Displaying your data as a Calendar view

LeonardiT

Problem Statement

Ever wonder how to display your data in a calendar format in Anaplan or simply just want to have a color-coded display based on a specific alert/indicator in a calendar form?

Step-by-step guide

We just need 2 simple lists Day of Week and Week Number to start with.

Then we need 2 modules Day of Week Mapping and Calendar Map to turn it into a calendar display.

For the Day of Week Mapping module, we just need Time dimension at day level and Line Items. I've included the screenshot of the Blueprint view for reference.

For the Calendar Map module, we just need to bring all the lists together (Time, Day of Week, Week Number) with a simple SUM formula.

Publish the calendar map module into a Page and add a bit of formatting, display options, comment display and you will get a pretty useful display of Calendar in Anaplan.

Hope this is useful. Would love to see how you apply this technique. Please share them in the comments below.

Thanks.

Leo

pyrypeura

Really amazing visualization!

MJM

This is great, thank you. Just started building something similar a week ago and this helps tie it together.

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AmyX

Hi Leo,

Thanks for sharing this! This is awesome!

Can you let me know what the Parameter.DOW number in the formula of Weeknumber increment is?

Thanks,

Amy

LeonardiT

@AmyX good catch there. It is basically a result of start of week selection.

As a result of that, we can display the calendar in a more dynamic way.

Hope that helps. Glad to know this was useful.

Thanks,

Leo

LeonardiT

@pyrypeura @MJM glad to know this was useful.

With a bit more creativity, some of our colleagues have come up with something like this. Combining with the current date automation https://community.anaplan.com/t5/How-To/Easily-Get-Current-Date-Using-CloudWorks/ta-p/120636 and you will get an automated calendar view adjusted to the current month.

Thanks,

Leo

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adpinto

@LeonardiT - that's really cool! any more info on the nuts-and-bolts/architecture to get one there. My use case is having a page that outlines the key events during the month for the planning cycle (e.g. imports, model to model syncs, plan due dates, etc.)

Thanks!

LeonardiT

@adpinto thanks for the feedback! The guide above is basically all you need to get the calendar display. You can have a list of tasks (e.g. imports, model to model syncs, plan due dates, etc.) in another module then you can link them into the calendar display and add conditional formatting or even emoji icons to display the activities on the specific dates. With TEXTLIST formula, you can concatenate all the text displays into the same cell.

RebeccaL

I can't seem to get the FINDITEM formulas to work, is there anything obvious I am doing wrong?

LeonardiT

@RebeccaL day of week list consists the name of week (Sunday, Monday, etc.) and each list items have a numeric code associated, e.g. Sunday = 7, Monday = 1, and so on. The FINDITEM formula will search the name OR code that matches. So if you update your Day of Week list items with the numeric CODE, it should work.

Hope that helps.

RebeccaL

Thank you @LeonardiT - that works.

I really like the UX page you created with the conditional formatting, the legend, and the commentary. Would you mind sharing how you built these?

LeonardiT

hi @RebeccaL, glad you find it useful. It's actually pretty straightforward. For the commentary, you just need to add another line item in the same calendar module and format it as Text. Then add another grid in the UX under the calendar only focusing on the selected week number and month. For the conditional formatting, you just need to mark weekends with a specific colour, e.g. red for Sat (6) & Sun (7). You can also add practically any separate modules with a list of dates (Public Holiday, Budget submission deadline, etc.) and mark the dates on the list with another specific colour, e.g. green for Public Holiday.

Refer to this example on how you can even combine the dates and text together.

fssebastian

fssebastian

Hi, @LeonardiT,

I'm currently building a similar dashboard as this but for marketing activities; however, in my calendar Map module result of day number is zero. How could I resolve this? Thank you!

LeonardiT

@fssebastian if I were to look at a glance, you are trying to map daily setup from Jan 2021 to Jul 2024 month. Perhaps try to adjust your time settings or your daily data to match. Hope it works as the formula seems to be correct.

fssebastian

@LeonardiT Would like to clarify first, For the Calendar Map Module, Dimensions are : Weeks, Days of Week, Time Scale : Month? Thank you

albikairp

Hi @fssebastian , the time scale for the Calendar Map module should be in Day, not Month