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. 1. It will show the new code and prompt you to Accept or Reject the new code
2. 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.

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.

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

How to Handle Outliers in IBM Planning Analytics Predictive Modeling

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

Use the Planning Analytics AI Assistant for Smarter Data Analysis

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.

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.

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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

Use the Planning Analytics AI Assistant for Smarter Data Analysis

The Fastest Way to Copy a Worksheet in Excel

Keeping your IBM Planning Analytics environment running efficiently is critical as models grow, data volumes increase, and user activity expands. In this edition of our IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks series, Lee Lazarow, IBM Planning Analytics Practice Leader at Revelwood, walks through how to use Performance Monitoring in Planning Analytics Workspace to better understand system usage and identify optimization opportunities.

Watch the Video

Prefer to see this tip in action? Watch the full video below to follow along step by step as Lee Lazarow demonstrates Performance Monitoring in Planning Analytics Workspace.

Whether you prefer to watch the video, read the walkthrough below, or do both, this tip will help you take a more proactive approach to monitoring and improving performance.

What Is Performance Monitoring in IBM Planning Analytics?

IBM Planning Analytics includes a built-in feature called Performance Monitor. When enabled, it collects statistics about your environment, such as memory usage and processing activity, and stores them in system control objects. These statistics provide valuable insight into how your databases and cubes are performing over time.

Performance monitoring is especially useful for:

• Conducting system health checks
• Identifying large or inefficient cubes
• Understanding memory consumption
• Spotting opportunities to optimize rules and feeders

How to Enable Performance Monitor

As Lee explains in the video, turning on Performance Monitor is quick and straightforward:

1. In Planning Analytics Workspace, right-click on the server name.

2. Select Performance monitor from the menu.

3. Confirm the prompt asking if you’re sure you want to enable it.

Because Performance Monitor records system statistics, IBM includes this confirmation step to acknowledge that there may be a slight performance impact. Once confirmed, simply save your selection and the Performance Monitor will begin running.

Understanding Control Cubes and Performance Statistics

After Performance Monitor is enabled, IBM Planning Analytics automatically creates a series of control objects, including several control cubes that store performance statistics.

To access them:

Expand your database

• Navigate to Control Objects > Control Cubes
• Look for cubes that begin with }StatsBy

These cubes capture performance data across different dimensions, such as by chore, client, rule, and cube.

Using }StatsByCube for Performance Analysis

One of Lee’s go-to tools during system health checks is the }StatsByCube control cube. This cube provides a clear view into how much memory each cube is consuming and why.

Within the default view, Lee focuses on three key metrics:

• Memory used for input data – how much space is taken up by loaded data
• Memory used for feeders – memory consumed by calculations and rule feeding
• Total memory used – the combined footprint of each cube

For easier analysis, Lee recommends formatting the view (for example, using commas) to clearly see large values at a glance.

Identifying Optimization Opportunities

To prioritize analysis, Lee sorts the cubes in descending order by size. This quickly highlights the largest cubes in the environment.

From there, you can start asking important questions:

• Is a cube large because it contains a lot of data?
• Or is it large because of inefficient rules or overfeeding?
• Are calculations driving unnecessary memory usage?

By comparing input data memory versus feeder memory, you can determine where optimization efforts will have the greatest impact—whether that’s redesigning rules, improving feeder logic, or adjusting data structures.

Why Performance Monitoring Matters

Performance Monitor isn’t just about visibility—it’s about actionable insight. By understanding where and how resources are being used, organizations can:

• Improve system efficiency
• Reduce memory consumption
• Enhance user experience
• Plan more effectively for growth

As Lee notes, Performance Monitor provides an excellent starting point for system optimization and ongoing performance management.

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.

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Linking Textboxes in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

Linked Data Types in Excel

Previewing Changes on Bulk Updates in IBM Planning Analytics

Explorations are a great way to perform ad-hoc analyses in your IBM Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE) environment. However, the title selections in the Exploration ribbon are not directly accessible. Here is an approach to access the title selections and make your reports more dynamic.

• 1. Explorations have connect information in hidden rows. In the example below, we can find this data by unhiding rows 3 through 12.

• 2. The titles (context) data is in located in cell C9

• 3. We can use the TEXTSPLIT and TRIM formulas to parse the context into individual cells:  

=TRIM(TEXTSPLIT(C9,”:”,”,”))

The formula will update every time you make a change to the Exploration.  This approach can be merged with lookup formulas in the other sheets to make your reports more dynamic.

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.

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

TM1SET Excel Formula

The TRIMRANGE Excel Formula

Learn the Excel Focus Cell

The TM1SET Excel formula is similar to the SUBNM formula except that TM1SET is hierarchy aware and has formula reference traversal.

The syntax for TM1set is:

TM1set(uri_identifier,serverName,dimensionName,hierarchyName,setExpression,selectedElement,sessionSetOut,activeDisplay,displayModeEnum)

Follow these steps to build a file with the TM1SET formula.

1 – In a new workbook, set up the following labels:

2 – Uri Identifier: the URL to the TM1 server
In cell c2, enter =TM1PRIMARYDATASOURCE()

3 – Server Name: the name of the TM1 server
In cell C3, enter the name of the TM1 server (Demo2 in this example)

4 – Dimension Name: The dimension TM1SET will use
In cell C4, enter the name of the dimension (Account in this example)

5 – Hierarchy Name: The name of the hierarchy TM1SET will use. If not using hiearchies, repeat the dimension name.
In cell C5, enter the name of the hierarchy (Account in this example)

6 – Set Expression: The Set expression for TM1Set. This expression can be hardcoded or copied from the subset editor.
In cell C6, input the set expression. In this example, we are looking for all children of the Advertising parent, the set expression is:

{DRILLDOWNMEMBER({[Account].[Account].[Net Income After Allocations^Net Income^EBITDA^Operating Expenses^Advertising]} , {[Account].[Account].[Net Income After Allocations^Net Income^EBITDA^Operating Expenses^Advertising]} , RECURSIVE)}

7 – Selected Element: The initial element to display
In cell C7, enter Advertising

8 – Session Set Out: TM1SET will fil this in with a unique identifier
Leave cell C8 blank

9 – Active Display: The alias to use for element display
In cell C9, enter the alias name (CodeName in this example)

10 – Display Mode Enum: You can alter the output of the TM1SET formula. Valid options for this parameter are:

SESSIONSET: a unique session set ID created by the server
MUN: the MDX member unique name
MEMBERDISPLAY: the element name or alias

In cell C10, enter MemberDisplay

Once filled in, your template should look like this:

Build the TM1SET formula using the parameters. In cellB14, input this TM1SET formula:

=@TM1SET(C2,C3,C4,C5,C6,C7,C8,C9,C10)

The TM1SET formula will show a drop down which is the sets of elements returned by the Set expression parameter.

Set Editor

TM1SET will not automatically open the subset editor when double clicked. To enable this functionality, you will need to assign the TM1SET formula to a specific named range

To enable the Set Editor:

1 – Select the TM1SET formula

2 – Go to Formulas > Name Manager

3 – Click on New

4 – Create a new name range, named tm2\\_tracked

5 – The scope must be the sheet name

6 – Click OK

7 – Close the Name Manager

Now you can double click on the TM1Set formula and the set Editor will appear

Formula Reference Traversal

This is a feature where TM1 set will change any cell reference that it is using. In this example, we are using the CodeName alias in C9.

1 – Double click the TM1SET formula

2 – In the set editor change the alias to Member ID

3 – Click on Apply

Note how C9 now shows MEMBER_NAME and the Session Set Out cells have been filled out. TM1SET will ‘reach back’ to the source cells and fill them out with the selections made in the set editor.

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.

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

The TRIMRANGE Excel Formula

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Learn the Excel Focus Cell

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Making Pivot Tables More Interactive