Engaged members like you make the Community great! Your contributions help Anaplanners succeed in their Connected Planning journey.
Best Practices
Hear from Anaplan experts on the best ways to use the platform.
Featured Content
Check out the latest best practice article covering the two main settings related to how data is aggregated in Anaplan: Top Level Item and Parent Hierarchy.
Read Full Article
The Planual provides a systematic set of standards for model building on the Anaplan platform. The rules in it are designed produce the most efficient, usable, and scalable Anaplan models, while dram...
Read Full Article
You may have heard about a model called a data hub, but perhaps you aren’t confident that you understand the fundamentals, primary functions, or considerations when architecting one. There are three ...
Read Full Article
Learn how to organize your model into logical parts to give you a well-designed model that is easy to follow, understand and amend at a later date
Read Full Article
PLANS is the new standard for Anaplan modeling—“the way we model.” This covers more than just the formulas and includes and evolves existing best practices around user experience and data hubs. It is...
Read Full Article
Not seeing recent Articles?
Get latest Articles
Power BI is a popular reporting tool, and this article will describe how to implement it with Anaplan Rest API version 2.0.
New Best Practice! This article works through how to manage the product lifecycle (governance, development, and maintenance) of your models, as well as apps built in the New UX.
We focus on how to set up your Anaplan model and your connections with the PowerPoint add-in for performance and reliability.
We focus on how to set up your Anaplan model and your connections with the Excel add-in for performance and reliability.
We focus on best practices for using Excel and PowerPoint themselves.
We give you some ideas about how to use the Excel and PowerPoint add-in in a creative way to achieve your business goals.
We focus on how you can better govern the Office add-ins (Excel and PowerPoint) in your company, especially about versions and file management, as well as installation and upgrade.
Forms are a new input mechanism added to the Anaplan UX that allow you to create simple, intuitive input forms that feel familiar to end users and submit data directly into your models.
New Best Practice—compare values in a TEXT formatted line item and identify the values that occur more than once (duplicates).
Hierarchy Management - Learn how to change the master data with no Impact on the hierarchy and the financials.
This guide will walk through the Time Setting in Anaplan models, as well as some best practice recommendations on automating the current time period to simplify formulas and dashboard views.
As an ad planner, sales representative, or merchandise planner, you might be interested in planning your sales or invoices using tier pricing. This solution will address a user-story that allows you ...
This user-story will provide a solution using a one-year model that uses a 445-monthly calendar.
An often requested output of a trade promotions use case is to understand sales between two specific dates— be it days, weeks, or months.
Best practices help you use the platform in the best way possible. In this example, learn how to set up a count based on an attribute.
When using CUMULATE over a list, performance can be impacted with large cell counts. CUMULATE over time is an alternative to consider.
Determining whether a List Item appears in a Subset isn't always standard. This Best Practice illustrates how to make that determination, elegantly.
Following the principles of D.I.S.C.O., this latest Best Practice takes an in-depth look at the ability to effectively achieve a forward-looking solution.
Calculating the difference between two dates is a common requirement. Learn more about the best practice for calculating the difference between two days/two months.
This article helps out to keep the model clean, optimized and secured. Simple tips, short and crispy solutions are given.
Check out the latest best practice article covering the two main settings related to how data is aggregated in Anaplan: Top Level Item and Parent Hierarchy.
Migrating from the classic SFDC platform to the Lightning platform can create issues with some Anaplan models. This article covers issues with SFDC objects and the steps to correct them.
Check out the latest best practice detailing how to clear data in Anaplan—from the basic to the programmatic—giving you all the flexibility needed for targeted clearing.
Line item subsets are one of the most powerful and efficient features in Anaplan, yet one of the least understood. The COLLECT() function is probably the only “black box” function within Anaplan as i...
Learn how using ratio can solve the problem of showing costs as positive numbers whilst subtracting them from totals
As described in the Authentication API documentation, an authentication token is needed to issue requests with API 2.0. The request for a token is made to:
https://auth.anaplan.com/token/authen...
This article covers the necessary steps to update the iPaaS connectors for HyperConnect/Informatica Cloud, Dell Boomi, Mulesoft and SnapLogic. See the article A Guide to CA Certificates in Anapl...
As a business operations manager on the Anaplan on Anaplan (AoA) team—an internal team, focused on bringing Connected Planning to life within Anaplan—I help to oversee our internal Anaplan model ecos...
What are the benefits and drawbacks of using Versions instead a General List
The Planual provides a systematic set of standards for model building on the Anaplan platform. The rules in it are designed produce the most efficient, usable, and scalable Anaplan models, while dram...
You may have heard about a model called a data hub, but perhaps you aren’t confident that you understand the fundamentals, primary functions, or considerations when architecting one. There are three ...
What is Pre-Allocation in Lists?
Pre-allocation in lists is a mechanism in Anaplan that adds a buffer to list lengths. It is not added by default for lists; it becomes enabled when a role is set on a...
How do we keep our users in the Anaplan platform to do their work which requires a high level of advanced customization, faster and more easily than their previous Excel environment? The solutio...
Learn how small changes can lead to dramtic improvements in model calculations
Overview
The following is a guide for the new Statistical Forecasting Calculation Engine Models (monthly and weekly). It includes enablement videos, practice data import exercise, model doc...
Creates the Java KeyStore required for Anaplan Connect 1.4
What happens to History when I delete a user from a workspace?
I recently posted a Python library for version 1.3 of our API. With the GA announcement of API 2.0, I'm sharing a new library that works with these endpoints. Like the previous library, it does suppo...
As a model builder, you have to define line item formats over and over. Using a text expander/snippet tool, you can speed up the configuration of modules.
When you add a new Line Item, Anaplan s...
Filters can be very useful in model building and are widely used, but they can come at the expense of performance—often very visible to users through their use on dashboards.
Performance can also hit...
This article covers the necessary steps for you to migrate your Anaplan Connect (AC) 1.3.x.x script to Anaplan Connect 1.4.x. For additional details and examples, refer to the latest Anapla...
Learn how to organize your model into logical parts to give you a well-designed model that is easy to follow, understand and amend at a later date
Overview
The Anaplan Optimizer aids business planning and decision making by solving complex problems involving millions of combinations quickly to provide a feasible solution.
Optimization provides ...
Dynamic Cell Access (DCA) controls the access levels for line items within modules. It is simple to implement and provides modelers with a flexible way of controlling user inputs. Here are a few...
Reducing the number of calculations will lead to quicker calculations and improve performance. However, this doesn’t mean combining all your calculations into fewer line items, as breaking calculatio...
Little and Often
Would you spend weeks on your budget submission spreadsheet or your college thesis without once saving it?
Probably not.
The same should apply to making developments and setting...
Imagine This Scenario:
You are in the middle of making changes in your development model and have been doing so for the last few weeks. The changes are not complete and are not ready to synchronize. ...
Imagine the Following Scenario:
You need to make regular structural changes to a deployed model (for example, weekly changes to the switchover date). You can make these changes by setting revision ta...
If you’re familiar with Anaplan, you’ve probably heard the buzz about having a data hub and wondered why it’s considered a “best practice” within the Anaplan community. Wonder no more. Below, I will ...
Assume the following Non-Composite list, ragged hierarchy, needs to be set to Production Data.
We need to refer to the ultimate parent to define the logic calculation. In the example, we have assume...
Anaplan API: Communication failure <SSL peer unverified: peer not authenticated>
This is a common error if a Customer Server is behind a proxy or firewall.
The solution is to have the cus...
You can interact with the data in your models using Anaplan's RESTful API. This enables you to securely import and export data, as well as run actions through any programmatic way you desire. The API...
Problem to solve:
As an HR manager, I need to enter the salary raise numbers for multiple regions that I'm responsible for.
As a domain best practice, my driver-based model helps me to enter raise g...
Summary
This article describes the technique to dynamically filter specific levels of a hierarchy on a dashboard and provides a method to select and visualize hierarchies on a dashboard.
Details
This...
Overview
These dashboards are absolutely critical to good usability of a model. Dashboards are the first contact between the end users and a model.
What SHOULD NOT be done in a landing...
Note that this article uses a planning dashboard as an example, but many of these principles apply to other types of dashboards as well.
Methodology
User Stories
Building a useful planning dashboard...
Deal with monthly dashboards
Many FP&A dashboards will need to display all 12 months in the current year, as well as Quarter, Half, and Total Year totals. Doing this is likely to create a ve...
Model Load:
A large and complex model such as 10B cells can take up to 10 minutes to load the first time it's in use after a period of inactivity of 60 minutes.
The only way to reduce the load time i...
Details of known issues
Challenge
Recommendations
Performance issues with long nested formulas
Need to have a long formula on time as a result of nested intermediate calculations.
I...
Overview:
A dashboard with grids that includes large lists that have been filtered and/or sorted can take time to open. The opening action can also become a blocking operation; when this happens, you...
Overview
Imports are blocking operations: To maintain a consistent view of the data, the model is locked during the import, and concurrent imports run by end-users will need to run one after the oth...
General Recommendations
It is important as model calculations increase to ensure that the calculations and structures are as optimal as possible. Easy checks include:
Ensure the dimension order in t...
The process of designing a model will help you:
Understand the customer’s problem more completely
Bring to light any incorrect assumptions you may have made, allowing for correction before building ...
It is important to understand what Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) enables clients to do within Anaplan.
In short, ALM enables clients to effectively manage the development, testing, depl...
PLANS is the new standard for Anaplan modeling—“the way we model.” This covers more than just the formulas and includes and evolves existing best practices around user experience and data hubs. It is...
Thinking through the results of a modeling decision is a key part of ensuring good model performance—in other words, making sure the calculation engine isn’t overtaxed. This article highlights some i...
Note: While all of these scripts have been tested and found to be fully functional, due to the vast amount of potential use cases, Anaplan does not explicitly support custom scripts built by our cust...
Dimension Order Affects Calculation Performance
Ensuring consistency in the order of dimensions will help improve the performance of your models. This consistency is relevant for modules and individu...
Personal dashboards are a great new feature that enables end users to save a personalized view of a dashboard. To get the most out of this feature, here are a few tips and tricks.
Tidy Up Dashboards
...
If you have a multi-year model where the data range for different parts of the model varies, (for example, history covering two years, current year forecast, and three planning years) then Time Range...
L'application Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) vous permet maintenant de vous approprier les clés de chiffrement de vos données de modèle. Si vous avez accès à l'outil Anaplan Administration, vous pouvez ch...
Summary
Anaplan Connect is a command-line client to the Anaplan cloud-based planning environment and is a java-based utility that is able to perform a variety of commands, such as uploading and downl...
Making sure that production data lists are correctly marked within a model is a key step to setting up and using ALM. This guide will provide a solution to how someone can make revisions to thei...
This article provides the steps needed to create a basic time filter module. This module can be used as a point of reference for time filters across all modules and dashboards within a given model.
T...
Power BI is a popular reporting tool, and this article will describe how to implement it with Anaplan Rest API version 2.0.
New Best Practice! This article works through how to manage the product lifecycle (governance, development, and maintenance) of your models, as well as apps built in the New UX.
We focus on how to set up your Anaplan model and your connections with the PowerPoint add-in for performance and reliability.
We focus on how to set up your Anaplan model and your connections with the Excel add-in for performance and reliability.
We focus on best practices for using Excel and PowerPoint themselves.
We give you some ideas about how to use the Excel and PowerPoint add-in in a creative way to achieve your business goals.
We focus on how you can better govern the Office add-ins (Excel and PowerPoint) in your company, especially about versions and file management, as well as installation and upgrade.
Forms are a new input mechanism added to the Anaplan UX that allow you to create simple, intuitive input forms that feel familiar to end users and submit data directly into your models.
New Best Practice—compare values in a TEXT formatted line item and identify the values that occur more than once (duplicates).
Hierarchy Management - Learn how to change the master data with no Impact on the hierarchy and the financials.
This guide will walk through the Time Setting in Anaplan models, as well as some best practice recommendations on automating the current time period to simplify formulas and dashboard views.
As an ad planner, sales representative, or merchandise planner, you might be interested in planning your sales or invoices using tier pricing. This solution will address a user-story that allows you ...
This user-story will provide a solution using a one-year model that uses a 445-monthly calendar.
An often requested output of a trade promotions use case is to understand sales between two specific dates— be it days, weeks, or months.
Best practices help you use the platform in the best way possible. In this example, learn how to set up a count based on an attribute.
When using CUMULATE over a list, performance can be impacted with large cell counts. CUMULATE over time is an alternative to consider.
Determining whether a List Item appears in a Subset isn't always standard. This Best Practice illustrates how to make that determination, elegantly.
Following the principles of D.I.S.C.O., this latest Best Practice takes an in-depth look at the ability to effectively achieve a forward-looking solution.
Calculating the difference between two dates is a common requirement. Learn more about the best practice for calculating the difference between two days/two months.
This article helps out to keep the model clean, optimized and secured. Simple tips, short and crispy solutions are given.
Check out the latest best practice article covering the two main settings related to how data is aggregated in Anaplan: Top Level Item and Parent Hierarchy.
Migrating from the classic SFDC platform to the Lightning platform can create issues with some Anaplan models. This article covers issues with SFDC objects and the steps to correct them.
Check out the latest best practice detailing how to clear data in Anaplan—from the basic to the programmatic—giving you all the flexibility needed for targeted clearing.
Line item subsets are one of the most powerful and efficient features in Anaplan, yet one of the least understood. The COLLECT() function is probably the only “black box” function within Anaplan as i...
Learn how using ratio can solve the problem of showing costs as positive numbers whilst subtracting them from totals
As described in the Authentication API documentation, an authentication token is needed to issue requests with API 2.0. The request for a token is made to:
https://auth.anaplan.com/token/authen...
This article covers the necessary steps to update the iPaaS connectors for HyperConnect/Informatica Cloud, Dell Boomi, Mulesoft and SnapLogic. See the article A Guide to CA Certificates in Anapl...
As a business operations manager on the Anaplan on Anaplan (AoA) team—an internal team, focused on bringing Connected Planning to life within Anaplan—I help to oversee our internal Anaplan model ecos...
What are the benefits and drawbacks of using Versions instead a General List
The Planual provides a systematic set of standards for model building on the Anaplan platform. The rules in it are designed produce the most efficient, usable, and scalable Anaplan models, while dram...
You may have heard about a model called a data hub, but perhaps you aren’t confident that you understand the fundamentals, primary functions, or considerations when architecting one. There are three ...
What is Pre-Allocation in Lists?
Pre-allocation in lists is a mechanism in Anaplan that adds a buffer to list lengths. It is not added by default for lists; it becomes enabled when a role is set on a...
How do we keep our users in the Anaplan platform to do their work which requires a high level of advanced customization, faster and more easily than their previous Excel environment? The solutio...
Learn how small changes can lead to dramtic improvements in model calculations
Overview
The following is a guide for the new Statistical Forecasting Calculation Engine Models (monthly and weekly). It includes enablement videos, practice data import exercise, model doc...
Creates the Java KeyStore required for Anaplan Connect 1.4
What happens to History when I delete a user from a workspace?
I recently posted a Python library for version 1.3 of our API. With the GA announcement of API 2.0, I'm sharing a new library that works with these endpoints. Like the previous library, it does suppo...
As a model builder, you have to define line item formats over and over. Using a text expander/snippet tool, you can speed up the configuration of modules.
When you add a new Line Item, Anaplan s...
Filters can be very useful in model building and are widely used, but they can come at the expense of performance—often very visible to users through their use on dashboards.
Performance can also hit...
This article covers the necessary steps for you to migrate your Anaplan Connect (AC) 1.3.x.x script to Anaplan Connect 1.4.x. For additional details and examples, refer to the latest Anapla...
Learn how to organize your model into logical parts to give you a well-designed model that is easy to follow, understand and amend at a later date
Overview
The Anaplan Optimizer aids business planning and decision making by solving complex problems involving millions of combinations quickly to provide a feasible solution.
Optimization provides ...
Dynamic Cell Access (DCA) controls the access levels for line items within modules. It is simple to implement and provides modelers with a flexible way of controlling user inputs. Here are a few...
Reducing the number of calculations will lead to quicker calculations and improve performance. However, this doesn’t mean combining all your calculations into fewer line items, as breaking calculatio...
Little and Often
Would you spend weeks on your budget submission spreadsheet or your college thesis without once saving it?
Probably not.
The same should apply to making developments and setting...
Imagine This Scenario:
You are in the middle of making changes in your development model and have been doing so for the last few weeks. The changes are not complete and are not ready to synchronize. ...
Imagine the Following Scenario:
You need to make regular structural changes to a deployed model (for example, weekly changes to the switchover date). You can make these changes by setting revision ta...
If you’re familiar with Anaplan, you’ve probably heard the buzz about having a data hub and wondered why it’s considered a “best practice” within the Anaplan community. Wonder no more. Below, I will ...
Assume the following Non-Composite list, ragged hierarchy, needs to be set to Production Data.
We need to refer to the ultimate parent to define the logic calculation. In the example, we have assume...
Anaplan API: Communication failure <SSL peer unverified: peer not authenticated>
This is a common error if a Customer Server is behind a proxy or firewall.
The solution is to have the cus...
You can interact with the data in your models using Anaplan's RESTful API. This enables you to securely import and export data, as well as run actions through any programmatic way you desire. The API...
Problem to solve:
As an HR manager, I need to enter the salary raise numbers for multiple regions that I'm responsible for.
As a domain best practice, my driver-based model helps me to enter raise g...
Summary
This article describes the technique to dynamically filter specific levels of a hierarchy on a dashboard and provides a method to select and visualize hierarchies on a dashboard.
Details
This...
Overview
These dashboards are absolutely critical to good usability of a model. Dashboards are the first contact between the end users and a model.
What SHOULD NOT be done in a landing...
Note that this article uses a planning dashboard as an example, but many of these principles apply to other types of dashboards as well.
Methodology
User Stories
Building a useful planning dashboard...
Deal with monthly dashboards
Many FP&A dashboards will need to display all 12 months in the current year, as well as Quarter, Half, and Total Year totals. Doing this is likely to create a ve...
Model Load:
A large and complex model such as 10B cells can take up to 10 minutes to load the first time it's in use after a period of inactivity of 60 minutes.
The only way to reduce the load time i...
Details of known issues
Challenge
Recommendations
Performance issues with long nested formulas
Need to have a long formula on time as a result of nested intermediate calculations.
I...
Overview:
A dashboard with grids that includes large lists that have been filtered and/or sorted can take time to open. The opening action can also become a blocking operation; when this happens, you...
Overview
Imports are blocking operations: To maintain a consistent view of the data, the model is locked during the import, and concurrent imports run by end-users will need to run one after the oth...
General Recommendations
It is important as model calculations increase to ensure that the calculations and structures are as optimal as possible. Easy checks include:
Ensure the dimension order in t...
The process of designing a model will help you:
Understand the customer’s problem more completely
Bring to light any incorrect assumptions you may have made, allowing for correction before building ...
It is important to understand what Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) enables clients to do within Anaplan.
In short, ALM enables clients to effectively manage the development, testing, depl...
PLANS is the new standard for Anaplan modeling—“the way we model.” This covers more than just the formulas and includes and evolves existing best practices around user experience and data hubs. It is...
Thinking through the results of a modeling decision is a key part of ensuring good model performance—in other words, making sure the calculation engine isn’t overtaxed. This article highlights some i...
Note: While all of these scripts have been tested and found to be fully functional, due to the vast amount of potential use cases, Anaplan does not explicitly support custom scripts built by our cust...
Dimension Order Affects Calculation Performance
Ensuring consistency in the order of dimensions will help improve the performance of your models. This consistency is relevant for modules and individu...
Personal dashboards are a great new feature that enables end users to save a personalized view of a dashboard. To get the most out of this feature, here are a few tips and tricks.
Tidy Up Dashboards
...
If you have a multi-year model where the data range for different parts of the model varies, (for example, history covering two years, current year forecast, and three planning years) then Time Range...
L'application Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) vous permet maintenant de vous approprier les clés de chiffrement de vos données de modèle. Si vous avez accès à l'outil Anaplan Administration, vous pouvez ch...
Summary
Anaplan Connect is a command-line client to the Anaplan cloud-based planning environment and is a java-based utility that is able to perform a variety of commands, such as uploading and downl...
Making sure that production data lists are correctly marked within a model is a key step to setting up and using ALM. This guide will provide a solution to how someone can make revisions to thei...
This article provides the steps needed to create a basic time filter module. This module can be used as a point of reference for time filters across all modules and dashboards within a given model.
T...
What are the benefits and drawbacks of using Versions instead a General List
Learn how small changes can lead to dramtic improvements in model calculations
You may have heard about a model called a data hub, but perhaps you aren’t confident that you understand the fundamentals, primary functions, or considerations when architecting one. There are three ...
This article helps out to keep the model clean, optimized and secured. Simple tips, short and crispy solutions are given.
Power BI is a popular reporting tool, and this article will describe how to implement it with Anaplan Rest API version 2.0.
Line item subsets are one of the most powerful and efficient features in Anaplan, yet one of the least understood. The COLLECT() function is probably the only “black box” function within Anaplan as i...
The Planual provides a systematic set of standards for model building on the Anaplan platform. The rules in it are designed produce the most efficient, usable, and scalable Anaplan models, while dram...
Summary
This article describes the technique to dynamically filter specific levels of a hierarchy on a dashboard and provides a method to select and visualize hierarchies on a dashboard.
Details
This...
Thinking through the results of a modeling decision is a key part of ensuring good model performance—in other words, making sure the calculation engine isn’t overtaxed. This article highlights some i...
How do we keep our users in the Anaplan platform to do their work which requires a high level of advanced customization, faster and more easily than their previous Excel environment? The solutio...
Best practices help you use the platform in the best way possible. In this example, learn how to set up a count based on an attribute.
Reducing the number of calculations will lead to quicker calculations and improve performance. However, this doesn’t mean combining all your calculations into fewer line items, as breaking calculatio...
Hierarchy Management - Learn how to change the master data with no Impact on the hierarchy and the financials.
Following the principles of D.I.S.C.O., this latest Best Practice takes an in-depth look at the ability to effectively achieve a forward-looking solution.
Learn how to organize your model into logical parts to give you a well-designed model that is easy to follow, understand and amend at a later date
The process of designing a model will help you:
Understand the customer’s problem more completely
Bring to light any incorrect assumptions you may have made, allowing for correction before building ...
Note: While all of these scripts have been tested and found to be fully functional, due to the vast amount of potential use cases, Anaplan does not explicitly support custom scripts built by our cust...
PLANS is the new standard for Anaplan modeling—“the way we model.” This covers more than just the formulas and includes and evolves existing best practices around user experience and data hubs. It is...
@DavidSmith
I was curious to see the real life impact of using fake versioning vs. native versioning on a completed model. So, I duplicated a model that had been built with fake versions...
This user-story will provide a solution using a one-year model that uses a 445-monthly calendar.
Overview
The following is a guide for the new Statistical Forecasting Calculation Engine Models (monthly and weekly). It includes enablement videos, practice data import exercise, model doc...
An often requested output of a trade promotions use case is to understand sales between two specific dates— be it days, weeks, or months.
David,
As per the comments above these detailed analyses are so useful. I would be really interested in you doing an investigation in a similar vein but looking at real time vs dummy time.
I ha...
That is very enlightning. I always thought native versions were more efficient, albeit ended up giving you a bigger model because less flexibility.I usually do a mix a both, basing my model on the "d...
Often we "save" into a module with fake version the key output metrics and compare the current version to that line item but for the actuals/main forecast it's version.As you say it really does all d...
This guide will walk through the Time Setting in Anaplan models, as well as some best practice recommendations on automating the current time period to simplify formulas and dashboard views.
Thanks for this information and performance tests between native and fake versions. We use both of them in different models. Now if I get questions why I use fake versions from my colleagues I can sh...
We use a combinaison of both. Most of the time we work with "Alt Versions". But we use Standard Versions for some import because you can filter imported data based on the date thanks to the "Edit Fro...
Great write up. The other consideration we’ve run into a few times is ITEM functionality not working on the native Versions. The same goal can be accomplished with lookups or other system...
Great write up David. Thanks for producing this...it is a nice representation of how often there isn't a 'right' answer, just pros and cons to be considered.
Imagine This Scenario:
You are in the middle of making changes in your development model and have been doing so for the last few weeks. The changes are not complete and are not ready to synchronize. ...
As an ad planner, sales representative, or merchandise planner, you might be interested in planning your sales or invoices using tier pricing. This solution will address a user-story that allows you ...
@Jared Dolich - That is fantastic. It is amazing what the differences are and how easy it is to get them.
@rob_marshall I love this post.I just finished loaded a years worth of transactions and tested both ways, the bad way and the good way.The good way was 82% smaller and 90%+ faster. AMAZING!Hope ...
@andrewtye You are correct about kudos. In a future update we'll be resolving this so that it is in the same spot for both Blogs and Knowledge Base articles.
Determining whether a List Item appears in a Subset isn't always standard. This Best Practice illustrates how to make that determination, elegantly.
Hi, Great Article, lots of thoughts after reading this one.
One question though : how does fake versions compare to native versions performance wise if we set all line items Formula Scope "Current On...
Thanks for posting David! I really loved this article as it is a question we have struggled with often. Most of our models leverage a non-native version as they did not have a need to leverage most o...
Hi,
I tend to use a combination of native Anaplan versions and fake versions (FV)
Real versions are one of the most powerful Anaplan features for me due to switchover (space saving, and just the gene...
Helpful post as always, David. One use case not covered here is calculating the difference in months between 2 monthly periods. I have generally solved this with a formula:
Learn how using ratio can solve the problem of showing costs as positive numbers whilst subtracting them from totals
We focus on how to set up your Anaplan model and your connections with the Excel add-in for performance and reliability.
Filters can be very useful in model building and are widely used, but they can come at the expense of performance—often very visible to users through their use on dashboards.
Performance can also hit...
Summary
Anaplan Connect is a command-line client to the Anaplan cloud-based planning environment and is a java-based utility that is able to perform a variety of commands, such as uploading and downl...
@iamwilliam_nz
Actually, having 15 different unique lists is not a bad thing as long as you set then up correctly as well as the corresponding "Properties" modules. By doing this, this ca...
@andrewtye Nicely handled. I'm certain I will be using this. I keep a list of solutions to specific use-cases in One Note, so I've promptly added this one.And, personally, I really appreci...
When using CUMULATE over a list, performance can be impacted with large cell counts. CUMULATE over time is an alternative to consider.
As a business operations manager on the Anaplan on Anaplan (AoA) team—an internal team, focused on bringing Connected Planning to life within Anaplan—I help to oversee our internal Anaplan model ecos...
I recently posted a Python library for version 1.3 of our API. With the GA announcement of API 2.0, I'm sharing a new library that works with these endpoints. Like the previous library, it does suppo...
Dimension Order Affects Calculation Performance
Ensuring consistency in the order of dimensions will help improve the performance of your models. This consistency is relevant for modules and individu...
@rob_marshall @Jared Dolich @DavidSmith This is easily one of the cleanest overviews of the DISCO methodology I’ve come across. The modules are organized, filters are separated, inputs...
@Asslam ,
So, again, if I am understanding you correctly, this is one of the main tenants of the article - load the data into a transcational module (dimensionalized by Time) instead of d...
Overview
The Anaplan Optimizer aids business planning and decision making by solving complex problems involving millions of combinations quickly to provide a feasible solution.
Optimization provides ...
If you’re familiar with Anaplan, you’ve probably heard the buzz about having a data hub and wondered why it’s considered a “best practice” within the Anaplan community. Wonder no more. Below, I will ...
Overview
Imports are blocking operations: To maintain a consistent view of the data, the model is locked during the import, and concurrent imports run by end-users will need to run one after the oth...
@ABerenguela I was really hoping someone would create this. Thank you one hundred times. +5 Kudos.Can't believe it can be done with V2.0 but you made it work. I thought the token would be too mu...
@Jared Dolich This is really clear, organized, useful, and most importantly outlines a clean/DISCO way to implement a functionality/use-case that is quite common.I love the idea of building on c...
Hi @Mark_W_Shemaria This is one of the most clever solutions I've seen. I continue to wonder what train of thoughts could lead someone to such a solution. Huge Kudos I believe there is...
Hi, After some testing, it appears the issue has been solved and you can now create a driver and apply DCA within the same Revision Tag. Would be great to get some official conf...
Forms are a new input mechanism added to the Anaplan UX that allow you to create simple, intuitive input forms that feel familiar to end users and submit data directly into your models.
Thanks,
Along with what @CallumW mentioned, specifically, I avoid list subsets as much as possible, and instead use booleans in a system module to denote true/false for list members t...
@kavinkumar Few things from my side. Contents Cleanup - Admins need to make sure that the "Enable Access to Hidden Content" is disabled otherwise End users have the ability to see the...
Check out the latest best practice detailing how to clear data in Anaplan—from the basic to the programmatic—giving you all the flexibility needed for targeted clearing.
Hi!
3.10 says check in with end "uses" frequently.
I believe this should say "users".
It's on both page 5 and 42.
Cheers
I had the opportunity to learn these best practices while shadowing a project implementation with @Fwolf, one of our best Anaplan Solution Architects! It was a huge help in improving my An...
Dynamic Cell Access (DCA) controls the access levels for line items within modules. It is simple to implement and provides modelers with a flexible way of controlling user inputs. Here are a few...
Note that this article uses a planning dashboard as an example, but many of these principles apply to other types of dashboards as well.
Methodology
User Stories
Building a useful planning dashboard...
This article provides the steps needed to create a basic time filter module. This module can be used as a point of reference for time filters across all modules and dashboards within a given model.
T...
New Best Practice! This article works through how to manage the product lifecycle (governance, development, and maintenance) of your models, as well as apps built in the New UX.
Calculating the difference between two dates is a common requirement. Learn more about the best practice for calculating the difference between two days/two months.
excellent contribution, thank you.
Hi Mark, Can you provide another screeh shot showing what your are filtering in the dashboard please?I was expecting a drop down of level number to filter on levels. I have built the...
This article covers the necessary steps for you to migrate your Anaplan Connect (AC) 1.3.x.x script to Anaplan Connect 1.4.x. For additional details and examples, refer to the latest Anapla...
Hi, I see some posts around this topic and it is a request that keeps coming up from clients now and then.I've managed to create a user-specific Boolean selector to filter levels in a hierarchy ...
@sean_culligan
Great question, leave it with me. With CPX coming up, it might be a few weeks, so bare with me
I suspect we will see something similar because Time blocks are structured th...
Hey @andrewtye,
Yes, ideally you would like for Store, Region, and Division to be flat lists in the data hub and the transactional data coming into a module with the "transactional" key/list to ...
@SheethalThere is no advantage or disadvantage of the "ordering" as such and have had discussions internally about automatically re-sorting list. What I would say is the consistency of the orde...
One of the biggest challenges I have with my clients is that they are not clear as to what define as Production List and what is structural. I have seen some clients define all their lists as P...
Hi Pam, not sure if I could find the PDF version of this article?
Little and Often
Would you spend weeks on your budget submission spreadsheet or your college thesis without once saving it?
Probably not.
The same should apply to making developments and setting...
Overview
These dashboards are absolutely critical to good usability of a model. Dashboards are the first contact between the end users and a model.
What SHOULD NOT be done in a landing...
Deal with monthly dashboards
Many FP&A dashboards will need to display all 12 months in the current year, as well as Quarter, Half, and Total Year totals. Doing this is likely to create a ve...
@In addition to this, take a look at this discussion on the use of PREVIOUS instead of CUMULATE...Formula problem - adding values in the same line item
Thanks @kavinkumar.Good article on Model Optimization. Nicely written in simple words. Keep up the good work. Looking forward for more such articles which will be helpful for the Community.
Check out the latest best practice article covering the two main settings related to how data is aggregated in Anaplan: Top Level Item and Parent Hierarchy.
@piotr.weremczuk
Anaplan's optimizer is powered by Gurobi. https://www.gurobi.com/ for more info.
Hi Piotr - that's a nice trick for a quick bulk clear that's not necessarily tied to particular data import. I have done something similar by having a source View with a filter that doesn't return an...
Thanks for another great article, @DavidSmith! Line item subsets are definitely very powerful and versatile (and under-appreciated!) Another situation where I've found LIS to be very useful...
As described in the Authentication API documentation, an authentication token is needed to issue requests with API 2.0. The request for a token is made to:
https://auth.anaplan.com/token/authen...
@adam_bimson_5 Exactly. PLANS is all about balancing Performance, Usability and Sustainability and understanding the pros and cons of each. What we are doing now is giving some of th...
I am watching the REST API import video. It seems like video is skipping sections. Is there a full video somewhere?
@cyprian_malak Thanks for the feedbackThere were no subsets in the example. But there are two factors at play here:1. The number of cells on which the join is being performed2. The number ...
Hi Charles, I've checked this and it works for me, maybe your workspace is at capacity? Thanks, Usman
What happens to History when I delete a user from a workspace?
This is fantastic information! I have used the techniques here to improve performance on filters signficantly. In one case, I was able to reduce the load time for a saved view from over 2 minutes dow...
Excellent content. For my future projects, I will be providing this information to the customers, especially the future model builders, at the beginning of an implementation. This will provide a soli...
Strongly agree, respecting these rules can have a very beneficial impact on the performance of imports. And during the audit of the models it’s often identified as an axis of improvement.In a recent ...
@mjpearlmanI agree that we often see much more complex formulae; I have spent many a day trying to understand and optimise horrible formulae. 3 pages is quite short! I've seen a 50 page formula...
In taking the SA training, this article fully resonates with me now. Loving all the options presented for system module options.
Hi
Thanks for your quesiton and interest in the post
The intermediate steps will calculate in parallel and after that there will be a smaller calculation pulling in the intermediate values to the ori...
These best practices are fantastic, thank you for posting! FYI--when clicking the links associated with each numbered item, I'm taken to a page displaying the following error message:
Imagine the Following Scenario:
You need to make regular structural changes to a deployed model (for example, weekly changes to the switchover date). You can make these changes by setting revision ta...
Assume the following Non-Composite list, ragged hierarchy, needs to be set to Production Data.
We need to refer to the ultimate parent to define the logic calculation. In the example, we have assume...
Details of known issues
Challenge
Recommendations
Performance issues with long nested formulas
Need to have a long formula on time as a result of nested intermediate calculations.
I...
Overview:
A dashboard with grids that includes large lists that have been filtered and/or sorted can take time to open. The opening action can also become a blocking operation; when this happens, you...
General Recommendations
It is important as model calculations increase to ensure that the calculations and structures are as optimal as possible. Easy checks include:
Ensure the dimension order in t...
If you have a multi-year model where the data range for different parts of the model varies, (for example, history covering two years, current year forecast, and three planning years) then Time Range...
Thanks @DavidEdwards as you might have guessed I had a lot of help from @rob_marshall and I used @DavidSmith's article as a starting point. Had a lot of fun writing this.
@sprender Thanks for compiling this. I am looking forward to the Implementation of Future Road map for New UX. However I have a few queries 1. Why can't I just Duplicate the app - cal...
We focus on best practices for using Excel and PowerPoint themselves.
We focus on how to set up your Anaplan model and your connections with the PowerPoint add-in for performance and reliability.
@paul.rosal Great Article! Deleting the list items - As you rightly mentioned it is really not required to wipe out the data. Instead we way better ways of achieving that objective. H...
@tristan.colgate Really great article! Here I was thinking I had the right solution by using a boolean in a CALC module with the formula ISNOTBLANK(FINDITEM(Sales Rep, CODE(ITEM(Employee)))).You...
New Best Practice—compare values in a TEXT formatted line item and identify the values that occur more than once (duplicates).
@karank ,Great question!In a 445 calendar all months are either 4 weeks or 5 weeks, or 4*7 = 28 days or 5*7 = 35 days. Since February is a 4 week month, it will have 28 days, regardless of the l...
Great article, @greg_reynolds! Absolutely agree with not adding top levels unless needed. In addition to the unnecessary calculations & space consumed, they can mask incorrect formulas ...
Yeah, I wish this had been documented (or I would have come up with this solution) three years ago when I had to bang my head against the wall and add a ton of temporary line items to get this type o...
@obriegr It is an idea but from the other hand this way you generate more traffic between models what impacts perfromance. I wouldn't go that way unless users really pushing to. Having the proce...
@piotr.weremczuk ,
If there is a pre-defined schedule, you are correct. With that said, often times folks need to pull the data on an ad hoc basis using the same actions/process for...
@rob_marshall , @nicole.johnson
I do agree that there is no need to flatten the data. Less data you move around is better for performance.
On the point about pushing the data through ...
@nicole.johnson ,
Great question...There is no need to flatten in the spoke (Budget), just bring in the data that is needed (aggregated at the correct level) to the target spoke model.&nb...
Excellent article, @kavinkumar !
It's always a good idea to read theThe Planual to get up to date with the current best practices (you have mentioned a lot here)
In this way, a model builder ca...
Thanks @kavinkumar. Excellent article and timely - this is when many models need to be annualized.I particularly like the idea of cleaning up those actions. I've seen models with hundreds of unu...
Thank you David! Sometimes I forget how easy is to use substract and add with time. Sometimes we also need to go outside of the defined time period and include those time ranges in our cal...
Good to have such tool in Anaplan.
Is there any technical documentation available for the tool? I'm curious what type of algorithm is being used by Optimizer since this may say more about strengths a...
Great guide Paul, thank you! Also there is one nice trick in case you use import's option to clear all items prior import. You can set a kind of dummy action that would move single cell value (s...
@c-f_surtevall
Indeed when you use DCA, you need to create first the line-item in DEV push it into PROD using ALM and only after that adding in DEV the line item as DCA in different modules.&nb...
@CallumW,
In asking around (Ben Speight), there is no difference in uploading a csv file vs. a text file and there is no difference in the reading of the data from the file and importing them to line...
@CallumW
No reason, and yes, it does save a bunch of time
It will be added for v2 - Thanks
David
Fantastic resource, @DavidSmith!
Is there any reason why best practice import file type has been omitted from the Planual?
I have always found that zipping files (particularly large transactional fil...
Hi,
To be fair, ALM and DCA also sometimes does not work if you change the formula in the DCA line item. This is particularly annoying when the DCA line item is attached to a large number ...
Must read for beginner and intermediate model builders. This will build good habits and save you headaches later on.
Can't stress the importance of naming conventions, blank list/module separat...
Just to add some additional insight - If your target module contains time (as in our example), it is very likely that the code structures will not vary by time, so it would be better to create a modu...
@david.savarin Nice and acute observation. thanks!
Indeed when formula scope is used as "Current Version", the line items cells combined with the other versions become "input" cells. So, the ex...
@david.savarin
Great question
I will test and find out
You can't utilise Formula scope with Fake Versions though so it wouldn't be a true like for like test, but we can test versions with all a...
Hello,
Great and insightful article. Thanks for putting together.
We tend to exclusively use native versions because of the simplicity of switchover, version formulas, and bulk copy functionali...
@Misbah
Whilst we understand the frustration, we do not recommend "keep alive" scripts. Like any computer, it is better to close it down frequently!
It is better to try and optimise the m...
Thanks @KayneSchwarz , I'm going to review this at some point soon.
There are a couple of areas I'm particularly keen to focus on :
- Business process. In my experience the customer o...
What is Pre-Allocation in Lists?
Pre-allocation in lists is a mechanism in Anaplan that adds a buffer to list lengths. It is not added by default for lists; it becomes enabled when a role is set on a...
Turning off unnecessary summary's helps model size a ton! @guillaume_arnau helped us a bunch
@karank It is always better in terms of performance to split components out so the first one will be more efficient.Also, you can see that the expression FINDITEM(list, text) is repeated"calc on...
@guillaume_arnau Good question and one we have been asked previously.The evidence is not as conclusive as the consistency as the answers depended on how much dtaa was in the modules. Somet...
Nice explanation, David. The diagram alone is worth 1,000 words.
@charlesNti have seen this issue for a few other people, if you email support@anaplan.com they can help you get the model into your workspace.
Thanks for this. I tried this and it works with a catch, I have to define the Min/Max boundaries for the variable, otherwise it throws an error as "The problem is unbounded". Does it always need a bo...
Good Morning, Seem to be have trouble using the link to download this app to my workspace, keep getting an error message 'illegal Argument'. Anybody else currently having this problem? Rega...
Is there a plan to pick and choose a specific set of items from the revision tags to move Production?
DISCO is also a great tool to use if you need to review an existing Anaplan model too, to improve the design, performance and transparency of the model.
Very useful article @david, that I used to teach best Practices at Nike.
When we combine this with DISCO, it becomes very clear to model builders, that calculating once (in System or Calc) ...
yes absolutely. That newly added functionality is an easier way to provide such instructions with lower maintenance effort.
Hi MitchYes since the we are seeing only for one lineitem it seems the lineitem is freezed in the filter. Currently the only option that can be seen is create a new module for such line items. &...
@lauren.levineHi - There is a known issue which means the DCA line item needs to be created in one revision, the models sync'd and then applying the driver done in another revision, but could you log...
@DavidSmith wrote: Model Save:A model will save when the amount of changes made by end-users exceeds a certain threshold. This action can take several minutes and will be a blocking operat...
Informative post! Thank you @DavidSmith. Question for you regarding "Calculations are over non common dimensions": Taken to the logical extreme, if many intermediate line items are used, wo...
You can interact with the data in your models using Anaplan's RESTful API. This enables you to securely import and export data, as well as run actions through any programmatic way you desire. The API...
Problem to solve:
As an HR manager, I need to enter the salary raise numbers for multiple regions that I'm responsible for.
As a domain best practice, my driver-based model helps me to enter raise g...
Model Load:
A large and complex model such as 10B cells can take up to 10 minutes to load the first time it's in use after a period of inactivity of 60 minutes.
The only way to reduce the load time i...
Personal dashboards are a great new feature that enables end users to save a personalized view of a dashboard. To get the most out of this feature, here are a few tips and tricks.
Tidy Up Dashboards
...
@Mitch_MaxGreat newsYes, it is something that was discussed, having a second parameter for time formatted items (i.e. the Time Range), with obvious validation considerations. I will pass this on...
Hi Yelena, Thanks for this article. Very useful. Using your suggestion I was able to easily manage the changing of the Current Year in the saved filtered dashboards and ...
@CommunityMember128856
This is called an unbalanced transportation problem, what you would want to do is creating a "dummy" supplier which can supply the remaining amount of demand not being ab...
Hi
I was trying to build the Transportation Assignment Model and the constraint used in the problem is Assignment = Demand. But in real world there may be the case that if Demand > Supply and stil...
Thanks @einas.ibrahim We all make a good team!
Hi @guillaume_arnau , Thanks for sharing this wonderful article. It really help when different users are working in parallel.I have a query on this regarding sub-totals, is there a way...
Good callout @einas.ibrahim I did have to use a little ingenuity but the overall strategy is sound.I use this often as I'd rather use filters than "select level". Filters seem more reliable...
Hi Joshua, We are in the process of updating the Anaplan Way content. Try this link: https://anaplan.box.com/s/qauhgibi8wcosj9xdbqn6wx28e2z59hw Best, Pam
Hi @pam_pervenanze, I'm reading through "The Anaplan Way" document and on Page 54 it states to use the "Model Design Check-in Checklist". Where can I find a copy of this? Thank you!
Very nicely explained. 🙂Awaiting the update when users can apply filters directly and as easily as in excel
Except native versioning can be set to calculate on current version or actual versions. Doing so (should) drastically reduce calculation burden. I still miss statistics to make the point though
@Misbah thanks for the feedback. You can still use this approach and in many cases this makes the most sense. If you are just updating a few pages, want to keep your My Pages within the app...
We focus on how you can better govern the Office add-ins (Excel and PowerPoint) in your company, especially about versions and file management, as well as installation and upgrade.
We give you some ideas about how to use the Excel and PowerPoint add-in in a creative way to achieve your business goals.
@jake.fletcher
Absolutely, and that is a great point. In an ideal world, you should be doing all validations in the Data Hub and within those modules that actually warrant it, so definite...
@rob_marshall - This article is very insightful. Thank you for putting this out here on the community. I'm curious if you're doing any exception reporting and data validation in your models usin...
Thank you both! was fun writing this up and now I see a formula optimization I need to go fix 🙂
Personally, it saves the time, expense, and headache, to just create an ADMIN: Lookups module, and dimension each line item in the module by the list you are referencing, then code the specific line ...
@rob_marshall , thanks for your message, Yes, SKU or Product not needed from day 1 to next , might be needed for future load but not for a particular month. We had come across a scena...
@Mark_W_Shemaria This is a brilliant post. I used it to build a reporting module that dynamically calculates the hierarchy level chosen from selectors and uses them to populate the "group by" at...
Yes...indeed.Today I made some tests and it seems that this issue is solved.If the boolean line-items are created and used as DCA flags can be pushed and sync together in the same revision tag into P...
Thanks for this @DavidSmith
Have used it myself and ensuring that my team does so too. Very helpful for both beginners and advanced users as well.
Thanks @Jared Dolich , glad you like it!Interesting point about ragged hierarchies - I'll put a bit of thought to that.
@rob_marshall , what a great article! We've already tested a few of your recommendations and are already seeing significant performance gains - so thank you! Currently, we have ...
@tristan.colgate That is so cool. What a clean way to obtain the members of a list subset.And it follows the DISCO method too! Brilliant!Can this method be used to balance a ragged list somehow?...
@Jared Dolich i figured that which is why i removed the question 🙂 Great article
@Asslam Are you using ALM? If you push an update and don't have production flagged correctly that could be the cause.
@Asslam ,
If I am understanding you correctly, I have not come across that scenario where a piece of the data (unique row) is gone/dropped from one day to the next. Just to be clear...
This article provides the steps needed to create a basic time filter module. This module can be used as a point of reference for time filters across all modules and dashboards within a given model.
T...
Power BI is a popular reporting tool, and this article will describe how to implement it with Anaplan Rest API version 2.0.
New Best Practice! This article works through how to manage the product lifecycle (governance, development, and maintenance) of your models, as well as apps built in the New UX.
We focus on how you can better govern the Office add-ins (Excel and PowerPoint) in your company, especially about versions and file management, as well as installation and upgrade.
We focus on best practices for using Excel and PowerPoint themselves.
We give you some ideas about how to use the Excel and PowerPoint add-in in a creative way to achieve your business goals.
We focus on how to set up your Anaplan model and your connections with the Excel add-in for performance and reliability.
We focus on how to set up your Anaplan model and your connections with the PowerPoint add-in for performance and reliability.
Forms are a new input mechanism added to the Anaplan UX that allow you to create simple, intuitive input forms that feel familiar to end users and submit data directly into your models.
New Best Practice—compare values in a TEXT formatted line item and identify the values that occur more than once (duplicates).
Hierarchy Management - Learn how to change the master data with no Impact on the hierarchy and the financials.
This guide will walk through the Time Setting in Anaplan models, as well as some best practice recommendations on automating the current time period to simplify formulas and dashboard views.
As an ad planner, sales representative, or merchandise planner, you might be interested in planning your sales or invoices using tier pricing. This solution will address a user-story that allows you ...
This user-story will provide a solution using a one-year model that uses a 445-monthly calendar.
An often requested output of a trade promotions use case is to understand sales between two specific dates— be it days, weeks, or months.
Best practices help you use the platform in the best way possible. In this example, learn how to set up a count based on an attribute.
When using CUMULATE over a list, performance can be impacted with large cell counts. CUMULATE over time is an alternative to consider.
Following the principles of D.I.S.C.O., this latest Best Practice takes an in-depth look at the ability to effectively achieve a forward-looking solution.
Determining whether a List Item appears in a Subset isn't always standard. This Best Practice illustrates how to make that determination, elegantly.
Calculating the difference between two dates is a common requirement. Learn more about the best practice for calculating the difference between two days/two months.
Check out the latest best practice article covering the two main settings related to how data is aggregated in Anaplan: Top Level Item and Parent Hierarchy.
This article helps out to keep the model clean, optimized and secured. Simple tips, short and crispy solutions are given.
Migrating from the classic SFDC platform to the Lightning platform can create issues with some Anaplan models. This article covers issues with SFDC objects and the steps to correct them.
Check out the latest best practice detailing how to clear data in Anaplan—from the basic to the programmatic—giving you all the flexibility needed for targeted clearing.
Line item subsets are one of the most powerful and efficient features in Anaplan, yet one of the least understood. The COLLECT() function is probably the only “black box” function within Anaplan as i...
Learn how using ratio can solve the problem of showing costs as positive numbers whilst subtracting them from totals
As described in the Authentication API documentation, an authentication token is needed to issue requests with API 2.0. The request for a token is made to:
https://auth.anaplan.com/token/authen...
This article covers the necessary steps to update the iPaaS connectors for HyperConnect/Informatica Cloud, Dell Boomi, Mulesoft and SnapLogic. See the article A Guide to CA Certificates in Anapl...
As a business operations manager on the Anaplan on Anaplan (AoA) team—an internal team, focused on bringing Connected Planning to life within Anaplan—I help to oversee our internal Anaplan model ecos...
What are the benefits and drawbacks of using Versions instead a General List
The Planual provides a systematic set of standards for model building on the Anaplan platform. The rules in it are designed produce the most efficient, usable, and scalable Anaplan models, while dram...
You may have heard about a model called a data hub, but perhaps you aren’t confident that you understand the fundamentals, primary functions, or considerations when architecting one. There are three ...
What is Pre-Allocation in Lists?
Pre-allocation in lists is a mechanism in Anaplan that adds a buffer to list lengths. It is not added by default for lists; it becomes enabled when a role is set on a...
How do we keep our users in the Anaplan platform to do their work which requires a high level of advanced customization, faster and more easily than their previous Excel environment? The solutio...
Learn how small changes can lead to dramtic improvements in model calculations
Overview
The following is a guide for the new Statistical Forecasting Calculation Engine Models (monthly and weekly). It includes enablement videos, practice data import exercise, model doc...
Creates the Java KeyStore required for Anaplan Connect 1.4
What happens to History when I delete a user from a workspace?
I recently posted a Python library for version 1.3 of our API. With the GA announcement of API 2.0, I'm sharing a new library that works with these endpoints. Like the previous library, it does suppo...
As a model builder, you have to define line item formats over and over. Using a text expander/snippet tool, you can speed up the configuration of modules.
When you add a new Line Item, Anaplan s...
Filters can be very useful in model building and are widely used, but they can come at the expense of performance—often very visible to users through their use on dashboards.
Performance can also hit...
This article covers the necessary steps for you to migrate your Anaplan Connect (AC) 1.3.x.x script to Anaplan Connect 1.4.x. For additional details and examples, refer to the latest Anapla...
Learn how to organize your model into logical parts to give you a well-designed model that is easy to follow, understand and amend at a later date
Overview
The Anaplan Optimizer aids business planning and decision making by solving complex problems involving millions of combinations quickly to provide a feasible solution.
Optimization provides ...
Dynamic Cell Access (DCA) controls the access levels for line items within modules. It is simple to implement and provides modelers with a flexible way of controlling user inputs. Here are a few...
Reducing the number of calculations will lead to quicker calculations and improve performance. However, this doesn’t mean combining all your calculations into fewer line items, as breaking calculatio...
Little and Often
Would you spend weeks on your budget submission spreadsheet or your college thesis without once saving it?
Probably not.
The same should apply to making developments and setting...
Imagine This Scenario:
You are in the middle of making changes in your development model and have been doing so for the last few weeks. The changes are not complete and are not ready to synchronize. ...
Imagine the Following Scenario:
You need to make regular structural changes to a deployed model (for example, weekly changes to the switchover date). You can make these changes by setting revision ta...
If you’re familiar with Anaplan, you’ve probably heard the buzz about having a data hub and wondered why it’s considered a “best practice” within the Anaplan community. Wonder no more. Below, I will ...
Assume the following Non-Composite list, ragged hierarchy, needs to be set to Production Data.
We need to refer to the ultimate parent to define the logic calculation. In the example, we have assume...
Anaplan API: Communication failure <SSL peer unverified: peer not authenticated>
This is a common error if a Customer Server is behind a proxy or firewall.
The solution is to have the cus...
You can interact with the data in your models using Anaplan's RESTful API. This enables you to securely import and export data, as well as run actions through any programmatic way you desire. The API...
Problem to solve:
As an HR manager, I need to enter the salary raise numbers for multiple regions that I'm responsible for.
As a domain best practice, my driver-based model helps me to enter raise g...
Summary
This article describes the technique to dynamically filter specific levels of a hierarchy on a dashboard and provides a method to select and visualize hierarchies on a dashboard.
Details
This...
Overview
These dashboards are absolutely critical to good usability of a model. Dashboards are the first contact between the end users and a model.
What SHOULD NOT be done in a landing...
Note that this article uses a planning dashboard as an example, but many of these principles apply to other types of dashboards as well.
Methodology
User Stories
Building a useful planning dashboard...
Deal with monthly dashboards
Many FP&A dashboards will need to display all 12 months in the current year, as well as Quarter, Half, and Total Year totals. Doing this is likely to create a ve...
Model Load:
A large and complex model such as 10B cells can take up to 10 minutes to load the first time it's in use after a period of inactivity of 60 minutes.
The only way to reduce the load time i...
Details of known issues
Challenge
Recommendations
Performance issues with long nested formulas
Need to have a long formula on time as a result of nested intermediate calculations.
I...
Overview:
A dashboard with grids that includes large lists that have been filtered and/or sorted can take time to open. The opening action can also become a blocking operation; when this happens, you...
Overview
Imports are blocking operations: To maintain a consistent view of the data, the model is locked during the import, and concurrent imports run by end-users will need to run one after the oth...
General Recommendations
It is important as model calculations increase to ensure that the calculations and structures are as optimal as possible. Easy checks include:
Ensure the dimension order in t...
The process of designing a model will help you:
Understand the customer’s problem more completely
Bring to light any incorrect assumptions you may have made, allowing for correction before building ...
It is important to understand what Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) enables clients to do within Anaplan.
In short, ALM enables clients to effectively manage the development, testing, depl...
PLANS is the new standard for Anaplan modeling—“the way we model.” This covers more than just the formulas and includes and evolves existing best practices around user experience and data hubs. It is...
Thinking through the results of a modeling decision is a key part of ensuring good model performance—in other words, making sure the calculation engine isn’t overtaxed. This article highlights some i...
Note: While all of these scripts have been tested and found to be fully functional, due to the vast amount of potential use cases, Anaplan does not explicitly support custom scripts built by our cust...
Dimension Order Affects Calculation Performance
Ensuring consistency in the order of dimensions will help improve the performance of your models. This consistency is relevant for modules and individu...
Personal dashboards are a great new feature that enables end users to save a personalized view of a dashboard. To get the most out of this feature, here are a few tips and tricks.
Tidy Up Dashboards
...
If you have a multi-year model where the data range for different parts of the model varies, (for example, history covering two years, current year forecast, and three planning years) then Time Range...
L'application Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) vous permet maintenant de vous approprier les clés de chiffrement de vos données de modèle. Si vous avez accès à l'outil Anaplan Administration, vous pouvez ch...
Summary
Anaplan Connect is a command-line client to the Anaplan cloud-based planning environment and is a java-based utility that is able to perform a variety of commands, such as uploading and downl...
Making sure that production data lists are correctly marked within a model is a key step to setting up and using ALM. This guide will provide a solution to how someone can make revisions to thei...