Workday Adaptive Planning: Dimensions vs. Attributes and When to Use Them

When we design a model in Workday Adaptive Planning, we need to decide how business data is organized for planning and reporting.

Two important components are custom dimensions and attributes.

Both help us analyze data, but they serve different purposes.

Custom dimensions allow us to plan and store data against specific dimension values. Attributes classify existing model elements and provide additional reporting groupings.

Understanding this difference is important when designing revenue, expense, and workforce planning models.

1. Understanding Custom Dimensions

Custom dimensions provide additional detail to planning data beyond the standard accounts, levels, and time periods.

For example, a company wants to plan revenue by:

• Product
• Region
• Customer

We can create these as custom dimensions and configure their values.

For the Product dimension, we can have:

When these dimensions are included in a cube sheet, planners can enter revenue at the required dimensional intersections.

For example, revenue can be planned for Laptop, North America, and Customer A.

The model stores the data against the applicable account, level, time, version, and custom dimension values.

2. Understanding Attributes

Attributes allow us to classify levels, accounts, and custom dimension values.

Unlike custom dimensions, attributes do not directly store planning data.

For example, we have a Product dimension with the following values:

We can create Product Category as a dimension attribute.

The attribute groups products for reporting without requiring planners to enter revenue separately against the product category.

When we report revenue by Product Category, Adaptive Planning uses the attribute assignments to group the associated product data.

Attributes can also support alternate reporting hierarchies and grouping of accounts or organizational levels.

3. Dimensions vs. Attributes: Key Differences

The main difference is how the model associates data with each component.

Custom dimensions provide coordinates for planning data.

Attributes classify the metadata already associated with that data.

4. How We Configure Dimensions

In Workday Adaptive Planning, we navigate to:

Modeling > Dimensions

We create a custom dimension and define its properties.

Important configuration fields include:

• Code
• Name
• Display name format
• List dimension setting
• Use on levels setting, where applicable

After creating the dimension, we add dimension values.

We can also create and maintain custom dimensions through imports, integration loaders, or supported APIs.

5. How We Configure Attributes

We configure attributes through the appropriate attribute area under Modeling.

Adaptive Planning supports:

• Level Attributes
• Account Attributes
• Dimension Attributes

For example, to group products by category, we create a dimension attribute and its values.

We then assign the relevant attribute value to each product dimension value.

When we use attributes with custom dimensions, the dimension configuration must support the required attribute assignment.

6. Impact on Planning and Reporting

The selection between dimensions and attributes affects how we design planning sheets and reports.

Consider a revenue planning model.

If the business needs to enter revenue separately for each product, Product is a custom dimension.

If the business only needs to group those products into categories for reporting, Product Category can be an attribute.

This avoids creating an additional planning dimension when the requirement is only classification.

Attributes can also help create alternate reporting views without changing the primary organizational hierarchy.

7. Important Considerations for Existing Models

When we introduce a new custom dimension into an existing model, we need to review the impact on existing data.

Adaptive Planning provides an Uncategorized dimension value.

When a custom dimension is created, existing data is associated with Uncategorized. When a dimension is added to an existing cube sheet, existing sheet data is also assigned to Uncategorized for that dimension.

This means we need to review the existing data and determine whether it requires reclassification.

We also need to review the integration mapping.

If the source system provides Product, Region, or Customer codes, we need to ensure the corresponding dimension values exist and that the loader maps the source data correctly.

For attributes, we need to review how attribute values are assigned and maintained.

Where Workday integration loaders maintain dimension values and attributes, we also need to consider the existing integration configuration before making changes.

8. How We Approach the Model Design

Before creating a new dimension or attribute, we review the following:

1. Does the business need to enter data directly against the value?
2. Is the value required only for classification and reporting?
3. Does the value come from an integrated source system?
4. How does it affect existing planning sheets and calculations?
5. Does it require separate access rules or reporting hierarchies?

These questions help us determine the appropriate configuration.

We also consider the impact on model maintenance and future integration changes.

Conclusion

Custom dimensions and attributes are important components of Workday Adaptive Planning model design.

Dimensions support planning and reporting at specific data intersections.

Attributes provide additional ways to classify and group existing model elements.

When we understand how each component works, we can select the appropriate structure based on business requirements rather than creating unnecessary planning dimensions.

The objective is to keep the model aligned with how the business plans, calculates, integrates, and reports its data