For HFM admins, making life easier is about automating something, a new calculation, faster consolidation, etc. But for end users, making life easier tends to be about simple stuff. Show me something quick that can make my life easier.
One of the questions end users have is what are the attributes of this account, entity, etc. - the metadata properties. For years administrators have put this information out to Excel files (the HFM Toolbox utility for versions before 11.1.2.4 was great at this).
But within HFM itself, there are some things that can be done.
In the mid 2000s a field was added to the accounts called Calculation Attribute. It provides 100 characters or so for the admin to type in how an account is calculated. The history for this goes back to Hyperion Enterprise that would show the calculation for a calculated account in the Data View window. In HFM right-click a cell (data grid or form), select Cell Information and you'll see the Account Calculation Attribute if it has been provided.
That's all well and good, but what about the metadata attributes? Asset or liability? What custom dimension top members? For this information, there is a simple solution. Right-click the metadata item (I'm using account ROA in the rows here) and select Member Properties.
Once selected, a popup appears with all of the information an end user would want to know. The screenshot does not show all of the attributes, but they are all there.
So simple and available from grids and forms (but unfortunately not Smart View).
