Opt-In Features and Functions

Planning

Template Performance (I.D. UserDeltaSave)

To improve template performance, save modified template data only (instead of all template data) for Global Templates and Allocation template types.

Employee Number Lock

With this feature you can lock an employee number. You might want to use this feature when you have employees with several positions. Employee numbers for new employees will automatically be created once this feature is opened. If you wish to change employee information, you must do so outside of Planful. You must also manually reconcile your data.

Consider Position Start Date for Prorated Tax Calculation

This feature allows you to consider an employee’s Position Start Date while calculating the prorated tax for a financial year of an employee. This is applicable only for the Workforce Planning Template. This feature is enabled by default for new customers. Existing customers can contact Planful Support to enable it.

Retain Formulas in Shared Mode

This feature allows you to retain formulas in Shared mode. When the result of a formula is zero and you upload the data through DLR, the formula is retained and is not overridden by zero.

Shared Mode

This feature allows you to share data between multiple Global Template - Single Copy (GTSC) templates. If changes are made to a GTSC template within an account, with Shared mode enabled, this data is updated for all other GTSC templates within that account.

This feature is not recommended for existing tenants because it may corrupt the existing data.

Task Manager

Stay organized and collaboratively streamline your planning process with Task Manager. Task Manager provides a personalized checklist of tasks to better manage your planning or consolidation process.

You must contact Planful Support so that they can enable server-side properties.

Then follow these steps to provide users with Navigation Access to Task Manager.

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Admin > User Management.
2. Select Navigation Role.
3. Select the user’s Navigation Role and click Navigate Access.
4. Select the Task Manager checkbox and click Save.

Template Notes in Offline Planning

This feature allows you to view all notes associated with a template in one consolidated location in Offline Planning.

View Formulas in a Template

This feature allows you to view formulas in a Template. By default, you can view only the data in a template. When this feature is enabled, you can view formulas associated with the data.

This feature is enabled by default for new customers. Existing customers can contact Planful Support to enable it.

Maximum Number of Lines per Block in a Block Template

This feature allows you to control the number of lines per block in a Block template.

My Plan

A robust, yet easy-to-use Planning solution for the casual business user, where users can carry out all budgeting tasks for human resources, capital expenditures, forecasts, and budgets from one centralized interface, without the help of administrators. The interface, called MyPlan, can be customized to display specific charts and accounts so that Planning users can quickly report and perform various tasks related to budgeting and forecasting.

Workforce Actuals 

You can load employee actuals to Workforce Planning at the Employee and Account level for reporting Variance Analysis. This will help to significantly reduce the manual work at the start of every month to update forecasts for Employee Actuals vs. Planned Variance.

This feature will allow you to perform the following:

• Use the Actual Scenario to store Workforce Actuals data by month/period depending on your tenant configuration
• Use Data Load Rule imports to load Actuals into Workforce Planning
• Delete loaded actuals by month to re-import in case of any mistakes

Offline Planning

This functionality is available on an opt-in basis at no charge. These opt-in features and functions differ from the paid-for opt-in services (such as the Key Performance Indicator Data Service, Benchmarking, and so on). Please contact Planful Support to enable this feature.

Offline Planning provides various functionalities so that you can:

• Open and download templates (GTSC) in Offline mode.
• Refresh data from the online application.
• Synchronize changes or save data back to the Planful application.
• Open multiple templates of a selected budget entity and scenario in Microsoft Excel.

Reporting

Enhanced Drill Through in Dynamic Reports

Drill through functionality in Dynamic Reports is available for the Financial Reporting Area. In addition to current drill capabilities to view transactions and translations, you can drill to template lines, sublines and capital details for your budgets and forecast.

This drill through functionality provides users with the ability to view and analyze all financial, operational, capital, transactional data from a single place.

From a drill through report, you can view details for a single or multiple templates. All Financial dimensions, the corresponding currency, and amounts for each period are displayed in the drill through report for all modules and templates. Columns displayed in the drill through report are dependent on the module and the template accessed by the user. Source dimensions are displayed for Translations and dates are displayed for Transactions. Budget Entity, Template Lines, Sublines, Notes are displayed in drill through for all Global Template Single Copy Planning templates. Empty columns are suppressed.

All values displayed in a drill through report inherit data format (decimals, thousand separators, scale etc.) from their parent cell.

Calculated members, calculations, advanced rules, excel formulas, formula exceptions, rank, pivot are not supported in drill through reports.

The following table displays the artifacts that can be drilled through when used in a Dynamic Report.

Here is an example of drill through from a Dynamic Report to Translations and Transactions data.

Here is an example of drill through to Planning and Capital template data. Header data is displayed. Click Operational Planning or Capital Planning to display associated data. For Capital Planning, Asset Name and Category data is displayed.

In Practice:

To drill through a Dynamic Report to display template data, complete the following steps:

1. Access a Dynamic Report.

2. Double-click on a cell within the Dynamic Report. Another screen appears. The properties of the cell are displayed in the header portion. Data is displayed for the intersection.

3. The related data for the cell is displayed. Click the Settings icon to select columns to show or hide. Additionally, you can show/hide columns in Operational and Capital Planning where the data will be aggregated based on segment/dimension combinations.

4. Optionally, export the data to Excel by selecting Output > Export to Excel. Filter the data and select the double up or down arrows to display header details.

Important Details:

• Drill Through is enabled for Financial reporting area only.

• Drill Through works with dimensions, report sets, attributes, attribute hierarchies, alternate hierarchies.

• For QTD, YTD measures, drill through data is displayed from the beginning of the period to the current period.

• Data honors the formatting from the source cell and the user locale.

• All transaction amounts are displayed in Common Currency irrespective of the reporting dimension applied on the report/source cell. Transaction data exists only for Actual Scenarios.

• Operational and Capital Planning data is displayed in Local Currency irrespective of the reporting dimension applied on the report/source cell. Operational Planning data exists only for Budget/Forecast scenarios.

• In the Operational Planning tab, when you turn off Sublines or Lines, the report is re-rendered, which removes the associated rows and columns associated. If both lines and sublines are turned off, data is aggregated at the Doc Ref (Template) level. If Doc Ref is turned off, data is aggregated for the unique segment and currency combination.

• In the Capital Planning tab, when you turn off Asset, the report is re-rendered, which removes the rows and columns associated and the data is aggregated for Asset Category. If Asset and Category are turned off, data is aggregated at the Doc Ref (Template) level. If Doc Ref is turned off, data is aggregated for the unique segment and currency combination.

• When you export a drill through report, all sources are exported to Excel. Each source on the drill through report becomes a tab in the Excel workbook.

• The Drill Through report allows a maximum of 30K rows per source.

Financial Reporting Area Processing in the Cloud

Quick processing of Financial scenarios can be performed in the cloud, which means you can continue working while the processing takes place. Once complete, a notification appears and an email is sent.

Although you can process a reporting area from 3 interfaces in Planful (the Scenario Process button in the ribbon, the Cube Status page, and the Dimension Status page), cloud processing is enabled for the Scenario Process button in the ribbon.

To process a Financial reporting area in the cloud:

1. Single-click the Scenario Process button.

2. Select Send e-mail notification to receive an e-mail message once processing is complete.

3. Select a scenario by clicking the check-box next to the scenario name.

4. Click Process Now.

Once you click Process Now, a job is automatically created in Job Manager and the audit log is updated with user details, time of execution, scenario name, and other details to identify the job and the user launching the process.

Understanding Processing Sequence

Workforce Reporting

Workforce Reporting enables structured, ad hoc analysis of workforce planning dimensions and measures. Workforce Reporting is integrated into the application as a Reporting Area, allowing you to report on employee-specific compensation and other financial dimensions, such as:

• Head count analysis

• Variance analysis

• Payroll analytics

• Requisitions for hire

• Promotion tracking

See the Report Administration Guide for more information.

Currency Display

Provides you the ability to display a currency value (such as EURO) aside from LC or CC (Local Currency or Common Currency) in a Dynamic report. Displaying the currency value in a Dynamic Report improves usability and report interpretation.

See Reports and the File Cabinet for more information.

Spotlight Web Reporting

Spotlight Web Reporting provides the ability to run multiple reports in Spotlight by adding tabs, provides more support for different types of charts, is delivered with a standard font, and provides quick math function functionality.

See the Spotlight User Guide - Report Task for more information.

Spotlight Enhancements to Views

Spotlight View enhancements include the ability to have multiple views open at once, ability to zoom in and out options simplified, and an upgraded toolbar and grid technology.

See the Spotlight User Guide - Analyze Task for more information.

Consolidation

Alternate and Dated Hierarchies

Dated Hierarchies are available when Alternate Hierarchies are opted in.

Alternate hierarchies provide information on a segment of your hierarchy and in some cases only certain members of that segment (based on how you set up the hierarchy). Alternate hierarchies use the same set of books for the alternate hierarchy and the segment the alternate hierarchy is based off.

With Dated Hierarchies, you can manage a hierarchy based on periods, allowing you to create a new version of a hierarchy and take a snapshot of the existing version. This hierarchy is useful when you need to manage multiple versions of hierarchies which exist during different periods in time and you need to generate reports using different versions of organizational hierarchies which represent different reporting positions of individual entities.

For detailed information, see the Hierarchy Management Admin Guide.

Sibling Hierarchies for Multiple Set of Books (MSOB)

For MSOB, you will create a sibling hierarchy (to the main hierarchy versus a segment only). You might use MSOB when you need to provide financial statements for GAAP as well as IFRS.

For detailed information, see the Hierarchy Management Admin Guide.

Dynamic Planning

Writeback Map Enhancement

Dynamic Planning models have the ability to track the leaf level data which is changed. Changes to the data can happen from various sources like users changing the data from a view, or report or users loading the data, or users running a map, or users loading the data. In all these cases, the leaf level data is marked as dirty. Next time when you run an aggregation if change data tracking for a given model is enabled then the aggregation engine will only aggregate the data that has changed (i.e. data that needs to be aggregated vs. aggregating entire data).

When you run writeback maps, the data will be moved from Dynamic Planning to Structured Planning based on map definition. You can move the data based on the map from Dynamic Planning to Structured Planning instead of moving the entire data. When you are working with large volumes of data and only a few data records have changed, then this approach will significantly improve the writeback map performance as it’s only moving the data that has changed.

In terms of tracking the data that’s changing, the writeback process will use an individual cell. The data block will be defined based on the key dimensions of the model and even one cell within the data block is changed so that the entire block will be considered as changed. The change data tracking functionality for writeback where the tracking of individual cells is optimized. Tracking the changes at the individual cell level optimizes the writeback process. You must have one writeback map step in the calculation.

Please reach out to the Planful customer support team to enable this functionality.

Data Locking

The Data Locking page provides a way to specify data in one or more models that should be locked. Data locks protect data from being overwritten by data entry, Breakback, formulas, and calculations. Data locking differs from dimension security in the following ways:

• Data that is locked is visible to the user but cannot be modified by anyone. Data locking is global.

• Data that is protected with dimension security is not visible to the user and cannot be modified by the user. Dimension security is specific to the users for which it is defined.

See the Data Locking topic for more detailed information.

Support for Translations in Write Back

You can create a Model with Source Segments, map them to the Financial Model and write back to PCR (Planning, Consolidation, Reporting) using a Translations Data Load Rule. The write back map allows you to include Source dimensions as shown in the following example.

• Source Dimension must be a dimension from the source model.

• Attributes are not supported.

• You must select AllMembers, MemberAndBelow, LeafMembers or FixedMember as the value Source Filter.

• The values for Target Dimension, Target Filter, and Target Value must be None.

Additionally, it is not required to map all the PCR dimensions in the Target Dimension column. You can skip them by selecting the No Translation for Unmapped Target Segments check box in the Data Load Rule Write Back ID In this example (image above) the Data Load Rule type is Translations and Account and subAccount are the source dimensions in the MasterModelForWriteback for which the Translations are setup within PCR (shown in the image below). You can map Source dimensions using Translation Setup.

For more information on DLR and Translation Setup, refer to the Data Integration Admin Guide and Translations Setup.

The image below displays the Transaction lines for the segments. In this example, two Source Dimensions are merged and mapped to the target; Account and subAccount Source Dimensions are mapped to Account. When you load data for the 28 DYN Incomeaccount Source dimension and 28 DYNIncomeSubAcc subAccount for the WritebackDLRTranslations model and running write back, the Account DNY_Account1 in PCR gets updated automatically.

See How to Write Data Back From Dynamic Planning to PCR.

Enable Aggregation Performance Flag

You must contact the customer support team to enable the aggregation performance flag in your application.

Once the aggregation performance flag is enabled in your application, perform the following:

• Log into your application.

• Go to the Model Setup screen, and set the ‘Enable Aggregation Performance’ property to ‘Yes.’

This property can be enabled even for models with Change Data tracking enabled; that is, the aggregation performance improvement can be enabled irrespective of whether the model has Change Data tracking or not.

If you have multiple models in the application and need to enable aggregation performance for all models, one option is to manually enable it from the Model setup screen. Another option is to request the support team to enable it from the backend.

Once you enable the flag in the Model screen, the Aggregation function that previously used the old algorithm will now run with the new algorithm. You can choose which model you want to enable for the same Tenant.

This change enhances the Aggregation Performance and significantly reduces the time previously taken for aggregation.

In Practice: To enable the Enable Performance Flag in SpotlightXL

1. Open SpotlightXL, go to Model Setup screen.

2. Now, navigate to the Enable Aggregation Performance property, and select Yes from the drop-down options.

Maintenance

Additional Web Service Access Authentication

SSO support applies to Web Services. In addition to SSO support, there is a new enhancement, which requires a valid Planful user ID (Login) for Web Services access.

Access the Web Service Access page by navigating to Maintenance > Configuration Tasks, and click Web Service Access. Currently, Web Service Access configuration allows you to enter any value for Login and Password fields. With this update, for security purposes, you must enter a valid Planful user ID (Login).

The Login and Password fields are not available to ensure that only valid Planful users (with valid a login and password) have access to Web Services.

Performance Improving Partitioning Functionality (I.D. open_FACT_GL_PARTITION)

Performance depends on the data volumes by scenario and the overall size of the FACT_GL table. By partitioning the table, performance is improved.

Data Load Cloud Processing

This functionality allows all GL Data and Translation data loads (set up using Data Load Rule functionality) to be automatically updated and processed in the cloud.

Missing Segments/Data Load Failure Elimination

This feature is available by request, which eliminates data load failures due to missing segment members. Missing segments represent those that are not in Planful, but exist in the data files loaded to Planful. For example, during a web service file load, if Planful encounters segment members that are not in the system, the load will fail. However, you may now take advantage of this feature, which adds missing segment members automatically. For now, this setting can only be opened by Support. Please contact Planful Support if you would like to take advantage of this feature.

How it Works:

Let's say segment member Account X exists in a data file you are loading to Planful. However, Account X is considered "missing" because it does not exist in Planful. With this feature, the system (Planful) will add Account X with default properties. Upon completion (of the data load), you will receive an email indicating which segment members where created/added. At this point, you may modify the default properties of the added Account X as well as position it properly within the tree structure. Then, rerun the Data Load Rule so that all data loads as intended.

To ensure that the account properties can be changed, enable “Enforce changing the account properties when the data is available” on the Maintenance - Security Administration page.

This feature works for all dimensions apart from the Legal Entity. If Legal Entity's are missing, no other missing segment members will be added.

Dynamic Dimension Security

Dynamic Dimension Security significantly improves Dynamic Reports performance and is available on an opt-in basis. (If Workforce Reporting is turned on, Dynamic Dimension security is enabled by default.) This feature is applicable for the Financial and Workforce Reporting Areas.

• If dimension security is turned on, but user access is not provided for the respective dimensions, the following message will appear:

"You are not authorized to access the Reporting Area.
 Contact your System Administrator.”

• If access is provided to the user on the main hierarchy, access to the corresponding leaf members in the alternate hierarchy is automatic if dimension security is turned on. Alternate hierarchies have automatic permissions if Copy Budget Entity Security is selected on the Dimension Security Configuration page.

• If access is provided to the user on a member within the main hierarchy, access is automatic to view the calculated members that are defined using the member on which the access is turned on in the dimension tree. However, the data calculation is displayed in the report for calculated members only if the user has access to all the members that are used in the calculated member rule. If the user does not have access to at least one member applied on the rule, the report is run successfully and an empty line is returned for the calculated line. This behavior is applicable only if dimension security is turned on.

• If all attributes are selected, it applies only to those dimensions for which attributes are mapped and ignores the ones which are not mapped.