Some Numbers Are Pizza. Some Are Lasagna.
The interactive tour of measure additivity. Pick a measure and a dimension to roll up by; watch revenue add cleanly, an account balance break across time, and a margin percentage sum to a confident 143%. Click each measure type to learn the one rule that keeps a dashboard honest.
3 types
additive · semi · non
1 question
can I SUM it?
0 warnings
the SUM button won't tell you
Executive Summary
Step 1 of 3
The Way It Was
Drop a measure on a dashboard, click SUM, and you get a total. The tool never asks whether that total means anything. Revenue sums fine. But sum a column of margin percentages and you get 143%; sum account balances across months and you get a number three times larger than the money that exists. The figure looks authoritative, and someone makes a decision on it.