Summaries

Editing Row and Columns Summaries of Variables

Overview

Summary step of Variable dialog

Variables can be summarised in two ways, both accessible from the Summary step of the Variable wizard.

Row Summary

A Row Summary is only applicable when the Variable has one or more Dimensions applied. For instance, in the example below, the Variable has a Membership Tier Dimension applied, with three items: Basic, Premium, and Platinum.

The Row Summary determines how the All line is calculated (in this case, a Sum).

Sum summary of a Variable with a Dimension

Note, when you apply Dimensions to a Variable, Models will try to apply the most appropriate type of Summary automatically for you, so most of the time you will not need to manually set one yourself.

The following Row Summary types are available:

Row Summary type	Details
None	No summary applied
Sum	Sum of all row values
Auto	Applies calculation of Variable (see details below)
Rearranged	Calculates value based on parent Variables (see details below)

A Sum Row Summary is commonly the desired output, but there are situations where a Sum total of rows is not a meaningful calculation, in which case you should choose between an Auto or Rearranged Summary.

Auto Row Summary

An Auto Row Summary is only available for Calculation Variables. In this case, the Summary is calculated by applying the default Calculation of the Variable to the Row Summary lines of the referenced Variables.

For instance, if the Variable's Calculation is Profit Margin = Profit / Revenues across several items, a Sum of Profit Margin is not meaningful. In this case, a useful Summary is to apply the calculation Profit / Revenues to the summary line of Profit and Revenues.

An Auto Row Summary will only work successfully if all referenced Variables have a Summary row themselves (or do not have a Dimension applied)

Rearranged Row Summary

A Rearranged Row Summary is used when a meaningful summary value depends on the Variable parents' values.

To apply a Rearranged Summary, we select the Rearranged option, and then select the parent Variable which we would like to rearrange.

For instance, if we have a Variable Price, across the Membership Tier Dimension (Basic, Premium, Platinum), a meaningful summary output is the weighted average price across all tiers.

Elsewhere in the Model, we calculate Revenues = Price * Customers.

In the Summary step of the Variables wizard, we select Rearranged and then choose Revenues as the rearranged parent. Models then calculates the weighted average price as Price = Revenues / Customers, based on the Calculation of the Revenues Variable.

Rearranged Summary example

Column Summary

A Column Summary generates a value for a Variable based on all periods of the Model.

Column Summaries can be applied to all Variables and any number of Column Summaries can be added.

The following Column Summary types are available:

Column Summary type	Details
Total	Sum of values across all periods
Average	Mean average of values across all periods
Min	Minimum value across all periods
Max	Maximum value across all periods
Last	Value at last period
CAGR	Compound Annual Growth Rate across all periods

Additional options:

• A specific Number Format can be selected for each Column Summary.

• A divisor can be applied, to make the output smaller. Options are: None, Thousands, Millions, Billions, Trillions

Multiple Summary Editing

The Summaries of multiple Variables can be edited simultaneously by selecting the Variables and clicking the Edit Summaries button in the Variables context menu.

Edit summaries button

The Rearranged Summary option will not be available if edited multiple Variables at once.