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adaptive insights tips & tricks

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Save Personal Views on Sheets with Dashboard

April 21, 2021 by Michelle Song Leave a Comment

Tips & Tricks

If you open any sheets via the Sheet tab in Workday Adaptive Planning, you can only save one view per sheet per version per user. Prior to the 2020 R2 Release, the only workaround to save the same sheet with multiple views is using EIP, Excel Interface for Planning, and open the sheet in multiple tabs or workbooks.

With the 2020 R2 Release, you now can save multiple views for the same sheet in the same tab per version in Dashboard. This function is extremely helpful to users that manage multiple departments, or anyone who wants to view the same data with different views in one tab.

In the example below, I opened the Product Revenue sheet twice in the same dashboard. The top sheet is showing the Gross Revenue account in the Product Revenue sheet for Customer 1 by Product values.  The bottom sheet is showing the same Product Revenue sheet but by Accounts.

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Save Personal Views in Dashboard

Once the Display Option is applied to the sheet in Dashboard, it is automatically saved for the selected version and there is no need to click the Save icon. If the dashboard is a shared dashboard, the latest published changes will become the new view of the sheets in that dashboard.

Here is another example. The top one has a filter to show New York employees and the second one has a filter to show just the employees in Canada.

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Save Personal Views in Dashboard

Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Excel Substitute

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Override Formulas in Sheets

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Trigger for a Cube Calculated Account

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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, adaptive planning dashboards, Adaptive Planning sheets, enterprise performance management, Financial Performance Management, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Excel Substitute

March 3, 2021 by Michelle Song Leave a Comment

We have something different for today’s Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks post – an Excel tip! Our Adaptive Planning users also use Excel, so we thought they’d find this helpful.

Have you ever wanted to get rid of spaces in some of your Excel cells? Maybe you do not want a cell to have separate words and instead want to use an underscore character. Or maybe you are in a situation where you want to adjust a prefix for a certain range of cells. You can use Excel’s find and replace functionality, but this approach could lead to a time consuming effort if you want to pick and choose the cells where it applies.

Excel’s SUBSTITUTE function can help you solve this problem. The SUBSTITUTE function is used to find a specific set of characters and replace it with something else while also giving you the ability to define details within cells.

The syntax of the function is:

=SUBSTITUTE (text, old_text, new_text)
  • text
    • This is the source that will be changed; this is typically a cell reference.
  • old_text
    • This is the subtext that will be replaced.
  • new_text
    • This is what will replace the old subtext

If the cell in A5 consists of “Happy Birthday” then it can be updated to “Happy_Birthday” via the following:

=SUBSTITUTE (A5, “ “, “_”)

In addition, the parameter that defines the new text can also be a cell reference.  This gives you the ability to quickly change the results of a large set of data by simply updating a single cell.

This approach will allow you to quickly find and replace characters within specific cells instead of having to manually go through a set of cells via Excel’s find and replace functionality.

The team at Revelwood has been recognized by Adaptive for its thought leadership in the space, commitment to its Adaptive Insights practice, and its rapid achievements of milestones. Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start with Adaptive Insights? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Override Formulas in Sheets

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Trigger for a Cube Calculated Account

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Alternate Time Tree

 
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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, enterprise performance management, Excel, Excel tips & tricks, Financial Performance Management, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Interactive Dashboards – Dynamic Planning with Embedded Sheets

February 24, 2021 by Dave Miersch Leave a Comment

More often than not, clients of Revelwood will make use of multiple sheets in Workday Adaptive Planning to support different aspects of their planning process(es). When using several sheets to make changes to key drivers, assumptions and scenario drivers, clients often ask the question, “How can I quickly and easily see how the changes I make on one sheet impact the rest of my budget?” One tried and true method was using multiple screens or windows with multiple sheets or reports open to see how the model changes. While this method works, it can be cumbersome and as many of us are working remotely for the foreseeable future, it likely becomes problematic if we do not have access to all those great monitors at home.

Another more dynamic solution is using the newer functionality of embedded sheets within Dashboards.

Within Dashboards, users now have the ability to add any Standard, Modeled, or Cube sheet you have created within Adaptive Planning to enter data without ever having to navigate away from our dashboard view(s). These sheets act as usable copies of your existing sheets allowing changes to be made and instantly reflected on related charts and dashboards.

In the below example, we have three Dashboards. Sales Volume & Margin by Month, budgeted Sales Revenue vs Prior Year Actuals and budgeted Sales Volume vs Prior Year Actuals.

Interactive dashboards in Workday Adaptive Planning

While in edit mode, navigate to the dashboard selector and simply drag and drop the “Sheet” option into your dashboard window. An additional drop-down menu will then be available to select all available sheet options to choose from.

Learn about interactive dashboards in Workday Adaptive Planning

Select the appropriate sheet you want to use to make changes and analyze the overall model impact and you’re all set! You now have your previously created and defined sheet embedded within your dashboard.

In my example, we have added our “Bottle Release Schedule” sheet which is essentially our sales unit planning sheet.

Understanding interactive dashboards in Workday Adaptive Planning

Making any changes and saving them within the Dashboard will automatically funnel through to dependent charts and dashboards. We are going to add 1,000 units sold in the month of April 2021 in rows 1 and 3, click save in the sheet, and then see how those changes impact our entire model in real time.

Dynamic planning with embedded sheets in Workday Adaptive Planning

We can quickly see that making those changes has added 2,000 units to our total sales volume as well as $300,000 in additional revenue.

Any sheet created within Adaptive can be pulled into dashboards for more fluent and flexible planning and reporting in one view. While some functionality is limited vs using the sheet itself, having the ability to make changes and immediately see the impact without managing multiple windows can be a valuable tool in the heart of budget season.

The team at Revelwood has been recognized by Workday Adaptive Planning for our thought leadership in the space, commitment to our Workday Adaptive Planning practice, and our rapid achievements of milestones. Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start with Workday Adaptive Planning? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Override Formulas in Sheets

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Templates

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: The Formula Assistant – How To, Where & Why

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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, adaptive planning dashboards, adaptive planning embedded sheets, enterprise performance management, Financial Performance Management, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Excel Reporting Using a Report Template

February 17, 2021 by Summer Jeter Leave a Comment

Many users of Workday Adaptive Planning utilize OfficeConnect for their Excel reporting. But not all users will have access to OfficeConnect, depending on your organization. But there is another great option for Excel reporting called a Report Template.

What is the difference between OfficeConnect and a Report Template?

Templates are Excel files which can be added to regular reports, including repeating reports. Instead of running an HTML report, you can have a custom Excel report. Below are some nice features, as once you use it, it will become a favorite for reporting.

Report Templates allow:

  • Custom formatting data from Adaptive such as background color, font color, and font type.
  • Calculations on the data, along with including graphs and notes.
  • Use with repeating reports.
  • A saved Excel file attached to a report.
  • Macros can be added to templates.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to create an Excel report using a report template.

  1. Locate the Adaptive Planning HTML report which has the data you want for your Excel report.

    a. Here is an HTML Report.

    Workday Adaptive Planning: Excel Reporting

    b. Locate the report in the Reports screen.

    Workday Adaptive Planning: Using a template for Excel reporting
  2. Right click on the report and choose Run as Excel, and the file will download. Learn about Excel reporting using a template in Workday Adaptive Planning
  3. Open the downloaded Excel file. You will see the Excel data on the first sheet.

    a. The report is the same as the report in Step 1 but in Excel.

    How to do Excel reporting with a template in Workday Adaptive Planning
  4. On this sheet, you can change fonts, and add conditional formatting, calculations, etc. If you want to add other sheets for more reporting, you can use formulas to reference data on the first sheet.

    a. In this example, we have changed fonts style and added conditional formatting for the % Var column.

    How to do Excel reporting with a template in Workday Adaptive Planning

    b. In this example, we added another sheet and created a graph and ratios using formulas to reference the first sheet (report data). You can add multiple sheets to create a customized report or a report book. You can also hide sheets. For example, the Report Info tab Adaptive includes in all excel reports or the first sheet with the data.

    Excel reports using templates in Workday Adaptive Planning
  5. Return to the report in Adaptive Planning.

    a. Right click on the same HTML report and select Attach Template.

    Excel reporting using templates in Workday Adaptive Planning

    b. Click Choose File button and select the excel file you just created which has your updated report with formatting, formulas, graphs, etc. Click OK. Once the file is selected click Open.

    Excel reporting using templates in Workday Adaptive PlanningExcel reporting using templates in Workday Adaptive Planning

    c. The file icon will change colors from blue to green, so you know the report has been properly attached.

    Excel reporting using templates in Workday Adaptive Planning
  6. Run the report and it will automatically download as an Excel file. Your existing report has been generated and has applied all applicable prompts. For example, the month of data will change per the prompt option selected.

You now have an Excel report! And can run it anytime!

The team at Revelwood has been recognized by Adaptive for its thought leadership in the space, commitment to its Adaptive Insights practice, and its rapid achievements of milestones. Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start with Adaptive Insights? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Expand/Collapse in OfficeConnect

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Templates

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Making Your Matrix Report Presentable and Meaningful

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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, adaptive planning report template, enterprise performance management, Financial Performance Management, FP&A, OfficeConnect, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Adaptive Planning OfficeConnect, Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Expand/Collapse Feature in OfficeConnect

February 3, 2021 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

This week’s Workday Adaptive Planning and Reporting Tip & Trick pertains a new feature in OfficeConnect introduced into the application in Workday Adaptive Release 2020R2 (September 2020.) Previous to this release, clients disliked the fact that to “drilldown” to detail accounts, or to have the option to, required extra lines of detail to be added to a report, and hidden until requested. The step was frowned upon as an unusual design flaw — with a valid, yet clumsy work-around. Well, lo-and-behold, Workday Adaptive listened! Release 2020R2 not only addressed the issue, but “expanded” (pun intended!) upon it.

In the following screen capture, Expenses are retrieved in row 8, and Actual March 2019 data is displayed in column E. Prior to release 2020R2, users would be required to add any further “drilldown” detail Expense categories into the report and hide them until requested to be displayed. There is one value displayed in cell E8 below.

Expand collapse feature in Workday Adaptive Planning OfficeConnect

The new feature is available when there are expandable/collapsible lines (or columns) on the report and the options become available in the OfficeConnect ribbon (highlighted with the red arrow in the following screen capture.):

Learn the new expand collapse feature in Workday Adaptive Planning OfficeConnect

Clicking the Expand (+) option while Row 8 Expenses is highlighted results in the Expense Row 8 self-expanding and displaying the Expense categories with their amounts, instantly. OfficeConnect refreshes upon selection as follows:

Understand the expand collapse feature in Workday Adaptive Planning OfficeConnect

What makes the new feature even more exciting is that the expansion can continue as follows – in the example below I further expand the Office and Property line now displayed on line 9 (at the start of the example only line 8 displayed the Expense amount in column E.

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips - Expand Collapse Feature in OfficeConnect

The Collapse option does exactly as titled- collapses the expanded selection.

What makes the new feature even more beneficial is that not only the rows can be expanded. In the following screen capture, I replaced the March 2019 time element with Q1-FY19.

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips and Tricks_expand collapse feature in OfficeConnect

Expanding the Column E results in the 3 months of Q! 2019 to be displayed in their own columns, to the left of the still-displayed Q1 Quarter total.

Workday Adaptive Planning Tricks_ Expand Collapse Feature in OfficeConnect

In summary, after many years of having to employ a clumsy work-around to “drill-down” and display detail on the main OfficeConnect sheet, Workday Adaptive listened and developed the “perfect” solution, in my humble opinion!

The team at Revelwood has been recognized by Workday Adaptive Planning for our thought leadership in the space, commitment to our Workday Adaptive Planning practice, and our rapid achievements of milestones. Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start with Workday Adaptive Planning? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Templates

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: The Formula Assistant

Workday Adaptive Planning tips & Tricks: Virtual Versions and Neutral Exchange Rate

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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, enterprise performance management, Financial Performance Management, Gary Leiffer, OfficeConnect, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Adaptive Planning OfficeConnect, Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: CAPEX Planning – Your Tool for Growth

November 11, 2020 by Mary Luchs Leave a Comment

CAPEX (capital expenditures) planning is a key feature in Workday Adaptive Planning and gives the Office of Finance and senior executives greater visibility into the company’s financial risk, while also providing a tool for measuring corporate growth. Before we go into the specifics of CAPEX in Adaptive Planning, let’s take a step back and get an understanding of CAPEX.

Capital Expenditures: Overview

Capital expenditures are expenditures within a company that are not expensed on the income statement. They are considered to be investments into the company. Companies with higher capital expenditures are said to be investing more heavily into the future of their organizations.

CAPEX to Operating Cash Ratio

The CAPEX to operating cash ratio analyzes a company’s ability to acquire long term assets using cash flows. In other words, it indicates how much of a company’s cash flows is going towards capital expenditures. It is a great tool for measuring a company’s emphasis on growth. A higher CAPEX to operating cash ratio is an indicator of high growth in a company. A company whose ratio is too high could be taking on too much financial risk. While it is beneficial to invest in CAPEX, overspending in this area can compromise a company’s ability to pay off debts or cover other operating expenses. It is vital for the Office of Finance to have accurate, up to date visibility into CAPEX data in order to assess the company’s level of risk and make appropriate adjustments.

CAPEX and Depreciation

Depreciation is important to consider for asset management, especially for companies who are putting a lot of money towards their assets in the form of capital expenditures. A company must consider how their CAPEX depreciates when looking at their assets. This is a helpful tool to consider:

CAPEX > Depreciation → Growing assets

CAPEX < Depreciation → Shrinking assets

Accumulated depreciation of capital expenditures is indicated on the Balance Sheet, so it is important to consider how this impacts the net income of the company. Depreciation reduces the taxable income of a company, which is impactful especially for companies in a high growth phase who are investing heavily in capital. In addition to the CAPEX to operating cash ratio, depreciation can also be considered when analyzing a company’s growth.

Capex Planning in Workday Adaptive Planning

In addition to having a basic balance sheet and a P&L sheet, you should create a CAPEX sheet in Adaptive Planning. The CAPEX sheet offers a more specific look at capital expenditures than the balance sheet and the P&L sheet, allowing for more targeted analysis. Generating a CAPEX sheet also allows you to drill into expenses and depreciation for budgeting and forecasting purposes on a more granular level.

CAPEX Planning in Workday Adaptive Planning

In conjunction with the balance sheet, the CAPEX sheet is important for budgeting cash and analyzing capital investments. In Adaptive Planning, the CAPEX model consists of calculated accounts in a modeled sheet. These calculated accounts include capital values and their coinciding depreciation accounts. Each modeled account is performing the same calculation based on the asset class selected by the user. Asset class is a text selector column based on the categories of capital expenditures that are specific to your business. Companies vary greatly in the ways that they calculate capital value and depreciation, but all businesses can benefit from CAPEX planning.

How to do CAPEX planning in Workday Adaptive Planning

Adding a CAPEX sheet to your Adaptive Planning implementation gives you a powerful tool for understanding the investments in your company. When you can analyze this data at a granular level, you can better assess if your company has too much financial risk, or if you are invested at an appropriate level.

The team at Revelwood has been recognized by Workday Adaptive Planning for our thought leadership in the space, commitment to our Workday Adaptive Planning practice, and our rapid achievements of milestones. Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start with Workday Adaptive Planning? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Override Formulas in Sheets

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Templates

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Alternate Time Tree

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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, Analytics, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, CAPEX, enterprise performance management, Financial Performance Management, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Override Formulas in Sheets

November 4, 2020 by Michelle Song Leave a Comment

If you want to write a formula in an account in Workday Adaptive Planning, but still want to give your team the ability to override the formula and enter different data, you can use Shared Formulas to achieve that.

The Shared Formulas function of Adaptive Planning allows users to write level-specific and version-specific formulas for GL and custom accounts. Below is a screenshot of the Shared Formula page in Adaptive.

Workday Adaptive Planning: Override Formula

First, you will select the version, account, and levels that you want to write the formula. Then, you will write the formula in the “Set formula” box. Before you save the formula, you can choose to reserve/remove the user edits in the account if any. If you reserve the user edits, the formula will not override cells that already have data and only perform the formula in the cells that are blank on sheets.

Workday Adaptive Planning: How to override formulas in sheets

You can use the “Import Shared Formulas” function to import/update the formulas in multiple accounts and levels at a time.

Overrding formulas in Workday Adaptive Planning

Unlike Master Formulas, shared formula values are not locked in sheets. You can override the formula with different data directly in a sheet cell. In the example below, I overridden the formula for account 1110 Petty Cash in Mar 2019 with a different number.

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips: Override Formulas in Sheets
Workday Adaptive Planning Tricks: Override formulas in sheets

The team at Revelwood has been recognized by Workday Adaptive Planning for our thought leadership in the space, commitment to our Workday Adaptive Planning practice, and our rapid achievements of milestones. Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start with Workday Adaptive Planning? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Templates

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Trigger for a Cube Calculated Account

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Alternate Time Tree

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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, enterprise performance management, Financial Performance Management, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Templates

August 12, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

Tips & Tricks

This week’s Workday Adaptive Planning and Reporting Tip & Trick pertains to the useful and elusive template. Templates exist throughout the Adaptive Planning application to enable the upload of the important data utilized within. Whether you have a set of Actual GL data for your current month, or new Levels to append the current Level structure, there exists a template designed to assist you in the process. Locating the template, and using it however, is not so straight forward. I will show you in this article, where the templates are, and how to best use them for your application data imports.

The first template new users to Adaptive will most-often encounter is a Structure Import template. All very similar in nature, the GL Account Structure Import differs from the Custom, Metric and Assumption, Level, Dimension and Attribute Imports because there already exists within the structure the Root GL Accounts, which as described in one of my previous Tips and Tricks articles, can’t be deleted. The set of accounts imported into the structure will append the Root Account set of accounts.

The import function is located at the top of the General Ledger Accounts screen as circled in the following diagram:

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Templates

Upon selection of the import option, the following screen appears which enables import to occur:

Using templates in Adaptive Insights

The download template option circled in the previous screen capture, creates an Excel file, which appears at the bottom of the screen (in the rectangle in the screen capture below), and when opened and enabled, presents the user with format required for the import of the GL Accounts.

How to use templates in Adaptive Insights

The first tab of a template is filled with instructions about how to create the template for import.

How to use templates in Adaptive Insights

The second tab of the template (Accounts) is the required format for the importing of the elements. When working with the GL Accounts importing, the following points are required:

  1. Name, Rolls Up to, and Code are required and must be unique.
  2. When adding accounts a Root Account already in the structure, all accounts added will inherit the attributes associated with the parent Root Account.

The following screen capture shows the Accounts tab of the template and the element fields within.

Understanding templates in Adaptive Planning

Upon completion of the template creation, the user chooses the file and selects Upload as indicated in the rectangles in the following screen capture:

Understanding templates in Adaptive Planning

The format, location and utilization of the template I have described is similar for all element structure import processing.

A second import template type encountered regularly by end-users is required for data entry to Actual and any Budget version sheets within the system. Most sheets enable manual entry of data, however for large sets of data such as the Actuals for the current month, being able to import the data is extremely valuable, and time-saving.

The Import Data screen offers the end-user the option to import to either the Actual or Budget versions – and any sheets qualifying as such are offered as options to be imported too. The Download Template option (circled in the screen capture below) when selected, creates a similar Excel file template as I described previously. The default is to the Actual version and the standard sheet as displayed in the rectangle in following screen capture:

Learn how to use templates in Adaptive Planning

The unique requirements of the data import template are:

  1. The Actuals tab is a required template named tab – no matter what type of data being imported (Actual or Budget). Do not change the tab name from the default “Actual.” It is the main import data screen where the selection for version type is made.
  2. The Split Label column is also a required element of the import template, regardless of whether or not any splits are included in the specific import data set.
  3. The Region column is solely an example of how to import dimensions and should be deleted if there is no Region Level Dimension in the instance.
  4. The Account element column may either be the Account name or code and will directly import if there is a matching Account mapping that previously exists for the GL Account. If not, the required mapping will be requested during the import process – and if it does not exist will delay and cause errors in the file.
  5. When importing data to a non-standard sheet, enter the required identifying information on the Import screen and then download the template, which will be set up exactly as it should be for importing into the sheet. The data tab in non-standard sheets will then have the required sheet name on the tab.
Templates in Adaptive Planning

The third type of data import file is unique and well-hidden. As described in the previous section, Accounts and also Levels must be mapped to actual matching elements either during the import process or prior to the process in the mapping import optional screens, located in the Integration section of the application. In the following screen capture, the Import Level mapping screen is displayed, and the rectangle indicates the location of the importing section “Import Level Mapping.”

Learn how to use Adaptive Insights templates

Well hidden within the option is the circled “Download template” selection tab, which is often overlooked and deemed non-existent by new end-users. This very helpful import template enables you to create mappings for Levels and in other integration options, Accounts and Dimension values. One very unusual caveat while importing GL Account mappings, is that the map to Account is a concatenation of the Account Code and Name. It takes some practice and trial and error for the new end-users to create a valid mapping import file.

Adpative Insights Tricks: Templates

In summary, the benefits of being able to import large sets of data into the Adaptive instance are numerous and there exists a template for all import options. The download template options are located in non-consistent sections of the import data screens. The templates do require careful attention to enable whatever type of data you are importing to actually import. Any errors in the data file will cause the import to fail, and the file will require further attention and editing to enable the process to proceed and become a successful data import.

Adaptive Insights Tips: Templates

The team at Revelwood has been recognized by Adaptive for its thought leadership in the space, commitment to its Workday Adaptive Planning practice, and its rapid achievements of milestones. Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start with Workday Adaptive Planning? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

Read more Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks:

Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: The Formula Assistant – How to, Where & Why

Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Virtual Versions and Neutral Exchange Rate

Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: How to Remove Repetitive Total Rows

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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, Financial Performance Management, Gary Leiffer, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, Revelwood

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: The Formula Assistant – How To, Where & Why

July 15, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

Tips & Tricks

This week’s Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks post pertains to the ever-mysterious Formula Assistant, which is a “wizard” that exists throughout the application. It helps you create the even-more-mysterious and somewhat intriguing formulas themselves.

Any clients attempting to create basic formulas such as “Net Income = Gross Margin – Operating Expenses + Non-Operating Income – Non-Operating Expenses” can search for and find all that is required from within the Formula Assistant. Knowing how to search for and where to look within the Assistant is the “trick”  – especially when you are attempting to create a more complex formula. For example, calculating American FUTA tax. This can utilize an Assumption account for the FUTA % and FUTA Maximum amount to be taxed, verifies the calculation monthly, by employee who works for two departments – such as a receptionist for both sales and marketing and allocates the proper FUTA tax amount to each department!

The Formula Assistant comes in many formats, depending on the type of formula you are creating and where you are creating it from. The first Formula Assistant encountered by new users is often within the Standard sheet or while creating a metric account. It is the same Assistant that you encounter while creating a Metric Account of a master formula for a GL Account and it appears like this:

Adaptive Planning: The Formula Assistant

The key trick to understanding how to create formulas in this basic Account Formula Assistant is knowing how to locate the accounts you want in your formula. The left side of the Assistant is designed to help you locate your accounts. If you are looking for a specific account, for example Postage, you can find it by perusing for it in the lower left area as follows:

Adaptive Insights Formula Assistant

When you have selected the account you want, it appears in the Account Term Modifier lower right area of the Assistant, where you can now “modify” your selection to choose for example last months data, for a specific level, dimension or attribute combination as follows (in this example I select last month data and Accounting Level as modifiers and using the green arrow apply it to the formula upper right box area of the Assistant;

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: The Formula Assistant

Another way to find the account Postage is to search for it by typing the account name into the search field in the middle of the left side of the assistant, resulting in the same account becoming available to enter with the green arrow either unmodified or modified as previously demonstrated:

The Formula Assistant in Adaptive Planning

The third way (and I am not including the fourth way, which is to outright type the account into the formula itself) is to use the extremely valuable top left area of the Assistant which houses the “Accounts.” I stress in my classes that memorizing or at least knowing what is behind the arrow (I usually state in my class “think ‘Lets Make a Deal’ game show- what is behind door number 1?”) is how you will smoothly locate what you need for your formulas. However, what is there is not self-explanatory.

Before I open the Accounts option (door number 1) remember that there are six types of accounts in Adaptive Planning: GL, Metric, Custom, Assumption, Model and Cube. Each of the six types is located in the selection behind “door number 1.” You will be able to select for example, Metric (by word) and then choose a Net Income Metric account in the lower left area of the Assistant (if defined in your instance.) The same for all the other types of accounts: EXCEPT for the GL Accounts. You will not see GL Account as an option. Instead, you will see mixed in with the other five specific account type names, the Root Accounts that come with every Adaptive Instance. The Root Accounts exist to enable a starting point for all GL Account Structures and client GL Accounts are imported or entered into any of the Root Accounts – and all GL Client Accounts inherit the “Type” from their Root Account Parent.

In the following screen capture is the basic set of Root Accounts (there are a few more lower level Root Accounts within the basic structure including Current Assets and Long Term Liabilities for example. If you look back at a previous Tips & Tricks blog post,  you will find an article specifically about Root Accounts and their usage. The following is the basic set of Root Accounts (top level):

How to use the formula assistant in Adaptive Insights

Root Accounts can be identified within the General Ledger Account screen as the only type of account that has the Trash Can unavailable. Root Accounts cannot be deleted. It is the Root Account “Type” in the third column that is so important to memorize. That is what displays instead of the GL Account name, in any Formula Assistant where you are searching for an Account, as follows:

Learn how to use the formula assistant in Adaptive Planning

In the screen capture above, I opened ‘Door Number 1” and displayed immediately is a list including ‘All’ (all accounts), Asset (A Root Account type), Assumption (one of the six types of accounts), Cost of Goods Sold (a Root Account Type), Cube (one of the six types of accounts), and Cumulative Translation Adjustment (just to confuse the issue a handful of important currency exchange rate accounts are made available here as well.) The selection list continues on to include all the Root Account types, the other five types of accounts specifically, and the currency accounts within. Knowing what to choose and what is available from this selection is the key trick, tip/ingredient to creating formulas and even to enable account selection for reporting. In my example, I want to add the Postage account into my formula, and knowing that Postage is an Expense enables me to narrow down my selection options by choosing Expense (GL Root Account type) in the top left ‘Door number 1’ area of the Formula Assistant.

How to use the formula assistant in Adaptive Insights

In an upcoming Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks blog post I will explore other types of Formula Assistants including the following from a Matrix Report Custom Calculation – which you may notice does not have the modifier section in the bottom right and has new section at the bottom of the Formula Assistant. To ‘Insert into Formula’ instead of the green arrow insert, red X delete option previously experienced in the Account Formula Assistant. The same options, however, are behind ‘door number 1’ top left of the Assistant.

How to use the formula assistant in Adaptive Planning

In summary, it behooves you (yes I DID use behoove in this paragraph!) to memorize the options behind ‘Door Number 1’, the top left area of the Formula Assistant Account wizard to enable you to find the elements you need for your formulas and even for reporting.

The team at Revelwood has been recognized by Adaptive for its thought leadership in the space, commitment to its Adaptive Insights practice, and its rapid achievements of milestones. Visit Revelwood’s Knowledge Center for our Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks or sign up here to get our Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox. Not sure where to start with Adaptive Insights? Our team here at Revelwood can help! Contact us info@revelwood.com for more information.

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Filed Under: Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, adaptive insights tips & tricks, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, cloud financial performance management, Financial Performance Management, Gary Leiffer, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting

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