IBM Planning Analytics

How to Access and Read Planning Analytics for Excel Log Files

July 7, 2026 by Ivan Cepero

When Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE) connects to your TM1 server, it’s constantly working behind the scenes — making API calls to retrieve data, refresh reports, and keep your models in sync. Most of the time, this happens without a hitch. But when something goes wrong, knowing where to look can save you a significant amount of troubleshooting time.

PAfE logs every error it encounters to a folder on the user’s local machine. These log files capture details about failed API calls, connection issues, and other errors that may not surface clearly in the application itself. Whether you’re a developer trying to debug a report or an admin supporting end users, the log folder is one of the first places you should check.

How to Access the Log Folder

There are two ways to get there.

Option 1: Through the PAfE Interface

Step 1: Click the Options icon in the PAfE ribbon.

Step 2: Click the IBM button in the left-hand pane.

Step 3: Click the View Logs button.

PAfE will open Windows Explorer and navigate directly to the log folder — no manual digging required.

Option 2: Navigate Directly

If PAfE isn’t opening, or you need to access the logs on behalf of another user, you can navigate to the folder manually:

C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Local\Cognos\Office Connection\Logs

Note that the AppData folder is hidden by default in Windows. If you can’t see it, make sure hidden items are visible in Windows Explorer (View → Show → Hidden items).

What You’ll Find There

Inside the log folder, you’ll see a collection of files typically named by date or session. Opening them in any text editor (Notepad works fine) will show you a timestamped record of API calls and any errors that occurred. Key things to look for include:

– HTTP error codes: a 401 points to an authentication issue; a 404 may indicate a cube or view that no longer exists
– Connection timeouts: often a sign of network latency or a TM1 server under heavy load
– Object not found errors: useful for catching broken references in reports after a model restructure

Keeping the Folder Clean

Log files accumulate over time and can take up more disk space than users expect, especially in environments where PAfE is used heavily. There’s no automated cleanup built into PAfE, so it’s worth reminding users to periodically delete old logs — or including it as part of your standard workstation maintenance routine. You can safely delete any log files from sessions that have already been reviewed or are no longer relevant.

Revelwood is an IBM Gold Business Partner with more than 30 years of experience designing, developing, implementing and maintaining IBM Planning Analytics environments. We focus on solutions for the Office of Finance and have partnered with clients of all sizes across all industries to optimize, enhance and expand their use of Planning Analytics. Revelwood’s Planning Analytics team consists of PA experts with decades of experience, and we have been recognized via awards including IBM Champion status.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

Goodbye Excel Groupings, Hello Toggle Buttons: A PAfE Win for Web Reports

June 23, 2026 by Lee Lazarow

Have you ever been in a situation where you have a very wide Excel report and want to allow your users to minimize the columns that appear? If so, one of the options at your disposal is the ability to group columns. This allows users to easily show or hide columns, thereby allowing them to see additional columns on the screen.

Have you ever been in the same situation when creating a PAfE report that you want to publish on the web? If so, you quickly realized that Excel’s grouping functionality does not flow through into your PAW environment.

But have no fear, IBM has come to the rescue! Version 2.1.19 of PAfE includes a new feature which allows action buttons to toggle your rows and columns. The feature includes the ability to:

Define either rows or columns for toggling
Define the specific rows or columns to be toggled
Recalculate or rebuild the sheet after toggling

To enable the feature, simply select the option for “Toggle range” when creating an action button.

Once created, action button can be used like Excel groupings … but without the added rows on top (e.g., the “plus” symbols”). In addition, the button will work in both PAfE and PAW.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

How to Use Diff View in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace to Track TI Script Changes

April 14, 2026 by Lee Lazarow

Have you ever been in a situation where you have a long TI script and need to change a few lines. You plan out the steps, make the first change, get ready for the second, and then hear the phone ring. After a brief conversion, you get back to coding … only to realize that you forgot where you left off. Situations like this could cause redundant, or even erroneous, code.

As of PAW version 2.1.18, you can review changes that have been made to your script by highlighting the differences between the current saved version of the script and your unsaved edits. This is done by using the “Diff View” icon within the process editor.

Once clicked, the screen will change in two ways:

1. It will show the new code and prompt you to Accept or Reject the new code
2. It will change the icon associated with the Diff View feature

In the example below, line 2 is part of the original (saved) script and line 3 has been added:

The Diff View feature must be configured by the system administrators. This is enabled or disabled within Administration > Features.

This approach will help you stay organized in situations where you are unable to perform all of your coding in one interrupted session.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

How to Handle Outliers in IBM Planning Analytics Predictive Modeling

March 24, 2026 by Lee Lazarow

Have you used Planning Analytics to generate a forecast and realized that your data might not be as clean as you wanted? Maybe the data is legitimately skewed, such as the massive swings that occurred during COVID. Or maybe the data has not yet been fully scrubbed, such as data inherited from a recent merger or a new implementation.

These situations may cause your use of predictive modeling to give you awkward, or even invalid, results due to data that was not expected. But did you know that Planning Analytics’ predictive modeling allows you to adjust for these outliers?

When generating a prediction, outliers will appear as red squares within your resulting charts. You have the option to adjust for outliers by simply flipping a trigger.

Here is an example of a data set with an outlier.

This outlier caused the trends in this historical data to become more irrational in the forecast. We can ignore the outlier by simply clicking on the option at the top, right corner of the chart.

Here is the same data set with an adjustment to the outlier. Notice how the future values have smoother predicted values with a more rounded confidence interval.

By ignoring outliers, you can have more control of your data, which in turn gives you more control of your predictions within your Planning Analytics environment.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

Revelwood’s Lee Lazarow and Ivan Cepero Named IBM Champions for 2026

March 20, 2026 by Revelwood

Two members of the Revelwood team have been named IBM Champions for 2026: Lee Lazarow, our IBM Planning Analytics Practice Leader, and Ivan Cepero, our Senior Planning Analytics Consultant.

The IBM Champions program recognizes non-IBM IT professionals, business leaders, developers, and educators who go beyond the scope of their day-to-day work to make a meaningful impact on the IBM community. Champions are selected based on their commitment to sharing knowledge, mentoring others, advocating for IBM technologies, and helping grow the broader user community through activities like speaking at conferences, authoring articles, moderating forums, and leading user groups.

Earning the designation requires more than technical expertise — nominees must demonstrate consistent, ongoing contributions that help others get more value from IBM software and solutions. It’s a recognition that reflects both deep product knowledge and a genuine commitment to the community.

For Lee, this marks his fifth year earning the IBM Champion distinction — a milestone that reflects years of sustained contribution to the IBM Planning Analytics ecosystem. His ongoing work as a thought leader, educator, and advocate for the platform has earned him recognition year after year as one of the most influential voices in the community.

Ivan joins the 2026 class as a recognized contributor in his own right, bringing his expertise as a Senior Planning Analytics Consultant to the IBM community in ways that extend well beyond client work. His inclusion in this year’s cohort speaks to the breadth and quality of his contributions to the platform and its users.

Together, Lee and Ivan represent what makes Revelwood’s IBM Planning Analytics practice distinctive: a team that doesn’t just implement the platform but invests in the community around it. Their recognition as IBM Champions is a reflection of that commitment.

Congratulations to Lee, Ivan, and all members of the IBM Champions class of 2026.

Interested in learning more about what our IBM Planning Analytics team can do for your organization? Explore our IBM Planning Analytics services.

Celebrating Pi Day with Excel’s =PI() Function

March 17, 2026 by Lee Lazarow

As you know from reading my previous blogs (The Hidden Structure of 1/7 and Exploring Consecutive Squares with 9/16/25), I am a big fan of combining math with dates. This week allowed us to celebrate another math date! Pi Day (March 14th) was just this past weekend, so it felt like the perfect time to highlight a formula hiding in plain sight.

Most of you know that Pi is rounded to 3.14 and that the value is used for various calculations associated with a circle. But did you know that Excel has a function associated with Pi?

The =PI() formula returns Pi accurate to 15 digits. It only goes 15 digits deep due to how Excel handles floating-point arithmetic (Excel converts anything larger than 15 digits into scientific notation).

There’s not much more to say about this formula other than using it to read this …

We all know that MATH IS AWESOME, but Math times Pi makes it three times more awesome!

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Use the Planning Analytics AI Assistant for Smarter Data Analysis

March 10, 2026 by Lee Lazarow

Have you used Planning Analytics’ new AI functionality to analyze your existing models? Maybe you have a chart that you want to get insights on, or maybe you have a set of data where you want to define outliers. All this functionality can be performed by simply clicking on the AI button within PAW:

For more details on these items, please watch our most recent webinar about Planning Analytics’ AI functionality.

But did you know that you can also use the Planning Analytics assistant to “speak” to your model? You can access the assistance by clicking on the icon in the top ribbon:

Once clicked, a window will appear that will allow you to interact with the model using natural language functionality. You can use statements such as:

Tell me about this chart
Show me outliers in this dataset

This approach gives you a great deal of flexibility when using PAW. You can use your mouse, your standard keyboard, or even voice commands to reference various functions in your Planning Analytics environment.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

IBM Named a Leader in the 2026 IDC MarketScape for Enterprise Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

February 20, 2026 by Revelwood

Independent analyst firm IDC has placed IBM in the Leaders category of its 2026 MarketScape for Worldwide Enterprise Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting Applications — and it’s worth understanding what that means for finance teams evaluating their options.

What Is the IDC MarketScape?

The IDC MarketScape is one of the most respected vendor assessments in enterprise technology. To be included, vendors must exceed $85 million in enterprise planning software revenue — which filters the analysis to platforms with real market scale. Vendors are scored on two axes: current capabilities and future strategy. Leaders must demonstrate strength on both. IBM Planning Analytics did.

The Market Context: Why This Moment Matters

Finance teams are under pressure to do more than produce an annual budget. Rising business volatility, expanding data requirements, and the rapid introduction of generative AI are reshaping expectations. The new standard is continuous planning — higher frequency, greater accuracy, deeper cross-functional collaboration. IDC’s 2026 assessment was conducted against that backdrop, and the platforms in the Leaders category are the ones built to meet it.

“Enterprise planning, forecasting, and budgeting applications are becoming the backbone of financial resilience. The ability to pair GenAI and agentic workflows with trusted, governed data will help drive accuracy, consistency, and continuous insights.” — Megha Kumar, Research VP, Analytics & AI, IDC

What IDC Said About IBM Planning Analytics

The IDC report describes IBM’s Planning Analytics platform as delivering an AI-powered, agentic, and integrated planning solution that automates budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning. According to IDC, the platform enables real-time analysis and collaboration across enterprise functions, combining strong back-end performance with modern user interfaces, and supports both hybrid deployments and integrated planning scenarios.

IDC specifically called out three strengths:

STRENGTH 01

The platform offers a choice between the web-based Planning Analytics Workspace and an Excel add-in environment — addressing the reality that different users in the same organization have different workflow preferences.

STRENGTH 02

IBM has GenAI features in production today — including chart insights, forecast insights, outlier analysis, and natural language summarization — integrated directly into the planning workflow so users don’t need data science expertise to benefit from them.

STRENGTH 03

The platform includes full system-wide auditability, tracking user actions and allowing rollback to any historical point — a capability that directly supports compliance requirements and builds trust in AI-generated insights.

AI STRATEGY

IBM’s AI strategy combines out-of-the-box AI experiences with composable tools for custom agentic workflows — built on watsonx foundations with a natural language Planning Analytics Assistant for insight extraction.

IDC’s “Consider IBM When” Guidance

DIRECTLY FROM THE IDC REPORT

IDC advises organizations to consider IBM Planning Analytics when they are seeking an AI-enabled planning platform with:

Flexible deployment options (cloud, hybrid, or on-premises)
Integrated planning capabilities across business functions
Support for data residency requirements across regions

This is meaningful guidance. It tells you what kind of organization IBM Planning Analytics is best suited for — one that needs enterprise-grade flexibility, not a one-size-fits-all SaaS setup, and one that takes data governance and compliance seriously.

What This Means If You’re Evaluating Planning Platforms

IDC’s 2026 assessment also included practical guidance for technology buyers — eight specific considerations for organizations going through a platform evaluation this year. The themes are worth understanding even if you’re not actively in a buying process:

IDC’S ADVICE FOR TECHNOLOGY BUYERS

Evaluate what processes you want to automate and what you can standardize — finance teams are often short-staffed and standardization drives adoption
Assess vendors not just on AI accuracy but on AI governance and management capabilities within the platform
Prioritize low-code/no-code capabilities and ease of building financial models
Ensure vendors offer transparency around how data is managed by AI and the ability to “bring your own model”
Build an AI-ready data strategy internally before deploying AI-generated insights into decision-making workflows

The Revelwood Perspective

We’ve been implementing IBM Planning Analytics for finance teams for years. We’ve seen what it does in practice — not just what it promises in a demo. The IDC recognition validates what our clients tell us regularly: IBM Planning Analytics is a serious platform built for serious planning challenges.

The GenAI and agentic capabilities IBM is building are not vaporware. They are in production. The Excel-native and web interface choice matters enormously to real finance users who were trained on spreadsheets. And the auditability features — the ability to roll back to any historical state — are exactly the kind of trust-building infrastructure that gets finance leaders comfortable moving beyond the spreadsheet.

If you’re in the early stages of an FP&A platform evaluation, or you’re already on IBM Planning Analytics and wondering how it compares to the competition, this IDC excerpt is worth reading in full. It gives you independent language to use internally when building your business case — and it shows you exactly how IBM stacks up against Oracle, Anaplan, SAP, Workday, OneStream, and others in the Leaders category.

Read the IDC MarketScape Report

Get your complimentary copy of the 2026 IDC MarketScape excerpt featuring IBM as a Leader in enterprise planning, budgeting, and forecasting.

Download the report here

The Fastest Way to Copy a Worksheet in Excel

February 17, 2026 by Revelwood

Many Excel users copy worksheets by right-clicking on the tab, choosing Move or Copy, and then checking Create a copy. While that works, there’s a much faster way to duplicate a worksheet in seconds.

Here’s the shortcut:

1. Hold down the Control (Ctrl) key on your keyboard..
2. Click and drag the worksheet tab to the right (or to the spot you want the new copy).
3. Watch for the icon to change to a page with a plus sign.
4. Release your mouse, then release Ctrl.

That’s it — you’ve instantly duplicated your worksheet.

Why This Matters

If you work in IBM Planning Analytics and regularly export data to Excel, build scenario comparisons, create versioned reports, or prepare client-ready outputs, this shortcut can save meaningful time. Instead of navigating through menus, you can quickly:

Create a new version of a report before making edits
Duplicate a template tab for a new department or cost center
Copy a formatted sheet while preserving formulas, formatting, and structure
Build side-by-side scenario comparisons (e.g., Budget vs. Forecast)

Small efficiency gains like this add up — especially for Finance teams working under tight reporting deadlines.

We’re always looking for ways to make your Finance team more efficient and productive. Want more time-saving tricks? Check out our full library of Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

How to Access and Read Planning Analytics for Excel Log Files

How to Access the Log Folder

What You’ll Find There

Keeping the Folder Clean

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Goodbye Excel Groupings, Hello Toggle Buttons: A PAfE Win for Web Reports

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

How to Use Diff View in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace to Track TI Script Changes

Once clicked, the screen will change in two ways:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

How to Handle Outliers in IBM Planning Analytics Predictive Modeling

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Revelwood’s Lee Lazarow and Ivan Cepero Named IBM Champions for 2026

Celebrating Pi Day with Excel’s =PI() Function

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Use the Planning Analytics AI Assistant for Smarter Data Analysis

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Named a Leader in the 2026 IDC MarketScape for Enterprise Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

What Is the IDC MarketScape?

The Market Context: Why This Moment Matters

What IDC Said About IBM Planning Analytics

STRENGTH 01

STRENGTH 02

STRENGTH 03

AI STRATEGY

IDC’s “Consider IBM When” Guidance

What This Means If You’re Evaluating Planning Platforms

The Revelwood Perspective

Read the IDC MarketScape Report

The Fastest Way to Copy a Worksheet in Excel

Here’s the shortcut:

Why This Matters

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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IBM Planning Analytics

How to Access the Log Folder

What You’ll Find There

Keeping the Folder Clean

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Once clicked, the screen will change in two ways:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

What Is the IDC MarketScape?

The Market Context: Why This Moment Matters

What IDC Said About IBM Planning Analytics

STRENGTH 01

STRENGTH 02

STRENGTH 03

AI STRATEGY

IDC’s “Consider IBM When” Guidance

What This Means If You’re Evaluating Planning Platforms

The Revelwood Perspective

Read the IDC MarketScape Report

Here’s the shortcut:

Why This Matters

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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