Đọc và phân tích báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh

Kết cấu Báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh chia hoạt động một doanh nghiệp thành 3 loại: hoạt động sản xuất kinh doanh chính, hoạt động tài chính và hoạt động khác.
Báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh có 2 phần, Phần 1 Lãi, lỗ là phần các công ty đại chúng công bố cho các nhà đầu tư.
Công thức chung của phần này là Lợi nhuận = Doanh thu – Chi phí.

Kết cấu Báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh Phần Lãi, lỗ chia hoạt động một doanh nghiệp thành 3 loại: hoạt động sản xuất kinh doanh chính, hoạt động về tài chính và hoạt động khác (không thường xuyên). Hoạt động sản xuất kinh doanh chính thể hiện qua 3 chỉ tiêu chính: Doanh thu (thuần) bán hàng và cung cấp dịch vụ, Giá vốn hàng bán và Lợi nhuận gộp từ hoạt động bán hàng. Lợi nhuận gộp từ bán hàng = Doanh thu thuần bán hàng – Giá vốn hàng bán. Chỉ tiêu này cho biết hoạt động sản xuất kinh doanh chính mang về bao nhiêu tiền. Lợi nhuận gộp tăng có thể do doanh thu thuần tăng hoặc giá vốn hàng bán giảm. 

1 Doanh thu bán hàng và cung cấp dịch vụ 
2 Các khoản giảm trừ doanh thu
3 Doanh thu thuần về bán hàng và cung cấp dịch vụ (1) -(2) 
4 Giá vốn hàng bán và dịch vụ cung cấp
5 Lợi nhuận gộp về bán hàng và cung cấp dịch vụ (3) -(4)

Hoạt động tài chính: thể hiện qua 2 chỉ tiêu: Doanh thu tài chính và Chi phí tài chính. Doanh thu tài chính có từ các nguồn: như lãi tiền gửi, lãi nhận từ việc đầu tư, mua bán trái phiếu, cổ phiếu,… 
Chi phí tài chính: Gồm có chi phí lãi vay, chi phí dự phòng các khoản đầu tư tài chính, lỗ từ đầu tư tài chính, lỗ do chênh lệch tỷ giá,…

1 LN gộp về bán hàng và cung cấp dịch vụ   
2 Doanh thu tài chính  
3 Chi phí tài chính  
4 Chi phí bán hàng  
5 Chi phí quản lý doanh nghiệp   
6 Lợi nhuận thuần từ kinh doanh (6) = (1) + (2) – (3) – (4) – (5)   


1 Lợi nhuận thuần từ kinh doanh   
2 Thu nhập khác   
3 Chi phí khác   
4 Lợi nhuân từ hoạt động khác (4)= (2) – (3) 
5 Lợi nhuận trước thuế (5) = (1) + (4) 

Lợi nhuận thuần từ hoạt động kinh doanh là chỉ tiêu thế hiện kết quả nhận được từ hai hoạt động bán hàng và tài chính, sau khi trừ đi Chi phí bán hàng và Chi phí quản lý doanh nghiệp. Lợi nhuận thuần từ kinh doanh = Lợi nhuận gộp từ bán hàng + (Doanh thu tài chính – Chi phí tài chính) – Chi phí bán hàng – Chi phí quản lý doanh nghiệp. Hoạt động khác: thể hiện qua hai chỉ tiêu Thu nhập khác và Chi phí khác. Thu nhập khác có nguồn từ: lãi thanh lý, nhượng bán tài sản, hoặc là được bồi thường… và ngược lại Chi phí khác có nguồn từ lỗ thanh lý, nhượng bán tài sản, phải bồi thường do vi phạm hợp đồng,… Lợi nhuận trước thuế = Lợi nhuận thuần từ kinh doanh + (Doanh thu khác – Chi phí khác). Lợi nhuận sau thuế = Lợi nhuận trước thuế –  Chi phí thuế thu nhập hiện hành phải nộp Phân tích báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh trong 1 kỳ cho ta thấy hoạt động nào đóng góp nhiều nhất vào lợi nhuận của doanh nghiệp. Thông thường hoạt động chính phải đóng góp lớn nhất. Khi so sánh với các kỳ trước đó, ta có thể thấy biến động tăng hay giảm của từng hoạt động. Thông thường hoạt động sản xuất kinh doanh chính tăng là tốt. Kết quả kinh doanh sẽ cho chúng ta biết tình hình kinh doanh của một doanh nghiệp trong một thời kỳ nhất định, nên khi nhìn vào tài liệu này các nhà đầu tư có thể thấy rõ nhất hiệu quả kinh doanh của doanh nghiệp. Nhìn báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh sẽ cho ta thấy doanh thu trong kì là bao nhiêu? Lợi nhuận trước thuế, lợi nhuận ròng của doanh nghiệp là cao hay thấp. Nếu các chỉ tiêu trên tăng lên chứng tỏ trong kì doanh nghiệp đang làm ăn tốt và trên đà phát triển, tăng trưởng và ngược lại. Nhìn KQSXKD các nhà đầu tư cũng có thể nhìn thấy rõ các khoản mục chi phí giá vốn hàng bán, chi phí bán hàng, chi quản lý doanh nghiệp, khấu hauo, lãi tiền vay, thuế…. Nếu các khoản mục này tăng lên thì có thể đánh giá doanh nghiệp quản lý các khoản chi phí chưa tốt, hoặc công ty đang đầu tư quá mức cho các chi phí bán hàng, khuyến mại nhằm tăng doanh số bán hàng và nâng cao thương hiệu của công ty. Ngoài ra, báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh cũng cho biết khả năng thanh toán của doanh nghiệp hiện tại ra sao cũng như trong tương lai thế nào.

                                                                                                                  Thấy hay sưu tầm

Advanced Row Formatting in IBM Cognos TM1 Active Forms

Active forms in IBM Cognos TM1 can provide a lot of flexibility in terms of formatting your data. After creating an active form, the formatting of the rows is handled in the Format Range of the worksheet. To expose the Format Range you can click the Show Format Area button on the TM1 ribbon or right click in the worksheet and navigate to Active Form->Show Format Area. In order to provide different formatting on the rows for different levels of a hierarchy TM1 uses a formula to drive the values in column A. This formula returns a value that pulls a specific line of formatting from the Format Range into the data grid.

Any formatting applied to a row in the Format Range, will be placed on a row in the active form area that uses the corresponding key value. Most Excel formatting can be used in the format range and will translate to the format area. This includes Number Formatting, Alignment, Font, Fill, Bordering, etc.

The formula that is in the first column of the first row of the active form area provides the key value that will drive the formatting for the row. This formula can be manipulated to make the formatting even more robust.

Let’s say we have a lot of zero level elements that drive our rows, and we want some formatting to make the values easier to read. First, we can add more rows inside the format range to help make our formatting flexible. Notice in the screenshot below, we added a new row labeled M. Next we can make a simple change to formula. In the spot where N would be populated, we made a change that says if the previous row had a value of N, then populate an M, otherwise populate an N. Upon a rebuild of the sheet the new formatting is applied.

Below is another example of manipulating the row format formula. Let’s say we have an
important account that we want to highlight when it appears in a view. We added
a new line, P, to the format range that will hold the formatting for the
special row. Next we manipulate the formula to check for the account number and
if it appears we assign it to row P.

Bonus Tip: If you have the pesky gridlines on your reports once you publish them to the web. Turn off the Gridlines option on the View tab to make your web forms look nicer.

Introduction to TM1 Perspective

You can integrate all your TM1 data with Microsoft Excel and use it in graphs etc. You do this by using TM1 Perspective. It’s an excel add-in which helps you get connected to your TM1 application server. Follow below steps:

1. Go to Start > All Programs > IBM Cognos > Perspective For MS Excel (if you’re using Windows 7, figure out how you’re going to open this path, may be just search for Perspective)

2. MS Excel will open and will ask you to enable macros. Enabling macro will launch IBM’s TM1 perspective with Excel.

3. Go to TM1 menu bar, then click Connect and login to your TM1 admin server. You’ll receive a message saying that you’re now connected. Click OK. Now let’s learn how you can get the data from cubes into MS Excel.

From TM1, you can bring the data into MS Excel using 3 methods:

Slice lets you update TM1 cubes’ data directly from MS Excel. It’s created using DBRW formulae and retains a real time interaction with TM1 cubes. If you update any data in a slice, the same data is written back to corresponding TM1 cube.

To check this functionality, click on Explorer on your tm1 menu bar. Browse to your Products2 cube and launch the default view. Cube view opens. From File menu click on Slice. This will create a data slice in excel.

Check different cells of excel and notice the formula which has been used. Now change quantity value of Jan from 10 to 12 (if you have any other cube, change the value of some input cell. but remember, that cell must not be calculated cell) and press enter.

Now go to the TM1 cube and check the value of that cell. The value has been changed to 12.

1. Using slices you can create input screens for users who don’t have access to architect or are not very familiar of TM1 cubes and related concepts. They can enter data directly in excel without bothering about cubes etc.

2. To update data, you don’t need to install TM1 Architect. You can get your work done by just using TM1 perspective

1.  To use the cube data that you’ve brought into the slice, you need to keep yourself connected to TM1 server. Once you get disconnected from the server, the excel sheet looses the data.

2. If new items are added to the rows or column dimensions (such as new products etc.), slices will not automatically get those items. You will have to either manually add them to your slice, or create a new slice.

Snapshots also brings TM1 cubes’ data into MS excel but do not have real time update capability. Snapshots just bring the data values (no formula).

 1. They are useful if you want to do some analysis on your cube’s data and don’t need the unnecessary TM1 formulae (you just need the data).

2. You don’t need to stay connected to the TM1 server to use values.

3. Lighter and faster than TM1 slices (as snapshots don’t have write back functionality, they are faster and excel files that’s built using them are lighter)

1. No write back functionality. You can’t update cube data using a snapshot

2. While you’re doing your analysis using snapshot data, if someone changes the data on TM1 server, you’d not receive the new data and will end up with incorrect analysis.

Active Forms, like TM1 Slices, let you view and update live TM1 cube data directly in MS Excel. Active Forms retain the ability to expand and collapse row dimensions in TM1 views. That means

1. Active forms have all advantages of slices.

2. If you add new dimension items to your dimensions, active forms reflect those changes too provided that you had created your cube views using dynamic subsets.

3.  They also have formatting unlike slices.

4. Active forms have suppress rows functionality. So based on data, they can increase rows and show only non-zero relevant data. Slices don’t have this feature. If data is zero in all rows, slices will still show those rows.

5. You can filter the data too in active forms. So if you want to top 5 performing products, you can see them using active forms.

1. They have all above disadvantages of slices.

For further information on active forms, follow IBM documentation:

GETTING STARTED - So you want to implement business analytics

Thấy bài này hay hay post lên cho mọi người tham khảo ^^

Getting Started with Business Intelligence and Performance Management

The following is our recommendations for a successful implementation which delivers the expected results in the expected budget to the optimal timeline. Whether that is increased revenue through better customer insights or reduced expenditure through process optimisation, the following key components have been derived from 10 years plus of implementing performance management and business intelligence solutions.

1. Executive Buy-In

The most critical success factor for BI or PM projects is executive buy in. It must be supported and promoted by the senior executives of your company. 

2. Repeat after me...

"Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance" - Albert Einstein.
Acknowledge that whatever you produce in the first iteration will be very different from where you get to further into the project. Once people see what they can do, then they start understanding what they would like to have/do and their wish list will exponentially grow.

3. Have a Vision, and scale to the immediately achievable

Its important to have a vision for where you want to take performance management for the enterprise but it is as important, to select a small number of immediately achievable wins (the "Low Hanging Fruit") to prove the solution capabilities and to enhance your ability to understand better the capabilities of your performance management tool of choice.

Examples of low-hanging fruit:

Performance Management

Annual Budgeting Rolling Forecast Weekly Target Updates Cyclic Planning, Eventuating, Comparative Analysis Loops Cashflow Forecasting Demand Planning / Materials Orders feedback loop

Insurance - Actuarial policy processing. Treasury - Funds transfer pricing. Finance - Business acquisition planning and modeling. Council - Project & Initiative Planning and projections. Property - Shopping center management, budgeting and planning.

Business Intelligence

Management Reporting Divisional Scorecards Mobile Reporting and Dashboards Implementing Self service analysis on a corporate data warehouse

As with all performance management solutions which are developed specifically for the customer it is completely dependant on how you operate which makes estimating the timeline for some projects a "How long is a piece of string?" type of project.

4. Develop a Prototype

Often metaphorically referred to as a "Tracer Bullet" the prototype is an increasingly adopted method for quick development of a concept solution which proves the concept and identifies potential roadblocks along the way.

"So what am I trading off by using tracer bullets versus "specifying the system to death"?

Pragmatic Programmers Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas talk with Bill Venners about the importance of getting feedback during development by firing tracer bullets and building prototypes.

Dave Thomas: 

The idea of tracer bullets comes obviously from gunnery artillery. [...] The software analog to firing heavy artillery by calculating everything up front is saying, "I'm going to specify everything up front, feed that to the coders, and hope what comes out the other end is close to my target." Instead, the tracer bullet analogy says, "Let's try and produce something really early on that we can actually give to the user to see how close we will be to the target. As time goes on, we can adjust our aim slightly by seeing where we are in relation to our user's target." You're looking at small iterations, skeleton code, which is non-functional, but enough of an application to show people how it's going to hang together.

Obviously in this case we aren't dealing with programmers, rather business analysts but the concept still applies. I would add to this that we recommend that your prototype is connected to the real data source, which will identify issues along the lines of 1) getting access to the data, 2) ensuring the data is in a usable format and 3) ensuring that the stakeholders of the source system are aware of the project and are ready to provide resources as needed for the solution development project.

Copywirte Dave Thomas.

TM1 Server Setup

Starting Up a Server

Creating a new Server

            To create a new server you must first create a data directory, this directory must have at very least:

• ‘tm1s.cfg’
• ‘tm1s.lic’

The configuration file (tm1s.cfg) should specify:

• Server Name
• Server Admin-host
• Data Directory
• Logging Directory
• Server Port
• Any Additional Configurations (Max Login Attempt)

The typical directory structure of an Application Server is as follows:

• Server Name (No Spaces)
  • Data (tm1s.cfg,tm1s.lic and other files)
  • Logging/Logfiles (tm1s.log, tm1server.log)
  • DataSources (Shared Directory)
  • DataOutputs (Shared Directory)

Loading a Server as an Application

            To load a server as an application we run the application ‘tm1s.exe’ found in the IBM Cognos TM1 bin Directory. We also provide this executable with a command line reference to the data directory.

The easiest way to do this is by creating a shortcut to ‘tm1s.exe’ and changing the launch field to have an additional ‘ –Z “DataDirectoryHere”.

 

Exercise – Start a server as an Application

Loading a Server as a Service

To load a server as a service we must first install it as one.

This is done through the same application that is installed as a service.

To create a new service, in a command prompt write:

“C:*pathtoTM1bin* tm1sd.exe –install *servername* “*datadir*”

Replacing items enclosed within a ‘*’ with the corresponding text.

 The service can then be set to run as a specific user and the start method can be changed in the Computer Management Services Section

Exercise – Install a Server as a Service

Loading a backup

Starting up a Backup is relatively simple. As the server will most likely be temporarily up its best to start the server as an application instead of a service.

Major Considerations:

1. Does the server have enough RAM to support another server in memory?
2. What level of impact will this have (by using one or more CPU cores to load) on the rest of the system?
3. Do not run the Server on the same port as the existing one (see configurations).
4. Do not use the same name for the server if registering it on the same admin host as Production.
5. Would it be beneficial to run the backup on the same admin host as Production? (Exposing the point in time backup to end-users)

Exercise – Load a Backup as an Application

TM1 Files

TM1 Servers are stored in files on the server when the server Saves or Shuts down. When saving the server is translating the Application server objects from Memory onto the Computers Hard drives.

The following table highlights the object type and it’s saved file equivalent:

TM1 Object	File Extension	Directory	Description
Cube	*.cub	Data Directory	Data Store
View	*.vie	Data Directory	Query to a Data Store
Dimension	*.dim	Data Directory	Set of Measures for storing data against
Subset	*.sub	Data Directory	Custom Selection of Measures
Blob	*.blb	Data Directory	Style & Formats of a View
Message Log	Tm1s*TIME*.log	Logging Directory	Logs of all activity in TM1
Process Log	Tm1ProcessErr*TIME*.log	Logging Directory	Logs of all TI Process Errors

When saving TM1 produces files one by one each time appending a ‘$’ to the filename until the output of that file is complete, at which point the server deletes the original and renames the file (removing the appended ‘$’).

Moving Cubes/Dimensions Around

Since cubes are saved to the hard disk as ‘.cub’ files its easier to move these between servers as opposed to exporting and re-importing data. Unfortunately in order for TM1 to recognize new Cubes the TM1 server needs to be restarted.

Note: When moving a cube between servers make sure the new server has all the dimensions used by the cube.

Shutting Down the server

Service Shutdown vs. TM1 Shut Down

How to do a Native TM1 Shutdown

• Within Server Explorer right click on the server
• Server Manager
• Chose the ‘Shutdown Server’ Option
• Press Ok to initiate
• When prompted to save the server first select yes

10 POINT HEALTH-CHECK - COGNOS TM1 (PART 2)

7. Fine-Tuning Application Settings

Both the TM1 Server and Client have Settings files which should be tweaked in order to get the most out of your TM1 Implementation. While the default value of 98% of the settings are great for a best practices implementation, this leaves a few tweaks which can improve the usability and performance. Below is a table of settings you may wish to tweak within your environment. Please note that the default location of TM1p and TM1s Configuration files are also listed below. 

Things Like: 

Setting	Location	Description	Default	Recommended	Reason
AdvancedRulesEditor	TM1p.ini	Dictates whether the Syntax Highlighting Rule Editor is used or not.	N	Y	With Syntax Highlighting and Code Folding the new editor saves time and is much more usable. The alternative appears to have not been updated since its inception.
GroupsCreationLimit	TM1s.cfg	Limits the number of groups that can be created on the Server.	20	100	Because changing this setting requires the TM1 Service to be restarted, as such its best to do it in advance so you are not caught out later.
MaximumLoginAttempts	TM1s.cfg	Limits the number of failed login attempts before that account is locked.	3	10	When an account becomes locked, it will stay locked until the TM1 Server is restarted.
MaximumCubeLoadThreads	TM1s.cfg	Limits the number of CPU Cores which TM1 will use when starting an application server.	0 (Disabled)	*One less than the number of CPU cores available.	This will load cubes in parallel by utilizing the different CPU Cores. *Its recommended to leave this setting at its default value of 0 - Zero when your server utilises conditional feeders or has 80% of the cubes linked via Rules.

TM1 Configuration Files: (Can differ based on Operating System or TM1 Version).

• TM1p.ini - Client Side - C:\Documents and Settings\*User*\Application Data\Applix\TM1\TM1p.ini
• TM1s.cfg - Server Side - TM1 Servers Data Directory

8. Separate Data from Logs

TM1 Data files are very different to TM1 Log files. These destination folders are configurable settings within the TM1s.cfg File. The Data Directory (DataBaseDirectory) is where TM1 Objects are stored when a server is saved. The Logging Directory (LoggingDirectory) is where all server and data entry events are logged. 

The Bottom Line: We recommend to have these settings pointing to two different subfolders (Data and Logging) within a single directory for your TM1 Model. The actual location will vary from site to site but as an example they should be:

• DataBaseDirectory=D:\TM1s\Data
• LoggingDirectory=D:\TM1s\Logfiles

9. Running TM1 via NT Service

I was recently told a story about a client who ran their TM1 Application Server as a Windows Application (tm1s.exe). This had implications for them which meant that once a month on a random day they would come into the office in the morning and the TM1 Server would not be running. What was really happening is that IT was installing updates to the Windows Server which is running TM1 and since TM1 was not running as a NT Service it would not start up with Windows. A User had to remote onto the server and start the Application via a Desktop shortcut everytime. 

The Bottom Line: Production TM1 Servers should always be running TM1 as a NT Service, This provides the ability to restart TM1 if there was a crash and the start with Windows. 

More Information: You can follow our instructions here (Article: TM1 Server Setup) to see how to setup TM1 to run as a Application or as an NT Service.

10. Basic Rule Conventions

This particular check could be expanded immensely to encompass best practises around layout, rule-feeder pairing and #region usage but for now we'll limit it to the must-have Rule Conventions. 


To check your rules for these conventions:

1. Open Perspectives and Server Explorer
2. Login to your TM1 Server
3. Expand the "Cubes" leaf
4. Expand a cube leaf with rule logic
5. Double Click on the last leaf under that cube with the same name

The bare-minimum of Rule Conventions:

• SKIPCHECK - 99.9% of the time this is an absolute must! When this is excluded every cell within the cube is calculated regardless (performance degradation is an understatement in this case). When SKIPHECK is declared only fed cells are calculated. You can tell if SKIPCHECK is declared as it should be one of the first lines within the Rule Script. e.g. SKIPCHECK;
• The divide sign - When "/" is used to divide something by zero an #N/A error is generated which perpetuates throughout consolidations. We recommend using "\" instead of "/" which in the same scenario results in Zero "0".

The Bottom Line: As a blank canvas, cube rules can become a black box of corporate logic if its not well structured and well documented. There is a lot which can be done to ensure your business gets the most from Cube Rules, the bottom line really is that without a well structured rule file, your TM1 implementation becomes less flexible for future updates.

Fancy a Checkup?

If your company has offices in Sydney, Australia you are welcome to a free Official TM1 Tutorials.com 1-Day TM1 Health check. Our checks are performed by our TM1 Consultants onsite and cover Hardware and Software Recommendations, TM1 Application Server Configuration, Implementation Checks, Alignment with Best Practices and Time Saving Practices for when using TM1. 

10 POINT HEALTH-CHECK - COGNOS TM1 (PART 1)

1. Hardware Specifications - Memory

This item is first on our list simply due to the implications of exceeding the amount of memory on your hardware - be it virtualized or not. Within 32-bit Servers consuming all available memory will crash a IBM Cognos TM1 Server in most cases, Under 64-bit Hardware the Pagefile will be used which is approximately 8 times slower than Memory. 

The Bottom Line: While TM1 is running on your Hardware the Memory consumption of that hardware shouldn't exceed 80%. If you are going past this mark it is time for an upgrade, which is not the end of the world with how cheap Memory is. 

2. TM1 and Virtual Servers

Server Virtualization technology has come a long way in the last decade and it's easy to see why it's so readily adopted by IT Departments across the world. The space saving, cost saving and time saving benefits far outweigh the alternatives. But as a recommendation for IBM Cognos TM1 we do not endorse virtualizing a Physical Server which runs a TM1 Application Server. 

There are two major reasons for this:

1. TM1 doesn't behave like traditional business intelligence applications or other databases which store a majority (80%+) of their information on the Hard drive, instead TM1 harnesses the performance of memory on the server and although Virtualization has made some amazing strides in performance of simulated hardware there is presently still a 'interpretation' lag for want of a better term where instead of TM1 accessing Memory directly, it accesses the memory controller in the virtual environment which then accesses that memory from the physical host server.
2. The second reason is that this creates a noticeable lag.

The Bottom Line: Although we do not recommend virtualization for TM1 servers it pays to understand that the cost and time saving benefit from an IT perspective can far outweigh optimal performance of a single Application server within your company. 

3. Where is TM1 Running?

It may seem like an obvious proposition, but we recommend that TM1 is always running on a Dedicated Server. TM1 has a built in feature which can run TM1 application servers through the TM1 Excel Client (Perspectives), and in many old implementations this was seen to be favorable due to Finance/Management Accounting TM1 Projects often flying under the IT Radar. 

The Bottom Line: Where possible have a TM1 Dedicated Server provisioned by IT, Documentation on how to install TM1 versions 9.4 and 9.5 can be found in our Articles Directory. 

4. Making the most of TM1

With all recent versions of TM1 comes TM1Web - a Web-based Report Browser for TM1 Reports made in Excel and stored to the Application's Directory within a TM1 Server. TM1Web has limited capabilities as the reports must be authored within Excel only. But TM1Web still has some great features which shouldn't be overlooked. 


Things Like: 

Zero Client Installation Required TM1 Standard Spreading Options ActiveForms Support

Cube Browser / Pivot Table Process & Chore Execution

The Bottom Line: As a cheap (often free) add-on to TM1, potential uses for this software should be considered. 

5. Computer Network

It's no hidden fact that IBM Cognos TM1 Perspectives (The Excel Add-in) performs poorly over the Internet. This is due to the "chatty" protocol used by TM1, Requests are small and frequently made. Some calls are not asynchronously made which results in "freeze" time while waiting for certain results. 

But what many people don't realize is that a poor performing Office Network can also be the cause of Microsoft Excel Crashes when using TM1 Perspectives and likewise Virtual Private Networks which link different Offices crossing states and countries are also the cause of a lot of trouble for the little Excel Add-in. 

The Test: You can test your Network's Stability by opening a command prompt on your workstation and typing "Ping *YourTM1ServerName* -t" replacing *YourTM1ServerName*. For Example: "ping google.com -t". If you recieve a "Resuest Timed Out" or any other error within the first 100 replies you may encounter issues when using TM1 Perspectives. 

The Bottom Line: Most Networks will be up to a standard which will not cause any trouble for TM1 Users but when you have a substandard Office Network or Virtual Private Network you can either invest millions into making your network more stable and faster performing or you can simply use another frontend for accessing TM1 Reports and Cubes like TM1Web. 

6. TM1 Software Version

I happened to come across a company within the last month who still use TM1 version 7 which was released in 1998. While we do not recommend you upgrade to the most recent release of TM1 we do recomend a version at least from this decade. 

The Test: You can check your version of TM1 when in TM1 Perspectives by opening "Server Explorer" and clicking "Help" then "About Perspectives". 

The Bottom Line: When choosing a TM1 version make sure to be on the latest fix pack. At the time of writing this Article we recommend versions:

• TM1 9.4.1 Latest Service/Fix Pack.
• TM1 9.5.2 Latest Service/Fix Pack.

How to create scorecard cubes with TM1

The purpose of scorecard is to enable broader range of staff in an organisation to have a better understanding of its strategies, and the relationships of those strategy goals. For example, to grow net profit, the organisation may seek ways to reduce expenses and/or increase sales, quite obvious. But what are the key success factors or performance indicators that the business should be focusing on, and how are those KPIs are performing? For example, to reduce expenses, the organisation may be focusing on improving the production efficiency of a certain product, and this KPI may depend on the amount of R & D invested in this product. Gaining understanding of the business goals and their connections, will help the key decision makers to translate goals into objectives, and and objectives into planning. Graphical View of KPIs

The scorecard feature provides users with a graphical display of the performance and connection of those key metrics, using existing planning data.

    

Creating Scorecard Cubes

You can create a scorecard metric cube in TM1 applications with four steps:

First, click on the Create Scorecard link, which can be found on the top right corner of the main model design screen. And the steps are shown in a diagram, with links for each step.

1. Define Scorecard Dimensions
Metrics dimension: a list of KPIs that are applicable to the business, such as revenue, expense, R & D, customer satisfaction, and market share, etc. This dimension has an additional attribute, Performance Pattern, which specifies the behaviour of a favourable variance against a KPI. Otherwise, it is a standard TM1 dimension, that similar features such as insert dimension calculations and formatting.

Metric indicator dimension: a list of measures and indicators. When creating a new metric indicator dimension, the dimension is pre populated with a default list of measures and indicators. If additional measures and indicators are needed, you can add them to this dimension.

2. Create Scorecard Cube
The next step is to create a scorecard cube. The scorecard metric cube is similar to a standard TM1 cube, which contains scorecard metric and indicator dimensions. Other dimensions can be included in the scorecard cube, such as time and geography locations. Rules or links will need to be put in place to pull data through from other cubes, similar to a standard TM1 cube.

3. Define Impact Diagram
The impact map defines the relationships between each of the metrics within the cube, and impact flows between them. For example, increase R&D would increase market share,which in turn increase revenue.

You can preview what your impact map looks like in the preview tab, you can drill down to individual metrics and expand on its connections.

4. Create Strategy Map
Here you can define the business' objectives, and the metric measures applicable to each objectives. For example, if an objective is to grow revenue, the metrics to measure the success may be to increase R&D and reduce customer complaints.
Also, you can define the connections between different objectives, for example, reduce expenses would increase operational profit.

Similar to Impact Diagram, you can also preview how your strategy map looks like by going to the Preview tab.

Once you have created your metrics cube, a scorecard cube view can be added to another application and deployed to users. This scorecard view can be accessed using TM1 Applications Web and Cognos Insight.