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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!

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!

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: Code Char

August 3, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Have you ever written a TurboIntegrator script and wanted to check the first character of a value to see if it was a number or a letter? Have you ever needed to insert a single or double quote into a string without “breaking” your code? Have you ever wanted to easily convert a lower case letter into an upper case letter? All of this can be done by referencing the ASCII code associated with the character.

ASCII is an abbreviation for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and is used as a standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text for computers. Every key on your keyboard has a defined code number. Tables associated with these codes can be found via a simple Internet search.

There are two functions in IBM Planning Analytics / TM1 that allow you to reference the ASCII code:

CHAR returns the character associated with a numeric ASCII code. For example, CHAR(76) returns a capital L.

CODE returns the numeric ASCII code associated with a character. For example, CODE(‘Lee’, 1) returns 67 since the first character is a capital L.

These functions can be used in conjunction with other functions and logic to perform various tasks:

If the first character of a value has an ASCII code in the range of 48-57, then the value is a number.
If the first character of a value does not have an ASCII code in the range of 48-57, 65-90, or 97-122 then the value is not a number or a letter.
ASCII code 39 is a single quote and ASCII code 34 is a double quote.
All capital and lowercase codes have the same ASCII code value difference, so you can add or subtract 32 to convert between uppercase and lowercase.

These functions allow you to check and manipulate data without having to ignore the rules of TurboIntegrator coding.

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: Depreciation

July 27, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

P&L planning models consist of a variety of inputs, including revenue planning and various forms of expense planning. In addition to these standards, we are often asked to develop other planning components. One of these components entails a depreciation process, which leads to the question: what is depreciation?

Depreciation is defined as “a reduction in the value of an asset due to wear and tear or obsolescence.” In business terms, this typically entails a calculation to determine your current asset’s value.

There are various methods to calculate depreciation, all of which are taught in an Accounting 101 class. Most organizations, however, use a simple approach called “straight line” that spreads the reduction evenly over the course of a pre-defined asset life.

There are typically four components to a depreciation process:

Asset value – the original cost of the asset
Asset life – how long will it take for the asset to stop reducing its value
Salvage value – the amount you expect the asset to be worth at the end of the asset’s life (e.g., a resale value)
In service date – the time that you begin depreciating the asset, which is not always the same time as the purchase date

The calculation is relatively simple: subtract the salvage value from the asset value to determine the amount to be depreciated, then divide that amount by the asset life. Remember to ensure that the asset life uses the same level of time periods as your model … months, quarters, or years.

Once the depreciation calculation is performed you can easily view the original asset amount, the total allocated amount, and the current asset value. Want to learn more about depreciation details or recommended best practices? Contact us and we’ll help you.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Scatter Chart vs Bubble Chart

July 20, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

A scatter chart is used to show relationships within your data. This type of chart is great to see patterns and groupings over a large set of values. A bubble chart is also used to show relationships and it also great to see patterns. So what is the difference between the two types of charts?

A scatter chart is used to show the correlation of two data sets that have different ranges of values. The IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) example below shows the correlation of revenue and gross profit.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Scatter vs Bubble

The values associated with gross profit range from approx. 50,000 to 250,000. The values associated with revenue range from approx. 350,000 to 850,000. The scatter chart allows you to put these two different data sets onto the same chart and therefore see patterns. In this case, we see a positive correlation between larger revenue and larger profit … thereby telling us that our indirect costs are somewhat symmetrical to our direct costs.

But what if we also want to know how the number of units impacts these numbers? This cannot be done on a simple two dimensional chart, but it can be done by adjusting the size of the dots within the chart. This adjustment approach is the purpose of a PAW bubble chart.

Here is the same set of data with the inclusion of units:

In both situations you can see the correlation in the data by looking at the patterns. However, the bubble chart also gives you information on the units by adjusting the size of the dots. This gives us another positive correlation between larger unit sales and larger revenue … thereby telling us that we may have the opportunity to introduce regional pricing.

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 how many details do you want to see at once? Are you looking for two correlations or more? As long as your picture answers that question, you can never go wrong!

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Planning Analytics Workspace Tab Icons

June 15, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Have you ever created an IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) book and wanted to include images within each tab? PAW version 57 introduced settings that allow you to control details about the tabs. Some of these settings allow you to insert icons into the tab name. This is done via two steps.

The first step is to define the icon you want to use. This setting is found within the Individual Tab Properties and is defined independently for each tab.

An icon can be used in addition to the text or it can be used as a replacement. Here are examples of tabs that show text-only, text-with-icon, and icon-only:

The second setting defines where the icons will be positioned in relation to the text. This setting is found within the Dashboard Properties and is defined once for the entire book.

Here is an example of a tab which uses red text, includes the light bulb icon (called “idea”) and has the icon located above the title:

These new settings give you more control of the tab details within your PAW books and can be used to further optimize your user experience.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Tab Colors

June 1, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Have you ever created an IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) book and wanted to have more control over the look of the tabs? PAW version 57 introduced many settings that allow you to control formatting details about the tabs. These details include settings that define where the tabs appear on the screen and settings that define the colors associated with the tabs. These settings are found within the general area of the dashboard properties settings.

One setting defines where the tabs will be located on the page. Moving the tabs to the bottom will make your PAW book appear like a default excel workbook.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Tab Colors

Another group of settings define the colors associated with the tabs. There are three different settings to define the colors. Title color will define the color of the text within each tab, selected bar color will define the color of the line under the active tab, and fill color will define the background color of the tabs.

In addition, there are settings which allow you to override the “all tab” settings. These settings allow you to make a single tab use different coloring.

These new settings give you more control of the appearance of your PAW books and can be used to further customize your user experience.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Axis Labels

May 18, 2021 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Have you ever created a chart in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) and wanted to change the angle which the labels appear? PAW version 57 has introduced a setting which allows you to control the labels in much greater detail.

This is done by using the Item Axis Label Orientation setting within the chart properties.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Axis Labels

The results of each setting will look as follows:

Horizontal

Vertical

Rotate

Stagger

This new setting gives you more control of the appearance of your chart and can be used to further improve your user experience.

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

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Code Char

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Depreciation

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Scatter Chart vs Bubble Chart

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Chart Padding

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Planning Analytics Workspace Tab Icons

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Tab Colors

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Axis Labels

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Filter in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

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