Column Headers causing Invalid date error

Hello,

I am currently working on a project that requiers the end-user to export a module, change the data, then import the exported file in the same module. However, since i'm using numbered lists, i need both the code and display name in the exported file ( code to import the data back, display name for the user). But by doing this, the template of the file will always have columns that are not needed for the import, and that anaplan will treat as invalid dates, causing the following Error message :" Invalid date or timescale identifier header" to appear for each line.

Is there a way to work around this ? Putting the time-scale in a single column is very inconvevient for the user

Thanks in advance and have a great day ! Anaplan Error.png

Accepted answers

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andrewtye

Hi @MehdiCH

We have had exactly the same problem... essentially there's a couple of "less than ideal" and one a bit more left-field.

Tell the end users to ignore the problem(!) which obviously isn't ideal

Have the end users delete the "display name" columns prior to upload which gets around the problem but can cause issues

Finally have you considered the Excel Add-In? It might not be the fastest way but you would get around the issue of display name & code.

Andrew

aakash

Hi @MehdiCH ,

I have had the same problem, the solution I employed is not ideal but it works. Basically you need a staging module to import the data from file.

1. Import data from file to staging module : In this staging module, you can import the data with extra columns for display names.

2. Import from Staging module to final module: In here you can hide the extra columns from the source view.

Hope this helps,

Thanks and Regards,

Aakash Sachdeva

MehdiCH

Hi Aakash,

Thanks for the answer, how would the staging module look exactly ? If we take the example of the "country\Accounts" ive put in my original question ? adding line items called "Country Display name" and "Account display name" will not do the trick since the error still comes from the invalid timescale.

Do i need to add 2 extra dimensions to my staging module ? : ie , fake Country and Account lists, based on the display names of the original lists ?

Thanks in advance

aakash

Hi,

The staging module should have your Account Dimension, Country Dimension and one fake list that contains all the time elements (all the months from the system time) + 2 extra elements (Account Display Name, Country Display Name). You will have to update this fake list as the first action of this import process to contain only those months which are there in the original native time.

However, a much simpler approach would be to try to convince the user to remove the extra columns from the file before running the import.

Regards,

Aakash Sachdeva

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