Microstrategy Blog

…also known as Things I Learned The Hard Way – Part.2

A Consolidation is a great way to visually group data…but there are MANY problems that consolidations can create.

Specifically, an over-zealous pivoter who doesn’t understand the finer points of MicroStrategy can make a real mess of things. Consolidations are great for making income statement, balance sheets, or any drillable report that has specific subtotal or formatting requirements. Below is a standard consolation.

We have out various elements, and some subtotals that we want to see. On the image below, if I add the account category that drives those subtotals, I add them to the Grid. So now you see how the Consolidation actually treats each element.

Now, if we pull off the consolidation, look at what happens to the “Account Category” (ignoring the sort order). The new dynamic totals created are no longer accurate, they’re the sum of each item, plus every subtotal that the attribute appears in.

Here’s what the report should look like. Look at the Object Manager on the left to see that the consolidation has now been removed from the report objects….and…Tada! The correct results.

So, make sure that your Web Pro users know that they have to be very aware of the elements that are in their reports before they start ‘OLAP’ing themselves into inaccurate data.