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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.
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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
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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...
This post summarizes steps to convert your security certificate to PEM format and test it in a cURL command with Anaplan. The current production API version is v1.3.
Using a certificate to authentica...
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...
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...
This post summarizes steps to convert your security certificate to PEM format and test it in a cURL command with Anaplan. The current production API version is v1.3.
Using a certificate to authentica...
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 ...
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...
This article helps out to keep the model clean, optimized and secured. Simple tips, short and crispy solutions are given.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
@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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
@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.
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...
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. ...
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...
Learn how using ratio can solve the problem of showing costs as positive numbers whilst subtracting them from totals
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...
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...
@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...
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:
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 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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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 ...
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...
@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...
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 Pam, not sure if I could find the PDF version of this article?
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...
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.
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.
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...
@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...
@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 ...
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...
In taking the SA training, this article fully resonates with me now. Loving all the options presented for system module options.
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...
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:
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 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...
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...
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...
@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...
@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...
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...
@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
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 nu...
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...
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...
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.
@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...
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.
@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...
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...
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...
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...
This is a great guide for implementing certificate-based authentication with our API. However, I would strongly advise using Python, or something similar to decode and encode the certificate. Th...
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...
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...
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 ...
Any opinions on best practices when the source system is an Anaplan spoke, rather than an external system? For example, the annual budget is developed in Anaplan using a Budget spoke. While there are...
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...
Thank you @DavidSmith !I've used LIS for Calculations on Calculations, Multiple Modules and Transformations and now I can consider them when thinking all of these other items. I particularl...
@david.savarin
I have run the analysis using the above model and set formula scope for Current Version only
For the Fake versions model I used a single boolean to check and had a formula like t...
@andrewtye- precisely! I've noticed kudos buttons dotted around in weird areas sometimes, but this one looked particularly odd!
@CallumW - you mean under the "labels" box? Weird!@emilydunn - worth having a look at why "kudos" doesn't appear directly under the article but off to the side or is it meant to be like tha...
Great article, @DavidSmith - simple and effective. Also, does the kudos button for the article appear in a strange place for anyone else?
As much as you learn new ways of leveraging Anaplan to solve interesting problems, it's essential to keep the basics in mind to achieve model efficiency and optimize build performance. This PLANUAL h...
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...
Great article @greg_reynolds - important point around using top level items for flat lists causing unnecessary calculation and particularly relevant for building lists in data hubs!
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.
@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 module...
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...
Appreciate the quick reply @rob_marshall .
I guess my question would then be whether there is any processing benefit in using different file types when loading into line items, or is there a process ...
@CallumW ,
Thanks for reading it, I am glad you liked it. Regarding the file types, this was not part of the article nor the actual loading of a file into Anaplan, more of loading the data...
Hi @rob_marshall
This is a fantastic article, thanks for sharing.
When you did your analysis regarding "Loading data vs using Formulas", was file type accounted for?
I know zipped files are loaded in...
Planual has ~140 rules and ~25 exceptions. Some are common sense / vaguely general. It would be great to have a High Impact list of rules.
Grammar nitpick: Replace "try and do X" with "try to d...
Brilliant stuff David. You never cease to amaze! This piece of functionality will allow users to keep the reporting signage, but be able to have a proper aggregating report
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...
Great article. I love the specificity around the challenges of managing data access from a departmental, geographical, and end-user need prespective.
Great article @DavidSmith
The main use of 'fake' versions list in my practice have been where the users want to create a version every month and can end up with almost 15 versions in...
@jared.fox
thanks for sharing
I do like using formula scope with the Current Version to archive forecasts, as just switching the "current" flag removes the formula from the "previous current ve...
Hi,
Nice article and very useful insight!
We highly appreciated the power of the specific functionalities of the native versions ( i.e. formula scope, switch-over).
However, we used the native versio...
@DavidSmith Apart from the reasons mentioned above by you , due to Inactivity in the model for more than 60 minutes does the model go back to disk and it has to come back to memory when so...
I am watching the REST API import video. It seems like video is skipping sections. Is there a full video somewhere?
Hi @Alessio_Pagliano,
We've removed the attachment from this article as we've updated the content within. Feel free to bookmark the article or use the Options > Printer Friendly Page feature ...
Hi @rob_marshall - question on list hierarchies. For a store network have the Store, Region, Division. So would have three lists and then a module dimensioned on Store with Region / Divisi...
I think it is here
https://help.anaplan.com/anapedia/Content/ALM/Compare_and_Synchronize/Fixing_Production_Issues.html
However, ensure that before you start the process, set a temporary revision tag ...
The link above says the Content is no longer available. Where can I get the documentation?
There is no content on the dashboard called 'Single Level Final Forecast Export'
@DavidSmith with Finditem is there a difference between IF ISNOTBLANK(TEXT) THEN FINDITEM(LIST,TEXT) ELSE BLANKVSIF ISNOTBLANK(FINDITEM(LIST,TEXT)) THEN FINDITEM(LIST,TEXT)...
@TGagnon no those models are not needed. The model is already staged with generic data or you can clear and import a new data set from .csv files following the data setup process if needed. ...
When checking the Source Models and Import Data Sources there are two other models listed. Do I need to download and manage those as well?
Hi @DavidSmith,Great Article! Aren't these results affected by CODE & _ & CODE being executed also with extra month dimension? or was it run with extra subset on the line item without mo...
@ArunManickam you do not need to have the min/max defined for each variable. However, there needs to be some sort of bounds put on the problem as Optimizer will not produce an answer if the...
Same issue met with @ArunManickam Or this issue will happen when there are mutiple optimal solutions?Coz I used to Excel solver to solve the transportation assignment problem again and the ...
Great David. Follow on question: please layer in how properties are handled in terms of indexing and ording of lists. Thanks.
@usman.zia Great idea. This page was always intended as a landing page. I'll get our team onto itThanks for the suggestion
Thanks David! following up on your example, does it make a difference if one dimension (product) is way bigger than the other? I think I remember to put them in the smaller to larger order (and ...
Hi @DavidSmith Great article really like the acronyms and concept. It would be really beneficial if for each section there was a link to the article or best practice guide for that sec...
Hi all, I am Charles' co-worker. Thank you all for your help. I just want to point out that we tried to download it with either Chrome and Firefox (both, regular and incognito/ privat...
What would be helpful is a formal training workshop on these principals. The 300 series of online training for model building does not provide enough depth and breadth of how to design using these pr...
I have 2 questions here:1. It is mentioned here that Anaplan remembers the sequence of adding the lists. Is there any specific reason / advantage to save this sequence?2. Isn't it possible for Anapla...
Creates the Java KeyStore required for Anaplan Connect 1.4
We have used Guillaume's dashboard planning methodology recently with two of my CS customers across 6 different use cases. It seems counterintuitive to many at first but always works like a...
Hi @nikolay_denisov, I do not think format definition will change in the short term. Regarding blueprint columns, I had to update the Heading snippet with the Time Range update. Done p...
Great approach, Ben!Configuring templates for lineitems is essential.Do you know if the snippets need to be adjusted in case of major platform updates and new columns of blueprint added?
Thanks for this. I've spent about 20 minutes today trying to debug code that I had written in Notes. I'm always looking for better ways to do these types of things.
I just advised a customer on Nested Rows in an export today... They had an abnormally large module with 4 List items in the column of the saved view. The saved view was taking exponentionally more ti...
thank you for the comments, and you will be pleased to know that we are looking to add this and "connected planning" aspects to the training
Excellent article! I think at times, folks that are new to Anaplan are intimidated by the empty canvas that Anaplan provides. Once the initial implementation has been completed and the pa...
Thank you David, great article and changed my way of thinking when doing model design and it is very structured and helps understand the flow of an existing model
Totally agree @linda_erickson. Would be very useful to add this to the launchpad training.
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...
These recommendations are great, but far too often formulas are not this simple to break up or reeningeer to optimize in such a clean manner. When formulas get really long and c...
@mjpearlmanthanks for the question. For me, the answer is quite simple. There are two situations where lists should be set as production lists: 1. The lists are updated as part o...
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...
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...
This post summarizes steps to convert your security certificate to PEM format and test it in a cURL command with Anaplan. The current production API version is v1.3.
Using a certificate to authentica...
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...