Financial Performance Management

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Troubleshooting Planning Analytics for Excel

June 11, 2019 by Alex Needham Leave a Comment

Did you know there are some easy approaches to troubleshooting IBM Planning Analytics for Excel (PAx)?

Given that PAx is an Excel add-in, sometimes things go wrong. Do you know the basic steps to take when a user says that PAx isn’t working for them?

We at Revelwood have often seen two primary issues that appear at our clients:

The “IBM Planning Analytics” ribbon doesn’t show up
A user can connect in, but they cannot see anything in the task pane

So, let’s take a look at how to solve either of these two primary issues.

Issue 1 – The IBM Planning Analytics ribbon doesn’t show up

In our experience, this is almost always an issue of one of the three add-ins not showing up properly. PAx depends on 3 add-ins within excel. If you open “File”, “Options”, “Add-ins” in Excel, you should see the following list:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Troubleshooting PAx

Chances are that at least one of these three add-ins are missing. At the bottom of this window is a “Manage” option. If you are missing either of the “IBM Cognos Office…” items, you’ll want to select “Excel Add-ins” from the drop down. If you are missing “IBM Framework for Office”, you’ll want to select “COM Add-ins” from the dropdown.

IBM Cognos Office Reporting BI Addin (Excel Add-ins)
- C:\Program Files (x86)\ibm\cognos\IBM for Microsoft Office\CognosOfficeBI.xll
IBM Cognos Office Reporting TM1 Addin (Excel Add-ins)
- C:\Program Files (x86)\ibm\cognos\IBM for Microsoft Office\CognosOfficeTM1.xll
IBM Framework for Office (COM Add-ins)
- C:\Program Files (x86)\ibm\cognos\IBM for Microsoft Office\CognosOfficeShim12.dll

NOTE: If you are running 64 bit, then those will all start with “C:\Program Files\” instead.

Issue 2 – Nothing is showing up in the task pane in Planning Analytics for Excel

Troubleshooting PAx - IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks

This usually happens when a client is far behind on the monthly PAx and Planning Analytics Workspace updates, and there have been some sizable Windows updates since your last update. If you are not applying updates at least once a quarter, make sure to get in touch with us to see if we can help in staying up to date!

Thankfully, the quick band-aid fix for this is quite simple. Excel comes with the ability to turn on “Optimize for Compatibility” for Excel 2016 and newer. To do this, click “File” and then “Options” and look at the beginning of the “General” section. If you have “When using multiple displays” under “User Interface Options”, select “Optimize for compatibility”.

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!

Did you know Revelwood offers a Customer Care program? Learn more.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Planning Analytics Workspace Rule Editor, Part 2

June 4, 2019 by Revelwood Leave a Comment

This is a guest post from Shane Bethea.

Did you know there are new features in the IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) Rule editor that were not in the TM1 Rule editor? Even if you are familiar with writing rules in TM1, you might want some tips and tricks for the new Rule editor in PAW. Here are some helpful features of the new Rule editor.

One new feature in the PAW Rule editor is the autocomplete feature. While editing rules, use CTRL+Space to bring up autocomplete.

type the letter s and CTRL+Space returns SKIPCHECK;
type [2 and CTRL+Space returns a list of all elements in the cube that start with 2

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using the Planning Analytics Workspace Rule editor

Another helpful feature in the PAW Rule editor is a line by line warning of invalid code. If there is invalid code on a line, that line will have a red x indicator on the left side of the window. Hovering your mouse over the x will display the error message.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Learning the Planning Analytics Workspace Rule Editor

These are just a couple of new features of the Rule editor widget in Planning Analytics Workspace. Stay tuned for more development tips and tricks in the new PAW modeling widgets.

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!

Let us optimize your IBM Planning Analytics environment. Learn more about our Customer Care program.

Revelwood’s Insights on Adaptive Live 2019

June 3, 2019 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

In late May, Revelwood team members were among 1,600 finance professionals, Adaptive Insights team members, and Adaptive Insights partners and sponsors (Revelwood was a Bronze sponsor) attending Adaptive Live 2019 in Las Vegas. The two-day conference included keynotes, featured speakers, training, breakout sessions, birds-of-a-feather lunches, a Customer Appreciation Party, and more.

The sessions included dynamic and engaging sessions from guest keynote speaker Dr. Peter Diamandis, an entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and a Harvard and MIT graduate. Diamandis, who is “renowned for showing audiences how to drive breakthrough thinking and innovation within their company in a fashion that delivers clear, measurable, and objective results.” The Revelwood team felt that Diamandis was a “unique” and “really cool” keynote speaker.

Adaptive Live 2019’s second general session, conducted by Rob Hull, founder of Adaptive Insights and Tom Bogan, CEO of Adaptive Insights, focused mostly on Workday’s acquisition of Adaptive Insights and how it will benefit Adaptive’s customers. They also provided information on Adaptive’s new modules for workforce planning and sales planning.

Steve Ellis, Senior Consultant/Team Leader, Adaptive Insights Practice, Revelwood, at Adaptive Live 2019

Three aspects of the overall conference were very interesting to our team:

First were the sessions on integrations, such as “Connecting Adaptive Insights to the World.” For example, this presentation, by Tyler Stubbs of Adaptive Insights, provided an overview of the wide variety of third-party integrations that are possible with Adaptive Insights. They detailed how customers can integrate not only data but also metadata hierarchies from a number of cloud-based ERP systems. This showed a bigger picture of how customers can connect to various sources in and around the Workday ecosystem, and how Adaptive customers can grow their data ecosystem to get a more integrated, complete view of financial and operational data.
Our team found Mark Thompson’s Future Feedback Forum quite intriguing. The session was billed as detailing features they’ll “be highlighting in 2020” and that this was the audience’s “opportunity to make feature requests and provide feedback directly to the Product Managers who plan our roadmap.” While that may sound like a standard product roundtable, Adaptive collected and analyzed the audience feedback in a unique way. As the product managers received feedback, they presented sample screenshots. They then polled the live audience in real-time and displayed the results on the Adaptive Live mobile app. It felt like a live, interactive feature design session with Adaptive’s in-person client base.
The third interesting aspect of the conference was the makeup of the audience itself. Many of the Adaptive customers our team spoke with have been on the product for 1 – 5 years. These satisfied users have conquered the basics and use Adaptive Insights primarily for the expense side of finance. As a result, our team had a number of conversations about expanding the use of Adaptive Insights into the revenue side of things, back end systems, and even the implications of changing out their chart of accounts. We had many engaging discussions about financial and business processes, not just about how to manage the basics of finance.

Sponsoring and attending Adaptive Live 2019 and meeting many customers and others in the Adaptive ecosystem was well worth our time. We’re looking forward to participating again next year!

Learn more about Revelwood’s partnership with Adaptive Insights:

Revelwood Named Adaptive Insights Partner Rising Star of the Year

Revelwood Launches Adaptive Insights Practice

FP&A Done Right: Creating a Shared Vision Between Finance and IT

May 31, 2019 by Brian Combs Leave a Comment

I have seen the extremes of the Finance/IT relationship during my career as an FP&A professional. When I first started navigating the Finance space, any and all systems were ‘owned’ by IT. That’s simply how it was. There was this love/hate relationship between the two and we each thought of the other as a necessary evil. We learned to live together but there was this constant tug-of-war over the constraints of the project management triangle; time, cost, and scope. As Financial systems became easier to administer and Finance professionals became more tech savvy, the pendulum shifted and we started to move ownership of certain financial systems to the Finance team itself. I hired technical resources in my team to manage and build my systems since I could control things better that way. Finance began to own the planning, reporting, and analytics systems, but IT still owned(s) the source systems (GL, P2P, AR, FA). I am ok with this.

Planning, reporting, and analytics systems are forward looking and, as such, do not have the same regulations as the other systems. In FP&A, we need to be free to make quick changes and create “what-if” analyses to our hearts content without constantly going through the proverbial “red tape”. (To be clear, as I’ve pointed out in past blogs, data governance is still very important and this is not the Wild West.) The collective “we” do not have the same luxury with our systems of record, however. Those need to maintain the rigor and tight controls that exist today and, oftentimes, our IT organizations are better suited for that. While I am comfortable with the division of responsibilities today, I feel as if we have separated the two functions too much. In the extreme cases, I have seen this create a disjointed approach to IT initiatives. As Sebastian Grady points out in CFO’s “How to Build a Strategic Relationship with the CIO”, it is very important to create and foster a shared vision between Finance and IT, so you can work with each other rather than against each other. “Finance chiefs and IT leaders should be jointly responsible for aligning technology opportunities with business strategy,” commented Grady. He also speaks about forging a relationship with IT and being “the bridge to a contextually rich CEO/CFO/CIO relationship.”

This should extend beyond the CFO and CIO. Think of this as the CFO’s team and the CIO’s team. FP&A lives at the intersection of the C-suite offices and we are uniquely qualified to forge those relationships. Make sure you take the requisite time to get to know your peers in the other functional areas. Partner with someone on that team and shadow them during their respective busy time so you get a clear picture of their responsibilities. Once you have that understanding, which only comes from intellectual curiosity, you can work together to align technological initiatives with business strategy. In your quest to drive profitable growth, make sure to stay abreast of new technologies that can help make this a reality. Work directly with your CIO to make sure that the latest IT proposal provides a solid ROI while achieving overarching strategic business goals at the same time.

Later in the article, Grady discusses how to “flip the IT roadmap on its ear.” He describes how Finance and IT can work together to create an IT roadmap that supports your business strategies and goals. There are some interesting examples in there that are thought-provoking and worth the read. None of those examples will work until you bridge the gap between the functional areas and recognize that you are stronger together. That shared vision must be rooted in mutual respect and “…a joint understanding of financial and technological strategies…” Once again, clear, concise communication wins the day.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Planning Analytics Workspace Rule Editor, Part 1

May 28, 2019 by Revelwood Leave a Comment

This is a guest post from Shane Bethea.

Did you know that most TM1/Planning Analytics development can now be done in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW)? PAW has a lot of development capabilities and allows modelers to do most development that would have previously been done in Perspectives. In addition, PAW has new development capabilities that are not available in Perspectives.

There are six modeling widgets available in a PAW book.

Dimension editor
Cube creator
Rule editor
Process editor
Chore editor
Settings editor

This post will focus on the PAW Rule editor. The Rule editor looks very similar to the Advanced Rule editor in prior versions of TM1. It has easy to read, color coded formatting and code sections can be separated into collapsible regions.

To open the Rule editor, right click a cube and choose Edit business rules.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Planning Analytics Workspace Rule Editor

In the Rule editor, you will notice two drop down selectors in the upper left corner of the window. These drop downs allow you to select the database and the cube that is being modified. This allows you to switch from cube to cube, which reduces the dependence on the navigation tree.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Understanding the PAW rule editor

In the upper right corner, you can select the Function drop down to insert rule functions and get brief definitions of rule functions.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Learning the PAW rule editor

Use the Settings drop down in the upper right corner to enable line wrapping, show/hide shortcut keys, and change font.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: How to use the PAW rule editor

This is a quick overview of the basic functionality of the Rule editor widget in Planning Analytics Workspace. Stay tuned for more entries covering the other features modeling widgets.

Learn more about IBM Planning Analytics Workspace. Read these blog posts with IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks.

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

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Collect Feature in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW)

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating a Simple Dashboard in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW)

Get the most out of IBM Planning Analytics. Learn how we can help you through our Customer Care program.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Snap Commands – Spelling

May 21, 2019 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Did you know IBM Planning Analytics’ snap commands can serve as a spellcheck for you?

In today’s Twitter and text based world, misspellings (or abbreviations, as some people call them) have become a way of life. It’s virtually impossible to make it through a day without seeing a reference to “ur”, “imho” or some other form of abbreviation.

For those of you who use these abbreviations regularly, you will be happy to know that IBM Planning Analytics has your back! PA’s snap commands allow you to use natural language wording to perform simple tasks. It allows you type phrases such as “sort May 2016” and “hide Jun 2016”. It also allows you to abbreviate these commands as “so May 2016” and “hi jun 2016”.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Snap Commands - Spelling

And for those of you who struggle with spelling, PA has your back yet again! The snap commands will help fix any spelling mistakes.

In a situation where there is only one possible option, the snap command will correct your typo. Here is an example where “trave” is obviously a typo for “travel”.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Understanding snap commands and spelling

In a situation where there are multiple options, the snap command will let you select which option should be the proper correction. Here is an example where “trvel” can reference an account called travel or refer to something associated with a level.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Spelling with Snap Commands

I’m happy to stand on my soap box and complain about the lack of grammer and speeling [sic] in today’s world, but I also understand that it’s sometimes much easier to let Planning Analytics help minimize my worries.

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.

FP&A Done Right: Why, Why, Why, Why? – the Hallmark of a Great FP&A Practitioner

May 17, 2019 by Brian Combs Leave a Comment

“Why?”

It’s maddening, right? We’ve all been there. Every time you answer a question, another one is immediately fired back. Thankfully, my two sons have grown out of that stage. I, however, have not. If you were to ask me to list the traits of a great FP&A practitioner, Intellectual Curiosity would be at the top of the list. Without that, you simply become a task doer. While “doers” fill a very important role, your entire FP&A team cannot be filled with them.

Intellectual curiosity is what drives you to follow an issue all the way back to its root cause. It is this relentless search for the root cause that will make you successful. Without asking questions, how will you understand the intent behind what you are working on? Without asking questions, how do learn the cradle to grave process? Once armed with the intent and the current process, you are equipped to create and drive change.

Intellectual curiosity is the catalyst for many topics that I have already written about in this series:

Each day, I make it a priority to not only focus on my job responsibilities, but also on the up- and down-stream impacts of them. The key to providing value is to understand how you can impact the end result and improve the process. Without asking questions, you will not achieve that. I attribute much of my FP&A success thus far to my drive and intellectual curiosity. Don’t just blindly do. There is a time and place for that, yes. But once the immediate deliverable is completed, circle back and ask, “Why?” “Why?” “Why?”

FP&A Done Right: Why, Why, Why, Why? – the Hallmark of a Great FP&A Practitioner

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Snap Commands – Sorting

May 14, 2019 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

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.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Snap Commands

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

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Understanding Snap Commands

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.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: How to use snap commands

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”.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Learn how to use snap commands

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

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.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Template Styles

May 7, 2019 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

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.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Template Styles

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.

Understanding Planning Analytics Workspace Template Styles

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.

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

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Troubleshooting Planning Analytics for Excel

Issue 1 – The IBM Planning Analytics ribbon doesn’t show up

Issue 2 – Nothing is showing up in the task pane in Planning Analytics for Excel

Read more blog posts on IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Did you know Revelwood offers a Customer Care program? Learn more.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Planning Analytics Workspace Rule Editor, Part 2

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

Let us optimize your IBM Planning Analytics environment. Learn more about our Customer Care program.

Revelwood’s Insights on Adaptive Live 2019

Learn more about Revelwood’s partnership with Adaptive Insights:

FP&A Done Right: Creating a Shared Vision Between Finance and IT

Read more blog posts in the FP&A Done Right Series:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Planning Analytics Workspace Rule Editor, Part 1

Learn more about IBM Planning Analytics Workspace. Read these blog posts with IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks.

Get the most out of IBM Planning Analytics. Learn how we can help you through our Customer Care program.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Snap Commands – Spelling

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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

FP&A Done Right: Why, Why, Why, Why? – the Hallmark of a Great FP&A Practitioner

Read more blog posts in our FP&A Done Right series:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Snap Commands – Sorting

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Template Styles

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Revelwood Overview

EXPERTISE

ABOUT

CONNECT

Financial Performance Management

Issue 1 – The IBM Planning Analytics ribbon doesn’t show up

Issue 2 – Nothing is showing up in the task pane in Planning Analytics for Excel

Read more blog posts on IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Did you know Revelwood offers a Customer Care program? Learn more.

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

Let us optimize your IBM Planning Analytics environment. Learn more about our Customer Care program.

Learn more about Revelwood’s partnership with Adaptive Insights:

Read more blog posts in the FP&A Done Right Series:

Learn more about IBM Planning Analytics Workspace. Read these blog posts with IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks.

Get the most out of IBM Planning Analytics. Learn how we can help you through our Customer Care program.

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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

Read more blog posts in our FP&A Done Right series:

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Footer

Revelwood Overview

EXPERTISE

ABOUT

CONNECT