Planning Analytics

 View Only

 Data spread option by Working days

Tina Korinčić's profile image
Tina Korinčić posted Wed September 03, 2025 06:04 AM

We received a request from the client asking if it is possible to have a data spread option where the annual total amount is entered and then spread across months in such a way that the annual amount is multiplied by the share of working days in the month in the total number of working days in the year.

We cannot set this up as a rule because this is just one of the spread options they want to use. We also cannot use data spread relative proportional and reference another cube containing working days, since the consolidations are not the same (Spreading data using a relative proportion - IBM Documentation)

If we want to use the data spread option and refer to the same cube, then we would need to input the number of working days into the same cube, and this would have to be done across all intersections, which significantly impacts memory.

On the other hand, if we want users to perform the spread through a process, this is impractical and rather complicated for them to use.

Has anyone had a similar experience or a solution?

George Tonkin's profile image
George Tonkin IBM Champion

Hi Tina,

For my allocation models I typically use an export and import approach for a few reasons:

  • Reading and writing to the same cube can be slow where the writing will cause the cache to be cleared and thus subsequent reads to be slow
  • Exporting the ratios/proportions to files allows the same file to be reused if necessary
  • Simplifies the process in my mind by separating the steps
  • TI spread function was just too slow to be practical

Essentially then you would have a caller/wrapper process that does the following:

  • Calls a child process which exports the ratios to one or more files depending on your model, number of drivers etc.
  • Builds a view based on the values to be allocated
  • Calls a child process passing the context of the parent cell to be allocated and the amount to be allocated
  • Child process reads the relevant ratio file and for each record takes the ratio, multiplies the amount to be allocated and then writes to the cube based on the member the ratio relates to.

Hope that helps.