How can I apply breakback on a calculated line item?
A partner asked us about some modelling techniques for top down budgeting. They would like to create a model where there would be a growth percentage applied to the whole P&L as the first step. Then in a second step they would like to be able to fine tune the results by using the breakback feature. As a calculated line item cannot use breakback, the suggested solution is to use module-to-module import. In short the logic is : - Create 4 line items : - Base value - Percentage (could be in the same module or not, with less dimensions than the Base value) - Calculated value = Base value * (1+ Percentage) - Breakback (no formula, and obviously Breakback enabled) - Format and pivot the module as you wish and publish it to a dashboard In order to populate the Breakback line item with the Calculated value, we can use Data Import. - Create a view with Calculated value as the only line item (either as a page field, or hide the other line items in row or column headers) and save it as "source view" - Data > Import > Anaplan model > current model > Saved View > source view - For line item mapping, select "Fixed line item" and in the corresponding tab, map it to "Breakback" - Under Settings > Actions, select the newly created import and go View > Publish to Dashboard to create a button to execute the data copy from a dashboard. This way, we create a button to copy the calculated data into a "breakbackable" line item. The advantage of this method is to keep track of the intermediate calculation (before applying breakback). If anyone has alternative suggestions please post them here.