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How I Built It: Period-driven variance reporting
Author: Nizar Cherkaoui is a Certified Master Anaplanner and EPM Manager and Solution Architect at VISEO. In this How I Built It video, I demonstrate how to design period-driven variance reporting in Anaplan when comparison logic is unknown upfront and flexibility is required. Instead of embedding period choices directly…
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How I Built It: ADO and Snowflake data integration
Author: Andre Lie is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Manager at Alpha Alternatives. In this ‘How I Built It’ video, I demonstrate an end-to-end bidirectional integration between Anaplan Data Orchestrator (ADO) and Snowflake. The integration highlights how ADO acts as a centralized orchestration layer that manages and…
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How I Built It: Unlink revision tags
Author: Junqi Xue is a Certified Master Anaplanner and consultant at valantic. When working across multiple models in ALM, it's common to encounter structural changes and revision tags that track updates. These revision tags are critical for synchronizing changes between production and development environments. Not all…
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2026 certificate maintenance for Certified Master Anaplanners
The 2026 Certified Master Anaplanner Program has begun, and there is incredible opportunity for 2026 Certified Master Anaplanners (CMAs) to demonstrate their thought leadership, technical expertise, Anaplan championship, and mentorship capabilities across the entire Anaplan ecosystem. At their core, a Certified Master…
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Enabling ALM for an existing live business model
Author: Abhishek Singh, Certified Master Anaplanner & Engineering Manager at ABINBEV. Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is one of the most valuable governance features available in Anaplan. It allows model builders to make, test and validate structural changes in a Development model before deploying them to…
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How I Built It: Route planning
How I Built It: Route planning — The “Traveling Salesman Problem” This ‘How I Built It’ video presents an Anaplan model that simulates a simplified “Traveling Salesman Problem” by using a fixed set of five cities and generating all possible route combinations. Users input a list of cities, and the model systematically…
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How I Built It: Workflow-centric approach to designing Anaplan projects
Author: Damien Bouquier has been a Certified Master Anaplanner for 5+ years and has developed solutions across a wide range of industries for FP&A, supply chain, and sales operations planning use cases. Shifting gears: From dashboard-centric to workflow-centric applications Are your users getting lost in a sea of…
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Level 2 Polaris Sprint 3 Exam Question 7 — all answer options marked incorrect
Hi everyone, I am taking the Level 2 Model Building (Polaris) – Sprint 3 Exam and need help with Question 7. Question: “Using the Distribution Center Summary UX page, in March 2025, which Distribution Centers have Stock Exceptions (All Products)?” The answer options are: San Francisco, Dusseldorf, Melbourne, Marseille, and…
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How to approach a user story?
Author: Devrath Ahuja is a Certified Master Anaplanner with over six years of experience in implementing and delivering global Anaplan solutions. As someone starting out on their Anaplan journey, sometimes user stories and the build can feel overwhelming. Have you ever looked at a user story and wondered, “Where should I…
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Revision tag naming: How a small change today can save time and hassle later
Author: Riley Rafko is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Principal at Slalom. The context Recently, a Center of Excellence (CoE) group that I was working with came upon a common, yet anxiety-inducing, issue: a production issue needed to be fixed urgently but many pending changes in the development model weren’t yet tested…
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Avoiding CSV import errors: Three practical tips for Excel uploads across regions
Author: Ayesha Zoha, Certified Master Anaplanner and Manager at Kearney. One of the most common issues I have found during end user training or UAT is the difficulty in uploading data from an Excel csv. This usually arises because users need to upload small but detailed datasets from existing systems. Even with multiple…
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Setting formula summary method on a ragged hierarchy to display on org charts
Authors: Upali Wickramasinghe, Certified Master Anaplanner and Principal Solution Architect at Zooss Consulting in Australia; co-authored by Andrew Petersen, Senior Consultant at Deloitte Australia. We were presented with a use-case to utilize the Anaplan Hierarchy Charts to display an organizational structure with some…
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Simple but useful UX wins in 2026
Author: Manoj Upadhyay is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Anaplan Lead Consultant at Relanto. Hello Community! The true advantage for our end users is frictionless planning. When the UX is intuitive, users spend less time on figuring out the tool and more time driving business value. These enhancements are about creating…
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Level 2 Polaris Sprint 3 Exam – Question 1 (Need Help)
Hi everyone, I'm stuck on the first question of the Level 2 Polaris – Sprint 3 Exam and would appreciate some guidance. Question: In the INV01 Inventory Ordering module, which of the following are used to guard the Final Shipment Amount line item? (Select all that apply.) I've already tried multiple combinations of the…
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Need clarification on DCA and guarding line items in Polaris Sprint 3
Hi everyone, I'm currently working through Level 2 Model Building (Polaris) – Sprint 3 and I'm having trouble understanding how the Final Shipment Amount line item in the INV01 Inventory Ordering module is protected. I'm confused about the different mechanisms involved, such as: IF THEN ELSE logic Dynamic Cell Access…
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Techniques for Anaplan model optimization (performance + sizing)
Author: Bhanu Chalotra is a Certified Master Anaplanner working with Anaplan community and designing different solutions around FP&A, headcount planning, and ICM. Anaplan is not just about how a model is built — it’s also about how efficiently it runs. This article shares proven optimization techniques to improve model…
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From access control to governance: Turning UAM into a strategic platform
Author: Artem Shchaulov is a Senior Anaplan Consultant and Certified Master Anaplanner with 8+ years' experience implementing global EPM solutions. In the first two articles, we covered why access management breaks at enterprise scale and how to build a User Access Management (UAM) model that reliably assigns permissions…
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Anaplan implementation: A game of snakes, ladders, and smart moves
Author: Pradip Kakade is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Sr. Principal Consultant of Enterprise Solutions at Genpact. Ask anyone who has been part of a Major Anaplan E2E implementation, and they will tell you: the journey is never a straight line. You build momentum, you feel confident, and then — snap. A hierarchy…
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End user engagement & communication: Getting people to actually use Anaplan
Author: Mikhil Agarwal, 7x Certified Master Anaplanner and Delivery Manager at VISEO USA Inc., New York. Anaplan has a unique ability to bring teams together around a single, connected view of the business. When implemented well, it becomes more than a planning tool and becomes part of how decisions are made. However,…
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How I Built It: Refreshing current date in an Anaplan model using Cloudworks
Author: Sai Bandaru is a Certified Master Anaplanner with six years of experience architecting Anaplan models. Hello Anaplanners! In today's fast-paced business environment, having accurate and up-to-date information is crucial for making informed decisions. In this ‘How I Built It’ tutorial, I'll explore a practical and…
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Evolving business requirements over time: Retroactive changes and effective dating
Author: Marc Weinzimmer, Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Project Manager at Alpha. The day a new Anaplan model goes live is always exciting. The model is clean, fast, and aligned with current business needs; admins are trained, users are engaged, and everything appears to be running smoothly. However, as time…
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Do scheduled CloudWorks actions run in parallel or sequentially?
If we schedule two CloudWorks actions to start at the same time, using the same source model but different saved views, and updates two different target models, will they run in parallel or sequentially (with one finishing before the other starts)?
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How I Built It: Sensitivity analysis
Author: Casey Pham is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Director of FP&A Systems at Yext. In this ‘How I Built It’ video I'll show how I built a model and process to run a sensitivity analysis. Tens or hundreds of scenarios without overloading the model with too many scenario list items and manually updating driver inputs…
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How to maintain complex Anaplan environments — Part 2: Technical foundations for scale
Author: Piotr Weremczuk is a Certified Master Anaplanner and FinSys Application Specialist at EQT. In the first part of this two-part article, I explored the non-technical foundations of maintaining complex Anaplan environments: leadership, governance, accountability, and the importance of building the right team. All of…
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How I Built It: Number format converter (thousands and millions)
Hello Anaplanner Community! I’m excited to participate in another ‘How I Built It’ video with a Number Format Converter (thousands and millions) tutorial. This video walks you through how to dynamically update UX grid number formats on all tables and charts. This enables users to have different number formats enabled for…
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Interviewing and onboarding Anaplanners
Author: Andrew Barnett is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Vice President at PJT Partners. Having worked at several firms in the Anaplan ecosystem, both on the partner side and as a customer, I’ve seen firsthand how critical it is to hire and develop the right Anaplan talent. Bringing an experienced Anaplanner onto your…
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3.4.3 Activity: Create Country Summary Module
Hi, I have a doubt in level 2 sprint 3.4.3 Activity: Create Country Summary Module I did the following :- Step 1 → Created a new column "Country Made in" in SYS08 SKU details Step 2 → Wrote a formula Parent(Supplied By) to bring parent of the location i.e. country in "Country Made in" column Step 3 → I have written the…
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How I Built It: User filters with variable hierarchy properties
Author: Erik Svensson is a Certified Master Anaplanner and a Principal Solution Architect at Anaplan. Hello Anaplan Community! Thank you for checking out my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial. In this video, I demonstrate a powerful technique for creating dynamic user filters. This solution gives your end-users the flexibility to…
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Modulation in Anaplan
Author: Arun Thakar, Vice President in the banking industry. In cases where you have a single DEV model and multiple TEST and PROD models, the situation may arise where one user group asks for a feature that is not required for other users in different models. All too often the answer is to build modules, lists, and logic…