Gary Leiffer

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.

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Templates

August 12, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

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:

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.

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:

Name, Rolls Up to, and Code are required and must be unique.
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:

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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

July 15, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

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:

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.

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.

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

June 3, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

Many companies with multiple currencies and exchange rates within the Adaptive Insights Planning instance require a methodology to compare the current year budget to the current year actuals while maintaining the exchange rate utilized to create the budget. This is sometimes referred to as Neutral Currency reporting. Adaptive Insights employs a “virtual version” to enable the process to occur.

In the screen capture below, I created the FX Neutral version and connected the Actuals Version to the Budget Version exchange rate version. This works great with the current year budget/current actual version comparison at the budget exchange rate. However, what if you also need to see the prior year actual data displayed using the current budget exchange rate? Also, in the screen capture below, the actual data is connected to 2018-2020, which is the first step to comparing Neutral Prior year actual data as well.

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

The solution to display the prior year actual data at the current exchange rate is to copy the current year budget exchange rate into the matching periods of the prior year, in the budget exchange rate screen. In the following screen capture, notice that while the Jan-2020 exchange rate for GB-USD Avg is 1.34, I copied the full year of 2020 exchange rates back into 2019 as well, thus enabling the prior year and current year actual data to become “exchange rate neutral” with the current year budget data (all versions/years in the example use the same exchange rate for currency conversion.)

Adaptive Insights - Virtual Versions & Neutral Exchange Rates

In summary, to enable you to view your current year budget data in comparison with the current year actual data, using the current year budget exchange rate, create a “virtual version.” Attach/connect the actual data to as many years of budget data to enable prior year(s) comparison as well. Then copy the current year budget exchange rates back into the prior year budget exchange rate periods, which will enable prior year actual to convert using current budget rates.

Get more Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks:

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: More on Accounts, Attributes and Levels

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Attributes, Accounts, Dimensions – What’s the Difference?

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Hidden Effects of the New 2020R1 Release

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: More on Accounts, Attributes & Levels

April 15, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

In this week’s Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks blog post, I am revisiting the article I authored that was published on April 1, 2020 (no fooling!). In that article I reviewed a question I have been asked multiple times over the last two years. What I didn’t mention in that article, was that the question came from the Adaptive Insights Certification Exam and the exact question was:

Which of the following must be a drop-down selection within a cube sheet in order for the cells to be editable?

a) Account

b) Level

c) Attribute

I, and many other exam-takers, found the question ambiguous because it is a fact that accounts and levels are designed to be able to “dragged” onto, or selected, to be displayed on the row area of a cube sheet, to enable data entry at that level of detail. Attributes however, are not a required element of a cube sheet; hence the wording of “must be a drop-down selection with in a cube sheet” was ambiguous and misleading.

I queried Adaptive Insights after I had passed the exam and became certified. I had noticed that my answer “Level” was incorrect (which I knew but could not select the non-required “Attribute” as my answer. Adaptive responded to my query that without any doubt, Attributes must be a pull-down on a cube sheet to enable data entry. I went back and forth with my “argument” that the question was incorrect and misleading however I had to finally agree that I was wrong. In my blog of April 1, 2020, I “proved” they are correct although attributes are not a required element on a cube sheet, and that the question was still ambiguous and tricky.

Last week I was contacted by Andrew Setness, a product manager from Adaptive Insights. Andrew proved to me that indeed the Attribute can be placed on the row area of a cube sheet and still enable data entry on the sheet.

I revisited my test instance and confirmed that Andrew was indeed right: I placed the customer dimension attribute “Sales Manager” on a row as follows (in the change dimension option of the cube sheet):

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: More on Accounts, Attributes & Levels

The resulting sheet display shows that the attribute, when placed on a row in this manner, enables data entry to occur, as follows:

Adaptive Insights Tips: More on Accounts, Attributes & Levels

Data can be entered into any cell that is white (or blue for time roll-up or row allocations) for the customer, by sales manager (the attribute on the row.)

I stand corrected! Interestingly, for two years I reluctantly “agreed” with Adaptive Insights that the answer to the question had to be “Attribute,” however I still believed the question was misleading. Ironically, it was Adaptive Insights Product Manager Andrew Setness, who set me straight. My first hunch two years ago was that the question was “wrong,” and I now I know that the question was outright incorrect. Andrew informed me that this question will be changed or removed in the next rendition of the certification exam. Thank you, Andrew, for bringing this to my attention.

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Hidden Effects of the New 2020R1 Release

April 8, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

This week’s Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks post from Revelwood came about as I was teaching Adaptive Reporting to a new(er) client on their instance. I always start my reporting class by reviewing all the reporting options on the “New Report” pull-down menu and expected to display the following 7 options, plus transaction reporting (which is added to the pull-down options when an instance includes transaction level detail.) I was aware that the client had transactions activated in the instance.

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Hidden effects of the new 2020R1 release

However, much to my surprise, only the following four options were available in the pull-down display:

While attempting to hide my “surprised” reaction, having not seen what I have for years during the reporting training sessions which I have presented, I searched for an answer to what had occurred to causing the difference. Lo and Behold! On the role options for users, there are now new options! “Access Transactions” and “System Audit Access” are included in the section with “Privileged Account Access” as follows:

Adaptive Insights Tricks: Hidden effects of the new 2020R1 release

With System Audit Access unchecked, I realized changing it to “checked” would likely reinstate the Audit Trail Search options (one of mysteriously absent options I had expected to see on the pull-down menu options.)

I checked it, and the admin role option connected to my user ID looked as follows:

Hidden effects of the new Adaptive Insights 2020R1 release

Returning to the Reporting, the “New Report” pull-down options then displayed as follows:

I investigated the release notes and did find a mention of the fact that when the new “Access Rules” are installed on an instance, exactly what I encountered would occur, and checking the System Audit Access enables the Pattern, Audit Trail and Transactions (when also enabled) to be displayed as options. The Sample Reports will be forever eliminated as an option when the Access Rules capability is installed and activated in an instance.

The moral of this tip/trick story, is that reading the post-release notes is critical to ensuring the best knowledge transfer (for my consulting and training job.) Without thoroughly reading the release notes, options that have been changed can surprise everyone, and specifically me during a live class training session with a client using their instance for the class. I had “studied” the release presentation from the Adaptive Insights learning center, and had passed the release certification exam (which included questions from options not reviewed in the study presentation.) I did not see nor notice any mention of the changes that surprised me. I will try to ensure I am better equipped with knowledge in the future!

Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: General Ledger Root Accounts

March 11, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

My last few Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks blog posts have focused on capabilities of Adaptive Insights that are hidden and/or under utilized. In today’s Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks blog post, I discuss the importance of the General Ledger Root Accounts and how to move accounts into a Root Account for proper repositioning of the Chart Of Accounts. General Ledger Root Accounts are very powerful and important, but seldom understood.

Root Accounts are included in the initial instance of Adaptive Insights Planning. They are provided to enable a basic set-up of the General Ledger. Every company’s own General Ledger accounts are either imported into the Root Account structure or manually added to individual Root Accounts, during implementation. A company could, theoretically, use only the Root Accounts provided, to plan, budget, forecast and report upon. However they represent the basic high level General Ledger structure, and not the specific company account detail required.

Root Accounts are within every company’s GL structure yet are often ignored and misunderstood (they need GL Psycho-Therapy on occasion due to this…..) If a user started using Adaptive Planning any time after the system was implemented, they may not even be aware that Root Accounts exist!

In the screen capture below, the basic Root Accounts that come with the default starting Adaptive Insights instance can be identified as the only GL Accounts which cannot be deleted. Circled is the greyed-out trash can which indicates it (in this case “Assets”) cannot be deleted.

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: General Ledger Root Accounts

Root Accounts are used to enable the General Ledger structure to be created as well as other important functions. The Root Account “Type” (starred column in the following diagram) is inherited by all GL Accounts which roll up into it. The check-marked columns, Name and Code, can be changed if necessary (for example “Revenue” in lieu of “Income”) and changes to either will be immediately and automatically recognized throughout the instance and especially in any formulas they are included within. The “Type” however, cannot be changed, and is used “as is” throughout (changing the Income name or code to Revenue, the “Type” will remain forever “Income” as it is part of the programming of the application).

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Understanding General Ledger Root Accounts

The Type is used for formula account searching, sheet creation (developing a standard sheet), for example. It is very important to memorize the Root Accounts to enable fluid access to the correct company GL Accounts during these processes. While there are six types of Adaptive Insights Planning Accounts, it is only the GL Accounts that are further identified by the Root Account and not “GL Account.” Searching for the remaining five account types starts with the name of that Account (Custom, Assumption, Metric, Model and Cube) itself.

In the following screen capture, the formula search within the “ALL” pull-down option displays Assets, Cost of Goods Sold, and Equity (all GL Root Accounts) , as well as Cube, Assumption, Custom (three of the other five Account Types) and the addition of currency accounts (exchange rate for example). The Type “GL Account” is specifically not within the search, only the Root Account Type appears in the search option – highlighting the importance of memorizing the GL Account Type attached to each Root Account.

General Ledger Root Accounts in Adaptive Insights

All other GL Accounts imported or manually added to the GL Structure to a root account can be identified by locating the non-greyed-out trash can – meaning it can be deleted. Deleting it is never recommended, as there may be data in it, or it may be in a formula. Deleting could cause many errors. Instead, rename it “archive” or “do-not-use” and move it out of the structure location (I will describe the process in the next part of this article).

In the following screen capture, Cash is identified as being a company GL account and not a Root Account, as it can be deleted.

How to work with General Ledger Root Accounts In Adaptive Insights

Should you desire to move or adjust your GL Account structure, simply identify the GL Accounts and change where it is rolled up into. In the screen capture below, assume that Accounts Receivable needs to be part of Current Assets and not within its own Net Accounts Receivable. Also, notice the squared box, which identifies that the Accounts Receivable account is part of the Current Asset Account Type, inherited from the Root Account it is within.

Adaptive Insights Tips: General Ledger Root Accounts

In the following diagram, I selected Current Assets (circled) as the desired Roll-up account to move it to:

Adaptive Insights Tricks: General Ledger Root Accounts

After the move and save process is complete, you can see in the following diagram, that Accounts Receivable is now rolled up directly to Current Assets as desired.

Working with General Ledger Root Accounts in Adaptive Insights

One very important “trick” is how to move an account into a previously unused Root Account. In the following diagram, Net Income is identified as a Root Account because it cannot be deleted (circled.)

How to use General Ledger Root Accounts in Adaptive Insights

The Product Revenue account is rolled up into the Net Income account and has inherited the Net Income account type from its parent Net Income (circled in the following diagram.)

Learn how to use General Ledger Root Accounts in Adaptive Insights

Most companies would prefer that the Product Revenue account roll up into the Root Account “Income” which cannot be deleted (circled grey-out trash can identifies it as a Root Account.)

The caveat with the process, is that while attempting to choose the Income Root Account to move Product Revenue into, it is not a displayed selectable option (circled below, the Income Account is not there!). This has caused much concern and frustration from my students and clients who complain that Adaptive Planning has an inherent constraint in the GL Account structure design. It is not true! The work-around for the issue is to simply to create a “dummy” account and add it to the desired non-parent Root Account first.

Tips & Tricks for Adaptive Insights - General Ledger Root Accounts

In the following diagram, I created the a “Dummy” account named “Temp” within the Income Root Account and saved it.

Adaptive Insight General Ledger Root Account

Returning to the Product Revenue account, and displaying the options available to move it to (circled below), now displays the desired “activated” Root Account Income as an option- which was not available the “dummy” account, “Temp” added to it.

Adaptive Insights General Ledger Root Account

I selected the Root Account Income to roll up to and in the diagram below, Product Revenue is now rolled up into Income. Even more exciting, its Account Type has automatically changed to the proper “Income” inherited by its new parent (in the square below!).

General Ledger Root Account in Adaptive Insights

The next step is to simply delete the “dummy” “Temp” account (identified in the following diagram).

The following diagram displays that the Product Revenue account has been successfully moved to its new parent. Not being able to relocate accounts to unused Root Accounts has been an area of concern for many users in the past.

Adaptive Insights General Ledger Root Accounts

In summary, the often misunderstood, unnoticed, and crucially important General Ledger Root Account enables clients to create their GL Chart of Accounts. The Root Account “Type” enables formula creators to easily search for the desired GL Account. Memorizing the Root Account types is necessary to make the searches successful. Root Accounts cannot be deleted, however they can be renamed and re-code-named. GL Accounts can be moved to new Root Accounts easily, even if the Root Account is not yet set up as a parent (apparently……!!!).

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Overriding the Level Security on Matrix Reports

March 4, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

Adaptive Insights has many capabilities customers often are unaware of, and potentially have not utilized in their instance. Some options are “off-screen” requiring the user to scroll to display, and hence a valuable option remains unnoticed not utilized. This is my second blog post covering some of these features (read the first post on Data Entry Sheet Type).

Did you know that the Level Security for Matrix reporting can be overridden with the capability to enable all Levels to be displayed for all the selected users regardless of the Levels assigned to them?

One very important benefit of Adaptive Reporting is the security feature for Levels, which up until the latest version, was the main reporting security filter — users can only see the data for the Levels they are linked to. Adaptive Planning version 2019.3 introduced the optional Access Rules which enable further security options by user. If the Access Rule option is not selected you can still use the Level-based user security.

The basic Matrix report will respect the Level security of the user unless this option is selected upon saving, and it is “hidden” at the bottom of the screen when a shared report is to be saved. If you are choosing the default “save to your personal folder.” the option is not available and looks like this:

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Overriding Level Security on Matrix Reports

The Personal report option enable you to save the output option (the default HTML, PDF or Exel) and which folder to save into.

However, when the “Shared Report” option is selected for saving the report, the screen changes display as follows:

Overriding Level Security in Adaptive Insights Matrix Reports

Options now include which shared folder to save the report in, and whether all users will be able to work with it, or selected levels. What is not apparent easily, is the option to “show all data regardless of level” which requires scrolling down below the level structure and is very often not seen and unfortunately not utilized. The powerful option enable you to deliver a report that users will be able to display data from for all levels, and not limited the levels they are linked to. In the following display, the “hidden” option is circled in red, and will only appear when scrolling down the page:

Underutilized features of Adaptive Insights

Selecting the feature enable level-limited/secured users to see all the data on the report, and not just for their own levels is very useful when delivering company financial reports (consolidated Income Statements for example.)

In summary, there are many “hidden” and often unused features of Adaptive Insights, including the feature to enable all data to be viewed regardless of level when saving and delivering Matrix Reports. I will identify more “hidden” features in upcoming Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks blogs.

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Hidden & Underutilized Adaptive Planning Features – Data Entry Sheet Type

February 26, 2020 by Gary Leiffer Leave a Comment

In part one of a special focus on hidden and underutilized Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks, I am reviewing the GL Account option labeled “Data Entry Sheet Type” on the GL Accounts structure screen as follows, with the selection of a Roll-up root account Assets:

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Hidden Features

This powerful feature enables a GL Account to be used and selected on a Cube Model sheet, and because of the options labels “Standard” or “Cube” is often unused in fear of losing data or misusing data! The default is standard and is how 99% of all GL Accounts are created. Very often users want the GL Account to be available for data entry on a cube sheet. The “Cube”option enables the GL Account and intended, however the text does not indicate the while choosing the option, you are still able to use the same GL Account on as many standard sheets as you desire, with the addition of being able to use it on one Cube Sheet.

Setting an account to have “Data Entry Type” Cube makes it available when creating and editing Cube Model sheet Accounts. I have enabled the “Materials” account to be available for data entry on a Cube Sheet Product Revenue’ as follows:

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Underutilized Features

When the materials account has been selected and saved, the following screen displays with the addition of the materials GL Account now available for use in the cube sheet formulas.

Adaptive Insights Tricks: Underutilized Features

Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks: Data Entry Sheet Types

Data can now be entered onto the Materials GL Account line or be include in a formula inside the Cube Model Sheet:

The data entered on the Cube Sheet for materials is now also available to be displayed on a standard sheet (i.e. Income Statement):

Data entry sheet types - Adaptive Insights Tips & Tricks

Another completely under-the-scenes option is selected automatically back on the GL Account screen for the parent of the Materials account “Cost of Goods Sold.” Where I selected Cube for Materials, now displays without edit, “Mixed” for the parent account (all accounts display “Standard” as default) enabling users to review the accounts and recognize that there may be a GL Account used inside of a cube sheet.

Adaptive Insights Hidden Features - Data Entry Sheet Type

In summary, this Tips and Tricks blog explored yet another underutilized or hidden feature of Adaptive Insights that with the right training or research enables GL Accounts to be used on a Cube Sheet for data entry or formulas, solving a need of many users!

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Gary Leiffer

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