One of the least discussed features of Oracle Cloud PCM is the ability to allocate to the Same As Source (SAS) in a Different Dimension. This functionality allows us to define the members for a dimension in the destination to be the same as the members selected for a dimension in the source within a given rule. When the rule is executed, the members in the destination are selected for allocation by matching the member's selection in the source.
This functionality can support use cases such as Shared Service costing, Intercompany Billing, and inter-divisional expense allocations. In addition, this functionality can support the preparation of Journals in facilitating the required credit and debit entries before the data export process.
This functionality in Oracle Cloud Profitability and Cost Management (PCM) was relatively straightforward to implement as the tool supported databases with duplicate member names. However, how is this functionality implemented in Oracle Cloud Enterprise PCM, which does not support duplicate member names?
How to Utilize the Same as Source Different Dimension Functionality in Oracle Cloud EPCM
To access this functionality, we need to create an Allocation Rule; it is not available in the Custom Calculation Rules for obvious reasons.
Once you have selected your Source intersections, you can now click the button on the left-hand side of the appropriate dimension (1) and select "Set Destination Same As Source" (2) and select the appropriate dimension (3). In my example, I am looking to allocate to my Consumer dimension, which has the dimension hierarchies and dimension members as my Entity dimension but is prefixed with "RE_" to ensure we have unique member names in our database.
Up to this point, our process is very similar regardless of whether we are working on PCM or EPCM, but in EPCM, we now have to add a Member Matching Expression as our source and destination members are not the same (e.g., our source Entity may be "ENT_CORPBANKING," and our destination Consumer (EPMFlex3) may be "RE_ENT_CORPBANKING"). To do this, we again click the "*" button (4) on the desired destination dimension and now select "Member Matching Expression" (5).
The following characters are available when creating member matching expressions:
- "#" means ignore (trim) one character in the member name
- "*" represents the characters that are left after the characters represented by # are trimmed.
In my example, I want to remove the "RE_" prefix from the Consumer dimension to have the Same As the Source from the Entity dimension. To do this, I would enter "*" in the "Entity Member Expression (6) and "###*" in the "EPMFlex3 Member Expression" (7) like in the screen below:
Once we click the "OK" button and save and close our rule, we are now ready to run our allocations, and provided we have set up our rule correctly, we should now be able to allocate from the Entity dimension to the Consumer (EPMFlex3) dimension using the Same As Source Functionality
TL;DR
The Same As Source (SAS) in a Different Dimension feature in Oracle Cloud Profitability and Cost Management (PCM) allows for defining members in a destination to be the same as those in the source. This feature can be used for cost allocations and journal preparation. To access this feature in Oracle Cloud Enterprise PCM, an Allocation Rule must be created, and a Member Matching Expression is needed due to the lack of support for duplicate member names. The Member Matching Expression uses "#" to ignore one character in the member name and "*" to represent the remaining characters. With the rule set up correctly, allocations can be run from the source to the destination dimension using the SAS functionality.