Blog

Articles about the Anaplan Community and Connected Planning

Streamlining your Anaplan models: A guide to effective cleanup
Author: Junqi Xue is a Certified Master Anaplanner and consultant at valantic. Keeping Anaplan models organized and auditable is crucial for efficient operations. Over time, these models tend to grow organically, often resulting in clutter. There are some good articles in the community about cleaning up; I’m going to…
The digital transformation of valuations
Author: Taylor Giesler is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Director, Enterprise Performance Management at Alpha Alternatives. The digital transformation of valuations is driven by several key trends that are reshaping the financial industry. Firms are increasingly adopting digital solutions to solve these problems, and…
May 2025 Community Member Spotlight: Marina Ketelslegers
Meet @Marina Ketelslegers — our May 2025 Community Member Spotlight! As a Certified Master Anaplanner with five years in the Anaplan Community, Marina has shared valuable insights and ideas that have helped other members along the way. Check out her spotlight to learn more about her path, her favorite Anaplan tips and…
When to import alphanumeric data as numbers
Author: Andrew Barnett is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Vice President at PJT Partners. Today, we will be discussing a scenario that we often run into in Anaplan. Numeric data comes in with units of measure, whether explicitly stated or implied in the data. The data might be a currency, like US Dollars or Mexican…
Alternative for the default export chunking
Author: Anya Skvortsova is a Certified Master Anaplanner and CoE Lead at Asana. Problem statement When exporting the data from Anaplan module, Anaplan’s default chunk size is 10MB. The common challenge is that the chunks produced may have the rows split not just into the separate files but also split the row in the middle…
Share your boards, reports, and worksheets best practices — May 2025 Community Challenge
We’re kicking off a new Best Practices Challenge this month! Each Challenge highlights a specific topic where Community members can share their expertise, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. This time, we're focusing on the topic around boards, reports, and worksheets. Below are some prompts to spark your…
How I Built It: Upload Anaplan data — account hierarchy and key accounts
Author: Saikrishna Bandaru is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Sr. Anaplan consultant. In this video, I demonstrate how to create a user-friendly Anaplan UX page that allows end users to upload or update specific data directly into Anaplan. The example covers account mapping, enabling users to mark accounts as "strategic"…
Creating a two-layer ranking system in Anaplan
Author: Laiza Tagumpay is a Certified Master Anaplanner, former Customer Success Business Partner at Anaplan in the Philippines, and is now a Solution Architect at an implementation partner in Canada. When developing effective plans, companies often rely on multiple layers of prioritization criteria. In this blog, we’ll…
April 2025 Community Member Spotlight: Alexandru Pavel
We’re celebrating @alexpavel in our latest Community Member Spotlight! For the past eight years, Alexandru has been a steady, helpful presence in the Community — with over 500 comments, and a role as a Certified Master Anaplanner and a Community Boss. He consistently shows up with thoughtful insights and a genuine desire…
How I Built It: Replacing list items
Author: Chris Allen is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Manager at Allitix Part of Accenture. Hello, and thank you for checking out my ‘How I Built It’ video tutorial on replacing list items! The video will walk you through the process of replacing list items. The key feature leveraged here is importing a new code into a…
How I Built It: Dynamic cell hardcoding
Author: Casey Pham is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Director of FP&A Systems at Yext. Hello Anaplan Community! In this ‘How I Built It’ demo, I'm going to show how we dynamically hardcode data in cells in order to preserve values that were previously derived from calculations. An issue I've seen in past implementations…
Spring cleaning: A step-by-step guide to optimizing your model
Author: Ekaterina Garina is a Certified Master Anaplanner and EPM Consultant at Keyrus. Does your Anaplan model feel cluttered with too many line items and modules, making it difficult to find anything? Are you dealing with redundant calculations? Need a little optimization? Or perhaps you have a large model that needs…
Choosing the right EPM/IBP tool: Beyond the basics
Author: Piotr Weremczuk is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Manager at Deloitte. Throughout my career, I have guided both large corporations and smaller enterprises in selecting Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) tools. A recurring pattern I’ve noticed is that most clients focus…
Event recording available! ALM Best Practices
Last month we hosted a challenge inviting Community members to share their insights on ALM best practices. We received 25 comments with insights on how to best utilize ALM! Yesterday, we held an event highlighting the responses we received from the March Community Challenge. Ryan Kohn (@ryan_kohn), Principal Platform…
How I built it : Centralizing complex calculations
Author: Fabien Junod is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Solution Architect at Autodesk. Hello Anaplan Community, Let me ask you a question: do you have the same complex calculation in multiple models (maybe with different dimensions) and wish you could centralize them? In this “How I built it” tutorial, I shared…
Re-energizing your Anaplan Center of Excellence: A new era of value and innovation
Author: Stacey Borne is a Certified Master Anaplanner, former Anaplan Center of Excellence Leader, and runs the Certified Master Anaplanner Program and Anaplan Center of Excellence Programs at Anaplan. Picture this: Your Anaplan ecosystem is functioning smoothly, but despite the existence of value-add opportunities to…
How I Built It: Fast, efficient model build of scenario planning with P&L impact analysis
Author: Marina Ketelslegers is a Certified Master Anaplanner and FP&A expert and independent Anaplan Solution Architect. In this 'How I Built It' tutorial, you'll learn how to create a dynamic and flexible impact analysis and allocation framework tailored to your needs. Whether you're evaluating P&L scenarios with business…
Women’s History Month: Spotlighting leaders in the Anaplan Community
March is Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the achievements and contributions of women — including the incredible members in the Anaplan Community! Over the past year, women across the ecosystem have shared their knowledge, experiences, and insights through blogs, videos, and member spotlights. Their expertise…
Announcing: Statement of Direction for Anaplan calculation engines
Anaplan has just launched the new statement of direction for Anaplan Calculation Engines The full statement of direction can be read here. What is a statement of direction A Statement of Direction is a public guidance designed to inform our customers & prospects about our strategic direction at product level. It provides…
Breaking into the Anaplan ecosystem
Author: Ayesha Zoha, Certified Master Anaplanner and Manager at Cervello. Throughout my career, I've had the chance to connect with individuals from diverse technology and business backgrounds, as well as countless college graduates eager to start their journey in the world of Anaplan. Over the years, I’ve noticed a…
Data integration and scalability: A framework for model assessment and optimization
Author: Avnish Goel is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Founder at ScriptStory. Recently, I led a model assessment initiative to identify suboptimal design elements in the data architecture for a leading investment banking firm. The project involved analyzing source systems and Anaplan models, leveraging both Anaplan best…
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…
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…