Hi everyone, couple questions here:
I’m building an Actual vs. Budget P&L reporting model in Anaplan and would appreciate advice on the best structural approach.
I’ve attached a screenshot of the desired layout. The report needs P&L items as rows, and the following as columns (line items):
- Actual
- Budget
- Variance $
- Actual % of Revenue
- Budget % of Revenue
- Variance % (Act % - Bud %)
The Challenge:
I currently have a flat Account list containing only the base accounts (Sales 1-6, Expense 1-9, Other Income/Expense) and have loaded the raw data into my DAT01 module.
However, my report requires calculated subtotal rows (Revenue, Cost of Goods Sold, Gross Margin, Operational Expenses, Net Income). Because these are calculated values and not base accounts, I cannot use them as roll-ups in my existing flat list. At the same time, because I want to use line items for the columns (Actual, Budget, etc.), I cannot use line items as rows to represent the P&L structure in the reporting module.
My proposed approach:
Create a new, separate flat list (e.g., P&L Report Rows) that contains both the base accounts and the calculated subtotals. Then, build a reporting module dimensioned by this new list and Time, where the base accounts pull from DAT01, and the subtotals are calculated via formulas. The % of Revenue would then be calculated in this module by dividing each row by the Revenue row.
My questions for the community:
- Is creating a separate reporting list (containing base accounts + calculated subtotals) the recommended best practice here?
- If so, what is the best way to map my existing
Account list to this new reporting list so the data flows correctly? - Is there a better architectural approach (e.g., using a mapping module, or a hierarchy in the list itself) that avoids duplicating the account structure?
- Handling Variance Logic: As shown in the screenshot, positive variance is "good" for Revenue and "bad" for Expenses. Therefore, the variance formula needs to flip depending on the row (e.g.,
Actual - Budget for Revenue, but Budget - Actual for Expenses). What is the best way to handle this dynamically in the reporting module? Should I use a "Variance Sign Multiplier" line item, or is there a cleaner way to reference the account type?
I want to ensure I’m following Anaplan best practices for scalability and performance before I start building. Any guidance on lists, modules, and formulas would be hugely appreciated.
Thank you!
