Planning Template Design Best Practices

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Article Summary

This article provides a complete, step-by-step guide to applying planning template design best practices. It explains how to configure input years, manage scenarios, and optimize template structure, covers key settings like template sizing, reference lines, global fields, and simulation processing, and helps planners efficiently improve performance and maintain scalable templates, ensuring fast, consistent user experience across Structured Planning.

eddy_summary: Learn best practices for designing efficient and scalable planning templates in Structured Planning.
eddy_keywords: planning templates, template design best practices, input years configuration, scenario partitions, template size, reference lines, global fields, simulation processing, Structured Planning
eddy_intent: Informational
eddy_module: Structured Planning
eddy_synonyms:
template design = template optimization, template performance tuning, template structure best practices
planning scenarios = scenario partitions, scenario configuration
simulation processing = automated processing, driver-based processing
eddy_questions:
- What are best practices for designing planning templates?
- How many lines a template can have??
- How many input years or scenarios should I configure for optimal performance?
- How do reference lines and template size impact template efficiency?
- What guidelines exist for using global fields or simulation processing?

To ensure sustained template performance for your end users, follow the below recommendations that can guide you in making the most optimal choice when setting up templates. Feel free to contact Planful Customer Success for a review and advice when in doubt.

Budget Input Years Configuration

This is crucial in your template planning process and drives the application's performance.

Recommendations: 

  • Consider your planning horizon while deciding on the configuration. 

  • Keep the typical planning input configuration to 2 to 3 input years. 

  • Set up to five input years. Consult Planful Customer Success if you want to set more than five input years.

Scenarios

Keep planning scenarios to a minimum for consistent performance.

Recommendations: 

  • Maintain fewer than 8 scenario partitions for Reporting and 25 for planning.

  • Ensure to delete unused or test scenarios.

Templates

Keep the template size in check, as it impacts the performance of your template opening and saving.

Recommendations:

  • Manage the template size to maximum 400 lines for optimal performance.

  • Re-evaluate templates exceeding 1000 lines.

  • Consult with Planful for design review and optimization.

  • Delete unnecessary or unused templates.

  • Minimize the usage of Reference Account and Reference Cube lines.

  • Use attributes and calculations sparingly.

  • Limit the number of columns. Hiding columns does not improve performance.

  • In block templates, use 10-line blocks for optimal efficiency. Learn more about block templates here.

  • In block templates, enable the Detach All upon Exit option for templates with multiple blocks for efficient opening and saving.

Template Line Mapping With Wildcard (%)

Recommendations:

Utilize '%' wildcards where possible instead of All mappings for history in Destinations and Reference Account mappings to enhance template opening efficiency. For more information, click here.

Reference Cube (RC) Lines 

The template's performance may vary when there are Reference Cube (RC) lines. Template open times can be affected or fluctuate due to Cube processing frequency and performance. Exercise caution and be judicious when adding Reference Cube (RC) lines.

Recommendations:

  • Keep the number of RC lines under 20.

  • Consider creating a separate template that is calc-only and not for regular user input in case of more Reference Cube or Reference Account lines.

  • Run this template via the Cloud Scheduler using the Simulation process at specific schedules.

Global Fields

Recommendations:

  • Maximum of 500 global fields per application for driver-based planning.

  • Aim for 10 global drivers per template and keep the total global drivers to 50 for optimal performance.

Simulation Processing

Use Simulation Engine for automated driver-based template and budget-entity processing.

Recommendations:

  • Consider mapping to 200 to 300 template-entity combinations per process.

  • If running concurrent simulations, limit to 2-3 at a time to maintain optimal application performance.

  • Use Cloud scheduler for process flows and space them appropriately to sequence the processing. Consult Planful for optimal setup and scheduling guidance.