Using Views
Last updated on 2025-03-03
Overview
Views let you create saved filters on your model, to show only specific variables, dimension items, scenarios, time periods, and charts.
This can be useful if you as the model builder want to filter the model for a specific subset of data, or if you want to share only a view of your model with your collaborators, instead of the whole model content.
This article contains the following sections:
Creating and Configuring a View
To create and configure a view:
- Click the Views button in the top left of the spreadsheet.
- In the Views dialog, click New or Create a view and start adding filters (see subheading below).
Filter Options
The Filters section is displayed as follows:
Filter options to configure a view
The following filters are available:
Filter
Description
is none of
Filters out the specific variable(s) you select
is one of
Filters for only the specific variable(s) you select
contains
Filters for variable names that contain your searched term
has dimension
Filters for only the variables that have the selected dimension applied
does not have dimension
Filters out the variables that have the selected dimension applied
Filter
Description
is one of
Filters out the selected visual(s)
is none of
Filters for only the selected visual(s)
Note that if you share a view with a chart filter, the variables in the spreadsheet will still be visible, unless you explicitly filter them out. In this situation, a dashboard may be more appropriate.
The time filter is simple - just enter the time range you would like to see. Note that this affects both the spreadsheet, as well as the time range shown in any visuals.
The dimension is one of filters by dimension item(s) within a dimension (on all the variables where that dimension exists), as well as any dimensions mapped to it.
Example:
If Employee is linked to Title which is linked to Department, and your view filters for the Engineering Department, xP&A will do the following across the spreadsheet and charts:
- Filter for Engineering on the variables that have the Department dimension
- Filter for the Titles that sit within Engineering on any variables that have the Title dimension
- Filter for Employees within Engineering (linked via their Title), on any variables that have the Employees dimension
- Filter the aggregates of the above relevant variables for only the Engineering Department
- If you want to show others the unfiltered aggregates within a view, you can do this by creating another variable that aggregates the dimension away (e.g. create a Monthly Payroll with the Department dimension aggregated away).
Please note:
- Dimensions that are not effectively linked to the filter dimension will not be filtered.
- Consider the modified version of the example above: If in your data it is possible to have the same Title belonging to different departments, you cannot establish Title -> Department mappings; you could only have Employee -> Title and Employee -> Department. If you then create a view that filters by department, the Employee items will be filtered, but your users still could access all the items of the Title dimension, e.g. via Editable Tables. This might not be desirable if the names of Title items are sensitive.
- As a workaround, for some data sources it is possible to replace Title with synthetic column like Title & Department, which can directly be mapped to Department, thus allowing the filter rules to work.
- This will not filter out variables that do not have the dimension on them. If you wish to do that, you could combine the filters Variable has dimension and Dimension is one of.
Filter
Description
is one of
Filters for only the specific scenario(s) you select
When a view with a scenario filter is active, you will only be able to see the selected scenarios.
Examples for Views
Model Navigation
Models can get large and complex. Views let you easily slice and dice your model for just the portion you are wanting to see at a point in time. For example, if I just want to dig into the inputs for Model 3 for 2025, I could set up the view below to easily select.
Example for model view
Budgeting Processes
For example - if your Expenses model is broken down by Department, you can create separate views to share with each department head, where they will only be shown the parts of the model that are relevant to them.
Tailored Dashboards
You might need to share your model with different groups of stakeholders — the management team, the rest of the company, investors, board, etc.
Instead of creating separate models to slice the same information in different ways, you can create multiple views on the same model. Each view will limit which charts, tables, and variables are shown, so that each group of stakeholders can see a dashboard that is tailored to them.