' with dimension 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
In xP&A, you can create a single Price variable, broken down by your SKU dimension:
Variable 'Price' with dimension '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 dimension 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:
Linked dimension
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:
- Set up a lookup table between SKU and Product Group
- Break your tax assumption out into separate values for each Product Group
- 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
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'
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!