Business rules sheet

Business rules can be added via the dialog or directly entered on the business rules sheet. 

The main input area starts at row 51. It has five columns - these columns are automatically populated when using the insert dialog, or they can be entered manually.

The area at the top of the sheet lists all the accepted types and explains what should be inputted in each column.

A rule applied to a Parent member is automatically applied to its children unless the children are explicitly defined with a different rule.

Use the wildcard * in the Database or Cube columns to apply the rule to all. Wildcards can also be used to match partial member names, for example, Profit* or *Expenses.

There are additional rules that can be added to the business rules sheet to specify how values are entered in the cube.

For example, all expense accounts are inputted as positive values in the Adventure Works Finance cube. If one month one of these accounts gets a refund added to it, it might then have a negative value. We then have an account structure with some positive and some negative values. We would then need to specify on the business rules sheet that expenses typically have a positive sign. ‌If it finds an expense with a negative sign, it should consider that a gain to the total.

These are entered with ExpectedExpenseSign, ExpectedRevenueSign in the Type column. The For column is left blank, and then a + or - should be entered in the Match column.

If you need to reuse the same rules in multiple workbooks, ‌save the workbook that contains the Business Rules sheet. In any other workbook, you can use the Import Business Rules menu item and select the saved workbook.