FAQs: Housing

What is the best way to look at my data? 

The HiFi tab allows you to compare a single property/outlet over a period of time.

The Groups tab allows you to compare multiple properties/outlets for a single period of time.

There are a series of Ratios that summarize the data on both the HiFi and Groups tab. This is often a good place to start reviewing your data as it provides a great overview of the data and often data/mapping errors will result in a ratio that looks out of line. (Definitions for the Ratios will be added to the HSRatiosDefinitions tab in a future version of the cube.)

What summary levels of corporate data are available for review?

Each corporate department/entity and property is referred to as an outlet in the CoopMetrics data warehouse structure. Each of these entities for which you provide data has been classified as one of three outlet types: admin, development or property.  You can filter the data to view any combination of these three outlet types.

There are a series of selection/drop-down boxes at the top of the spreadsheet.

• Click the arrow to drop-down the Property Type box.
• Click on the plus in front of All Property Types and you will see the choices that are currently available for outlet type.
• To view only one of the outlet types, click on the Admin or Property.
• Click OK and the cube will re-calculate.
• Note: To achieve the most benefit from the system in this early development stage, it was decided that we would focus on the property roll-ups first and then work on how best to approach the more complex roll-up of the corporate-level entities. Focus groups are working on the best way to roll-up departments within an organization, as well as how to map them to a common chart of accounts that will provide the best apples-to-apples comparison when using the system to benchmark against other groups.Although the system is still very useful in looking at your own corporate information, the common mapping questions will make comparisons with other organizations less useful at this time. The development mapping in particular has been difficult to standardize and is not currently available for viewing as a common outlet.

The HiFi tab is showing my entire corporation rolled up; how do I see data for the individual properties/outlets?

There are a series of selection/drop-down boxes at the top of the spreadsheet.

• Click the arrow to drop-down the Companies box.
• Click on the plus in front of your organization; all of the properties/outlets will appear.
• Click the property/outlet you want to view.
• Click OK and the cube will re-calculate.

If you want to view a roll-up of more than one property/outlet, there is a box under the list to Select Multiple Items.

• When you indicate you want to Select Multiple Items, a box will appear in front of each property/outlet in the list.
• Click the box for each property/outlet that you want to include in the roll-up.
• Clicking the box in front of your organization name will toggle between “Select All” and “De-Select All” of the items in the list.
• When you have selected all that you want to view, click OK and the cube will re-calculate.

The HiFi tab is showing data on an annual basis; how can I compare quarterly data?

To compare all available quarters for the same calendar year:

• Click the drop-down box Year, located above the label in the first column with data.
• Double click the box in front of the year you wish to view; double check marks should appear in the box.
• Click OK and the cube will re-calculate.

You can also view quarterly data for multiple years. For example, you could compare Q4 for 2007 to Q4 for 2008.

• To compare quarters in multiple years, click the drop-down box Year, located above the label in the first column with data.
• Click the plus in front of the first year you want to compare; click the box in front of each quarter you want to view.
• Now click the plus in front of the next year you want to compare; click the box in front of each quarter you want to view.
• When you have finished selecting your quarters, click OK and the cube will re-calculate.

It would be easier to look for anomalies in the data if I could compare the properties on a per unit basis.How do I change the cube to show per unit numbers?

When you open the Cube, there is a Toolbar at the top of each worksheet (you may have docked the toolbar, in which case it will be at the bottom of the menu bars).  

• The first drop-down option on the Toolbar is “$ or %”.
• Click the arrow to drop down your choices and select Per Unit.

To check which of our accounts have been mapped to each of the common chart of account items, I would like to view all available detail on the sub-categories that are being rolled up into the common items being displayed.Is there a way to select detail for all of the items on the page without having to individually click each item for the detail?

When you open the Cube, there is a Toolbar at the top of each worksheet (you may have docked the toolbar, in which case it will be at the bottom of the menu bars).

• The second drop-down option on the Toolbar is “Accounts Detail”.Click the arrow to drop down your choices and select Show Accounts at most detailed level.

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