This week’s blog is about a question I have been asked multiple times over the last two years. It pertains to the cube sheet, and the difference between attributes, accounts, dimensions and levels in the way each enables, or disables, data entry when “placed” on the row area of the sheet. In some literature it is implied that attributes must be a pull-down option on a cube sheet to enable data to entered onto the sheet, and if placed (dragged and dropped) onto the row area, data cannot be entered. While that is true, the misconception arises from the “must be a pull-down to enable data entry.”  Attributes are NOT a required element on a cube sheet. Only when they are on the sheet does that rule hold. In the following screen captures, I will demonstrate and explain how this can be quite confusing.

The following screen capture displays a cube sheet, with accounts on the rows, dimensions in the squares (products and customers), an attribute in the circle (Sales Manager) and levels to the left of the dimensions. Any of the cells with a white background are enabled for data entry. Any gray cells are read-only.

In the following screen capture, I have “dragged and dropped” the two dimensions onto the rows. Notice that there are white cells of the sheet, enabled for data entry.

In the following screen capture, I placed the Level element on the row, and there are data-enabled white cells still on the sheet.

When I drag the Sales Manager Attribute to the row, there are no longer any data-entry enabled white cells on the sheet. Attributes are for sorting and reporting data- not for data entry- therefore whenever attributes are selected to be displayed on a row of a cube sheet, data is not able to entered on that display of the cube sheet.

Attributes, however, are not a required element on a cube sheet. In the screen capture below, I have removed the Sales Manager attribute from the sheet- and data can still be entered into any of the white background cells.

In summary, for any Adaptive Insights users who are wondering and confused about the question, attributes are not required on a cube sheet- however when they are part of the cube sheet, they must be a pull-down option rather than a row element, to enable data entry. The way questions are asked can confuse students and application users- and this “question” consistently causes confusion in its ambiguity.

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