Archive model?

Hi experts,

 

I have built a model to capture all the data for the budget cycle of the next year.

I don't work with Anaplan time, instead I have created a list Year which contains one item "Next Year" and has children quarters (Q1-Q2-Q3-Q4) which has children 'Periods' (P01-...-P12).

If the budget cycle for 2020 is over, can I just create a copy of the PROD model and archive it. It will then contain the data for 2020 and I call it "Budget 2020". 

Then I clear all the data in the original PROD model, start capturing figures for 2021. When that cycle is over, I take a copy of the PROD model and archive it and call it Budget 2021.

Same approach for all the cycles to come.

I want to be able to look back at least 2 budget cycles.

 

Is this the good approach?

Thanks for your input.

 

Kind regards,

Louise

Answers

  • @LouiseBourgonjon 

     

     Is there any Size issue that you are using copy and archive option. Why don't you use Custom Time & Versions together in your budgeting process. I would not get into Copy and archive option unless I run into space issues. It has a lot of maintenance attached to it.

     

    And if you have space issues you wouldn't be able to unarchive the archived models without taking your production model down.

  • Hi Misbah,

     

    There is no size issue. 

    This is a bit a special case since I don't use Anaplan time because I want to work with a list of periods: P01 until P12 instead of months. 

    So in this setup, I don't think it is possible to word with custom time & version as you mention? If it is possible, can you clarify a bit more?

    Can you specify a bit more what you mean with the maintenance attached to an archived model?

     

    Kind regards,

    Louise

  • @LouiseBourgonjon 

     

    It doesn't matter if you are using Native Anaplan Time or Native Anaplan Version. As long as you are using Custom Time and Custom Version in your model you can easily scale up your model to multiple years. In nut shell instead of having one model each year you can introduce multiple years in one model and roll forward your model at the year end. 

     

    How? You already have a custom time hierarchy in place (make sure this list is for multiple years) and now you introduce subsets within the list. That subset can have current year & previous 2 years of items in it. This subset should be populated with the help of a process in yearly rollover maintenance so that your model aligns to your current year. (Note: Be careful about populating the subsets as this can be data destruction activity)

     

    If you keep archiving your models, although it will work fine, you have to use copy & archive option and delete the data in current prod model manually every year which can be laborious and time consuming activity. Also if you have to export the Prior year data out of models you will have to unarchive the model and take the export and the list goes on.

     

     

  • Hi Misbah,

     

    Dpes your solution assume that every module in the model has the dimension of custom time?

    Because that is not the case.

     

    Kind regards,

    Louise

  • @LouiseBourgonjon 


    crazy question here, why are you not using regular time?  It seems you may be making things harder than needed as well as limiting the use of internal time functions.

     

    Rob

  • Hi Rob,

     

    Not a crazy question.

    We had to go with this approach because the organizaton is spread over US and Europe and in US a part of Jan belongs already to P02, for example.

     

    Kind regards,

    Louise

  • I have attached how the custom time hiearchy currently looks like:

    T1 - Year 

    T2 - Quarter

    T3 - Periods

     

    Currently there is only 1 item in the Year, which is "NY" because in the current year we make the budget for next year.

     

    In terms of versions: I am using Anaplan native versions, because every budget cycle happens in 3 submissions and I also want to compare the figures from one submission to another submission. So my versions look as attached.

     

    When making the model, I was not aware of the fact that we would need to capture also history. So the entire model is setup as if it only contains 1 year. Some modules, which do not need the detail of the periods, don't even have a custom time list as a dimension.

    I think I would need to do a lot of rework to add the custom time dimension to all of the modules.

     

    Kind regards,

    Louise