Business rules

Creating business rules and storing them in the model instead of in reports has many advantages. You save time because you and your users do not have to re-create the business rules every time they are needed. The business rules ensure consistency because your users all use the same definitions. For example, Low Margin means the same thing throughout the organization. They are easy to update because you maintain the business rules centrally so that all reports are updated automatically as the rules evolve. For example, if the definition for Low Margin changes, all reports that use the Low Margin calculation are updated automatically. The business rules enhance security.

For example, you can

• Add calculations so that your users can include calculated data in their reports. See Creating calculations.
• Create and apply filters so that you limit the data that a query subject retrieves. See Creating filters.
• Add prompts that will automatically display whenever a dimension or query subject is used in a report; report consumers are then prompted to filter data. See Defining prompt controls.
• Use session parameters and parameter maps in macros to dynamically resolve expressions. See Creating session parameters, Creating parameter maps, Creating prompts with query macros.
• Create a security filter to control the data that is shown to your users when they set up their reports. See Adding data security.