1. A system for accessing and manipulating data in an OLAP database, said system comprising: a user interface module configured for a user machine; a calculation engine configured for a server and said server being operably coupled to said user machine; said user interface comprising a screen configured for specifying data to be retrieved from the OLAP database, and said screen further configured to define a process for manipulating said retrieved data in response to one or more user inputs, said retrieved data for manipulation being retrieved directly from the OLAP database and said retrieved data being specified in the OLAP database according to a plurality of dimensions, said plurality of dimensions comprising one or more common dimensions and one or more common dimension members associated with each of said one or more common dimensions; and said calculation engine being configured to interface to the OLAP database and execute said process for manipulating said retrieved data and generate a data process output, said data process output comprising a numerical component and a structural component including one or more of said plurality of dimensions.