Time on colums and rows

Question

I want to show comparison for two years ( 2018 2019 ) in the columns and months in the rows ( jan till december ). I cannot find how to do that ( I am using the time dimension of Anaplan not seperate created year and month dimensions as lists.

PaulRitner · Answer

Hi,

I avoid using custom time lists, unless its one of the following cases:

* a read-only report that requires disaggregation of Year and Month (the way you discussed).
* For a module that needs to go outside the model's defined time range (this is no longer an issue with the new Time Ranges... very cool feature)

The reason I avoid custom time lists is directly related to your comments... that working with native time is so much easier.

For read-only reports, its typically the end of the line (in the sense that the read-only report isn't referenced by another module)... This is why its ok (from a model scaling perspective) to use false time.

Lastly, its not so much that I have a problem working with false time... its that the client has to take ownership of the model (and using native Anaplan Time makes things that much easier).

Cheers!

amayamay · Answer

Thanks Paul.

I have indeed seen several models where the Anaplan Time dimension is not used. I understand the impact on model size, but I am interested to learn what the advice is when to use . In my case, I do not want to loose the advantages the Anaplan time brings, because it brings so many advantages ( and my formula knowledge and practice is probably not so advanced ). It seems like developpers are re-building the time dimension which looks like a unneccessary effort ( except in cases like mine ). I have now solved it by creating multiple views ofthe same module , with the different years shown on the dasboard ). I admit this is not a beautifull solution.

Is there anything written on when to use the anaplan time and when to design it yourself ?

PaulRitner · Answer

The only way to do this is by using lists (and not using Anaplan Time).

If I were building this, there would be two lists:

1.  Years (this might include just the two years you are interested in, but could include a 3rd item for Variance).

2.  Months (just the 12 months of the year and a Year Total if applicable)

When you create the module, ignore Anaplan Time, and include Years, Months, and whatever other dimensions you need.  Then pull the data in via formula... this can be done by adding a line item at the intersection of Year & Month to calculate the related period.  If you are using a Variance item in the Years List, then search for it and augment the data formula to calculate the difference.