Leveraging Performance Point Services - Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools for Excel Analysts - page 319

Figure 16-12: A PerformancePoint filter.
A carat in front of a member indicates another level of children members below the member with the
plus sign; for example, clicking the carat for CY 2007 drills down to show the semi-annual members
for that year.
Filters are used to modify the views on a dashboard page, similar to running a report for a specific set
of criteria by selecting one or more report parameters. Although the ways in which a filter interacts
with a particular report can vary, most often the effect is to limit the data to whatever selections are
made in the filter.
But there are many other ways to use filters. For example, a selection made in a date filter might
translate into “retrieve all transactions that occurred on this date or any date since” for purposes of
populating the report that is connected to the filter. Because the filter link properties are only visible
in Dashboard Designer during the authoring process, the user doesn't always know what is happen-
ing and you need to document accordingly.
Though you can place a filter anywhere in a dashboard and configure it to interact with one or more
views, which may or may not be located in close proximity to the filter, in a good dashboard design,
filters generally appear at the top of the page and interact globally with all views that show data that
is relevant to the filter. For example, any chart or grid view that shows data across a date dimension
links directly to any date filter in the dashboard. A dashboard user determine whether a filter is linked