Patent Publication Number: US-2015081356-A1

Title: Dynamic multi-dimensional business reports

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications may enable users to generate a variety of reports related to business processes such as financial reports, including accounting, profits and revenue data, inventory reports, and other business process reports. Users may request an initial report from the ERP, and the ERP may generate a data query to collect the data for the requested report from an external database and generate the report. After receiving the generated report from the ERP at a local device associated with the user, the user may desire to view more detailed data related to the report. When the user selects to view more detailed data, the ERP may receive the request and generate a new data query to retrieve the more detailed data from the database. Enterprise data may be complex, and there may be large amounts of enterprise data stored in the external database. Generating a new data query each time a user requests to view more data may be inefficient and time consuming as the request may be received over a network, and the large amounts of data stored in the database may take time to process and parse. Additionally, it may take even more time to retrieve the requested data, generate a report from the data and provide the report to the user from the external database to the user&#39;s local device over the network. 
     SUMMARY 
     This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to exclusively identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. 
     Embodiments are directed to providing dynamic report views of multi-dimensional business data. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) or similar platform may facilitate data collection of requested business data and present the requested data in a multi-dimensional data report. The multi-dimensional data report may initially display year-to-date data for the requested data. During the data collection for the requested data, additional intervals of data may also be collected such as monthly and quarterly, and the data may be rendered in the background to enable the data to be dynamically presented upon user request. A user may select to view one or more additional intervals of data on the initial data report, and the data report may automatically refresh to display the selected data intervals. The ERP platform may perform a defined set of calculations to determine the data to be included in each data interval, and may enable a user to customize the data interval presentation according to user preferences. 
     These and other features and advantages will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are explanatory and do not restrict aspects as claimed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an example networked environment where an enterprise resource planning platform may provide multi-dimensional business reports; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates an example year to date multi-dimensional business report; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an example multi-dimensional business report including quarterly data; 
         FIGS. 4A and 4B  illustrate an example multi-dimensional business report including monthly and quarterly data and example graphical visualizations of the multi-dimensional business report; 
         FIG. 5  is a networked environment, where a system according to embodiments may be implemented; 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram of an example computing operating environment, where embodiments may be implemented; and 
         FIG. 7  illustrates a logic flow diagram for a process of providing dynamic report views of multi-dimensional business data, according to embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     As briefly described above, a system is described for providing dynamic report views of business data. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) or similar platform may collect requested enterprise data and present the requested data in a data report. The data report may initially display year-to-date data for the requested data, and during the data collection for the requested data, additional intervals of data may also be collected. The additional data intervals may be generated in the background to enable the data to be dynamically presented upon user request. A user may select to view one or more additional intervals of data on the initial data report, and the data report may automatically refresh to display the selected data intervals. 
     In the following detailed description, references are made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustrations specific embodiments or examples. These aspects may be combined, other aspects may be utilized, and structural changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The following detailed description is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. 
     While the embodiments will be described in the general context of program modules that execute in conjunction with an application program that runs on an operating system on a computing device, those skilled in the art will recognize that aspects may also be implemented in combination with other program modules. 
     Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and comparable computing devices. Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. 
     Embodiments may be implemented as a computer-implemented process (method), a computing system, or as an article of manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readable media. The computer program product may be a computer storage medium readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program that comprises instructions for causing a computer or computing system to perform example process(es). The computer-readable storage medium can for example be implemented via one or more of a volatile computer memory, a non-volatile memory, a hard drive, a flash drive, a floppy disk, or compact servers, an application executed on a single computing device, and comparable systems. The term “server” generally refers to a computing device executing one or more software programs typically in a networked environment. However, a server may also be implemented as a virtual server (software programs) executed on one or more computing devices viewed as a server on the network. More detail on these technologies and example operations is provided below. 
     Throughout this specification, the term “platform” may be a combination of software and hardware components for providing dynamic report views of multi-dimensional business data. Examples of platforms include, but are not limited to, a hosted service executed over a plurality of servers, an application executed on a single computing device, and comparable systems. The term “server” generally refers to a computing device executing one or more software programs typically in a networked environment. However, a server may also be implemented as a virtual server (software programs) executed on one or more computing devices viewed as a server on the network. More detail on these technologies and example operations is provided below. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an example networked environment where an enterprise resource planning platform may provide multi-dimensional business reports, according to some embodiments, herein. 
     As illustrated in diagram  100 , an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system  110  may provide support for internal business processes of an enterprise or company. For example, the ERP systems  110  may provide a real time integrated view of business processes such as production, order processing, and inventory management tied together by an enterprise management system and a central database storing enterprise data. Some example ERP system  110  may track resources such as cash, raw materials, and production capacity, customer orders, purchase orders, inventory management, and payroll in departments such as manufacturing, accounting, purchasing and sales. The ERP system  110  may provide various reports to users associated with the enterprise over a network  108  such as a cloud based network. Users ( 102 ,  104 ) associated with the ERP system  110  may access the enterprise data over the network  108 , and may request a report of the enterprise data over the network  108 . The users ( 102 ,  104 ) may access and interact with the report on the user&#39;s own client device such as a personal computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. The enterprise data and associated reports may be accessed over a web browser executed on the user&#39;s client device, and may also be accessed and stored locally on the user&#39;s client device. 
     In an example embodiment, a front end server  106  of the ERP system  110  may receive a request to collect data from an enterprise database  112  and may generate a multi-dimensional business report for the requested data. Example multi-dimensional business reports may include financial reports such as ledgers, trail balance data, overall balance sheets and quarterly financial statements, and may include reports related to other aspects of the business such as purchase orders and inventory. The front end server  106  may receive the data request query and may route the data request query to a back end server  114  configured to retrieve the requested data. The back end server  114  may generate a data query to retrieve the requested data from the database  112 . 
     In an example embodiment, when the initial data request is received for a portion of multi-dimensional business data, the back end server  114  may generate the data query to retrieve the requested portion of multi-dimensional business data, and to retrieve dimensions of data related to the initial requested portion. For example, if the request is to retrieve the year-to-date financial data, the back end server  114  may generate the query to retrieve each segmented dimension of data making up the year-to-date financial data, such as the weekly, monthly, and quarterly data dimensions. After the back end server  114  retrieves the data from the database  112 , the back end server  114  may provide the data to the front end server for rendering of the data. The front end server  106  may create a single report for the requested portion of data and may render the additional dimensions of related data in background. Additionally, the front end server  106  may create multiple reports for each dimension of collected data, and each of the generated reports may be stored on a user&#39;s local device for instant retrieval without having to retrieve data over the network  108  each time a user requests new data. 
     In a system according to embodiments, an example multi-dimensional business report may provide multi-dimensional business data over a period of time. The multi-dimensional business data may be presented in a year-to-date column in the multi-dimensional business report, where the year-to-date column may include one or more additional data columns defined by the user. The user requesting the year-to-date multi-dimensional business report may define the information, or columns and rows, the user desires to view in the report. For example, the user may desire to see a budget column, an actual amount spent column, and a marginal column. The user requesting the year-to-date multi-dimensional business report may desire to view more detailed views, or other dimensions, of the multi-dimensional business data in the year-to-date multi-dimensional business report. For example, the user may desire to view smaller time periods of multi-dimensional business data, such as quarterly, monthly, biweekly, weekly, daily, or other defined time period. A system according to embodiments may enable a multi-dimensional business report to dynamically display smaller time periods of data based on gathered year-to-date data initially provided in the multi-dimensional business report. 
     The computing device and user interface environment shown in diagram  100  are for illustration purposes. Embodiments may be implemented in various local, networked, and similar computing environments employing a variety of computing devices and systems. Data associated with an enterprise may be hosted at the ERP system, and in other embodiments the data may be hosted by a separate server accessible by the ERP system  110  for generating user requested enterprise reports. Furthermore, while multi-dimensional business data is described for generating a report and enabling display of smaller time periods of data for a year-to-date multi-dimensional business report, other multi-dimensional and hierarchical data may also be provided in a data report, and subsets of the hierarchical data may be displayed based on the initial set of data. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an example year to date multi-dimensional business report, according to some embodiments, herein. 
     As illustrated in diagram  200 , a multi-dimensional business report  202  may provide year-to-date data  204  related to a selected department or division of an entity. The data provided in the multi-dimensional business report  202  may be customized according to a user&#39;s report definition when the user requests the report. For example, the user may define rows and columns to be presented in the report during the initial data request. In the example multi-dimensional business report  202  shown in diagram  200 , the user may define columns to be included in the multi-dimensional business report such as actual, budget, and variance columns which may provide data related to actual expenses, budgeted expenses and the favorable or unfavorable variance between actual and budgeted expenses. The rows may also be defined so that the user may select to view desired data for the selected columns. 
     In an example embodiment, when the user requests the multi-dimensional business report  202  from an ERP system, the ERP system may gather the requested data for the report from an enterprise database, and may generate the multi-dimensional business report with data for the requested rows and columns of the data report. The multi-dimensional business report  202  may initially display the requested multi-dimensional business data. For example, if the user requests year-to-date financial data, then the year-to-date data may be displayed in the report. The user may desire to view more detailed data in the multi-dimensional business report  202 , such as smaller time periods or intervals of multi-dimensional business data, such as quarterly and monthly data. 
     In a system according to embodiments, the multi-dimensional business report  202  may be configured to dynamically display additional time periods of data according to a user&#39;s preferences based on the initial year-to-date data included in the multi-dimensional business report  202 . The user may be enabled to select an interval to view in the multi-dimensional business report, and the multi-dimensional business report may automatically refresh to display the selected intervals of data, without having to retrieve and process the selected intervals of data from the enterprise database. 
     In a system according to embodiments, in order to facilitate dynamically displaying additional dimensions of data upon user selection, when a user requests a financial report from the ERP system, the ERP system may collect the requested data to generate the financial report. When the requested data is collected from the enterprise database, additional dimensions of the data may be also collected and rendered in the background of the multi-dimensional business report  202  to enable dynamic viewing of the data. During the report generation, the additional dimensions of data, such as additional time intervals of data including monthly, quarterly, weekly, and bi-weekly data for the columns and rows defined by the user, may be rendered. The additional data may be rendered in a single report and may be provided in the background for dynamically displaying, or in other embodiments, the additional data may be rendered in separate reports and provided with the requested report to the user&#39;s client device. The generated report, including the additional rendered data, may be provided to the user, and in a default view, the multi-dimensional report may display the requested data, such as year-to-date data  204 . The data for the additional time period intervals may rendered in the background, but may not be displayed in the multi-dimensional report until the user selects to view the data. 
     In an example embodiment, a show option  208  may be provided to enable the user to select data interval views of the multi-dimensional business report. Upon selection of the show option  208 , a list  206  of data interval views available for the multi-dimensional business report. The user may select one or more additional intervals to be displayed, and the report view may automatically refresh to display the selected intervals of data. When the user selects to see monthly columns in the multi-dimensional report  202 , the report view may dynamically update to display monthly columns. Similarly, when the user selects to see quarterly columns in the multi-dimensional report  202 , the report view may dynamically update to display quarterly columns, and likewise, when the user selects to see a yearly column in the report, the report view may dynamically update to display yearly columns. If the user selects to view two or more intervals, the report view may update to display the two or more selected monthly, quarterly and yearly intervals. In an example embodiment, the additional intervals available for selection from the list  206  may be dependent on the initially displayed report, such that sub-dimensions of a displayed dimensions may be available options for display. For example, if the initial report is a year-to-date report including a year-to-date column of financial data, then monthly and quarterly intervals may be options for selection. If the initial multi-dimensional business report is a periodic report displaying various time intervals defined by a user, but not including a year-to-date column, then quarterly and monthly data intervals may not be displayed as available report view options in the list  206 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an example multi-dimensional business report including quarterly data, according to some embodiments, herein. 
     In a system according to embodiments, a user may select to view quarterly data from an initial year-to-date multi-dimensional business report  302 . The user may select to view the quarterly data by selecting a view option  312  presented on the multi-dimensional business report to present a list  306  of available data intervals and selecting one or more data intervals from the list  306 . As illustrated in diagram  300 , upon detection of a selection to view the quarterly data from the list  306 , the multi-dimensional business report  302  may dynamically update to display one or more quarterly intervals  304  of data associated with the year-to-date data. The data columns  320  displayed in each quarterly interval  304  may coincide with the data columns  308  displayed in the year-to-date column  310  of the multi-dimensional business report  302 . For example, if the year-to-date column  310  includes actual, budget, and variance columns, each quarterly interval  304  column may include the same actual budget, and variance columns with respective quarterly data values. 
     In a system according to embodiments, when an ERP system initially gathers the data from an enterprise database for the requested year-to-date report, the ERP system may also gather the data for quarterly and monthly intervals. Data to be included in each of the quarterly intervals  304  may be determined by calculating periods defined in the ERP system for year-to-date data. Example periods may be a number of months included in the year-to-date. A Periods-Per-Quarter (PPQ) value may be derived by dividing the number of periods defined in the year-to-date by 4. For example, if in a year-to-date report, there are 12 months, or periods, defined in the year-to-date, the PPQ value would be 3 (e.g. 12/4). If the total number of periods for the year-to-date defined by the ERP system is not a factor of 4, then the PPQ value may be rounded down to the nearest whole number. For example, if there are 14 periods defined in the year-to-date, the PPQ would be 3 e.g. 14/4=3.5. In another example, if there are 18 periods in the year-to-date, the PPQ would be 4 e.g. 14/4=4.5. 
     Furthermore, the number of periods in the year-to-date report may be divided by the PPQ value to determine the number of quarterly columns to display. Any remainder from this calculation may be added to the final column as a partial quarterly interval. For example, assuming a PPQ value of 3 and the year-to-date report generated for 6 periods, 2 quarterly columns may be added to the report view, and each quarterly column may include data for 3 periods, or 3 months of data. In another example, assuming a PPQ value of 3 and the year-to-date report generated for 7 periods, 3 quarterly columns may be added to the report. The first two quarterly columns may contain 3 periods of data and the third quarterly column may include only one period of data. In a further example, assuming a PPQ value of 3 and the year-to-date report generated for 14 periods, 4 quarterly columns may be added. The first two columns may contain 3 periods of data and the fourth quarterly column may include 2 periods. 
       FIGS. 4A and 4B  illustrate an example multi-dimensional business report including monthly and quarterly data and example graphical visualizations of the multi-dimensional business report, according to some embodiments, herein. 
     As illustrated in diagram  400 A, a multi-dimensional business report  402  such as a financial report may also dynamically update to display data for monthly intervals  404  and quarterly intervals  410  concurrently. In an example embodiment, a user may select to view one or more of monthly intervals, quarterly intervals, and yearly intervals from an initial year-to-date financial report. The user may select the data intervals to view from a list  406  presented as part of the multi-dimensional business report. The user may select a show option presented on a menu bar of the multi-dimensional business report to display the list  406 . Upon detection of a selection to view the data intervals from the list  406 , the multi-dimensional business report  402  may automatically update to present the selected data intervals. 
     In an example embodiment, when monthly intervals  404  are selected, data to be displayed in the monthly interval  404  columns of the multi-dimensional business report may be determined based on periods defined for the year-to-date in an ERP system. The number of monthly interval  404  columns added to the multi-dimensional business report may be determined based on the period the multi-dimensional business report  402  is generated for. For example, if the multi-dimensional business report  402  is generated for period 5 (i.e. the year-to-date for five periods), then 5 monthly interval columns may be added to the multi-dimensional business report  402  view. The data columns  408  displayed in each monthly interval  404  may coincide with the data columns displayed in the quarterly and/or the year-to-date column of the multi-dimensional business report  402 . 
     In another example embodiment, if the user selects to view monthly and quarterly data concurrently in the multi-dimensional business report, monthly intervals  404  and quarterly intervals  410  may be added to the report. The data to be included in each of the monthly intervals may be calculated as described above. Each quarterly interval  410  column may be displayed after the group of monthly intervals  404  that display the data included in the quarterly interval  410 . For example, assuming a PPQ value of 3 and the year-to-date report generated for 6 periods, 2 quarterly columns may be added to the report view. Each quarterly interval column includes data for 3 periods, such as January, February, and March, and the quarterly interval column for months January, February, and March may be displayed after the monthly interval column for March. Furthermore, if the user selects to view monthly, quarterly, and yearly data concurrently, the year-to-date column may also be displayed after the monthly and quarterly intervals. 
     In an example scenario, when the user selects to view two or more intervals concurrently, the size of the report may exceed a size of the user interface due to a number of intervals displayed in the report, and due to an amount of data and data columns included in each of the data intervals. The report may provide a navigation option  420  to enable the user to continuously scroll to additional data or to navigate to a next page of data. 
     In a further embodiment, a user may customize a default view to be provided by the ERP system for an initial multi-dimensional business report. For example, the ERP system may default to providing a year-to-date multi-dimensional business report upon receiving an initial request for the report. The user may customize the settings such that the initial report may display quarterly intervals based on the year-to-date data by default. Additionally, the ERP system may determine a default view for the multi-dimensional business report based on a user history of detected user preferences. Furthermore, the ERP system may determine the view for the multi-dimensional business report based on a client device. For example, on the client device, the multi-dimensional business report may be limited to displaying quarterly interval views in an initial report view. In another example embodiment, the data may be displayed in the report based on user credentials and permissions. For example, the ERP system may prevent data from being collected and rendered in the report if the user does not have permission to view the data. In another example, the ERP system may allow the data to be collected and rendered, but the restricted data may be hidden in the report or may not be presented in the report. 
     In another example embodiment, as illustrated in diagram  400 B, the multi-dimensional business report  402  may be associated with graphical representations of the data from the multi-dimensional business report  402 . Each graphical representation associated with the financial data report may be automatically updated as a user selects intervals of data to display in the multi-dimensional business report. For example, when a user selects to view monthly, quarterly and yearly data, a graphical representation  422  for a year-to date multi-dimensional business report with quarterly intervals may be updated to display the monthly data  424  in addition to the quarterly data. 
       FIG. 5  is an example networked environment, where embodiments may be implemented. A system for providing dynamic report views of financial multi-dimensional data may be implemented via software executed over one or more servers  514  such as a hosted service. The platform may communicate with client applications on individual computing devices such as a smart phone  513 , a laptop computer  512 , or desktop computer  511  (‘client devices’) through network(s)  510 . 
     Client applications executed on any of the client devices  511 - 513  may facilitate communications via application(s) executed by servers  514 , or on individual server  516 . An application executed on one of the servers may facilitate providing dynamic report views of financial data. The application may retrieve relevant data from data store(s)  519  directly or through database server  518 , and provide requested services (e.g. document editing) to the user(s) through client devices  511 - 513 . 
     Network(s)  510  may comprise any topology of servers, clients, Internet service providers, and communication media. A system according to embodiments may have a static or dynamic topology. Network(s)  510  may include secure networks such as an enterprise network, an unsecure network such as a wireless open network, or the Internet. Network(s)  510  may also coordinate communication over other networks such as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or cellular networks. Furthermore, network(s)  510  may include short range wireless networks such as Bluetooth or similar ones. Network(s)  510  provide communication between the nodes described herein. By way of example, and not limitation, network(s)  510  may include wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. 
     Many other configurations of computing devices, applications, data sources, and data distribution systems may be employed to implement a platform for providing a system for providing dynamic report views of financial data. Furthermore, the networked environments discussed in  FIG. 5  are for illustration purposes only. Embodiments are not limited to the example applications, modules, or processes. 
       FIG. 6  and the associated discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which embodiments may be implemented. With reference to  FIG. 6 , a block diagram of an example computing operating environment for an application according to embodiments is illustrated, such as computing device  600 . In a basic configuration, computing device  600  may be any computing device executing an application for providing a system for providing dynamic report views of financial data according to embodiments and include at least one processing unit  602  and system memory  604 . Computing device  600  may also include a plurality of processing units that cooperate in executing programs. Depending on the exact configuration and type of computing device, the system memory  604  may be volatile (such as RAM), non-volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or some combination of the two. System memory  604  typically includes an operating system  606  suitable for controlling the operation of the platform, such as the WINDOWS® operating systems from MICROSOFT CORPORATION of Redmond, Wash. The system memory  604  may also include one or more software applications such as a data gathering application  622  and a dynamic report viewing module  624 . 
     The data gathering application  622  may be an application enabling a user to request data to be collected and displayed in a multi-dimensional business data report. Example data may be year-to-date financial data for a department or entity. A dynamic report viewing module  624  as part of the data gathering application  622  may facilitate gathering the requested multi-dimensional data, and gathering subsets of the multi-dimensional data included in the requested data. For example, if year-to-date data is requested, data representing smaller intervals such as monthly and quarterly intervals may also be gathered. The dynamic report viewing module  624  may present an initial view of the multi-dimensional business report and may enable a user to select additional data intervals to view in the report. Upon detection of the selection of additional data views, the dynamic report viewing module  624  may automatically update the report to display the additional data views without additional data collection. The data gathering application  622  and the dynamic report viewing module  624  may be separate applications or integrated modules of a hosted service. This basic configuration is illustrated in  FIG. 6  by those components within dashed line  608 . 
     Computing device  600  may have additional features or functionality. For example, the computing device  600  may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in  FIG. 6  by removable storage  609  and non-removable storage  610 . Computer readable storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. System memory  604 , removable storage  609  and non-removable storage  610  are all examples of computer readable storage media. Computer readable storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM. ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computing device  600 . Any such computer readable storage media may be part of computing device  600 . Computing device  600  may also have input device(s)  612  such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, and comparable input devices. Output device(s)  614  such as a display, speakers, printer, and other types of output devices may also be included. These devices are well known in the art and need not be discussed at length here. 
     Computing device  600  may also contain communication connections  616  that allow the device to communicate with other devices  618 , such as over a wired or wireless network in a distributed computing environment, a satellite link, a cellular link, a short range network, and comparable mechanisms. Other devices  618  may include computer device(s) that execute communication applications, web servers, and comparable devices. Communication connection(s)  616  is one example of communication media. Communication media can include therein computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. 
     Example embodiments also include methods. These methods can be implemented in any number of ways, including the structures described in this document. One such way is by machine operations, of devices of the type described in this document. 
     Another optional way is for one or more of the individual operations of the methods to be performed in conjunction with one or more human operators performing some. These human operators need not be collocated with each other, but each can be only with a machine that performs a portion of the program. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a logic flow diagram for process  700  of providing dynamic report views of financial data, according to embodiments. Process  700  may be implemented on a computing device or similar electronic device capable of executing instructions through a processor. 
     Process  700  begins with operation  710 , where a request may be received to generate a multi-dimensional business report. 
     Operation  710  may be followed by operation  720  where one or more dimensions of the multi-dimensional business report are determined. Example dimensions of the report may be hierarchical dimensions such as time intervals including yearly, quarterly, and monthly time intervals. An initial request may be received for a time dimensions such as a yearly time interval, and associated time intervals of data such as quarterly and monthly data may be determined. 
     Operation  720  may be followed by operation  730  where data may be retrieved for the one or more dimensions. A server at a data gathering application may receive the request and generate a data query to retrieve data associated with all of the identified dimensions of the request during the data collection. 
     Operation  730  may be followed by operation  740  where a report from the retrieved data may be presented. The retrieved data may be rendered in a background of the report such that data may be dynamically presented when a user requests to view the data without additional data retrieval from the database. An initial granularity of the identified time dimensions and associated data may be automatically determined based on predefined parameters. 
     The operations included in process  700  are for illustration purposes. Providing dynamic report views of financial data may be implemented by similar processes with fewer or additional steps, as well as in different order of operations using the principles described herein. 
     The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the embodiments. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims and embodiments.