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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel’s NETWORKDAYS Function

January 26, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Have you ever wanted to define the number of working days between two calendar dates? Do you define “working days” simply as non-weekend days or do you also include holidays? Did you know that you can calculate this information using Excel’s NETWORKDAYS function?

The NETWORKDAYS function is used to determine the number of whole working days between start_date and end_date. Working days are defined as the exclusion of weekends, which in essence computes the number of Mondays through Fridays. The function also includes an optional parameter to exclude holidays and any other specific non-working days.

The syntax of the function is:

NETWORKDAYS (start_date, end_date, [holidays])

Start_date: This is required
End_date: This is required
Holidays: This is optional
- This consists of a range of one or more dates to be excluded from the calendar. The list entails a range of cells that contains the dates.

Note: All dates are entered in date format or in serial number format

This information can be used to help calculate any/all of the following pieces of your model:

Benefit accruals and eligibility
Ratios such as “Revenue per day” or “Units per day”
Days remaining for end-of-service dates
Anything else that requires the number of days within the formula

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: The Waterfall Chart

January 19, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) includes various visualizations that can be used to view your data. One of these visualizations entails a chart called a waterfall chart. This type of chart will help you show the components of a summarized number and is very helpful in determining which values are beneficial to the total and which values are detrimental.

The image below shows an exploration and its corresponding waterfall chart.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Waterfall Diagram

The chart shows information about each region while also defining each region as a positive (green) or negative (red) amount, which makes it easy to determine what is adding to the total and what is reducing the total.
The chart makes it easy to compare regions against each other, which allows you to quickly see that the Northeast gross profit is much larger than the West.
The chart allows users to look at the pieces as a rough percentage of the total, which lets you see that the Northeast accounts for more than half of the total.

PAW also allows you to customize various aspects of the chart, including colors for each bar.

Understanding the waterfall diagram in IBM Planning Analytics

The combination of an exploration and a waterfall chart can be used as the starting point for a user friendly dashboard in PAW.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel TYPE Function

January 12, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Have you ever referenced a list in Excel and needed to know whether each value was a number or a string? This may be required when another function depends on the type of value in each cell.

Excel has a function called TYPE that will give you this information. The function contains a single parameter, which is simply the cell you want to check. The formula will output a number that defines the type of value such as number, text, logical value or an error.

Here are results from four iterations of the TYPE formula:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Type

You can then use the type result within an IF statement to perform various functions.

The TYPE function will not determine whether a cell contains a formula. TYPE only determines the type of the resulting, or displayed, value. If value is a cell reference to a cell that contains a formula, TYPE returns the type of the formula’s resulting value.

This approach will help you when determining the use of IBM Planning Analytics formulas such as DBS vs. DBSS.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Keyboard Navigation

January 5, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Have you ever wanted to quickly go to the last used cell within a spreadsheet but did not know how? Have you ever wanted to determine where the next available row or column resides? Have you ever wondered why a spreadsheet with only a few cells of data may appear as a large file? All these answers can be provided with a single keystroke combination.

Pressing Ctrl and End at the same time will bring you to the last cell within a spreadsheet that Excel is referencing. The definition of “last” entails the rightmost column and the lowest used row on the worksheet. The last cell may not always contain data, but it will always be registered by Excel as something that is utilizing memory.

Here are some other keystroke combinations that will help you quickly navigate around your spreadsheet:

Ctrl and Home at the same time: this will bring you to the first cell (A1) in the worksheet.
End then an arrow key: this will bring you to the next empty value in any direction. For example, pressing End and then the down arrow will bring you to next empty cell in the column where your cursor currently resides.
Ctrl and PageUp : this will bring you to the previous sheet in the workbook.
Ctrl and PageDn: this will bring you to the next sheet in the workbook.

Keyboard shortcuts can easily help you navigate your Excel files and help you determine the “ending” cell within a spreadsheet. This will be useful in situations such as dynamic reports where rows and columns are automatically generated via automation.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Log Lock Notification

December 8, 2020 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Have you ever tried to move or download log files and then realize that some of the files cannot be modified since they are in use? IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) recognizes this and now offers notifications to let you know which files are locked.

You can download log files by first selecting the PA Administration button at the top of your screen.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Log Lock Notification

One inside the administration area, you can view the logs by clicking on the three dots at the top, right corner of your server and selecting the option called “Download logs.”

From there, you can simply select the logs that you want to download and then select the “download” button at the bottom of the screen. Any locked log files will show the word “locked” on the screen and will also prevent you from selecting that log. The example below shows the tm1server.log file checked and shows the tm1s.log file as locked.

IBM Planning Analytics Tricks: Log Lock Notification

This approach will help you easily remember which files are accessible and which are not.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Alternative Row Formats for Excel Reports

November 10, 2020 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

In the early days of computing, printers often used paper that had alternating white and green areas which allowed the reader to easily follow a line of text across the page. This was known as “green bar” paper. While we no longer use this type of paper, the concept is still applicable for situations where your output contains many columns that are hard to follow.

You can create this approach by using alternate row formats within your Excel reports. This is done by combining two Excel formulas:

The ROW formula returns the row number for a cell reference. For example, ROW(K5) returns the number 5 since the cell is in the 5^th row of the spreadsheet.
The MOD formula returns the remainder of two numbers after division. For example, MOD(9,2) returns the number 1.

When combined, the following formula will result in either a 1 or a 0:

=MOD(ROW(cell),2)

From there, you can use conditional formatting to define the fill colors. If you are doing this in standard Excel, then you can copy the formula throughout the applicable area. If you are doing this within a dynamic report, then you can use it within the formatting area.

This approach allows you to make your wide reports easier to read. This also means that you can recreate the green bar format while you pull out your dot matrix printer and watch classic movies such as Wargames!

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Minimizing the Subset Area

November 3, 2020 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Are your member names long and hard to see in the subset editor in IBM Planning Analytics? Does it get confusing to see both the available members and the current set at the same time? Both situations can be solved by hiding one side of the subset editor.

Here is an example of the subset editor which shows both the available members and the current set.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Minimizing the Subset Area

Each of the two sections has an option to minimize the area. This is done by clicking on the minus symbol at the top of the applicable section.

IBM Planning Analytics: Minimizing the Subset Area

Once clicked, the applicable area will compress and the other area will expand. Note that you can only minimize one side at a time. Below are examples of what each screen will look like when compressed.

Minimized Available Members:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips: Minimizing the Subsea Area

Minimized Current Set:

Minimizing the subset area in IBM Planning Analytics

This approach will allow you to further customize your subset editor screen to allow you to focus only on the area you want to see.

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Maintaining Subset-Drive Consolidations

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Sort Elements within a Subset

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Subset Control Dimension

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Show Members

October 27, 2020 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Did you know that while you are doing dimension maintenance, you can quickly view an element’s parents or children in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) via a single click? Here’s how you can do this:

Step 1: Select the dimension to be edited. This is done by either right clicking on a dimension and selecting the option to “Edit Dimension” or by dragging the dimension onto a sheet.

Step 2: Right click on an element and select the option to “Show Member.” You will then see two sub-options: one for Parents and one for Children.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Show Members

If you select the option for Parents then you will see all of the parents associated with the selected element. In this example, there is only one parent within the dimension structure.

If you select the option for Children then you will see all of the children associated with the selected element. In this example, there are three elements in the consolidation.

How to show members in IBM Planning Analytics

Once defined, you can then perform dimension maintenance to each of the elements on your screen.

This approach allows you to easily traverse up or down your dimension while minimizing the amount of extra elements on the screen.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: An Approach to Strengthening your MDX Skills

October 20, 2020 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Are you new to IBM Planning Analytics and looking for a good way to learn about the various commands associated with MDX? The Planning Analytics subset editor offers a great way to teach you about MDX expressions that can be used to define elements within a dimension.

The example below shows the results of a subset that includes all descendants of Total Department. The subset was created by simply dragging Total Departments into the current set while having the member insertion defined as descendants.

Once created, I can see the MDX expression that is used by clicking the MDX button at the top, right corner of the screen. The resulting expression is:

However, this button is not only used to view your newly created MDX expressions. The button also allows you to edit the expression. In this case, I can change the root element to be Sales and Marketing by simply typing over the existing MDX expression.

After clicking the OK button, the elements in the current set are updated.

This approach can help you to learn the fundamentals of MDX expressions, which are helpful for many different components of Planning Analytics.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel’s NETWORKDAYS Function

Read more Excel tips in our IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks series:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Waterfall Chart

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel TYPE Function

Read more Excel tips & tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Keyboard Navigation

Read more Excel Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Log Lock Notification

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Alternative Row Formats for Excel Reports

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks posts:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Minimizing the Subset Area

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Show Members

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: An Approach to Strengthening your MDX Skills

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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