Certified Master Anaplanners

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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 to support other members. Keep reading to learn more about Alexandru’s career path, his helpful Anaplan tips, and the ways he’s helped shape the Community along the way! About Alexandru I'm Alexandru Pavel, a Solutions Architect at Keyrus with a strong background in EPM tools and data-driven business processes. My journey in enterprise performance management (EPM) began in 2001, following five years' experience as a programmer analyst working with relational databases. Over the course of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to live and work in Romania, Italy, and the Netherlands. Each country contributed uniquely to my professional path. Romania provided me with a solid educational foundation and valuable early career experience, something I remain deeply grateful for, as it shaped my professional growth. In Italy, I was introduced to the world of consulting and discovered the specialized niche of EPM tools. In the Netherlands, I began working with Anaplan, a platform that reshaped my perspective on what modern EPM tools can achieve. Since discovering Anaplan in 2017, I've been inspired by its ability to handle large-scale data and support decision-making far beyond traditional Finance functions. At Keyrus, I help organizations design streamlined, integrated solutions that drive efficiency and business agility. I’m passionate about finding the most effective formulas, optimizing business processes, and delivering clear, scalable data integration strategies. We asked Alexandru a few questions to get to know him. Q: Please share an Anaplan success story you’re proud of. I'll never forget my first Anaplan project. It was a whirlwind of new experiences. A new country, unfamiliar colleagues, a brand-new EPM tool, a different working language, a business process I wasn't acquainted with, and a fresh approach to projects. It was also my introduction to “User Stories” which made the journey even more fascinating. Since then, the client has transitioned to a new ERP system and adjusted the data integration flows, yet Anaplan has remained at the core of their business processes. The model is still active, and this year, we are working on developing some new extensions. Over the years, within our team we developed solutions and functionalities that I'm truly proud of. Here are a few highlights: * Designing a multi-step approval process where, depending on specific conditions, not all steps were required for the final approval. * Implementing a mechanism to track the current username and timestamp (updated hourly) for user actions within the application, such as creations and approvals. * Developing a logging system to record the user who initiated a process, the time it was started, and whether it was successfully completed. * Creating a method to identify the element selected by a user in processes that require a target element (e.g., target version). * Establishing a set of standardized approaches and best practices, even before PLANUAL or the Best Practices sections existed in the Anaplan ecosystem. Q: Please share something you can teach about Anaplan — any tips and tricks you'd like to highlight? The Anaplan Community is full of valuable insights, tips, and tricks shared by users from all backgrounds. Below are a few thoughts and observations that came to mind, which I hope you'll find useful. For anyone beginning their Anaplan journey or finding it challenging to grasp how Anaplan works, it's important to go back to the basics: a strong foundation in multidimensional databases and their functionality is crucial when working with any EPM tool. Here are questions to ask yourself: * What is a dimension (or list)? A dimension, often referred to as a list in Anaplan, is a structured set of related items used to organize data. * What is a hierarchy, and how is it built in Anaplan? A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in a parent-child relationship, where each item can have only one parent. In Anaplan, hierarchies are built using list structures that define these relationships. * What do the cell values in an Anaplan module represent? Each cell in a module reflects a data point that results from the intersection of different dimensions (e.g., version, time, product, region). These values can represent inputs or calculations/outputs. * Why are additional cells populated when uploading a tabular data source or a CSV file? When importing tabular data, you might notice extra cells being populated (in blue or black). Typically, blue cells represent input data that matches the imported values, while black cells display calculated results based on aggregation methods or formulas defined in the model. This also occurs when changes are made through manual data entry. Anaplan Engine Tip: If a formula isn’t giving the expected result, don’t worry, it might not be broken! How Anaplan Works Behind the Scenes: * Formulas calculate values only at the base level cells — that means the lowest level elements in your lists. * The values you see at higher levels (like totals or summaries) are not directly calculated by the formula. Instead, they’re based on the aggregation method you’ve chosen for that line item. Remember: "Formula" and "Ratio" are also aggregation methods in Anaplan that can influence higher level results! Always check: * Where your formula is being applied. * What aggregation method is set for the line item. Notes: * Base members: Items in a list that do not have any children. * Base-level cells: Cells where the intersection of all dimensional lists consists only of base members. Regarding the "Formula" Aggregation Method: When using "Formula" as an aggregation method in a line item, the LOOKUP function is not supported. However, the SELECT function can still be used in this context. This can be useful in FP&A use cases where numeric line items may not all require SUM aggregation. Some, such as percentages or prices, need to be recalculated at each level instead. Stay Up to Date and Engaged: * Regularly review the latest Anaplan platform releases to stay informed about new features and improvements. * Explore resources like the PLANUAL, Best Practices, and the Community Blog for expert guidance and insights. * Help shape the platform by submitting and voting on new ideas in the Idea Exchange section of the Anaplan Community. Q: What do you enjoy about the Anaplan Community? It wouldn’t be a true community without the "Platform Discussions" section. I regularly check in and contribute by answering questions shared by other users. Resources like the PLANUAL and Best Practices are invaluable for avoiding common pitfalls and ensuring smooth development of Anaplan solutions. All of this is seamlessly integrated with Anaplan’s e-learning platform (Anaplan Academy), which offers both comprehensive courses and micro-lessons, helping users find answers quickly and build their Anaplan expertise in a structured, efficient way. Q: What's the most memorable trip or vacation you've ever taken, and why was it so special? I had always imagined Türkiye as a perfect destination to enjoy the sunny and warm part of the year, especially by the sea. It never crossed my mind that it could also offer such a great setting for a ski trip. But this year, that changed. Back in 2020, we had planned to celebrate our company's 10-year anniversary with a ski trip. Like many things, COVID-19 shattered those plans and expectations. Fast forward five years, with 40 new colleagues on board, we finally decided to make it happen. And, surprisingly, we chose Türkiye as our destination. We discovered a beautiful ski area in Erciyes, close to the city of Kayseri. With slopes ranging between 2000 and 3000 meters in altitude, the temperatures stayed low, and we were lucky enough to enjoy four full days of sunshine. The people we met were incredibly warm and welcoming, and their hospitality (along with some amazing food) made the whole experience unforgettable. I was especially impressed by the infrastructure: a well-maintained four-lane mountain road (two in each direction) that takes you straight from the city up to the ski resort at 2,000 meters. One funny detail still puzzles me: how the ski cards work when reloaded with additional rides. When scanning the card at the lift, it showed the original remaining rides as a large number, and the extra ones in a smaller font. But when the main count hit zero, the additional rides kicked in, and oddly enough, mine started from 18, even though I only added 16. A little gift? A glitch? A miracle? Still a mystery. … We hope you enjoyed learning more about Alexandru in this month's Community Member Spotlight. Thank you, Alexandru, for being an outstanding Community contributor and advocate! Check out Alexandru's Community content: * Alexandru was a guest host in our Modeling Tips & Tricks Community Challenge recap * #BreakTheBias with Master Anaplanner Alexandru Pavel * How To Convert Infinity, -Infinity, NaN to Zero Value Interested in learning more about our Community Member Spotlight series? Check out this post. Do you know someone in the Community who you think should be featured in a Community Member Spotlight? We want to hear about it — please nominate them here.
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" and verify if they are part of the Anaplan hierarchy. This feature improves accessibility, reduces file-based imports, and simplifies end-user interactions with Anaplan models. This approach will inspire and educate Anaplan model builders on enabling user-specific inputs directly in the UX! Key takeaways: * Learn how to design a user-input-friendly UX Page in Anaplan. * Understand how to link modules and line items for editable grids. * Enable dynamic updates for account data and strategic flagging. * Integrate action buttons to streamline updates and clear inputs. Check out the video below, and I’ve also included step-by-step instructions below the video! https://play.vidyard.com/szA41smLBQoKcRWDCmaz91 Step-by-step instructions for the page Page overview * Purpose — This page allows users to:* Update account mapping details. * Mark accounts as "Strategic". * Verify if accounts are part of the existing Anaplan hierarchy. * Design:* Editable grid with action buttons for user interaction. Components of the page * Instructions section (top):* Brief guidance for users to ensure clarity. * Sample: "Enter or update account details in the grid below. Use the 'Update Accounts' button to save changes or 'Clear User Inputs' to reset the grid." * Action buttons (middle):* Update accounts button: Executes an Anaplan action to update the backend module.* Linked to a process or action defined in Anaplan (e.g., 'Update Account Mapping'). * Clear user inputs button: Clears all user-entered data in the grid. * Editable grid (bottom): This grid connects to an Anaplan input module. Key columns:* Account code: Editable for users to enter account identifiers. * Account name: Editable input for account names. * L3 Region of account: Editable input for regional information. * Strategic account? (Checkbox): Allows users to mark an account as "Strategic". * Account is in Anaplan hierarchy? (Read-only): Displays a Boolean value to indicate if the account exists in the hierarchy. Back-end setup in Anaplan * Input module: Create a module to capture user inputs with line items:* Account code (Text or Number format). * Account name (Text). * L3 Region of account (Text or List format). * Strategic account? (Boolean format). * Account in hierarchy? (Boolean, Read-only, derived via LOOKUP). * Actions:* Update accounts:* Import action to push changes from the input module to the target data module. * Clear Inputs:* Delete action or reset user inputs within the input module. Summary of the video — learnings * Show how users can input account data directly into the editable grid. * Demonstrate marking accounts as strategic using checkboxes. * Execute the "Update accounts" button to reflect changes. * Use the "Clear user inputs" button to reset the input fields. * Validate updates and explain back-end processes briefly. Best practices to highlight in the video * Use clear labels and tooltips for user guidance & Ensure buttons trigger intuitive actions. * Leverage Boolean indicators to validate existing data (like "Account in Hierarchy?") & Design UX to align with user needs for simplicity and efficiency. Questions? Leave a comment!
How to set up cloudworks process job biweekly ?
Hi team, I am using cloud works to schedule a job to run, but I need you help to set up the process integration biweekly. How to schedule a job biweekly?
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 placeholder list item to override its original code to match the list item the placeholder was used to represent for. I'll walk through all the necessary steps to successfully complete this task. This is an important process I implement for projects dependent on SKU planning. A planner may want to create a new SKU in their SKU list, which does not currently exist and will not be established in upstream source system in near future. The SKU's actual code and display name is unknown until it's created in the source system. The new SKU list item acts as a placeholder until the new SKU is available in source system and imported into Anaplan. When the SKU becomes available, the placeholder SKU will need to transfer its data to it or in this case, we have the placeholder SKU transform into the SKU it was a placeholder for by replacing its code. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions! https://play.vidyard.com/sXHdwEN6ypncpJ4WaVcgQA
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 explore how to implement a dynamic two-layer ranking system in Anaplan to help businesses make informed decisions about product delivery and maximize profit. The problem Company A faces a common challenge: limited capacity in their delivery equipment and scheduling. They need to determine which products should be sent to which stores to align with their strategic goals and maximize potential profit. The prioritization criteria for this decision are as follows: * Product family prioritization * Store and product contribution margin Given information * Location hierarchy: The company uses a 3-level location hierarchy (Region, Country, Store). * Product hierarchy: The company uses a 2-level product hierarchy (Product Family, Product). The process * Select and rank product families: The planner first selects the product family to be prioritized for the month.* Rank based on margin: Further ranking will depend on the potential margin contribution per store and product combination within the prioritized product family. * Product families not tagged for prioritization: For products within the family that are not marked as priorities, the ranking will be based solely on the margin contribution per store and product combination. Implementation steps To implement this dynamic ranking system in Anaplan, the following steps should be followed: * SYS modules for Product, Product Family, and Store * Create lists: Set up lists for Flat Number and Place Value * Create SYS modules for Flat Number and Place Value * Create the module: SYS Rank Params This module calculates the necessary interval/rank start number dynamically based on the number of lists involved in the ranking process. This is the heart of the engine and entire formula are shared below: * Create the module: INP Product Family Priority This module allows planners to input which product families will be prioritized. * Create the Module: CALC Product Family Priority This module computes the final ranking based on the product family priority. * Create the module: CALC Ranking This module calculates the final rank, factoring product family prioritization and contribution margin. (Please note: margins are shown as input for ease of demo) * Conclusion By implementing this in Anaplan, businesses can immediately see the overall ranking of each store and product combination based on two different prioritization criteria. This approach can be further extended to accommodate additional layers of prioritization as needed, providing flexibility and scalability to meet the evolving needs of the business.
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 is data integrity when parts of the model or the calculation methodology change, which leads to different outputs across all versions and becomes a reconciliation nightmare. Check it out and let me know if you have questions! https://play.vidyard.com/AouLybem2NBt47jGhXZwbR
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 exactly how to do that. Background In my company, we had multiple forecasting models for multiple teams. And each one had the exact same complex revenue recognition calculation. The only difference was the dimensionality. As a result, every time we updated the revenue recognition logic, we had to change the formulas in many Anaplan models with the risk of introducing an error and having inconsistent calculations across the Anaplan ecosystem. In this tutorial, I explain how I was able to remove the revenue calculation from the individual spoke models and centralize it in a “central engine” (another Anaplan model) And this central engine can be leveraged by any spoke model regardless of the dimensionality. Moreover, any new model that requires the revenue recognition calculation can be connected to the central engine (with minimal effort) and immediately have it. Key features * Transforming the data from a dimensioned module to a flat module * Leveraging one calculation module for multiple spoke models * Immediately benefit from any logic change in all spoke models https://play.vidyard.com/ZXvZg6QLmNCMLvxqgLMekx Questions? Leave a comment!
Need help finding a possible error in SYS01 Time Settings by Week and INV01 Inventory Ordering
Hi all - I have been trying for days to figure out where there is an error on my own, and I have not found the solution. I believe the error is somewhere in the SYS01 module as my formula for Beginning Inventory (which I've confirmed is correct, as far as the Anaplan Community is concerned) just resets every week that begins a new month. And I'm not really sure how the time settings by week are wrong on my end. But it's VERY possible that I either missed something or my formulas need corrections or my time scale is incorrect. I have included screen shots for all the issues, please let me know if anything additional is needed! Thanks in advance!

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Questions?

For questions about the program, recertification points requirements, or your involvement please reach out to MasterAnaplanners@anaplan.com!

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