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1. In the Data Hub: Create Flat Numbered List with the lowest level of the hierarchy (the Data Hub uses only flat lists – hierarchy will be built in the core model) – e.g., P3 SKU (called: Products Flat New # below – assuming hierarchy being P1 Product Family, P2 Product, P3 SKU) – Include Code and Display Name

2. Create Staging Module (e.g., STG1 Products Flat New Hierarchy) with the newly created list as a dimension

and import P2, P2 Code, P1, P1 Code into the module using a .csv excel or .txt text file.

3. To be able to create the hierarchy in the core model, use the ISFIRSTOCCURRENCE() function (called ‘FC’ below) on each of the desired dimensions

4. To create the hierarchy, start filtering the highest level in the STG1 Staging Module (in this case: P1 FC) for all TRUEs to look like this:

and only show the line items which belong to the P1 hierarchy which are ‘P1’ and ‘P1 Code.’

5. Create a Saved View via View > Save As and give it a name, e.g., ‘Hierarchy Level P1’

6. Navigate to the core model and search for the P1 Hierarchy list, give it a Top Level total and make it a numbered list

7. Open the list, create a new property called ‘Display Name’, click on import and choose ‘Connect to Anaplan Model…’ and search for the desired Data Hub Model, click on ‘Saved View’ and select the newly created saved view.

b. Create a Saved View (this time also including the P1 parent)

c. Navigate to the Core Model and set the P1 Hierarchy Level as the parent of the P2 Hierarchy Level

d. Import the P2 saved view from the Data Hub into the P2 list and remember to map the parent this time

e. The hierarchy should look like below

10. Repeat the steps for further hierarchy levels

a. Filter and create ‘Saved View’

b. Set parent in the core model

c. Import into list using the ‘Connect to Anaplan Model…’ functionality

11. Open the Data Hub model and navigate to Actions

a. Within the ‘Imports’ section you should see the .csv/.txt file used to upload as per chapter 2.

b. Click on ‘New Action’ > ‘Process’ and enter a name for the process.

c. Once done, edit the process and assign the import

Synchronized scrolling enables different grids to scroll at the same time, horizontally and/or vertically.

Synchronized scrolling makes sense when the two grids have the same dimension and/or line items.

Example:

The two grids display different data but have the same dimension ’employee’. In this case, applying synchronized scrolling improves the experience in Anaplan. This assures the same list items, employees in this example, are displayed in both grids. This allows access to the information from both of these grids for the list members shown with just one scroll. It keeps the UX page organized and clean and makes reviewing data for end users easier.

How to enable Synchronized Scrolling?

1. Enter designer mode
2. On any grid card, select the card menu and click on ‘Synchronize scroll’

3. Select ‘pen’ edit icon to edit the new grid group on the right

4. Select the grids to be synchronized by checking the box on each grid

Why?

With such a graph, spotting YoY growth/decline is easier.

How to get there?

In the model:

• Start with a module that shows the data by time (e.g., headcount by month from January 2021 till December 2022). This module will be referenced to as the source module in this documentation.
• Create a new (target) module and create two new line items called ‘Current Year’ and ‘Last Year’:

• The line item ‘Current Year’ refers to the data in the source module
• The line item ‘Last Year’ refers to the line item ‘Current Year’ with an OFFSET formula: OFFSET(Current Year, -12, 0). In this example, the data is offset by -12 months to get the data for the previous 12 months (vs current 12 months)

On the UX page:

• Add a chart card to the UX page and choose the target module as your source
• Apply a filter to this grid card that filters for current year months only

This way the graph will show two lines, with the data of current and last year above/below each other, with the x-axis showing the months of the current year.

List

Modules

To set up a Variance Analysis in Anaplan, we will first need to set up a flat list for our versions (no top level needed) – let’s call it ‘Demo Fake Version’ and insert three list items: Version 1, Version 2 and Version 3.

Next, we will need to create a Data Module – let’s call it ‘Demo Data’ which uses the ‘Demo Fake Version’ list as a dimension and one line item to hold our data – called ‘Data’. For demonstration purposes we have included example data as shown in below grid view.

Using the ‘Demo Data’ Module we will need to create a Line Item Subset to work in our Analysis Module to work with the ‘Collect()’ function as per the documentation here. As the ‘Demo Data’ module only holds the line item ‘Data’, we will only need to choose this one whilst setting up the line item subset. The line item subset will be used as a dimension in the analysis module.

Setting up a Lookup Module

This module will help us control the versions we want to compare in the Analysis Module we will set up next. Note, we are using the ‘Demo Fake Version’ list as the line item’s format, leaving the module’s dimensions blank. We have opted for two selectable versions (out of the three we have originally set up in the ‘Demo Fake Version’ list) as we want to compare two versions in our analysis. If we wished to compare more versions to each other, we would need to set up additional line items (e.g., ‘Third Selectable Version’ etc.) and format them in the same way. These would then also need to be added into the analysis module.

Setting up an Analysis Module

To set up a Variance Analysis Module, let’s call it ‘Demo Analysis’, we have decided to compare two versions (as the user has chosen in the ‘Demo Lookup’ Module) and print out the absolute (line item: ‘B/(W)’) as well as the relative (line item: ‘B/(W) %’) variances.

We will need to create the two line items mentioned above as well as one line item for each Versions’ data – let’s call them ‘First Selected Version’ and ‘Second Selected Version’. Also, we will need to have one line item to pull the data into the ‘Demo Analysis’ Module – let’s call it ‘Collect’ because we will need to use the ‘Collect()’ function here.

As previously mentioned, we will use the line item subset of the ‘Demo Data’ module as the ‘Demo Analysis’ module dimension. Also, we will need to dimension the ‘Collect’ line item by the line item subset ‘LISS_Demo Data’ as well as our ‘Demo Fake Version’ list. This will help us pull all data from the ‘Demo Data’ module into the ‘Demo Analysis’ module. The ‘First Selected Version’ and ‘Second Selected Version’ line items will point to the ‘Collect’ line item and pull exactly the ‘First Selectable Version’ and ‘Second Selectable Version’ from the ‘Demo Lookup’ module using a lookup function.

Flow Visualisation

Summary:

• We have entered inputs into ‘Demo Data’
• We will then be able to choose two versions to compare using ‘Demo Lookup’
• ‘Demo Analysis’ will then check for the selected Versions and print out the numbers entered in the ‘Demo Data’ and also calculate the absolute and relative variances

Example 1: Comparison of Version 1 and Version 2

Example 2: Comparison of Version 2 and Version 3