Formula Summary type on LOOKUP or OFFSET

Hi,

 

We are a NZ Telecommunications company. We have the need to report metrics such as ARPU $ (avg revenue per user) and Avg cost per user across our segments. I can do this compared to our forecasts & budgets easily but if I try to do this for Prior Year or prior period data I am stuck for a solution. 

 

I cant use formula type summation with either a LOOKUP or OFFSET which is needed to look up the prior 

period comparison. I have a segment hierarchy and I need it to calculate the ARPU at each level of the list not aggregate so  I need the formula to be used. I have struggled for years on this one but Prior year and prior period reporting has just jumped up in importance 

 

Would appreciate if there was any solution out there or if this could be put forward "Request for Enhancement" to enable these important metrics to be properly calculated.

 

THanks

Andrew

 

 

 

 

Answers

  • HI @Andrew_Paston,

    From your user case I can understand that you want to calculate the ARPU and ACPU based on historical data. And you got stuck when you try to pull the data for parent items where you are using child level list (Correct me if I am wrong). Off course you can make use of time functions like OFFSET, PREVIOUS, POST, etc.. to bring in the past data for calculations and if you don't want to do the summation for top level items then change the summary of that line item to Formula which will return you the respective value.

    If you still need clarification, please do post some screen shots or files which would help us to understand your concern more!!

    Thanks,

    Kavin. 

  • Hi Kevin

     

    thanks. My understanding is you cant use Formula type summation with a  LOOKUP or OFFSET formula in a line item. 

     

    Thanks

    Andrew

     

  • @Andrew_Paston,

    Yes, but that is for Time summary. So make your Main summary as 'Formula' and your time Summary as 'Sum' as our intention is to bring in the previous period Segment's data. Hence in this way your Segment Hierarchy will get the desired data.

    I hope this helps!!

    Regards,
    Kavin.

  • clipboard_image_0.png

    HI Kevin 

     

    Thanks, appreciate you trying to find a solution to this

     

    I still get the error above with that Formula for main and summary for Time. However I think the solution you mentioned would end up aggregating the ARPU metrics into Time period parents....so Jan $50, Feb $50, March $50 Q1 = $150 ARPU which is not correct in the sense of a quarterly ARPU

     

    Perhaps I am doing something silly but our Anaplan solutions architect was also stumped on this.

     

    Thanks

    Andrew

     

  • Now I got your problem. For your concern, its better to use individual grids for each level (Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly).
    Regards,
    Kavin.
  • OK thanks....I will give that a try......Appreciate your assistance

  • I would also put them in seperate line items, Month_ARPU, Quarter_ARPU, Year_ARPU with summary set to None and calendar set to month, quarter, year respectively and then 1 final one on month with summary set to formula:

    - IF Month_ARPU > 0 THEN Month_ARPU ELSE IF Quarter_ARPU > 0 THEN Quarter_ARPU ELSE Year_ARPU