How do you handle time?

[DwarF]

Heya,

I'm new to TM1 and am trying to get a feel for how you should design cubes that you expect to later be tied together in the reporting layer (outside of TM1). I hope I don't make this more confusing than it has to be - I'm trying to use a single time dimension at the reporting layer to pull different data types together.

I have two different data-sets, one data set that is stored at the day level (we'll say sales) and another data set that only goes as low as the month level (we'll say marketing spend). Is it possible to create a single time dimension where the month is used as a consolidated element for the daily data set (Sales) and the same month level in the time dimension is used as the base element for the monthly (marketing spend) data set?

Thanks in advance,
D

[Alan Kirk]

I have two different data-sets, one data set that is stored at the day level (we'll say sales) and another data set that only goes as low as the month level (we'll say marketing spend). Is it possible to create a single time dimension where the month is used as a consolidated element for the daily data set (Sales) and the same dimension is used as the base element for the monthly (marketing spend) data set?

No, but it's possible to either:
- Write your monthly data to the first or last day element of each month; or alternatively;
- Have a dummy day element which also rolls up into your month consolidation, and which you write the monthly data to.

Ultimately it'll work out to the same thing, essentially.

[DwarF]

Holy cow that was a fast response, thank! Yeah, I was thinking of writing the monthly data set to the first day element of the month, but was hoping there was a more elegant solution. I appreciate the answer all the same, Thanks Alan.