Aggregate fact tables are simple numeric rollups of atomic fact table data built solely to accelerate query performance. These aggregate fact tables should be available to the BI layer at the same time as the atomic fact tables so that BI tools smoothly choose the appropriate aggregate level at query time. This process, known as aggregate navigation, must be open so that every report writer, query tool, and BI application harvests the same performance beneļ¬ts. A properly designed set of aggregates should behave like database indexes, which accelerate query performance but are not encountered directly by the BI applications or business users. Aggregate fact tables contain foreign keys to shrunken conformed dimensions, as well as aggregated facts created by summing measures from more atomic fact tables. Finally, aggregate OLAP cubes with summarized measures are frequently built in the same way as relational aggregates, but the OLAP cubes are meant to be accessed directly by the business users.