Planning Analytics tips

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, 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: 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: Change Element Type in PAW

December 22, 2020 by Thanh Chau Leave a Comment

Most users of IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) are familiar with the dashboarding and reporting capabilities for front-end users. However, IBM has built-in features that allow administrators to manage their models from PAW as well. Managing the dimension structure is one such feature. Though most of it is intuitive, updating the element type is a bit hidden.

To access the dimension editor, first open a workbook in PAW. Then in the left navigation pane, expand the “Dimensions” node to find the dimension that you would like to edit.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Change Element in PAW

Drag the dimension to the work area pane on the right. You’ll see a warning stating that any changes will apply instantly unless you have reserved the dimension. Reserving the dimension locks the dimension so that no one else can make changes.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips: Change Element Type in PAW

In the PAW dimension editor, click on the icon to show the properties window. Select a member to show or change its properties. Please note that PAW doesn’t have “Consolidated” as a selectable type in the dropdown. PAW will automatically convert an element to a consolidation when you add children to it. Conversely, it will change a consolidation to a simple element when you remove all children.

IBM Planning Analytics Tricks: Change Element Type in PAW

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Rule Editor Keyboard Shortcuts

December 15, 2020 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Are you an “old school” keyboard person that still presses Ctrl-S to save your Excel workbooks? Do you flip through windows by pressing Alt-Tab? Do you remember Lotus backslash macros that used commands such as /FS for File, Save? If so, did you know that you can still do things like this within the new IBM Planning Analytics rules editor?

The easiest way to get started with keyboard commands is to press Ctrl-K within a rules window. This will open an area that shows a list of keys that can be used within the rule.

Here are some of the combinations that I use regularly when writing rules:

Ctrl-F then Ctrl-G: Ctrl-F will find a specific word or phrase and Ctrl-G will then allow you to scroll through the rule to find the next instance of that phase. This is helpful when you have a long rule and want to go directly to a section (example: quickly go to the FICA calcs in a comp model).

Ctrl-Shift-R: Ctrl-Shift-F will allow you to find and replace a single instance of text, but Ctrl-Shift-R allows you to do a find and replace within the entire rule (example: I have ‘Plan’ in the left side of many rules, but I want to replace it with ‘Plan2’).

Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End: These combinations allow you quickly navigate to the start or the end of the rule. It’s an easy way to look for your SKIPCHECK command or go directly to your feeders section.

Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Y: Ctrl-Z is the equivalent of the undo button and Ctrl-Y is the undo of the undo (or a redo). I sometimes get careless with Ctrl-Z and undo too much. This is where Ctrl-Y comes into play.

Ctrl-A: This will select the entire rule. I used this a lot with Perspectives since I often had to bring my rule into another text editor, but PA’s new formatting and line numbering has minimized the amount of times I use this combination.

If you are a keyboard person then it is good to know that Planning Analytics’ rule editor still allows you to use these combinations. And if you are not a keyboard person then maybe some of these will help improve your efficiency.

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: Asymmetric Axis in PAW

December 1, 2020 by Thanh Chau Leave a Comment

One of the helpful features of IBM Planning Analytics is the ability to create explorations using asymmetric axes. This is useful when you have stacked column or row dimensions, and only want to display certain combinations of elements instead of all combinations of the stacked dimensions.

To do this in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW), open a workbook in PAW and open an exploration. Click on the icon to make the row dimensions asymmetric or the icon for the column dimensions. Next, hold down the CTRL key and select the rows or columns you want to keep or hide.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Asymmetric axis in PAW

Right-click on one of the selected columns and select “Keep” or “Hide.”

If you need to revert back to the normal view, right-click on any row or column and select “Unhide All.”

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Convert Existing View Directly to Reports

November 24, 2020 by Nina Inverso Leave a Comment

Did you know that Planning Analytics for Excel (PAx) provides the ability to convert an existing view directly to a report in Excel? Without opening the view as an Exploration, you can start building your report directly from the Task Pane.

Just right-click on the view in the Task Pane to display the available options.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Convert Existing View to Reports

You will see the following options by hovering over the Quick report, Dynamic report, and Custom report items:

How to convert existing views into reports in Planning Analytics

In this example, each of the items does the following:

On this sheet: This will open the existing Planning Analytics view as a Quick report on the current Excel sheet at cell $A$1.
On new sheet: This will open the view as a Quick report on a new sheet at cell $A$1.
At current location: This will open the view as a Quick report at the cell that is currently active.
At specified location: This will open a pop-up window that allows you to input the cell at which you would like the Quick report to appear. You can then enter the cell address and click OK to generate the Quick report, as shown in the following image.

Learn how to convert existing views to reports in Planning Analytics

Watch more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Formatting Views in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Creating Multi-Level Dimensions

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: The Hold Feature

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: Change Element Type in PAW

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Rule Editor Keyboard Shortcuts

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Log Lock Notification

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Asymmetric Axis in PAW

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Convert Existing View Directly to Reports

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks posts:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Using Drag & Drop to Change Selector Elements in PAx Reports

Watch more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos:

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