IBM Planning Analytics

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Chart Multicolors

June 14, 2022 by Revelwood Leave a Comment

One of the visualizations in Planning Analytics is a column chart. This type of chart is a good way to compare items since all the lines are in proportion to each other.

An easy way to create a column chart is to simply create an exploration and change the visualization into a column chart. Here is an example of a stacked exploration that compares companies by scenarios and the related column chart:

Chart, histogram

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This chart is great since it’s easy to compare the high and low values. However, it’s very hard to differentiate the sub-categories since all columns are the same color. In this case, it’s hard to compare Actuals vs. Final Budget.

You can configure your chart to use multiple colors via the following steps:

While in Edit mode, single click on your chart widget.

Select the option for “Fields” at the top, right corner. Not all visualizations use fields, so this may appear blank if you have not yet converted your widget to a chart.

Move the applicable dimension from the Length category into the Color category. In my example, color is associated with the scenario dimension.

Graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

Description automatically generated

Once moved, the same chart will look like this:

Chart, bar chart

Description automatically generated

This approach will allow you to use your color palettes (defined within the properties) to differentiate the dimensions within your stacked column chart and make your analyses easier.

Revelwood has worked with IBM Planning Analytics / TM1 for more than 27 years. We’ve partnered with hundreds of companies on the design, development, maintenance and updates of IBM Planning Analytics applications, across every industry. Have a challenge with Planning Analytics / TM1? We can help you!

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: NumberToStringEx

June 7, 2022 by Revelwood Leave a Comment

IBM Planning Analytics has the ability to export data to flat files with the use of the ASCIIOUTPUT and TEXTOUTPUT functions. However, these two functions will only accept string variables. That means that numeric data will first need to be converted to string before exporting. Most developers know about the NumberToString function, which converts numbers to string, but there’s another function that is more powerful.

NumberToString does not apply any formatting to the numbers. This will work fine if the export is meant to be consumed by another system. However, if your export has an audience, you may want your report to have consistent and pleasing formatting. Here’s where the NumberToStringEx function can come in handy.

The NumberToStringEx function has four parameters: Value, Number Format, Decimal Separator, and Thousands Separator. The number format uses the same structures as the custom formatting in Excel. Here’s an example of the function with the results:

NumberToStringEx( 1750.34892, ‘$#,0.00’, ‘.’, ‘,’)

$1,750.35

As you can see, the NumberToStringEx function eliminates the need to round your numbers prior to conversion as well as concatenating special characters after conversion.

NumberToStringEx also allows for dual formatting of positive and negative numbers. Just like in Excel, you will need to separate the two using a semicolon. This eliminates any IF conditions you’ll need to use to format numbers if you had used the NumberToString function.

NumberToStringEx( -1750.34892, ‘$#,0.00;($#,0.00)‘, ‘.’, ‘,’)

($1,750.35)

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Planning Analytics Workspace Process Editor Function Help

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel OFFSET Function

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The SCAN Function

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Color Schemes in a Waterfall Chart

October 5, 2021 by Revelwood Leave a Comment

Did you know IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) allows you to change the color scheme in your waterfall charts? The goal of a waterfall chart is to show how an initial value is affected by the intermediate values – either positives or negatives – that result in a final value. Changing the color scheme enables you to make a report that is easily read by your end users.

Watch this short video from Revelwood’s FP&A Technology Director, Lee Lazarow, to see how easy it is to change the colors in your waterfall chart.

Viewers will see Lee demonstrate how a starting amount evolves into an ending amount. You’ll learn how changing colors makes it easy to see positives versus negatives. PAW provides a series of definitions that allow you to customize the colors that you want to appear on the waterfall chart.

Stay tuned for more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified when we publish a new video.

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!

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Mekko Chart

September 21, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) offers many visualization options to allow you to show and analyze your data in creative ways. This includes standard chart types such as bar, line and pie. But it also includes some reports that are not always understood. One of these report types is a Mekko chart.

A Mekko chart (also sometimes called a Marimekko chart) is used to extend a stacked column chart by using the width of each column to show the overall importance of that section.

The following stacked bar chart shows Units by State by Item:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Mekko Chart

It’s easy to see that the total amount of units sold in NY is very large when compared to the total amount of units in ME. But what if we wanted to also visualize how much larger the total of NY is compared to the other columns? This is where a Mekko chart can help.

Here is the same set of data via a Mekko chart:

The Mekko chart still shows the breakdown of units by kit and it still shows the values for each column, but it adds a new metric by expanding the width of each column proportional to the overall percentage. In essence, this report is merging the concepts of a stacked column chart with the concepts of a pie chart.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Explorations – Row & Column Headers

September 7, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Visualizations are used to provide an easy understanding of large data sets. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, what happens when you want to see the intricate details of your numbers? This is where IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) explorations come into the picture.

There are many formatting options for your numbers, but what about the headers? Do you want to simply see a set of rows and columns or do you want the ability to expand into the details? Do you want to differentiate values at different levels or do you want to use consistent formatting? Do you want your row headers to be defined differently than your column headers?

PAW makes it easy to create your preferred approach via some simple settings. The settings are found within the Exploration features of the Custom area. Within the area, settings exist for each of the four settings.

IBM Planning Analytics - PAW Explorations

Here is an example of an exploration that differentiates accounts levels and allows for drilling down to the base level accounts but does not allow for any differentiation or drilling into the time periods.

This flexibility allows you to define both the look and usage of your explorations, thereby enhancing (and hopefully simplifying) the end user experience.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Columns and Sections of Stacked Columns

August 24, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Today’s IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks post is a new video demonstrating how to define the columns and the sections of a stacked column chart. You will learn an approach that allows you to quickly view your data in different formats by simply replicating your view.

Watch this Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks video to learn:

How to change views in an Exploration
How to do a quarter-by-quarter analysis by changing the order of the stacked columns
How to show both methods on the same book

Stay tuned for more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos!

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Lines vs Area for Multiple Elements

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Code Char

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Depreciation

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel DATE Function Updated

August 17, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Some of you may remember an Excel feature that I posted about last year which explained how the DATE function will convert invalid dates into real ones. For example, DATE(2020,7,35) will be converted to August 4, 2020 since there are not 35 days in July.

Here is where the fun begins!

This week includes the 20^th day of the month of August
August is the 8^th month of this year, which is also the 20^th month of last year
Last year was 2020

Put this all together and we have a special event happening this week …

On August 20, 2021,

the resulting date will be 20/20/2020

And if we take it a step further …

At 8:20p and 20 seconds on 8/20/2021,

the resulting time will be 20:20:20 on 20/20/20

This is why we love Excel!

What Does Revelwood Do?

August 12, 2021 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

When you think of consumer companies, you might only think of them in terms of their flagship product or service. Coca-Cola sells soft drinks. McDonald’s sells hamburgers. Uber provides ride shares for people. Those companies actually do more than just what they are known for: Coca-Cola also offers Dasani, VitaminWater, Honest Kids, Gold Peak iced tea and more. McDonald’s is also known for its Filet-O-Fish and has now entered the competitive fried chicken market. In addition to offering ride shares, Uber’s services include food and goods delivery.

Many Revelwood clients think of us as their partner of choice to design and implement Office of Finance solutions based on IBM Planning Analytics and Workday Adaptive Planning. Like those consumer brands I mentioned, we do much more than that. We’ve recently added BlackLine to our best-of-breed portfolio and are looking forward to adding more world-class solutions for the Office of Finance.

We also deliver Customer Care solutions for managing and maintaining your Office of Finance systems.

Hear what our CEO, Ken Wolf, has to say about what Revelwood does and how we are enabling organizations to disrupt their companies, industries and the world.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Lines vs Area for Multiple Elements

August 10, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

A line chart is typically used to show values over time. This type of chart is great to see trends with your data. An area chart is also used to show values over time and is sometimes referenced as a line chart with the area below the line filled. While this is the case in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) for a chart that contains a single line, it is not the case for a chart with multiple lines.

Here is a simple line chart in PAW and the related area chart:

In both situations, you can see the trend and you can also see the values.

Here are the same PAW charts with multiple lines (e.g., multiple companies):

In both situations you can again see the trends in the data by looking at the flows from left to right. However, you do not see the same values in the two reports. You can see this by looking at the labels on the Y-axis. The line chart is designed to show a set of independent values and therefore allows you to see the values for each company. The area chart is designed to show the accumulation of the values, which makes it hard to determine values for anything except for the bottom element.

As you can see, the type of chart makes a difference when reviewing your data. So how do you decide which chart to use? The simple answer is to ask yourself what you are looking to see. Are you looking for separate values or accumulated values? As long as your picture answers that question, you can never go wrong!

IBM Planning Analytics, powered by TM1, is full of new features and functionality. Need advice? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. We post new Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in newsletters.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Chart Multicolors

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: NumberToStringEx

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Color Schemes in a Waterfall Chart

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Mekko Chart

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Explorations – Row & Column Headers

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Columns and Sections of Stacked Columns

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel DATE Function Updated

Read more Excel tips from our IBM Planning Analytics team:

What Does Revelwood Do?

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Lines vs Area for Multiple Elements

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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