How to create a dynamic time list using a numbered list

tbeck

Author: Tyler Beck is a Certified Master Anaplanner at TBLB LLC, and is currently a Team Lead at CVS Health.

Use case

A client requests a flat list for time that will change year over year and does not want to manually update the list, and does not want to use native time. Instead of creating a production list to update the months and years over time, a non-production flat list can be created using a numbered list and the years will update based on the current period and logic to create a dynamic display name.

What you will need:

1. Current Period in native time settings
2. Systems module for time settings
3. Non-Production Flat List for Months Flat
4. Non-Production Numbered List for Dynamic Time
5. Systems module to reference the final Dynamic Time Display Name
   

Step 1: Create systems module and reference the current period

Create a systems module for Time Settings, and the create two line items:

1. Date formatted line item to generate the current period start date
2. Year formatted line item to produce the current year time period to be referenced in the dynamic time module

Step 2: Create non-production flat lists for time

First, create a Months Flat list to show the MMM format for each of the 12 months and use the month number as the code:

Next, create a numbered list for Dynamic Time, then:

1. Create a list property for the Display Name, formatted as text
2. Add 12 items for each year, in this use case 3 years will be used (48 items)
3. Generate a code for each year, and add a decimal for each year to represent the number of years past the current period: The code for the list will be used to generate the display name for the non-production numbered list to display the correct year based on the current period in the time settings.
   The first 12 months are followed by a “.0” because they represent the current year months. Then the next 12 months represent CY+1, and CY+2 after that.

The general lists section should show both lists as non-production lists and one numbered list:

Step 3: Create systems module for dynamic time list

Create a systems module to generate the display name for the Dynamic Time numbered list, and to create a line item to SUM/LOOKUP native time. Line items to be included:

1. Text format to produce the codes created in Step 2
2. Number formatted line item to find the position of the period in the code
3. Text Formatted line item to produce the code to populate months flat list
4. List formatted line item using Months Flat, to generate the correct month based on the code
5. Number formatted line item to represent the number of years to add to the current year
6. Year formatted line item to produce the correct year based on the code and Time Settings year
7. Text formatted line item for the Display Name, and to be referenced by the Dynamic Time list
8. Month formatted line item to be used to SUM/Lookup native time in downstream calculations

The formulas for the line items are represented below:

Step 4: Reference the display name in the dynamic time numbered list

Enter the reference to the display name line item in the list property formula to generate a dynamic display name.

The dates will reflect the Current Year (CY), CY+1, and CY+2 based on the current period in the model and will update year over year automatically. This way a production list is not needed to manually update as the fiscal years change.

Conclusion

A non-production numbered list can be used to generate a dynamic display name based on the model’s current period using a series of line items to produce a time list that can be mapped back the native time list. This is a very powerful tool for clients who have specific requests for time periods because subsets can be created in the flat list instead of time ranges; and the native time list is not required to be applied as a dimension.

Questions or comments?

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Also by Tyler: Create export template for Anaplan users to import using months