Virtual Summit Chat - Pro Tips for All Levels of Users

gianluca.tatangelo · September 16, 2020, 12:00pm

Thank you for attending the session on Pro-Tips for All Levels of Users. What pro-tip are you most proud of using in your models? I would love to learn any tips you may have here!

To access the recorded version of our session, visit this URL and enter the same credentials you used on the day of the Virtual Summit. Enter the Theater section. Then go to Breakouts, find the session name, and click 'Watch On Demand.'

emily.anauo · September 16, 2020, 12:38pm

I’m excited to watch the recording of this event! It’s always good to brush up on my Prophix pro tips and best practices.

imtiazaq · September 16, 2020, 1:55pm

Excellent tips. I am waiting for the recording to utilize some of them.

rob.perry · September 16, 2020, 1:56pm

Looking forward to seeing the notes and hearing all the pro tips!

jason.schoming · September 16, 2020, 2:30pm

The tip you gave regarding changing a column member, but retaining formatting is going to save so much time! Thanks!

kristen.compton · September 16, 2020, 8:33pm

I am definitely waiting for the recording of this so I can watch and utilize these tips

cui.rye · September 16, 2020, 10:04pm

I enjoyed the session. Thanks for the tips.

shauntae.eiswerth · September 17, 2020, 1:04pm

I am looking forward to watch the recording of this session to brush up on some tips and tricks!

donna.ferrante · September 17, 2020, 1:27pm

Great presentation! The reminders of things learned long ago that might have been forgotten or never used was inspirational!

rebecca.broaddus · September 18, 2020, 5:17pm

I really enjoyed this session! I have a lot to learn still, but I was pretty excited when I built some templates for our budget where I could utilize multiple data views from different cubes to move the information from one cube to the other instead of uploading it!

bob.smiley · September 19, 2020, 10:10pm

Love the mustache! Is your red carpet profile pic out of date? (Great session, too, btw.)

katrina.kirchner · September 21, 2020, 11:52am

I plan on watching this video when it is posted. Everyone can find some new tips to pick up

gianluca.tatangelo · September 23, 2020, 12:05am

Thanks Bob! Based on the way time is moving these days, it feels like the picture was taken a century ago. Glad you enjoyed the session.

dan · September 24, 2020, 2:14pm

Will we be able to have the recording of this whenever we need it? Maybe Prophix should use this to create pro videos for users

kimberly.lindbloom · September 24, 2020, 6:23pm

This is another one I am looking forwarded to going back and watching.

gianluca.tatangelo · September 25, 2020, 6:25pm

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Presentation FAQ

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Hi All! Thank you for taking the time to watch the session and join the Red Carpet forum. I have put together a FAQ to answer the questions asked during the live presentation. Further, I will be regularly monitoring this discussion post to review any other questions you may have. Please feel free to share any Pro-Tips you may be implementing in your model!

Does Prophix automatically run the Optimize Process if on the Cloud?

The Optimize Fact Table Process needs to be configured by an Administrator or Advanced user for both on-premise and Cloud customers. Once configured, users can schedule the process to run nightly on an automated basis using the scheduler in Process Manager (just set it and forget it).

Create Index or Remove Index? Why one or the other?

An index is used to speed up a data search and the overall performance of SQL-based processes (i.e. Currency Conversions, InfoFlex processes, Procedural Calculations, etc.). Like the index in a book, Prophix will sort dimension members and create pointers to where data is within a particular model. When querying data, instead of going line by line, Prophix will then refer to the index to run the process, improving performance significantly.

Note: Having too many indexes could slow performance when used incorrectly. For example, having too many indexes could cause an Import Data process to run slowly. For best practice, run a Remove Index immediately after SQL-based processes are complete. A sample set of processes could look something like this:

Run Optimize Fact Table – Create Index
Run Current Conversion, InfoFlex, Procedural Calculation
Run Optimize Fact Table – Remove Index.

What does the Compress Fact Table Data option do in the Optimize Fact Table Process?

Borrowing an analogy online, think of data compression like squeezing the air out of a luggage to gain more space. Much like the name suggests, data compression reduces the space occupied by data in a database, by removing redundancies in the data sets. Compressing the data will allow for improved query and data performance by using the available memory in the most efficient way possible (reducing the time needed to locate data in a database).

Is removing Orphaned Records from Fact Table the same as deleting fact records where there is no foreign key linking to the confirmed dimension table?

Removing a dimension member from Prophix will not delete associated records/data points from the Fact Table. Therefore, selecting the option to “Remove orphaned records from fact table” will delete any data sitting in the backend of the application that does not have an associated member. (Answer to the question is yes)

We have been having an issue with putting a template calc within a folder and running it as part of a larger process. The process stops at the template calc, and we must run it by itself. Do you know why this happens?

Processes in a group run in a sequence one after another until complete. In this instance, it may be the case that the template calculation process takes longer to run than the other processes, therefore, halting the whole group. I would recommend running the Optimize Fact table process prior to running the template calculations and, if possible, scheduling the group to run at night so it does not interrupt other business processes or cycles throughout the day.

How do you name statistical accounts that relate to more than 1 account?

If an account does not have a common name, follow the best practices described in the tutorial. Creating an arbitrary key such as ‘S01’ to signify that the account is a statistical account is good practice to follow as not many users will pay particular attention to the key itself. Don’t forget to use the description to describe what the calculation is doing!

Are there any limitations to which formulas are available in Prophix? Are there any formulas / functions that Excel has that Prophix cannot do?

There is 400+ different template functions available in Prophix that are also possible in Excel. To begin, type “=” in a cell to see the available functions. Calculations can be built as they would be in Excel or other spreadsheet applications.

laurie.farrell.1 · October 14, 2020, 4:12pm

I wasn’t able to attend this summit, but am looking forward to being able to watch the recorded presentation.

barbara.laduke · October 26, 2020, 12:35pm

I love tips and anything that can help me with Prophix so I’m looking forward to watching this presentation on demand.

navin.sadarangani.1 · November 14, 2020, 1:52am

Some very useful tips and info here. Thanks for this

jakob · December 21, 2020, 12:16pm

Thank you Gianluca, a great presentation. You mentioned the use of sparkline functions. Is there any documentation for that? There are many sparkline functions in Prophix, it would be great to know, how and when to use them best. This sparkline functions do not work in excel- or pdf-exports, right? Also there are new cool Excel-formulas like xlookups. Will such Excel Updates be available in Prophix template formulas? Thanks.