Blog

Articles about the Anaplan Community and Connected Planning

How to ask great questions in the Anaplan Community
Author: Seyma Tas is a Certified Master Anaplanner and product owner at Caliber Collision. A guide to help you get the answers you need The Anaplan Community is an incredible resource to share knowledge and get help. To get the best answers quickly, make sure you ask clear, well-crafted questions. Here are some tips on how…
Case study: Challenges faced before introducing Anaplan
Author: Jonathan Cushing is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Consultant at Vuealta Consulting. My first experience of Anaplan was building an FP&A model in the company I worked in group finance. The company operated within the construction sector all over the UK with regional offices along with a centralized group…
Share your ALM best practices — March 2025 Community Challenge
Today, we’re kicking off our first Best Practices Challenge of 2025! This challenge series is an opportunity for Community members to share their expertise on a specific topic, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. This time, we’re focusing on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). What is your overall approach to…
Start small to achieve larger implementation goals
Author: David Edwards is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Associate Partner at Columbus Consulting. Whether you are an Anaplan customer or implementation partner, it can sometimes be difficult to convince business stakeholders to invest in large digital transformation initiatives. This is often the case when positioning…
February 2025 Community Member Spotlight: Puneeth Kumar HP
We're kicking off 2025 with a Community Member Spotlight on @Puneeth H P! Puneeth has been a valuable part of the Community for nearly six years (with over 100 helpful comments!) and is a Community Boss. Check out his Anaplan journey and contributions below! About Puneeth I am currently working as a Solution Architect for…
How I Built It: Effective project-based planning
Author: Soumya Bhattacharya is a Certified Master Anaplanner and technology consultant at Accenture. In this ‘How I Built It’ tutorial, I show how Anaplan can be used to demonstrate effective project-based planning. Also, how integrating a custom workday calendar can enhance the flexibility and accuracy of your planning…
How I Built It: Dynamic source data selection
Author: Erik Svensson is a Certified Master Anaplanner and a Principal Solution Architect at Anaplan. Hello Anaplan Community! Thank you for checking out my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial. In this video, I showcase how you can set up end user selections to vary data sources across one or more hierarchies. This is a dynamic way…
Recording available: Understanding the new Customer Care Portal
If you missed our event today, Understanding the Customer Care Portal, a recording is now available. In this event, I provide a demo highlighting the value of the new comprehensive case visibility, self-service tools, and dynamic case submission form to reduce resolution times. Topics covered include: Seamless access to…
How I Built It: Effective filtering in Polaris
Author: James Sharrett is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Sr. Principal Architect at Anaplan. Hi Anaplan Community, In this ‘How I Built It’ tutorial, I dive into a common problem people run into with Polaris, and a general approach to designing efficient exports in both Polaris and Classic. There are limits on applying…
How I Built It: Time and Version filters
Author: Stacey Gibbens is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Solution Architect, Financial Planning & Analysis at Globe Life. Greetings, Anaplanners! Today I’m excited to share my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial on minimizing import/export toaster time by utilizing time and version filters on source data saved views. In my video,…
Did You Know: Multi-dimensionality overview
Author: Allison Slaught is a Certified Master Anaplanner, Anaplan Community Boss, and Senior Principal Solution Architect at Anaplan. Hello Anaplan Community! The objective of this ‘Did You Know’ tutorial is to provide a brief recap of multi-dimensionality in Anaplan and provide a framework for identifying how formulas…
The city of planning
Author: Arun Thakar, Certified Master Anaplanner and Vice President in the banking industry. Somewhere in the cloud lies Anaplanopolis, the city of planning. The airports and train stations are Data Hubs. Downtown is where financial planning models reside, and in midtown are sales and revenue models. The streets are paved…
Dear Anaplan, A love letter
My Dearest Anaplan, On today the day of love, I must confess deep and fervent feelings. I love you, I love you, I love you! From the early days of our courtship where you filled me with visions of possibility, to the late nights where I dreamed of solutions we may create together, I have loved you dearly. Past lovers be…
Data validation overview
Author: Audrey Neet is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Director at Tru Consulting. Data validation is the process in which business users ensure that the data in Anaplan ties to their source system. It's an important step in preparing a model for go-live as it ensures the data in the model is accurate and the end users…
Updates to the Certified Master Anaplanner Exam study guide
Announcing the updated Certified Master Anaplanner Exam study guide: Essential Anaplan Topics Achieving Certified Master Anaplanner status is a significant milestone in your Anaplan journey, demonstrating a mastery of the platform and a deep commitment to excellence in Connected Planning. To help you prepare for this…
Top 25 Anaplan features released in 2024
Author: Misbah Ansari is a Certified Master Anaplanner, Anaplan Community Boss, and CEO/Founder at Miz Logix. Anaplan has released hundreds of features in 2024 to enrich its platform with more flexible planning, dynamic reporting, and scalable offerings. These features have been released throughout the year across all the…
AI and ADO brings planning innovation with Joe van Bolderen — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
We’re kicking off 2025 with a bang and an outstanding Community member for our first podcast of the year. Join me in welcoming Joe van Bolderen (@Joe_VBCG) to Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast along with host Dennis Lemoine, Director of Customer Engagement & Experience. Joe has been a Certified Master Anaplanner since…
Five principles of solution architecture
Author: Arun Thakar is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Vice President in the banking industry. Whether you are just starting out as a solution architect, or you’ve worked on several models you may benefit from a refresher on some of solution architecture’s key principles. It’s important to remember that these are not…
Anaplan for housebuilder and construction forecasting
Author: Jonathan Cushing is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Consultant at Vuealta Consulting. The labor government is aiming to deliver 1.5 million new homes by 2029; this could create an additional 350,000 jobs and a further £100 billion in economic activity compared with the last five years. Clearly this…
Planning for an impactful year: Community Bosses share their 2025 goals!
Whether you’re in recovery mode from the holidays or goal-setting mode for 2025, it’s time to start thinking about what you want to accomplish this year! To inspire you, five of our Community Bosses volunteered to share their plans for the year, what they hope to work on and achieve, and goals they are setting for…
January Q&A Challenge — share your reflections for a chance to win!
In the Anaplan Community, we believe that growth comes from connecting, collaborating, and sharing knowledge. Every day we see our members coming together to share ideas, solve problems, and support one another in forum discussions, blog posts, and beyond. As we start the new year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the…
Lessons learned in 2024: Trust the process
Author: Taryn Townsend is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting. It is always an honor for me to be able to share perspectives with you, the Anaplan Community, as I strive to learn and grow as a part of this ecosystem. As 2024 draws to a close to give way to crafting New Year’s resolutions…
Year in review: My 5 favorite 2024 Anaplan releases
Author: Chad Frantz is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Technical Associate at Alpha FMC. Here we are at the end of another year. A perfect time to look back and reflect on what’s happened and where things are going. As we’ve become accustomed to in the Anaplan environment, that includes looking at the updates and…
Ending the year with our Community Bosses — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
What’s that you say — 2024 is almost over?! I truly cannot believe we’re at the part of the year where we reflect on our personal and professional growth and look at what we want to accomplish in 2025. I’ve not tackled that task yet, but I’m so excited to share that three of our Community Bosses have and they are here…
How I Built It: Football Survivor tool
Author: Ryan Rist is an Anaplan Solution Architect at General Atlantic. Hello Anaplanners! I’m happy to share my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial today; a fun football game/tool. Football Survivor is a competition where people select one team per week. If that team wins, they move on. If that team loses, they are knocked out.…
UX source model auto updater
Author: Abhishek Roy is a Certified Solution Architect , Sr. Platform Architect at Equinix and a member of their Anaplan CoE team. This article primarily covers a less explored API functionality that the Anaplan UX is based on and adds an element of automation and easy configuration to the otherwise manual time-taking and…
Setting up action naming conventions that will withstand the test of time
Author: Taylor Giesler is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Director, Enterprise Performance Management at Alpha Alternatives. I have been a consultant for nearly four years now, and I have seen a lot of models, some easier to follow than others. The person building the model isn’t always the same person maintaining it…
Event recording available! Model design best practices
If you missed our event yesterday, November Challenge Recap: Model design best practices, a recording is now available. Last month, we invited the Anaplan Community to share their best advice for model design. In this recap event, speakers Rob Marshall (@rob_marshall) and Adam Trainer (@AdamT), both from Anaplan’s…
December 2024 Community Member Spotlight: Seyma Tas
As we wrap up 2024, we’re excited to feature @seymatas1 as our final Community Member Spotlight of the year! Seyma has been part of the Anaplan ecosystem since 2020 and has contributed over 120 comments in the Community in the past two years. She became a Certified Master Anaplanner in the last year, and is an active…
How I Built It: Creating functional P&Ls using line item subsets without COLLECT formula
Author: Austin van der Linden is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Model Builder at Hubspot. Hello Anaplan Community! In this 'How I Built It' Tutorial, I show how you can build functional P&Ls using line item subsets as a mapping tool. One of the cool functionalities provided with line item subsets is that you can…
New Customer Care portal coming soon
Discover a better way to get the help you need and submit cases At Anaplan, our goal is to deliver a platform that’s as robust and stable as possible. But as with any software, there will always be issues that crop up from time to time. When they do, we know you want to find answers and get help as quickly as possible.…
Four reasons the Anaplan Community is the BEST!
Hello Anaplanners! November is a time of thanksgiving in the U.S. — and while I know our Community is worldwide — there is never a bad time to show thanks, right?! Ginger, here. If you don’t know me, I manage the platform our Community runs on, and also a lot of the content posted weekly, along with my amazing content…
My journey on Workflow implementation — Part 1: the buildout
Author: Kevin Beltz has been a Certified Master Anaplanner since 2018 and is writing this blog on behalf of Wildflower Aspect. Hello Anaplan Community! Today I’m happy to share Part 1 of my Workflow journey. I segmented the blog into three sections: the state of Anaplan at my client, live build thoughts, and a summary…
Did You Know: Mastering Anaplan color matching
Author: Brent Orr is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Global Data Architect at Accenture. Hello Anaplan Community! The objective of this ‘Did You Know’ tutorial is to guide users on how to match the background colors of Anaplan management reports to maintain consistency with other pages in Anaplan. The video is below, but…
Event recording available! Polaris use cases & best practices
If you missed our event yesterday, Polaris Use Cases and Best Practices, a recording is now available. In this event, Rob Marshall (@rob_marshall) from Anaplan, John Dorma (@johndorma) from Twelve Consulting, and Harshita Mysore Shankar (@HarshitaMysoreShankar) from Adobe discuss Polaris, how it differs from Classic, use…
Anaplan Academy is getting an upgrade!
New look, new features, and a better learning experience! We're thrilled to announce that our Anaplan learning hub, Anaplan Academy, is getting a major upgrade! That's right, we've been hard at work behind the scenes to make your learning journey smoother, more engaging, and tailored to your needs. What you can expect with…
Celebrating 100K Community members!
Thank you, Community! We’re thrilled to announce that we have reached 100,000 registered users, all thanks to you — our incredible members! Your creativity, commitment to helping others and continued enthusiasm has made the Community a special place for our members. We know the Community is the one place within the entire…
Share your model design best practices – November 2024 Community Challenge
We’re excited to announce our second Best Practices Challenge of the year! This Challenge series is open for Community members to share their expertise and tips on a specific topic. Join us to spotlight your knowledge and explore fresh ideas from other members in Community! For our second Best Practices challenge, we’re…
October 2024 Community Member Spotlight: Cianna Bramley
This month, we are excited to feature @cianna.bramley as our Community Member Spotlight! Cianna is a Model Optimization Manager, Community Boss Employee, and has been with Anaplan for over seven years. Cianna, who leads the Model Optimization Team, worked with her team this year to launch an eight-part series in Community…
Event recording available! Modeling tips and tricks
Last month we hosted a challenge inviting Community members to share their thoughts on modeling best practices — over 30 tips were shared! Yesterday, we held an event highlighting that guidance every model builder should know. Jason Blinn (@jasonblinn), Principal Solution Architect and Employee Community Boss at Anaplan,…
Driving business transformation with Alessio Pagliano — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
Tune in today for a conversation on driving business transformation as a CoE Leader! We welcome Alessio Pagliano (@Alessio_Pagliano) to Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast along with host Dennis Lemoine (@DennisL), Director of Customer Engagement & Experience. Alessio has been in the Anaplan ecosystem for seven years,…