Two facts on borrowed dimensions

Payables is two facts: what you were billed and what you paid. This star keeps both on the ledger’s own account and worktag dimensions, derives open items daily, and that borrowing is why every page in the module ties instead of reconciles.

RuleModel payables as two facts on the ledger’s own dimensions: invoice lines and payments, with open items derived daily from their difference.

Nevergive payables its own private dimensions. The moment supplier spend has its own account list or tag list, the tie to the ledger dies.

Two red facts, five teal dimensions, and every dimension is the ledger’s own. That borrowing is what makes the ties on every page possible.

◆ The two factsobligation and settlement, kept apart.

Fact	Grain	Carries
fct_invoice_line	one row per invoice line	Amount, supplier, account, worktags, invoice and due dates; the obligation.
fct_payment	one row per payment	Amount, supplier, applied invoices, paid date; the settlement.

Open items are the difference, derived and stored daily, which is what gives the aging its as-of answers and the roll-forward its nightly pin.

◆ Borrowed dimensions, on purposethe ledger’s keys, nothing private.

dim_account and dim_worktag are the GL star’s own tables, dim_supplier is versioned like every who-dimension in this catalog, and dim_date carries the three clocks an invoice lives on: invoice date, due date, paid date. The spend report ties to the trial balance because there is nothing private to drift.

Use case

Problem

Payables analytics grows its own supplier lists, account mappings, and tag translations, and every month someone reconciles it back to the ledger by hand.

What we build

Two facts, invoice lines and payments, on the GL star’s own dimensions, with open items derived daily and every clock an invoice lives on kept as data.

What you get

A payables model that cannot drift from the ledger: spend ties, the aging equals the balance, and as-of questions answer from storage instead of memory.

Want payables that cannot drift from the books?

We build the two-fact star on the ledger’s own keys.

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Terms on this page

AP: Accounts payable, the money owed to suppliers.
GL: General ledger; its star lends this module the account and worktag dimensions.
invoice line: One obligation line with its supplier, account, and tags.
payment: One settlement, applied to its invoices.
open item: Invoiced minus paid, derived and stored per day.
borrowed dimension: The ledger’s own table, reused instead of copied.
three clocks: Invoice date, due date, paid date; each answers a different question.