Budgeting Planning & Forecasting

Did you know IBM Planning Analytics has snap commands that allow you to use natural language wording to perform simple tasks?  One example of this entails the use of sorting data within a view.

We can start with a simple view that shows operating expenses by quarter.

We can sort this by simply typing “sort Q1 2016” into the snap command window.

By default, the sort command sorts the values in ascending order. We can sort data in descending order by adding “descending”, “des”, or “de” in front of the time period.

In addition to defining the order, the sort command allows for parameters that define row vs. column sorting and allow you to break the hierarchy when sorting.

Once we have completed our analysis, we can reset the view and clear all sorting by typing “sort -x”.

There are many different ways to sort your data and Planning Analytics’ snap commands allow you to use them in your analyses.

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for, is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Synchronizing Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

Need more guidance? Take a look at our IBM Planning Analytics Training services and our Customer Care Program.

Many of you know that Planning Analytics Workspace books allow you utilize templates, but did you know there is a difference between the options that show a solid frame vs. the options that show a dotted frame?

Creating a new PAW book is as easy as clicking the “New” button and then selecting how you want to define the book. One way to do this is to utilize a pre-built template which defines the layout of how the sheet is broken into sections.

After clicking “book from template”, you will see a series of options that allow you to define the layout.

• One option is called the Freeform option. This option is depicted by having a sold line surrounding the window. This area consists of one large area that allows you to place objects anywhere on the page. Objects within a free-form layout will always keep their size regardless of the screen size. This means that as you change your view, you may see extra white space along the edges or may not see all of the components of your page without scrolling.
• The other options all have a dotted line surrounding the sections within the sheet. Not only do these sections use a “snap to fit” approach, but they are also designed to resize both the size and position to fit the space. This approach will ensure that you don’t have extra white space and don’t have to scroll to see everything.

If you have users with different screen fonts (1440×900, 1280×800, etc.) or different screen types (PC monitor, tablet, etc.) then the ability to resize can be used to ensure that all important components remain on your screen. Keep this in mind.

IBM Planning Analytics is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Synchronizing Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

Did you know IBM Planning Analytics offers more than one way to add calculations to your data?

The great thing about using Planning Analytics within Excel is that you can add additional calculations to your data set to help you further analyze your data. Did you know that you can also do this within PAW explorations?

Use the following steps to create a new calculation:

1. Select one or more elements within your exploration. The elements can be from either the row or column axis.
2. Right click on a selected element
3. Choose the option to “create calculation”.

Planning analytics will then provide you with a set of pre-built calculations to choose from. The calculations available vary according to the number of members selected.

If you select one element, you will have options such as absolute value and percentage of total:

If you select two elements, you will have options such as variance amount and percentage change:

If you select three or more elements, you will have options such as average amount and maximum value:

Once created, you have the option to rename or remove any calculations within your exploration.

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for, is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Synchronizing Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

Need more guidance? Take a look at our IBM Planning Analytics Training services and our Customer Care Program.

Did you know IBM Planning Analytics Workspace allows you to add comments to your data set?

During both planning and reporting cycles, many clients often ask how they can add comments into their data set. After all, the goal of a Planning Analytics database is to have a single source of data … both numeric and text.

Planning Analytics Workspace allows you to insert comments into your explorations quickly and easily.

Step 1:

Right click on the cell where you want to insert the comment and select the option for “Comments”. As with all string values in Planning Analytics, comments can be added at either a base level or a consolidated level.

Step 2:

Click on “Add Comment”, enter your comment, and select the option to “Post”. You can enter multiple comments into a single data cell.

Step 3:

A blue triangle will now appear in the top, right corner. You can follow the tasks in step 1 to review the existing comments.

In addition to viewing the comments in PAW, the information is stored in a control cube called }CellAnnotations_CUBENAME. The data point contains a lot of metadata information to define the caption, the creator, the intersection, and other reference points. However, this data could easily be cleaned up and be included in reports.

IBM Planning Analytics is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Read more blog posts in the IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Series:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW)

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Customizing Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) Directory Installation on Windows Server 2016

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Hiding Dimensions in Planning Analytics Workspace

Need more help? Learn about our Customer Care options for IBM Planning Analytics & TM1 users. 

This is a guest post from Revelwood’s Shane Bethea.

Did you know that you can quickly and easily create a new time dimension in the Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) Dimension editor? The following steps will automatically create a time dimension with a standard hierarchy and pre-populated set of attributes in a matter of seconds.

To create your time dimension using the PAW Dimension editor, simply right click Dimensions in the left hand navigation tree and select Create dimension.

Enter a name for your new time dimension and then click Create.

Select the ‘Customize as Time’ button to open the time interface.

Select the start year, end year, and element granularity (Year, Quarter, or Month) and then click Create.

This will create a new time dimension, complete with a calendar year’s Year/Quarter/Month hierarchy and a standard set of attributes.

Once created, you can add or modify these attributes based on your reporting and analytics needs. Stay tuned for more entries covering more features and the other modeling widgets.

IBM Planning Analytics is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Synchronizing Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

Need more guidance? Take a look at our IBM Planning Analytics Training services and our Customer Care Program.

Did you know there are several benefits to using hierarchies in IBM Planning Analytics?

Hierarchies are one of the additional features available in Planning Analytics. The main benefit of hierarchies is that they enable users to see alternative data rollups in the same view. There are several reasons to take advantage of this new approach to interacting with your data.

Hierarchies can improve query performance. Modeling attributes as hierarchies instead of dimensions can save memory space. This allows for cubes with fewer dimensions, while using hierarchies as virtual dimensions.

 Attributes can be turned into hierarchies. Hierarchies provide greater flexibility. Updating a hierarchy is as easy as updating an attribute. A single dimension can contain multiple hierarchies, and multiple hierarchies can be displayed in the same view.

 Hierarchies can be created and maintained manually or via TurboIntegrator process. This gives users flexibility to choose the method by which their hierarchies are maintained. Planning Analytics provides a user-friendly interface for manual maintenance, while TI processes can make automated maintenance fast and simple.

Planning Analytics hierarchies enable you to gain informative and flexible insight into your data, while utilizing fewer resources.

IBM Planning Analytics is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: GMT vs Local Time

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Captions

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Regions with Planning Analytics Rules

Need more guidance? Take a look at our IBM Planning Analytics Training services and our Customer Care Program.