Closing the Usability Gap: Declarative Formatting Rules for Universal Reports

Dear team,

Business Problem
Universal Reports are functionally more powerful than the older Active Forms / Dynamic Reports. However, they currently represent a step backwards in usability when it comes to formatting.

In Active Forms, controllers could define formatting visually through the Format Area based on element characteristics. The engine applied these templates automatically.

In Universal Reports, formatting depends on combinations of row and column properties. When both axes are homogeneous (all leaf-level elements or all consolidated elements of the same hierarchy level), the number of rules remains manageable.

The real difficulty arises with mixed combinations. In practice, Universal Reports frequently place multiple dimensions on the same axis (two, three or even four dimensions on rows and/or columns). A typical management report might look like this:

Rows (e.g. Organization + Version):
Total Company        Consolidated     Budget
  East Region        Consolidated     Budget
    Massachusetts    Leaf             Budget
    Maryland         Leaf             Actual
  West Region        Consolidated     Forecast

Columns (e.g. Channel + Product):
Channel Total        Consolidated
  Retail             Consolidated
    Phones           Leaf
    3G Smart Phones  Leaf
  Internet           Consolidated

This creates a multi-dimensional formatting decision space across element types, hierarchy levels, attributes and stacked dimensions. Each relevant combination currently requires its own Excel Conditional Formatting rule or complex formula, plus manual priority management. This shifts the responsibility from a business reporting concept to Excel rule engineering.

As reports grow more complex — and especially when they evolve over time (new hierarchies, additional scenarios, reorganisations) — the existing formatting logic becomes fragile and a practical obstacle to full adoption of Universal Reports.

Proposed Solution Introduce a declarative formatting layer that allows users to define rules directly on the combination of row and column element properties, instead of relying primarily on cell-oriented Excel rules.

Example:

IF
  Row Element Type = Consolidated
  AND
  Column Element Type = Leaf
THEN
  Font = Bold

or

IF
  Row Dimension = Organization
  AND Row Element Type = Consolidated
  AND Column Dimension = Version
  AND Column Element = Forecast
THEN
  Font = Bold
  Background = Light Blue

The abstraction layer should also handle rule precedence automatically based on specificity, avoiding manual priority management between large numbers of Excel Conditional Formatting rules.

This could be implemented through reusable formatting templates or rules, similar in concept to the Active Form Format Area, but extended for the richer Universal Report model (including multiple stacked dimensions on rows and/or columns).

Universal Reports are designed for highly flexible multi-dimensional reporting. The formatting model should therefore also support multi-dimensional business logic.

The existing engine and the already available element detection and row/column context metadata can be leveraged. What is needed is an abstraction layer that lets business users express row and column-based formatting logic directly, while the system generates and maintains the underlying Conditional Formatting.

Business Value

• Enables organisations to confidently migrate complex reporting landscapes from Active Forms / Dynamic Reports to Universal Reports

• Controllers and FP&A teams can maintain professional formatting even for mixed-axis and multi-dimension reports

• Significantly lower long-term maintenance cost and risk

• Higher consistency and quality of management reporting

• Strengthens Universal Reports as the clear strategic standard in Planning Analytics for Excel

This is not a request to replace the existing rendering engine. It is a request to close the usability gap by giving business users a declarative way to express row and column-based formatting logic.

Thanks in advance.

With best regards,
Vitalij