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Ability to rename/delete native Versions via import action
Anaplan currently provides the ability to create versions via an Import action, and update Version settings via an Import action.
Ability to use an action (of any type, Import or otherwise) to do the following:
- Rename Versions
- Delete Versions
Business Need:
As we seek to continuously improve our planning process frequency, accuracy, and automation, we've moved from planning 1x per year (formulating a Budget), to quarterly reforecasts, to monthly reforecasts. With each iteration we are seeking to automate our forecasting process with the goal of fully automating all steps that don't require human judgment or analysis.
One step we are currently unable to automate is the programmatic deletion or renaming of a version.
Here's an illustrative example—
Context:
- We need 1 Version for Actuals
- We need 4 Versions for Budgets: 2 for previous Budgets, 1 for the current Budget, and 1 for the next Budget, on a rolling basis
- We need to keep the most-recent 10 monthly re-forecasts so that we can see how our rolling forecasts change over time
- We need a single Version called "Live Forecast" which is always our latest and greatest Version, all other Versions are locked and saved-off from the Live Forecast Version
Each month we can use an Import action to create a new Version into which we do a bulk copy from the Live Forecast into that new Version, effectively taking a snapshot of that Version. The bulk copy isn't currently part of a scheduled process, but we hope to make it so when dynamic bulk copy becomes available. Over time, the number of Versions increases, such that in steady state, for every new Version we create, we want to delete a Version (specifically, the 11th most-recent forecast Version, the 3rd most-recent Budget Version).
Either or both features (delete a Version, or rename a Version via an action), would enable us to bring further automation to this process and provide valuable time-savings to our business owners. One of the most important things this would do is reduce dependencies on 3rd party consultants, providing time savings, cost savings, and reduced key personnel risk to Anaplan customers.
Thank you!
Kevin
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Daily Date Format
Hi,
I have a module with a time range as a dimension.
I've set it with a daily time scale, but Anaplan's way of showing daily dates is for example "1 Jan 37" and I need it to be in numbers because when I export it excel doesn't recognize it as the date format that I've set in Windows (OS) (when a date as two digits it's 2000-onwards), so because it is a text, it doesn't consider that region setting from either excel or windows, and it translates it into 1/1/1937 which is wrong.
I did include a line item to show the date but it's not a solution to my problem, and it actually doesn't align with the way the model or the specific module is set up, as I want the dimension to have MMDDYYYY format (or whatever date format but with YYYY) and do not want an additional line item.
If anyone has a solution to this problem, that'd be really helpful
Thanks
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TEXTLIST() vs [TEXTLIST:]
Hi All,
I have read and re-read @rob_marshall's (and Planual's) cautions against TEXTLIST but wanted to check if there is a performance difference between Textlist the calculation function and Textlist the aggregation function?
Maybe a performance difference would come basis how the functions read the data?
Planual doesn't differentiate so my hunch is they'd have equal load on the classic engine.
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Version compare and dynamic module line item description update
This article was updated December 16, 2025.
Author: Soumya Bhattacharya is a Certified Master Anaplanner and technology consultant at Accenture.
There are at time when we generate some output modules with version comparison feasibility. Although Anaplan has its own Version Compare Function, sometime we need to build dynamic scenario creation and comparison function.
Also please have a look in the Planual instructions for versions before proceeding with custom versions as standard version also has the capability to have the variance.
This article will cover:
* How do keep a custom version list and do a dynamic way of comparison.
* How do we update dynamically the comparison module line-item description as per the I/P version selection.
Say the output dashboard looks like below; the module grid show the same name as of the selection of the versions.
If you change it, then it will change the module line items as following:
Module settings
Say, we have a data module (DATA01 Forecast upload) holding the forecast values and we have loaded the different versions of forecast. In the module we have used a custom list called Version List.
This is to have different versions to store the values, there can be as many versions as we want to have as this being a custom list. (Keeping in mind, the workspace size limit).
Calculations of the forecast took place at another module below (CALC02 Forecast Calculations). Here we are pulling the volumes from above data module.
Final output module (OUT02 Version Compare) shown below which is published in the dashboard too.
Settings for the same explained below:
Above module has the Attributes (Volume, Price) as the module line items and Custom Version (Version Compare) as of the dimensions.
Past 1: Here in module, we used another custom list (Version Compare). This list is of type number list.
Part 2: Here in the formula, we are trying to get the calculated forecast from the module CAL02 Forecast Calculations (shown above) and used other modules for the lookup function for custom versions.
Part 1:
It has property which is formula driven and the property is set as a display name property of the List.
The formula to calculate / dynamically update the display name is explained below (Part 2) in the article under the module (CALC01 Version Calculate).
Part 2:
For the formula we have used two modules: INP01 Version Input and CALC01 Version Compare.
Compare Version line item in module (OUT02 Version Compare) will always do a compare between From Version and To Version.
INP01 Version Input: This a simple version input module (published on the dashboard) to get user input.
CALC01 Version Calculate: This module will help to get the values in From version and To version also this module helps to calculate the dynamic update of the module line items.
The Line-item Selected Version Calculates the Version Display names.
The first item in the list (Version Compare) will have the display name value from the From Version and the second item of the list will have the display name from the To Version. And the final item will always have a display name of Compare Version.
This is how we can achieve the version comparison and dynamically update module line-item description as per the I/P version selection.
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Finding History for List Item Creation and changes
Dear Hive Mind,
Do we have a way to get the history of a particular List Item, from its creation into a model up until its removal ?
I am trying to chase when / how an item has been added into a model and how / when it would have been deleted and then recreated with the same code.
Is there a pattern (manual or API) to get this ?
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Dynamic Export Reporting
Hi All,
I want to address an query related to exports, In Output model, which is read access for all users & roles.user want to have dynamic export depending on user selection of multiple regions. So for selected regions , they will be able to see the data only for selected regions.
Thanks,
