Variance reporting is core to all FP&A reporting packs yet it is devilishly tricky to create decent looking reports in Anaplan...Here's how we do it!
Variance reporting is core to all FP&A reporting packs yet it is devilishly tricky to create decent looking reports in Anaplan...Here's how we do it!
Scenario planning in Anaplan is often poorly conceived and badly designed with execution falling well short of expectations.
Scenario planning in Anaplan is often poorly conceived and badly designed with execution falling well short of expectations. With limited to no formal best practice in place we find that the reality almost always fails to live up to the promise.
What have we learnt that causes FP&A leaders to loose their sh!t over their Anaplan modelling?
After more model health checks than we can remember and dozens of interviews with prospective, current and future clients these are the things that really grind their gears when it comes to their Anaplan projects.
🔸 Excessive mappings tables
🔸 Over extended core hierarchies
🔸 Lack of dimensionality
🔸 Flat reporting
🔸 Counterintuitive modelling structures
Workspace capacity constraints are major issue for most Anaplan model designs. So, what can we do to minimise or mitigate the issue?
Here are a few design ideas we have implemented while working to redesign, redevelop and rebuild several large enterprise wide FP&A models for some of our global clients.
Twins are pretty rare. But we find they come in handy in our Anaplan modelling.
Twin lists or sometimes referred to as aliases or parallel lists are multiple individual lists which share a set of common properties and are therefore connected.
We have found that the most common uses for twin lists are the following…
Anaplan projects for FP&A fail when the model infrastructure has not been designed to be a natural fit with the model import data.
Anaplan projects for FP&A fail when the model infrastructure has not been designed to be a natural fit with the model import data. We have learnt this over the course of many health checks and model refurbs having seen the same mistakes made repeatedly across all sectors.
When building your lists and hierarchies in Anaplan what types should you use - flat, ragged or balanced?
When building your lists and hierarchies in Anaplan what types should you use - flat, ragged or balanced?
All of them!
FP&A in Anaplan can become very large, very quickly.
FP&A models powered by Anaplan can become very large, very quickly. This is especially true when we look to retain access to prior forecasts and/or large libraries of prior year data. So how can we do it without adversely impacting model performance? Through archiving.
We are not a fan of the fabled 'User Story'!
We are not a fan of the fabled 'User Story'! Other consultancies and even Anaplan advocate using them. But are they not more like 'love stories' than a set of detailed user requirements?
What did we discover are the key reasons Anaplan for FP&A projects fail?
We have carried out quite a few Anaplan health checks, reviews and assessments since launching in December 2021. Where the initial launch was less than stellar models shared the following common traits.