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Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks: Virtual Version – Report Toggling

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Virtual versions are used mainly for constant currency reporting in Workday Adaptive Planning. However, there’s a hidden advantage of virtual versions that most customers don’t know! It is updating version selection in reports/dashboards. 

For example, say you have many reports that reference the forecast version and the version changes from time to time because you might have a new forecast version every month. Instead of updating it manually for each of the reports, you can use Virtual Version to update the selection once and it will automatically update all the reports. 

In this screenshot, I have a virtual version that’s called Current Forecast. It’s referencing the most recent forecast version. 

Then, instead of using the Forecast 1+11 version in reports, I used this Current Forecast virtual version for all my reports. See below. 

When the next forecast is ready and I need to change all my reports to Forecast 2+10, I will update the selection in the Virtual Version setup and all the reports will refresh with the Forecast 2+10 data.

Revelwood is more than just a Platinum Workday Adaptive Planning partner — we’re a trusted advisor to the Office of Finance. With 30 years of experience and award-winning expertise, we bring together powerful software, proven best practices and pre-built, ready-to-deploy solutions that accelerate time to value. Our team doesn’t just implement technology — we help finance teams transform the way they plan, analyze and make decisions. Discover how Revelwood can help you get the most out of Workday Adaptive Planning — and achieve results that matter.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Mastering Merged Cube Sheets in Workday Adaptive Planning

Account Modifiers in Formulas

Limiting the Scope of Calculated Accounts

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Add Additional Years to your Time Strata

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Managing time strata effectively is key to long-term financial planning in Workday Adaptive Planning. But what happens when your current calendar doesn’t extend far enough into the future? In this Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks video, we walk through the steps for importing additional years into your Adaptive instance.

Why You May Need to Extend Your Time Strata

Business planning doesn’t stop in the current fiscal year. Many organizations need to plan five, ten, or more years ahead. By adding new years to your Adaptive calendar, you ensure your models, versions, and reports remain aligned with your long-term financial goals.

Steps to extend your time strata

  1. 1. Navigate to the time settings
    • From the Adaptive home page, go to Modeling and select Time.
    • Depending on whether you’re using a legacy or newer instance of Adaptive, you may see different options.
  2. 2. Legacy instances: Quick extend option
    • Legacy instances allow you to simply select Extend five years forward (or backward).
    • This is the most straightforward approach when available.
  3. 3. Newer instances: Use the calendar export/import method
    • For newer environments where the extend option isn’t available, you’ll need to:
      • Export your current calendar.
      • Open the file in Excel and trim down to a manageable set of years.
      • Replace old years with the future years you want to add (for example, changing 2010 to 2032).
      • Double-check your edits to ensure they align correctly.
  4. 4. Re-import the adjusted calendar
    • Return to your Adaptive instance and select Import Calendar.
    • You’ll see a warning that changes may affect frozen or locked versions—be sure you understand the impact before proceeding.
    • For this task, select the Append option (rather than update or reload) and upload your adjusted file.
  5. 5. Confirm and finalize
    • Once imported, your Adaptive environment will reflect the additional years you’ve added.
    • This allows your planning processes to extend seamlessly into the future.

Extending your time strata ensures that Adaptive Planning continues to support your organization’s long-range forecasting. While the process differs slightly between legacy and newer instances, both approaches give you the flexibility to look further ahead and keep your planning future-ready.

Revelwood is more than just a Platinum Workday Adaptive Planning partner — we’re a trusted advisor to the Office of Finance. With 30 years of experience and award-winning expertise, we bring together powerful software, proven best practices and pre-built, ready-to-deploy solutions that accelerate time to value. Our team doesn’t just implement technology — we help finance teams transform the way they plan, analyze and make decisions. Discover how Revelwood can help you get the most out of Workday Adaptive Planning — and achieve results that matter.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Mastering Merged Cube Sheets in Workday Adaptive Planning

Account Modifiers in Formulas

Limiting the Scope of Calculated Accounts

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Mastering Merged Cube Sheets in Workday Adaptive Planning

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Merged cube sheets are a powerful tool in Workday Adaptive Planning that combine data from up to three modeled or cube sheets. They enable advanced calculations, simplify data management, and enhance forecasting. Let’s dive deeper into understanding their purpose, characteristics, and how to build them.

Why Use Merged Cube Sheets?

Merged cube sheets are especially useful for:

  • Creating calculated accounts without requiring data presence in the sheet itself. This feature ensures that formulas calculate accurately, even when data is absent in the merged cube’s standard accounts. Usually, a lack of data in the cube’s standard accounts forces formulas to evaluate at zero. Merged cube sheets bypass this rule by using the data presence of the source sheets.
  • Building simpler source sheets that focus only on necessary dimensions, then merging them to manage complex data across multiple dimensions efficiently.

Additional benefits include:

  • Allocations across dimensions using formulas.
  • Serving as calculation identifiers for other cube sheets.
  • Chaining merged cubes, where one merged cube acts as a source for another.

*Disclaimer: Using merged cube sheets in these additional ways can increase complexity of your model and may cause unexpected behaviors.

Example of a Merged Cube Sheet

Suppose you need to calculate revenue based on quantity and price across dimensions like customer, region, and product. Instead of managing this in one massive sheet:

  1. 1. Create a modeled sheet with the Customer dimension for forecasting total product purchases without breaking it down by product.
  2. 2. Create a cube sheet with the Product dimension for forecasting prices and mix by product.
  3. 3. Build a merged revenue sheet that combines these two sources to calculate total revenue by multiplying quantities and prices for each customer and product.

Characteristics of Merged Cube Sheets

Merged cube sheets:

  • Are read-only with no data entry support.
  • Require at least one calculated account. Data entry overrides are not available for this account.
  • Only allow account groups, calculated accounts, and metric accounts.
  • Can merge up to three source sheets (modeled or cube).
  • Contain only dimensions already present in the source sheets.
  • Must include any common dimensions across all source sheets.
    • Ex: if both sheets contain the product dimension, the merged cube must also include the product dimension.
  • Cannot include cube restrictions.
  • Only calculate intersections where data exists in the source sheets.

Steps to Build Cube and Merged Cube Sheets

  1. 1. Create Dimensions, Attributes, and Levels you want to add to the sheet.
    • Follow standard procedures for adding these elements to your planning model.
  2. 2. Create Source Sheets for Merged Cube Sheets.
    • Source sheets can be either modeled or cube sheets.
  3. 3. Start a New Sheet.
    • Select cube sheet and check the box for a merged cube.
  4. 4. (For Merged Sheets) Select Source Sheets.
    • Identify the sheets you wish to merge. This is located in the settings under “Dimensions, Attributes and Levels.”
  5. 5. (Optional) Create Account Groups.
    • Organize accounts for easier navigation.
  6. 6. Create Cube Accounts.
  7. 7. Add general ledger and custom accounts to your sheet and ensure they are cube-entered in account settings.
    • You can add general ledger and custom accounts to the cube sheet after you make the accounts cube-entered. In the account settings, for Data Entry Sheet Type, click Cube.
  8. 8. Add Dimensions and Attributes.
    • Include necessary custom dimensions and attributes in your sheet.
  9. 9. Select Time Periods.
    • By default, all available time periods are included.
  10. 10. Add Levels, Accounts, Dimensions, and Attributes.
    • Optionally hide certain cube accounts to simplify the sheet view.
  11. 11. (Optional) Adjust Sheet Properties.
    • Set the initial view, remove the cube root account, set the time strata, and manage calculation scope as well as other settings to enhance usability.
  12. 12. Assign the Sheet to Users.
    • If the sheet requires user assignment, ensure permissions are correctly set.
  13. 13. Load Data into the Sheet.
    • Data can be imported via spreadsheets, integration loaders, or entered directly from the Sheets menu.
  14. 14. Monitor Usage and Performance.
    • Regularly review the sheet’s performance to ensure optimal functionality.

Merged cube sheets are a great feature for streamlining complex forecasting models. By combining data from simpler sheets, they improve calculation efficiency and enhance data visibility. Following these steps will help you create effective merged cube sheets tailored to your organization’s planning needs.

Revelwood is more than just a Platinum Workday Adaptive Planning partner — we’re a trusted advisor to the Office of Finance. With 30 years of experience and award-winning expertise, we bring together powerful software, proven best practices and pre-built, ready-to-deploy solutions that accelerate time to value. Our team doesn’t just implement technology — we help finance teams transform the way they plan, analyze and make decisions. Discover how Revelwood can help you get the most out of Workday Adaptive Planning — and achieve results that matter.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Account Modifiers in Formulas

Limiting the Scope of Calculated Accounts

Override Formula Settings on Calculated Accounts

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Account Modifiers in Formulas

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The Formula Assistant in Workday Adaptive Planning provides a provides a powerful way to customize how data is pulled and calculated in formulas

To enhance the flexibility of your formulas, you can use a variety of modifiers that adjust how the information is retrieved. These modifiers include time, level, dimension, and attributes, each serving a unique purpose to make your formulas more dynamic and accurate. By incorporating these modifiers, you can manipulate the data in various ways to meet specific reporting or analysis needs.

For instance, when referencing an account, you can apply these modifiers to retrieve data in a manner that fits your desired outcome. A common example would be when you want to reference trailing data, such as pulling the trailing 12 months of revenue. By modifying the formula to say 

ACCT.Revenue[time=this-12:this-1], 

you can ensure that it pulls revenue data for the previous 12 months, with the ending month being the one immediately preceding the current month you’re analyzing.

Beyond time-based adjustments, you can also use account attributes to fine-tune your calculations based on groupings or classifications associated with the data. For example, if you want to calculate revenue specifically for a particular region, you can apply an attribute filter like

 ACCT.Revenue[Region = North] 

to pull in all revenue data associated with accounts tagged with the “North” region. This allows you to create more granular and targeted reports, tailored to specific attributes or dimensions within your data.

These modifiers help ensure that your formulas are more flexible, powerful, and specific to your needs, providing deeper insights and more accurate reporting.

Revelwood is more than just a Platinum Workday Adaptive Planning partner — we’re a trusted advisor to the Office of Finance. With 30 years of experience and award-winning expertise, we bring together powerful software, proven best practices and pre-built, ready-to-deploy solutions that accelerate time to value. Our team doesn’t just implement technology — we help finance teams transform the way they plan, analyze and make decisions. Discover how Revelwood can help you get the most out of Workday Adaptive Planning — and achieve results that matter.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Understanding Drill Down in Web Reporting

Using Integration to Hard Code Calculated Values

Scheduled Report Notifications with Attachments

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Workday Adaptive Planning Earns “Customers’ Choice” Recognition in Gartner’s Voice of the Customer Report

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For the third year in a row, Workday Adaptive Planning has been named a Customers’ Choice in Gartner’s latest Voice of the Customer for Financial Planning Software report — earning an impressive 96% recommendation rate from users.

Gartner Peer Insights aggregates and validates verified user reviews, then awards the Customers’ Choice badge to vendors who exceed market averages across metrics such as:

  • Product capabilities
  • Ease of deployment
  • Support experience
  • Sales experience 

Workday Adaptive Planning consistently ranks among the top performers in every category — underscoring its strong product design, reliable support, and seamless implementation.

Workday Adaptive Planning’s Results

This Gartner report includes some impressive ratings for Workday Adaptive Planning:

  • 96% of users say they would recommend Workday Adaptive Planning 
  • It holds an overall rating of 4.8/5 on Gartner Peer Insights 
  • It earns 4.8 in key areas like Product Capabilities, Sales, and Support Experience and a 4.7 in Deployment Experience 

The benchmarking reveals that Workday outpaces other financial planning platforms — like Anaplan, OneStream, Pigment and Oracle — in user satisfaction and recommendation rates 

Why Organizations Love Workday Adaptive Planning

Organizations throughout the world love Workday Adaptive Planning as a result of its:

  1. 1. Scalability & Flexibility
  2. 2. AI-Driven Insight
  3. 3. Transformational ROI

Revelwood + Adaptive Planning = Powering FP&A Excellence

As a trusted partner, Revelwood empowers finance teams to leverage Workday Adaptive Planning to:

  • Accelerate deployment with best-practice templates
  • Train and onboard teams for fast adoption
  • Continuously optimize investment and health of the platform

Our experts ensure every customer captures maximum value — driving both process efficiency and strategic insight.

Workday Adaptive Planning’s recognition as a Gartner Customers’ Choice — backed by exceptional real-world reviews and top-tier ratings — reinforces why thousands of organizations trust it to manage complex planning, modeling and forecasting workflows.

Read the report today!

Read more from this series:

Workday Adaptive Planning for Managing Cash Flow

Workday Adaptive Planning for Complex Workforce Planning

Transforming Financial Planning: How LEARN Behavioral Streamlined Operations with Workday Adaptive Planning

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Limiting the Scope of Calculated Accounts

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Both modeled and cubed sheets in Workday Adaptive Planning allow the user to set a scope to limit the calculation for calculated accounts for both actuals and planned data. A user may utilize this feature to allow calculations to start at a certain point, without having to alter the actuals or plan version start date. 

In order to limit the scope of the calculated accounts, you will begin by navigating to the back end of the sheet and go to columns and levels. Once you are at columns and levels, you can press the sheet properties gear in the middle of the screen. 

Once you have navigated to the sheet properties, press the last tab that is titled “Scope.” This is where you will have the option to limit the scope for calculated accounts. 

You now have the ability to set the scope either forward or backwards for actual values or plan values as well. For the actuals, the drop down for the start/stop calculating gives you an option to select start/end of version, month, quarter, year. For the plan, the drop down for start/stop gives you the option of left scroll limit, end of plan, month, quarter, year. 

In the example above, we set the scope so that the plan values do not start until 6 months after the start of the plan. As you can see from the start date, it should start 1/1/2025, but from the row details we can see that the calculations do not begin until July.

Revelwood is more than just a Platinum Workday Adaptive Planning partner — we’re a trusted advisor to the Office of Finance. With 30 years of experience and award-winning expertise, we bring together powerful software, proven best practices and pre-built, ready-to-deploy solutions that accelerate time to value. Our team doesn’t just implement technology — we help finance teams transform the way they plan, analyze and make decisions. Discover how Revelwood can help you get the most out of Workday Adaptive Planning — and achieve results that matter.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Using Integration to Hard Code Calculated Values

Scheduled Report Notifications with Attachments

Data Integration and Creating a Join Table 

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Workday Named a Leader in IDC MarketScape Report for MidMarket Organizations

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Our partner, Workday, has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting Applications for Midmarket Organizations 2024 Vendor Assessment, which was issued in late 2024.

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The IDC study assessed vendors in the worldwide enterprise planning, budgeting and forecasting applications that focus on midmarket organizations. The evaluation is based on a “comprehensive and rigorous framework that assesses each vendor relative to the criteria and to one another.

Vendor requirements to be included in this report included:

  • Have 50% of its enterprise planning, budgeting and forecasting applications revenue from the midmarket segment.
  • Have business operations in two or more regions worldwide.
  • Have market presence and momentum based on IDC inquiry volume.

Download this report to learn why:

  • The latest functionality being added to enterprise planning, budgeting and forecasting applications is AI-/ML- and generative AI (GenAI)-based functionality.
  • Applications continue to be enriched with improvements in collaboration and collective intelligence capabilities
  • Market uncertainty and volatility have increased demand for more robust what-if or scenario planning and analysis capabilities.

Key Highlights on Workday:

Workday is in the Leaders category for this IDC MarketScape for its Workday Adaptive Planning offering.  The report cites Workday’s strengths as:

  • Workday Adaptive Planning is user-friendly for both data modelers and business users.
  • There is a strong ecosystem of implementation partners (like us!).
  • The software is feature-rich, with extensive planning, analytics and data management functionality.

Download your copy of the study today.

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Understanding Drill Down in Web Reporting

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Drill down reporting is a powerful feature in Workday Adaptive Planning Web Reporting. It allows businesses to dive deeper into data for more precise insights. Here’s a quick guide to understanding its benefits and how to use it effectively.

Why Drill Down Reporting is Crucial

  • Uncover Hidden Insights: Identify trends or issues not visible at a high level (Can see variances or changes at children levels, accounts, dimensions and attributes).
  • Better Decision-Making: Understand why performance changes, helping refine strategies.
  • Targeted Reporting: Focus on specific metrics relevant to your department or team (marketing, sales, product, expenses, personnel).

How to Use Drill Down in Web Reporting

1. Go to Web Reporting and click on the “Edit” button on the report you are working on.

2. Select the “Report Properties” gear on the back end of the report.

3. Choose which Adaptive elements you want available for the drill down and click “Apply” (levels, accounts, attributes, dimensions). This also helps clean up the drill down options.

4. Save and run the report and go to the front end and click the component you want to drill.

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5. See the drill down and continue to drill into elements depending on the detail you want.

6. Once you are at the level of drill detail you want, click the “i” to see what your drill down consists of for the intersection of data. Make sure to click the “arrow” after you are done to return to the undrilled down report. DO NOT SAVE AT ANY DRILL DOWN VIEW! This will cause the report structure to change to the saved view.

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Revelwood is more than just a Platinum Workday Adaptive Planning partner — we’re a trusted advisor to the Office of Finance. With 30 years of experience and award-winning expertise, we bring together powerful software, proven best practices and pre-built, ready-to-deploy solutions that accelerate time to value. Our team doesn’t just implement technology — we help finance teams transform the way they plan, analyze and make decisions. Discover how Revelwood can help you get the most out of Workday Adaptive Planning — and achieve results that matter.

Read more Workday Adaptive Planning Tips & Tricks:

Using Integration to Hard Code Calculated Values

Scheduled Report Notifications with Attachments

Workday Adaptive Tips and Tricks: Data Integration and Creating a Join Table 

Home » Workday

Workday Adaptive Planning for Managing Cash Flow

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This post continues our series on how we use Workday Adaptive Planning to solve problems. Each blog post focuses on a real-world client experience where Revelwood was presented with a unique or thorny problem.  We’ll explain our approach to how we solved it.

Revelwood Client: A construction company that prides itself on building homes that “just feel right.” They build quality-made homes across Easter Pennsylvania, in Berks County, Chester County, Lancaster County, Lebanon County and more. 

Problem: Managing Cash Flow

Scenario: Cash flow is one of the biggest challenges facing home builders. A home building company will get a down payment from a client, after which the construction company relies on bank loans per project to cover the labor and material costs until the home is finished and turned over to the new homeowner. It sounds simple – except when faced with variable costs for labor and goods, delays for materials and a multitude of new projects at various levels of completion. This company needed insight into how the increasing costs and delays impact any one project. They also wanted to understand how the sum of the current projects relate to cash flow and the company’s ability to sign contracts with new clients.  

How We Helped: Revelwood integrated Workday Adaptive Planning with MarkSystems Home Builder Software. Revelwood built a cash flow model that incorporates detailed loan information. The cash flow modeling, analysis and reporting solution relies on data sets for “draws.” A draw schedule is a detailed payment plan that determines when a bank will disburse funds to the home building company. The company how has a sophisticated and comprehensive view of cash flow based on projects, payments and milestones. 

Do you have a challenge you’d like to leverage Workday Adaptive Planning for? Reach out to us – we can help!

Read the posts in our series, How We Solve Problems Using Workday Adaptive Planning

How We Solve Problems: Improving the Performance of Workday Adaptive Planning

How We Solve Problems Using Workday Adaptive Planning

Using Workday Adaptive Planning for Headcount Planning

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