TM1

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: HTTPPORTNUMBER

June 6, 2023 by Marc Assenza

Did you know that when you create a new TM1 / IBM Planning Analytics instance that the HTTPPORTNUMBER parameter is required? This setting is placed within the TM1S.cfg file for your model.

Some things to note when defining the HTTPPORTNUMBER parameter:

1. The valid port values are between 5000 and 49151.
2. The configuration like will look something like this:

HTTPPORTNUMBER=5005

3. The port used must be unique on the server for any service, not just TM1 / PA database services.

4. If you forget to assign a value within the TM1S.cfg file, then Port 5001 is automatically assigned to the model. This is important for multiple reasons:

a. Port 5001 may already be being utilized by another service which will prevent the TM1 / PA server instance from starting

b. If you have multiple TM1/PA models on the server and none of the TM1S.cfg files have the HTTPPORTNUMBER parameter defined, then the first server instance will start (if port 5001 is not currently being utilized). Every other TM1 /PA instance will then fail because each will also try to use Port 5001, but the port is already used.

That’s it! Just something to keep in mind when creating new TM1 / PA models on your server!

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: Popular Posts, Part 2

May 30, 2023 by Revelwood

Earlier this month we shared three of our most popular IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks blog posts. Since we publish these tips & tricks posts every Tuesday, we have plenty of tips you might have missed. Here are three more of our most popular posts over the last 12 months.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Edit Action Button

Action buttons in IBM Planning Analytics are a great utility that allows users to recalculate a sheet, navigate to another location, or run a TurboIntegrator process. As your models evolve, you may need to periodically revise your templates to maintain their functionality. This sometimes include the action buttons. Read this post to learn how to quickly edit all of your action buttons at the same time instead of having to navigate through your workbook and search for each button.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Adding a New Entry to Index Cube via Dynamic Report

If your IBM Planning Analytics model contains a cube that uses an index or slot dimension, you may encounter a situation where you’ll need to create a template that will allow your users to add data to an unused index. Read this post to see how to add a new entry in the index of a staffing cube.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: When to Build Multiple Cubes

We’ve had clients ask about the approach of building one cube for a model versus building multiple cubes for a model. A cube consists of a single table/database of data, whereas a model consists of a series of cubes that are linked together.

Planning Analytics (TM1) is designed to quickly and efficiently link a series of small cubes together. This style of thinking contradicts the approach that you may be used to with Excel. Read this post to learn more about building one cube versus multiple cubes.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Set Editor Remove Duplicates

May 23, 2023 by Lee Lazarow

In a recent blog post, we explained how to use Excel to produce a list of unique values. But what if you wanted to do the same thing in your subset?

IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) version 82 introduced an approach into the set editor that will automatically remove duplicate members from the current set via a single click. The button looks at the elements within the current set and ensures that the full list contains only unique elements.

Here is an example of a set that contains two instances of department 46:

Here is the same set after pressing the button:

This is especially helpful if your set contains a very large number of elements.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Users and Groups

April 18, 2023 by Lee Lazarow

Do you know how to manage your users and groups in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW)? As of version 84, PAW now allows you to edit this information via a single click.

To open the users and groups editor, right-click on a database within your modeling workbench and select the option for Manage users and groups.

Once selected, a grid showing the users on the rows and the groups on the columns will appear. This layout mimics the approach used in Perspectives.

The following functions are available to maintain your user security:

To assign or remove a user to a group, right-click at the intersection of a user and group name, then click Assign user to group or Remove user from group.
To assign all users to a group, right-click the group name, then click Assign group.
To remove all users from a group, right-click the group name, then click Remove group.
To assign a user to all groups, right-click the user name and then click Assign user.
To remove a user from all groups, right-click the user name and then click Assign user.
To remove a group from the database, right-click the group name and then click Remove group.
To remove a user from the database, right-click the user name and then click Remove user.

You can also use the editor to import users and groups from Planning Analytics Workspace or to create a new group on the Planning Analytics database.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Tips, Part 3

April 11, 2023 by Revelwood

Revelwood’s IBM Planning Analytics team has created numerous tips & tricks focused on helping people use Excel. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting some of the most popular and interesting posts on Excel. If you’ve missed our earlier posts, read part 1 and part 2.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Map Charts

Map charts is a nifty feature in Excel that will help visualize your data. It enables you to compare values and show categories across geographical regions.

Our blog post explains how you can use the Map Charts feature.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel’s CONCAT and TEXTJOIN Functions

In recent years Microsoft introduced a new version of the CONCATENATE functional called CONCAT. Their purpose is similar in that the new function still combines text from multiple ranges and/or strings. CONCAT will eventually replace CONCATENATE.

The TEXTJOIN function joins text from multiple ranges and/or strings but includes two additional parameters. These parameters allow you to specific the delimiter and determine if empty cells are ignored.

Learn more about Excel’s CONCAT and TEXTJOIN functions.

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

Excel’s IF function has been around for quite a while. Back in 2020, Excel introduced the IFS function. This function checks whether one or more conditions are met and then returns the value associated with the first TRUE condition. The main objective of IFS is to simplify an expression that would have previously required multiple nested IF functions.Read our blog post to learn the format of the IFS function.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: UNIQUE Function in Excel

April 4, 2023 by Revelwood

Have you ever needed to produce a list of unique values within a cell range in Excel? If so, the UNIQUE function can do this.

The example below shows a simple list of countries that includes some duplicates:

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To produce a unique list, simply pass the cell range of the original list into the UNIQUE function.

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The unique list of values will “spill” down from the original UNIQUE formula.

This approach will give you a quick and easy way to get unique values from a cell range.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: On-Demand Webinars, Part 2

March 28, 2023 by Revelwood

Did you know we have a wide variety of IBM Planning Analytics webinars on-demand? We showcased two of our most popular webinars – Best Practices when Using Planning Analytics Workspace Charts and Creating PAW Charts Using the New Experience – in a recent blog post.

Here are two more of our popular IBM Planning Analytics / TM1 on-demand webinars.

Best Practices for Using TurboIntegrator

This webinar showcases some features of TurboIntegrator that you may not be using. We cover a series of functions and offer best practices for using them. We describe each function, explain how we use the function when creating models, and discuss the benefits you get by using these approaches.

Here are a few of the topics we review:

Making calls outside of a process
Modifying dimension structures
Creating views and subsets

Best Practices When Using Hierarchies in IBM Planning Analytics

In this webinar, we explain the concepts, the creation and the things to consider when using hierarchies within their existing models. We show examples of hierarchies that Revelwood clients use and how they create new reports and analyses.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips and Tricks: Upgrading to Planning Analytics for Excel 2.0.65 or later

March 21, 2023 by Marc Assenza

As of version IBM Planning Analytics version 2.0.65, you can choose to either launch IBM Planning Analytics for Excel (PAx) as a single session (by double-clicking the .XLL file) or load it as an add-in (and have it available for all Excel sessions).

To install the latest version of PAx, first uninstall any version prior to 2.0.65. Once completed, download the.xll file associated with the version you want to install. Be sure to use a file that correlates with either your 32-bit version of Microsoft Excel or your 64-bit version of Microsoft Excel. You can check which version of Excel you have by clicking on File, Account:

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Within that menu, click on the link that reads “About Excel.”

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Details about your version will then appear, including the bit version. Here is an example of what you may see:

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Once downloaded, you can configure the .xll file as an Excel add-in or you can simply double-click the file to run PAx. I prefer to launch the .xll file individually for a single session of Excel and not allow it to persist across all my Excel sessions. Therefore, I created a folder named “PAfe” and placed the .xll file in the folder. I then created a shortcut from my desktop pointing to the file. This approach allows me to perform future upgrades by simply replacing a single file!

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: Excel YEARFRAC

March 14, 2023 by Lee Lazarow

I often build models that define the fraction of a year for a given month. For example, January is approx. 8.5% of a calendar year (31/365) and September is approx. 11.5% of a working day’s calendar (30/260). But what happens in situations when you want to calculate the percentage of a year where the days are not the first or last day of the month? This is where Excel’s YEARFRAC formula can help.

The YEARFRAC function calculates the fraction of a year based on the number of whole days between two dates. Maybe you have summer employees and want to determine how much of the calendar year they will be employed or maybe you need to rent some equipment and pay based on an annual rate.

The function has two required parameters and one optional parameter:

=YEARFRAC(start_date, end_date, [basis])

Start_date (required)
- Microsoft recommends using the DATE function for this value
End_date (required)
- Microsoft recommends using the DATE function for this value
Basis (optional)
- This determines the denominator using a series of approaches such as 360 vs 365 and whether you want to include the start date

This function will allow you to quickly calculate decimals which can then be used for various forms of allocations, seasonality, and other types of spreads.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: HTTPPORTNUMBER

Some things to note when defining the HTTPPORTNUMBER parameter:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Popular Posts, Part 2

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Set Editor Remove Duplicates

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Users and Groups

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Tips, Part 3

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: UNIQUE Function in Excel

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: On-Demand Webinars, Part 2

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips and Tricks: Upgrading to Planning Analytics for Excel 2.0.65 or later

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel YEARFRAC

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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Some things to note when defining the HTTPPORTNUMBER parameter:

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