Opt-in Features

• New Template Mapping UI
• Reference Cube Lines Performance Improvements
• Delta Save – Template(s)
• Template Notes in Offline Planning
  
• Employee Number Lock
• Shared Mode
• Retain Formulas in Shared Mode
• Enhanced Workflow and Automated Task Creation
• Workforce Reporting Enhanced Notifications in Dynamic Reports
• Delta Deletions Through Incremental Cube Processing

New Template Mapping UI

Enabling the New Template Experience opt-in feature streamlines the account mapping process by allowing users to map using roll-up and leaf members directly from the hierarchy. This significantly improves efficiency during template setup, reduces manual effort, and enhances overall usability for Destination, Reference, and History account mappings.

Key Benefits of the New Template Mapping UI

• Faster and easier mapping using roll-up and leaf members directly from the hierarchy.
• History mappings are now supported for destination account lines.
• Copy Down action reduces manual input effort.
• Show errors only toggle helps quickly identify and resolve mapping issues.
• All Lines / Selected Line enhance focus during mapping tasks.
• Direct mapping via Column J simplifies navigation.
• Efficient management through Add, Copy, Edit, and Delete options.

Feature Details

Below are the key enhancements introduced in the New Template Mapping UI to improve speed, accuracy, and ease of use during mapping.

• A new Column J in Template Setup provides direct access to mapping screens:
  • Destination Account
  • Reference Account
  • Reference Cube
    
• Clicking the edit icon opens the respective mapping window for fast configuration.

Flexible Hierarchy Mapping

• Users can select roll-up or leaf members for each segment (e.g., account, department, product).
• Helps reduce the number of lines and simplifies complex mappings.

Destination Account Mapping

• Posting account mappings can be assigned directly from the hierarchy.
• The Clear Mapping option removes all posting mappings for a row.

History Mapping

• Accessible by clicking Add/Edit in the History column.
  
• Supports:
  • Mapping across all lines or just the selected line.
  • Tools like Add Row, Copy, Edit, and Delete.
• Use Copy Down to replicate field values across multiple rows quickly.
  
• The Show errors only toggle filters and highlights problematic row

Reference Account Mapping

• Allows mapping to a reference template with the ability to select hierarchy members per segment.
• Tools similar to history mapping include Add Row, Copy, Edit, Delete, Copy Down, and Error Filtering.
• Follows the same rules: No mixed account member types (e.g., MTD/YTD in the same roll-up).

Reference Cube Lines Performance Improvements

Enabling the Reference Cube Lines Performance Improvements opt-in helps templates open faster, as Reference Cube queries now use direct data members. Simulation run times will also improve as templates with Reference Cube lines retrieve data more efficiently.

Challenges without opt-in

• Opening the template takes more time, as Reference Cube queries must resolve cross-dimensional data.
• Simulations are slow, especially when many users work simultaneously across regions.
• Frequent cube processing for nightly updates further impacts template responsiveness, especially during peak planning windows.

Key benefits when the opt-in is enabled:

• Faster template load times, minimizing user wait times.
• Improved simulation performance due to quicker data access
• Enhances overall user experience in planning templates
• More efficient planning cycles due to smoother interaction with reference data.

Opt-in works only when:

• Templates use default time sets
• Templates are not configured to use the Expedited template loading option
• Time and Scenario are not overwritten in RC line configurations
• Scenario, Compare Scenario Setup: Actual scenario period ranges use the fiscal year start and end periods. For example, Jan to Dec period Start and End range setup as opposed to Jan to Sep or Sep to Dec type of period ranges

Best Practices for Optimal Performance

• Avoid frequent cube processing.
• Limit reference cube lines to under 20 in data input templates. 

Delta Save – Template(s)

Enabling the Delta Save – Template(s) opt-in feature enhances the performance of template save operations by appending only new lines to the database instead of replacing all existing data. This results in faster saves, reduced database load, and improved responsiveness. Users benefit from a smoother workflow with no changes to the current user interface.

Key Benefits

• Appends only new lines, avoiding full data replacement
• Preserves existing data, reducing the chance of accidental loss
• Improves performance, especially for large templates with minimal changes
• Reduces database load by only writing what’s necessary
• Ideal for incremental updates and frequent template changes

Example

Let’s say you have a template that’s already been saved to the database with the following lines:

Current database:

• Product A - $100
• Product B - $200

You now update the template by adding a new line:

• Product C – $300

Without Delta Save

The system saves all lines (A, B, and C) again, replacing existing data — even though only one new line was added.

With Delta Save enabled

• Only Product C is added to the database.
• Products A and B remain unchanged, resulting in a faster, more efficient 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.

Employee Number Lock

The Employee Number Lock feature allows you to lock an employee number when you have employees with several positions. The employee numbers for new employees will automatically be created when this feature is enabled. If you want to change employee information, you must do that outside the Planful application by manually reconciling your data.

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 the 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.

Retain Formulas in Shared Mode

This feature allows you to retain formulas in the Shared mode. When a formula results in zero and you upload the data through DLR, the formula remains the same and is not overwritten by zero.

Enhanced Workflow and Automated Task Creation

The Enhanced Workflow and Automated Task Creation provide Planning Administrators with an enhanced ability to control and organize tasks necessary to complete the planning process. For users, these enhancements offer the ability to systematically complete assigned tasks methodically by tracking and updating workflow actions. If the Workflow functionality remains disabled, the Planning Control Panel will continue operating in line with its current behavior. However, enabling Workflow functionality triggers specific application behaviors:

• Enabling Workflow Setup for a scenario and starting the process activates automated tasks and multiple authorization functionalities.
• If Workflow Setup for a scenario remains disabled, the Planning Control Panel operates as usual without automated tasks and multiple authorization functionalities.

Regardless of whether Workflow Setup is enabled for a scenario or not, Workflow Actions for Templates are activated, allowing access to Forward and Approve actions for templates.

Workforce Reporting Enhanced Notifications in Dynamic Reports

This feature enhances your dynamic reporting process by providing notifications for dynamic reports.  

Delta Deletions through Incremental Cube Processing

This feature improves the efficiency of the Automatic Data Refresh functionality for segment combination deletions by using the Delta_Delete_ICP flag. When this flag is enabled, the system automatically identifies the deleted segment combinations and processes only the deletions incrementally. This helps resolve issues related to reporting performance, errors, and cube processing time.

When segment combination data is deleted, the corresponding values are set to zero. Users can now exclude rows or columns with these zero values in dynamic reports by using the Suppress: Zeros feature.

• Axis Query API Enhancement
• Report Collections Enhancement
• Variable Management Enhancement
• Cascade Enhancement
• Versioned Hierarchy Management
• Write Back with CDT Enhancement 
• Data History Feature in Web and SpotlightXL
• Enhanced Calculations Management Features
• Formula Reference Manager
• Model Restructure

Axis Query API Enhancement

The Axis Query API enhancement introduces a new and improved SP API to retrieve data for views, bringing added functionality and performance improvements to your reporting experience.

With this enhancement enabled, you can now take advantage of the Zoom to Data Leaves action within views for Direct Access (DAP) models—a key feature that was previously unsupported.

Why Enable the Axis Query API?

• Enhanced Functionality: Unlock the ability to zoom directly to data leaves within your views, making it easier to explore granular data in DAP models.
• Improved Data Retrieval: The new SP API provides a more efficient and robust way of fetching data, contributing to better performance and reliability in your analysis workflows.

To use this feature, enable the Axis Query API and experience a more powerful and responsive data exploration process.

Example

You are working on a financial planning view built on a Direct Access (DAP) model. You want to drill down to the most granular level—individual account transactions—for a specific department.

Without Axis Query API Enhancement

You can view summary-level data but not zoom to the data leaf level in DAP models. This limits your ability to perform a detailed analysis directly within the view.

With Axis Query API Enhancement enabled

You can zoom directly to the data leaves, allowing you to explore granular account-level or transaction-level data within your view. This gives you deeper insight without switching tools or running separate queries.

Report Collections Enhancement

The Report Collections enhancement simplifies and automates how you deliver Spotlight and Excel reports to your users—saving time and reducing manual effort.

With this feature, you can now schedule and distribute multiple reports via email to specific users or user groups on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, based on your preferred date, time, and time zone settings.  

Reports in a collection are automatically generated and shared in Excel format, ensuring that end-users always receive the latest report data without needing to request or download it manually.

Why Use Report Collections?

• Automated Report Delivery: Eliminate the need for manual report distribution and reduce the risk of errors by scheduling reports to be sent at regular intervals.
• Improved Accessibility: End-users can access up-to-date report data directly from their inbox, streamlining collaboration and decision-making.
• Flexible Scheduling: Customize distribution times based on business needs across time zones.

Feature Access Requirements:

To use Report Collections, the following conditions must be met:

• The tenant must be Unified (for more details, refer to Unified Tenant).
• The Enable Report Distribution flag must be set to Yes. Please contact Planful Support to enable it.
• The user must have Power User access.

Once enabled, you will find the Report Collections feature available directly within the Reports screen in Dynamic Planning.

Example

Let’s say your Finance team creates weekly sales and expense reports for regional managers.

Without Report Collections

Each report must be run and manually emailed to recipients—every week. This takes time and can lead to missed deadlines or outdated data being shared.

With Report Collections enabled

You can create a report collection that includes the sales and expense reports, schedule it to run every Monday at 8:00 AM, and send it automatically to the regional managers. Each manager receives the latest Excel reports directly in their inbox—no manual steps needed.

Variable Management Enhancement

The Variable Management enhancement introduces a centralized screen that allows Power Users and Contributors to view and update variables across multiple models—making variable handling more efficient and user-friendly.

You can now manage variables directly from the Variable Management screen, which displays all variables defined across the application, grouped by model and calculation. You can also navigate to specific artifacts using built-in hyperlinks for easier access and faster updates.

Why Use Variable Management?

• Centralized Control: View and update all defined variables across different models and calculations in one place.
• Flexible Updates: Update individual variables manually by assigning a new value, or perform bulk updates for multiple calculations within a single model.
• Smart Filtering: The variable list is dynamically generated based on your model and calculation selections, helping you focus only on relevant variables.
• Intelligent Input Options: Select new values from drop-downs, including dimension members or substitution variables—ensuring consistent and accurate updates.
• Access Control: Power Users have full access to all models. Contributor Users can view and update variables only for the models they have permission to access.

This enhancement streamlines variable updates, especially in complex planning environments, reducing manual effort and improving consistency across your models.

To use this feature, navigate to the Variable Management screen from your application menu.

Example

Let’s say your planning environment includes multiple models—Sales Forecast, Expense Planning, and Workforce Planning—all of which use a shared variable called CurrentMonth.

Without Variable Management Enhancement

You need to update the CurrentMonth variable separately in each model, navigating through different screens and calculations. This is time-consuming and increases the chance of inconsistent updates.

With Variable Management Enhancement enabled

You can view all occurrences of CurrentMonth across all models in one centralized screen. From there, you can update the value once, or perform a bulk update across multiple calculations—ensuring accuracy and saving time.

Cascade Enhancement

The Cascade Enhancement improves the performance and clarity of cascade reports by refining how suppressed rows are handled—helping reduce report size and streamline your reporting experience.

When the Cascade Enhancement flag is enabled (set to True), the system will remove suppressed rows entirely from the report, rather than simply hiding them. This reduces the total number of cells rendered, helping you stay within report cell guardrails and improving report efficiency.

Why Enable the Cascade Enhancement?

• Optimized Performance: Removing unused rows reduces report size and rendering time, making your reports faster and more efficient.
• Cleaner Output: Suppressed rows are fully removed rather than hidden, resulting in a cleaner and more concise report layout.
• Improved Cell Management: With fewer cells in the report, you’ll stay well within system limits, especially when working with large data sets.

Additionally, the system ensures that cells containing formulas but no data are still displayed properly—providing clarity and consistency in your report output.

To support this behavior, a new attribute called removeInnerBlockRows is introduced. It is set to true by default, so even if not explicitly added, the system will automatically apply the enhancement.

To use this feature, enable the Cascade Enhancement flag from the Design Manager in SpotlightXL. 

Example

Let’s say you create a cascade report to display regional sales data, but several regions have no activity for the selected period.

Without Cascade Enhancement

Rows for those inactive regions are hidden, but still present in the report. This increases the total number of cells rendered and can push your report closer to system cell limits—slowing performance.

With Cascade Enhancement enabled

The system fully removes suppressed rows for regions with no activity. The result is a leaner report that renders faster and avoids unnecessary use of cell capacity—while still displaying all relevant formulas and data clearly.

Cascade view in Design

Cascade view in Run

Versioned Hierarchy Management

The Versioned Hierarchy Management enhancement gives you greater flexibility and control when updating hierarchies—without the need to lock or clear the model.

When this flag is enabled, you can:

• Create up to ten versions of a hierarchy
• Publish or delete hierarchy versions as needed
• Make hierarchy updates without interrupting model access or requiring a model lock

This means you can manage and refine your hierarchies more efficiently, with minimal disruption to your planning process.

Why Versioned Hierarchy Management?

• No More Locking Required: Update hierarchies without locking or clearing the model—saving time and maintaining model accessibility only for unpublished hierarchy. 
• Version Control: Create, manage, and publish multiple versions of a hierarchy, allowing for safe iteration and better collaboration.
• Smarter Updates: Make changes confidently, knowing you can revert or publish the right version at the right time.

To use this improved functionality, enable the Versioned Hierarchy Management flag in your system settings.

Example

Let’s say your team is preparing for a reorganization of cost centers. You want to test a new hierarchy structure without interrupting current planning activities.

Without Versioned Hierarchy Management

You must lock or clear the model before making any hierarchy changes, which can disrupt ongoing work and delay planning.

With Versioned Hierarchy Management enabled 

You can create a new version of the cost center hierarchy, update and validate it, and then publish it when ready—without locking the model or affecting other users. Meanwhile, planning can continue as usual using the existing published version.

Write Back with CDT Enhancement

The Write Back with CDT enhancement improves performance during data aggregation and write-back processes by focusing only on changed data cells, rather than processing the entire dataset.

When this flag is enabled, the system will identify and work with only the modified data—resulting in faster and more efficient updates when writing back to PCR (Planning Calculation Repository) or during aggregation.

Why Enable Write Back with CDT?

• Performance Boost: Only changed cells are considered during write-back and aggregation, reducing processing time and resource usage.
• Smarter Data Handling: Eliminates unnecessary processing of unchanged data, streamlining calculation steps.
• Optimized Workflow: Ideal for models with large datasets where performance and speed are key.

Example

Let’s say your team updates sales targets in a model with thousands of data points across multiple regions and time periods.

Without Write Back with CDT

The system processes every data cell, whether it has changed or not. This can slow down write-back operations, especially in large models.

With Write Back with CDT enabled

Only cells that have changed—such as updated sales targets—are included in the write-back process. This results in much faster execution and lower system resource usage while ensuring accuracy.

Data History Feature in Web and SpotlightXL

Effortlessly track user activity at the cell level for data leaves across the web application and Excel Spotlight with the new Data History feature. This functionality helps teams stay aligned by enabling users to understand previous edits. It enhances data integrity, compliance, and accountability by unifying audit trails for user activities and data changes across both the web application and Excel Spotlight.

Data History is specifically designed for Analytical and Master Models, prioritizing tracking changes in critical workflows. Users can instantly view the last 10 changes made to any data cell and access granular cell-level tracking within Excel Spotlight for enhanced visibility.

It can also be used for an audit trail to track user activities and data changes across the web application and Excel Spotlight. The audit trail data is presented in an accessible, filterable view, allowing users to sort and analyze changes by user, date, action type, and source.

The Data History feature records several key features for each data change:

• The username or ID of the user making the change.
• The specific data element or record changed.
• The exact timestamp of the change.
• The previous value of the data element.
• The updated value of the data element.
• The type of action performed (e.g., created, edited, deleted, approved).
• The source of the change, whether it originated from the web application or Excel Spotlight.

In Dynamic Planning Web, click the Data History button to view the full visibility into the type of action performed.

In SpotlightXL, click the Data History button to view the last 10 changes made to any data cell.

Enhanced Calculations Management Features

We’ve made major enhancements to Dynamic Planning that will make managing user’s calculations more seamless and efficient. Introducing Renaming and Deleting Calculations features, designed to give users more control and flexibility over their modeling workflows and improve collaboration with clear, relevant naming for better team understanding.
Users can access the Rename and Delete features by navigating to Model > Select Subtask > Calculation. Right-click on the calculation from the file cabinet to rename or delete the calculation.

Rename Calculations

Users can easily correct typos or improve clarity in calculation names without impacting functionality. Rename calculations to create clearer, more descriptive names and maintain an organized model structure, enhancing team collaboration.

Delete Calculations

Users can effortlessly remove outdated or duplicate calculations to streamline their models and enhance efficiency. Eliminate unnecessary calculations to maintain a cleaner, more precise, and collaborative modeling environment.

Formula Reference Manager

The Formula Reference on the Model Formula page streamlines the creation of multi-dimensional formulas. Use the Reference Manager to specify a dimensional intersection from any Model dimension. This improvement enables you to reference necessary dimension members' intersections while defining formulas easily. It simplifies the process of creating multi-dimensional formulas within the Modeling Cloud.

Access the Model Formula by navigating to Model > Formula. You can define a reference by copying and pasting the Exchange Rate from the Formula Design to the Formula Member. Then, access Reference Manager through the Formula Reference cell. For more information, click here.

Model Restructure - Data Storage Partitioning

Dynamic Planning initiates a restructuring operation whenever you modify a hierarchy, including adding or moving members or sub-hierarchies. Depending on the model's size and configuration, this operation can be time-consuming (taking four or more hours). We have enhanced the restructuring process to significantly increase the speed when modifying hierarchies in large dimensions and models. The process is now optimized for completion in under 4 hours, requiring no additional configuration. If the model is generated and you wish to update the hierarchy, lock the model and proceed to update the hierarchy. 

Optionally, you can choose to enable a Data Storage Partitioning enhancement. This is an opt-in feature and will only be activated for select customers based on their use case. This enhancement divides the internal model storage, segregating leaf-level and rollup-level data. This segregation improves the performance of certain operations, such as running a hierarchy update or executing a map.

Automatic Data Refresh

The Automatic Data Refresh functionality automatically processes the data in case of any updates in templates or data posting via standard or dynamic journals. This avoids manual processing of data. The functionality applies only to the Financial cube. For more information, click here.

Dashboards Opt-in Features

Dashboards Administration Workforce Reporting Access for Dashboards

If the configuration is enabled, the administrator can control access to WFP data in reports and dashboards. If disabled (default), all users can access all data, including WFP, based on report and dashboard security.

To provide users with access to Workforce Reporting, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Admin > User Management.
   
   
2. Select a user.
    
   
3. Click the Security Options icon.
   
   
4. Select Workforce Reporting Access.
    
   
5. Select a user or user group in the Unmapped Users/User Groups pane.
   
   
6. Click the forward arrow. The selected user/user group will appear in the Mapped Users/User Groups pane.
   
   
7. Click the Save icon.
   
   

• Asynchronous processing for export data
• Custom URL
• Data Load Missing Segment Member

Asynchronous processing for export data

Export Data is handled asynchronously in all newly configured applications, enhancing the application's performance by processing requests with a quick response time. Processing Export Data requests with large data sets synchronously can negatively impact the application's performance. To improve efficiency and experience, enabling asynchronous processing is recommended for your application.

Custom URL

Planful customers have the option to establish a personalized URL for their Planful application. For instance, a customized Planful URL could be configured as xyz.planful.com. For more information, click here.

Data Load Missing Segment Member

This feature, available by request, eliminates data load failures due to missing segment members. Missing segments represent those that are not available in the Planful system but are available in the data files loaded to Planful. For example, during a web service file load, the load will fail if Planful encounters segment members not in the system. However, you may now use this opt-in feature, which automatically adds missing segment members.

For instance, let's consider a 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 were created/added. At this point, you may modify the added Account X's default properties and position it properly within the tree structure. Then, rerun the Data Load Rule so 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 > Administration > Security Administration page.

• Adra SSO
• Google Drive Native Integration
• SFTP Native Integration
• Planful Connector for Power BI

Adra SSO

The Account Reconciliation feature empowers customers to expedite and enhance their planning and decision-making processes, providing a fully integrated solution. It accelerates the end-to-end Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A), consolidation, and accounting close processes within a seamlessly coordinated environment, fostering faster and more confident decision-making. For more information, click here.

Google Drive Native Integration

Enabling this feature helps you to load GL, and translation data from Google Drive to the Planful application. For more information, click here. 

SFTP Native Integration

For SFTP Native Integration, you must activate the EnableSftpDataLoads flag and gain access to the FTP/SFTP option. For more information, click here.

Planful Connector for Power BI

Enabling this feature helps you to connect Planful with Power BI to load Finance, Dynamic Planning’s analytical model and Workforce data to generate insightful dashboards and analytical reports within Power BI. Users can extract Planful cube data and metadata, including financial metrics, actuals, and plan data. To learn more, click here.

Predicted Hide Old Signal Mode

This flag enables the option to hide closed periods or old signals. The value for this flag can be either 0 or 1, where 0 signifies that the flag is disabled.

Alternate and Dated Hierarchies

Alternate Hierarchy

The Alternate Hierarchy opt-in feature allows organizations to create and manage hierarchies related to specific dimension members. For example, organizations can create one alternate hierarchy per cost center, such as for management reporting, division reporting, or legal entity reporting. This allows summarizing specific members of a dimension for more granular reporting needs.

Key Benefits

• Customize reporting views by grouping specific members of a dimension in different ways.
• Use source hierarchy data across multiple hierarchies, eliminating data duplication and providing different reporting perspectives without altering the original structure.

To learn more about creating alternate hierarchies, click here. 

Dated Hierarchy

The Dated Hierarchy is a type of an alternate hierarchy. This hierarchy type allows organizations to create and manage multiple versions of hierarchies across different periods. For example, Product A merged into a new product line in January 2025. Users can create reports on both product hierarchies and assess the financial impact of this merger.

Key Benefits

• Manage historical and current organizational structures by creating and maintaining multiple versions of hierarchies that reflect changes over time.
• Generate time-specific reports by using different hierarchy versions to compare how organizational changes impact financials across periods.

To learn more about creating dated hierarchies, click here.