About NicolasCadier

NicolasCadier · ‎05-10-2019

Cheers David! I'll have a look at that too.

NicolasCadier · ‎05-10-2019

Hi David, By two lists - do you mean setting up one line item per P&L module and using a list as a proxy set of line items? If so, did consider that, but unfortunately my organisation does not consistently sum their accounts. Thanks, Nic

NicolasCadier · ‎05-10-2019

Is there a best practice way to remap line items between modules? What I mean by this is taking a set of line items from a module and remapping them to another set of line items in a module, as per the screenshot below? My use case for this would be to summarise P&L lines or to reclassify line P&L lines into a different format. For my first attempt at this - I did the following. Created my source P&L and target P&L, creating a line item subset for each module. Create a line item mapping module with the following attributes: Dimensioned by the source line item subset. One line item called 'Target Line Item' formatted as the target line item subset. (This is shown in the earlier screenshot) Another line item to COLLECT() the values of the source module. This line item is dimensioned in the same way as the source P&L. In the target P&L module, reference the COLLECT() line item in the mapping module, SUM'ing on the 'Target Line Item' line item in the mapping module. To me this approach is OK - but not perfect. The most significant disadvantage is the fact that I effectively have to build the source P&L module twice - using up valuable model space. Once for the original source P&L module, and once again in the COLLECT() line item in the mapping module. This is because the COLLECT() line item is dimensioned in the exact same way as the as the source module. Unfortunately, I cannot remove the dimensionality from the COLLECT() line item as it is required to pull through my organisation list, LOB list, time, and version detail to my target P&L module. What I like about this approach is the flexibility, line items can be remapped from a quick pick list, on the fly. It is also easy to ensure that all the line items from the source P&L module are being mapped somewhere (it is for this reason that I don't want to simply link the two modules via referencing the line items themselves. It is very easy to lose track of which line items in the source module have been referenced and which ones have not). Any other ideas or thoughts on this would be fantastic - open to any suggestions.

NicolasCadier · ‎05-09-2019

Fantastic! Thanks for that. Works exactly as needed - and will also let me match against other client property fields.

NicolasCadier · ‎05-09-2019

Hi David, Thanks for your reply - I've never used the assign action before so that's useful to know. Unfortunately it doesn't quite solve my issue so I'm going to add some detail around the scenario to make it more understandable. My organisation hierarchy is composed of multiple hierarchies with different naming conventions. This is resultant of various mergers that have occurred in previous years. Some hierarchies use 'contract numbers' to distinguish separate organisation units, whilst others use client and country concatenations to designate separate organisation units. Regardless of hierarchy naming convention used - every organisation item has a 1 to 1 relationship to a client. Our client list grows quite quickly so I need a system which helps end users assign clients to organisation units. Therefore, I am after a solution which can read the organisation item name and attempt to parse a client automatically. This system is merely designed to help end users - as if the client name is not in the organisation item name, then a client will have to be mapped automatically. Dealing with the growing client list is quite simple. By using a numbered list for clients, the Anaplan create action will allow end users to add items to the client list and fill the client name in a text formatted property - simple. The challenge is to then dynamically associate the organisation list to the numbered client list, looking up the client name. I hope this helps to explain the problem in greater depth.

NicolasCadier · ‎05-08-2019

Hi Bram, This could potentially work - ideally I'm looking for a way that absolutely minimises end user input. I know that adding an item to a list and then hitting an update button isn't a demanding task - but I can imagine users forgetting to hit the update button. Thanks for the idea though!

NicolasCadier · ‎05-08-2019

Is it possible to do a FINDITEM on a numbered list without using the code field? The numbered list restriction exists because I need non-admin end users to easily add to the list (e.g. by adding a 'Create' action). The code restriction exists because non-admin end users will be adding to the list, and hence will not be able to amend the code. I realise that a non-numbered list could be used, where non-admin users would be able to add items and amend the code through an import. However the file requirements (file name, column names, column count) seem onerous on the end user and ideally I want to keep things as simple as possible for the end user. With that in mind I'd like to add some context. I have two lists: Client (numbered). 'Client Name' property, text format. Organisation (non-numbered). 'Client' property, client list format. My organisation structure is, broadly, based off a combination of client and country. Example below: I would like to map each organisation to a client within the client list. I have created a module that dynamically pulls the client name from the organisation name in text format. I now need to lookup this client text formatted name against the 'Client Name' text property within the client list, and return the corresponding client as a client list item. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, FINDITEM does not work against properties. I imagine that this is because the property could be duplicated multiple times. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

NicolasCadier · ‎05-08-2019

Hi Rob, Thanks for your reply - I was really hoping that there would be a way to manage this without imports. If there is, or if you have any other suggestions then I am very open to them. I believe there is a slightly simpler way to process the import side. I created a list with two properties formatted to employee and department. This is my 'filter combinations' list. This can then be imported to straight from the employee matrix module without the need for additional line items. The only exception to this is the anaplan ID of the employee list. As the employee list is numbered, it is not possible to import the display name to the list, instead you have to reference the list item name using NAME(ITEM(Employees)). Thanks for your help!

NicolasCadier · ‎05-03-2019

Is there a way to enable a many-to-many relationship on dependent dropdowns? If so, how do you do this? To provide some context, I have two lists: Departments Employees Employees can belong to many departments. (Currently have a module which assigns employees to departments using two dimensions, employees and departments, and a boolean line item.) Departments has selective access enabled. I have a module for labour input. I would like users to be able to enter the module and assign an employee to a department - however I would like to limit that choice to only those employees who belong to the relevant department. The labour input module has a department line item which shows the relevant department - screenshot below. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Labour Input Department Matrix

NicolasCadier · ‎01-28-2019

Hi, I have a couple of theoretical questions relating to model building. What is the use case of COLLECT()? Why would I want to use it and when would I want to avoid it? It seems to be a powerful function but I'm not sure why it is needed. Any model building tips when working with matrix style hierarchy structures (e.g. country and client dimensions) that have significant amounts of sparsity? Especially interested in output formats, e.g. P&Ls, which give end users the flexibility of having client and country as separate dimensions within the output without the sparsity. For instance, making it very easy for a user to see Client A across all countries, or see performance of England, France and Germany for a given set of clients. Thanks! Any help is appreciated!

NicolasCadier · ‎01-25-2019

Hi, My company uses a matrix style hierarchy where we look at client and country on separate dimensions as per the below image. I'd like to recreate this view in Anaplan (without the sparsity). Where client leads can see their client across all countries, and country leads can view their country across all clients. I'm thinking of using a numbered list and concatenating client and country, then mapping each list item to a country item and a client item. Is there another/better way that I haven't considered? Any advice would be great! Thanks, Nic

NicolasCadier · ‎01-21-2019

It would be really helpful for myself and colleagues if more than just three items could be dragged into the row field whilst pivoting a module. This would also be really helpful for zero suppression on Anaplan exports as well as saving the need to manipulate Anaplan exports in Power Query (or similar data transformation tool) to produce only one amount/values column.

NicolasCadier · ‎01-08-2019

Hi Rob, for my use case the code needs to be static. All it needs to do is to match one org item in one list to an org item in another list. If both items are using the code UID#384 then if I change the parent this will update in both lists. Does that make sense? Tying it down to a particular name could be detrimental if some of the attributes changed later on (as the name would be outdated!). If the code dynamically updated, then any data (e.g. P&L data) stored against that org unit would be lost if the org unit moves.

NicolasCadier · ‎01-08-2019

The title is pretty self explanatory, but if I have model A and model B, is it possible to create a process in model B to runs a process in model A?

NicolasCadier · ‎01-08-2019

Hi All, Thanks for your help on this! I've come up with a solution to the problem. As I want to have one master list in a data hub model that pushes out to other models I need to be able to preserve the unique ID of the data hub list so that if any list items are edited (e.g. display name changes), any associated data remains. This will also preserve the ability to add/remove list items. In my master model I created a module with my numbered list with a line item called "UID", text formatted. I concatenated "UID" with the NAME function to get the Anaplan numbered list name (i.e. the #1, #2, #3 name not the display name). The end formula looked like this: "UID" & NAME(ITEM('Organisation L3')). In my child model I then created a numbered list and set up my import, for the numbered list, by connecting to another Anaplan model, the data hub model in this case. I connected to the module previously created (not the list). I removed the source from the Name property field and mapped my UID line item to the code property field. I then set the import to be unique by code only and ran the import. I found that if I did not concatenate "UID" to the default Anaplan numbered list names the import would fail - presumably "#" & NUMBER formats are reserved for the system. This method aligns the numbered lists in my data hub model to the lists in my child models, a 1 to 1 relationship that won't change if the list item is edited AND will enable me to add and remove items in numbered lists within my data hub model and push any hierarchy updates to other models. The key benefit to this is that I can have one hierarchy stored in one model. This will be especially useful for my use case as I have a number of models which all use the same hierarchy.

NicolasCadier · ‎01-07-2019

Is there a way to get Anaplan to generate a unique code for each item within the list? As I understand it, this is effectively what happens for the name property for each item in the list. (I.e. the first item of each numbered list is #1, second is #2, third #3, etc. etc.) Also, is there a way to formulaically calculate the code property of a list?

NicolasCadier · ‎01-07-2019

How do you import to a numbered list from a numbered list in a different model - using the 'connect to Anaplan model' function? The aim of this is to store the lowest level of my organisation's hierarchy as a numbered list - this is needed as some of the organisation unit names are duplicates. At the moment, I get the error message " Cannot add new entities to numbered list when matching involves name" when trying to import. My intent is to use this method in conjunction with a method for sharing lists between models (explained here) to create a data hub that contains my organisation's hierarchy which can then be pushed out to several models. This will allow me to maintain one master list instead of several. Also as a side note: in our organisation, we create and manage our hierarchy within Anaplan rather than using external uploads to Anaplan from other sources.

NicolasCadier · ‎01-07-2019

Thanks David, I tried this method and it works nicely!

NicolasCadier · ‎01-03-2019

Hi Dmitry, As with LipChean's method, this is a one way management system (as far as I can tell). Whilst this will allow me to push new organisation items out to my other models - it won't allow me to remove units, unless you know a way to do this? Perhaps a delete by selection?

NicolasCadier · ‎01-03-2019

Hi LipChean, Thanks for the response, that's an interesting article. My issue with this approach however is that using an import method I don't see how it's possible to delete items from the master list. If you have any suggestions on this would be appreciated! Thanks, Nic

NicolasCadier · ‎12-28-2018

Is there a way to share lists between models? We use a number of different models all for the same company which uses the same structure - and it would be really handy if it were possible create a 'shared' master list(s) in one model that could be referenced by all the other models.

NicolasCadier · ‎12-05-2018

Definitely a must have - especially for larger organisations where, generally, the user list is much larger and needs to be maintained!