About this video
- Video Title: Financial Data Warehouse
- Channel: Garrett Edmondson
- Speakers: Garrett Edmondson
- Duration: 00:31:04
Overview
This video explains the concept and value of a financial data warehouse, demonstrating how it can be built and used to provide business insights. Garrett Edmondson covers the definition, benefits, and developer requirements for creating a financial data warehouse, emphasizing its low-risk nature and quick development time.
Key takeaways
- Definition of a Financial Data Warehouse: Primarily focuses on storing and analyzing chart of account information, specifically net income and balance sheet data at a monthly level (General Ledger account balances).
- Value Proposition: Delivers high business value by focusing on financial performance, a critical concern for any organization. Satisfying finance departments can lead to funding for future projects.
- Low Risk and Fast Development: Financial data warehouses are considered low-risk due to the inherent consistency of financial data (adhering to GAAP). Development can be as fast as two weeks for a Proof of Concept (POC) and a few months for a production release, provided the scope is limited to a single source system or set of books.
- Data Consistency: Financial data, governed by Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP), has highly consistent definitions, eliminating the political battles and definition conflicts often found in other data warehousing projects.
- Developer Requirements: Key elements for building a financial data warehouse include defining a hierarchy with GL account numbers, a unary operator (to indicate positive or negative roll-up), and the parent GL account. This structure is crucial for tools like Analysis Services to perform calculations automatically.
- Scope Management: It's recommended to start with a single source system or set of books for the initial phase to manage complexity and ensure successful implementation. Accounts receivable and accounts payable data, which are often more complex and less integrated, should be considered for later phases.
