The Lucky Seven

In other posts, like Performing Analysis Work with Monarch, I’ve made mention of Monarch’s summary feature. I’ve put together a short list of reasons for you to explore the feature further.

  1. Summaries are easy to build, the process is quick, and you can generally include as much or as little of your data as you need.
    • Sometimes a “Quick” summary is all you need. Or you can start with a quick summary and modify it slightly.
  2. Verify that your model is correct.
    • If your report has grand totals, you can build a summary to verify that your totals balance to the report, ensuring that you have captured all of the data properly.
  3. You can easily have multiple summaries.
    • You may need many summaries of the same dataset for different purposes or audiences. Multiple summaries appear in Monarch just as multiple worksheet are displayed in Excel.
  4. Export more data to Excel.
    • By exporting a summary to Excel you can represent a larger dataset than Excel (at least versions prior to 2007) can hold on one sheet. Sometimes you don’t need every last record; you just need a few subtotals and grand totals or other calculations based on the entire dataset. Odds are that you’d be summarizing the data in Excel anyway, so you may as well do it with Monarch.
  5. Show only what you need.
    • Not only does the ability to drill up or down gives you great control over your presentation, but you can export to Excel with outlining, which gives the Excel user similar control over the presentation.
  6. Have a polished presentation.
    • Yes, Excel’s pivot tables are powerful tools, but if you want custom, I mean really tailored formatting, pivot tables are nowhere near as easy to maintain when your data changes as compared to the build-it-and-forget-it approach that Monarch offers.
  7. You can connect a summary to a specific filter.
    • You can easily isolate key data that always appears in your reports, like product categories, business lines, or perhaps department numbers. Build a summary for each key item, filtering based on the key values you’ve already defined. These keys can even be generated by using external lookups or runtime parameters.

Make good use of summaries, and you’ll be in seventh heaven, confident in your ability to excel with Monarch.