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Mark Hackett's profile image
Mark Hackett posted Thu April 24, 2025 07:58 AM

Hi. 

I was wondering if there are any useful resources for getting started with PAfE? Something that explains how to approach reporting in PAfE from scratch, and which explains things in an easy-to-understand manner. While I have a fair bit of experience with TM1, Performance Modeler, and PAW, I have never really done much with PAfE. However, now that I am starting to look at it as part of a new project I'm embarking on, I find the PAfE landscape a bit confusing. There are quite a few report types - as far as I know, some of these are probably more for backwards compatability; it would be good to know what report types I should focus on if approaching this as a new user with no existing PAfE reports in place, i.e. are there report types that can be ignored if you are just starting out now?

Also, I know from AMA sessions, etc. that there is a lot of talk about Universal Reports - but when I started looking at them I hit 2 immediate problems:

1) There are now 2 types of Universal Report, i.e. the original and the newer static version - however, I haven't seen anything which gives me much of a clue as to which of the 2 I should choose in a given situation.

2) I know Xavier Osorio did a webinar on Universal Reports a while back, but when I try to access the on-demand webinar, it is no longer available. There is online documentation available - however, it looks complicated and doesn't really give me any idea of how to approach Universal Reports; I can easily create a Universal Report by converting an Exploration, but when I unhide the query parameterization cells it looks frightening!

If anyone can point me at primers, tutorials, videos, etc. I would be very grateful.

John O'Leary's profile image
John O'Leary posted Fri April 25, 2025 05:46 PM  Best Answer

Mark

I think what you are looking for is the story of what PAfE is/ how you would use it.  Having used it since 2018 I haven't seen anything useful so I tell my own story.

After 9 years PAfE is still an unfinished work. IBM took CAfE ( From Cognos) which was a good but limited Excel add-in and brought certain TM1 Perspectives functionality into it. CAfE was different in it's architecture and functionally it used BI standards of MDX and supported the construct of named hierarchies and this was essential to support Server 11. 

So the cube viewer, explorations and quick reports came from that world. Dynamic and custom reports and ex Perspectives report functionalty rebuilt in PAfE. But the ex Perspectives stuff does not support hierarchies.

So 7 yeats the only PAfE report type that supported hierarchies was quick reports which are a static layout. in practise very limited.

Going back in 2018 the q3 roadmap had hierarchy aware reporting/ new excel functions but it didn't happen. There was a demonstation of Dynamic Quick Reports with new hierarchy aware custom functions ( looked promising) but that didn't happen.  Late 2023 Universal Reports were released with the statement that at some point they would replace Dynamic Reports. Universal Reports are an unfinished work. Stage 1 was dynamic x and y axis reporting (Dynamic/ex Active Forms only support dynamic Y axis). Stage 2 was Static layout, the idea I believe was to support a simple static layout similar to Quick Reports which has been stated will be sunset. The roadmap shows what I expect is stage 3 which is inclusion of custom Excel Formulae in dynamic UR rows/columns and there also seems to be a new idea of standard formulae for use in the viewer, exploratiins and UR. 

So then what's missing in order to get rid of dynamic reports and the old custom DBRW based reporting? Nothing has been articulated.

There are no hierarchy capable custom functions equivalent to ELLEV etc. There are several hierarchy aware custom functions that have been introduced over the last 2-3 years. TM1SET, TM1VAL, DEFINECALC and some used in UR. These are useful and powerful but not sufficient to provide a hierarchy aware equivalent to the 30 yr old Perspectives functions. 

Dors that leave you confused? If so, then I'd say it's as clear to you as the rest of us. If you are not using hierarchies then stick with dynamic / custom reporting and you can use Explorations (Effectively an in spreadsheet browser) and UR where beneficial.  if you are using hierarchies then hopefully this quarter sees the reveal of addition UR functionality which may make UR far more useful. Assuming that addition custom functions are provided then it may be possible one day to stop using dynamic reports and the old functions and just use UR and hierarchy aware custom functions.

I hope this helps 

John

Emirhan Yıldırım's profile image
Emirhan Yıldırım posted Sun April 27, 2025 03:04 AM

Hi Mark,
You're right — PAfE can seem overwhelming at first, especially with all the report types. If you're starting fresh, I'd recommend focusing mainly on Explorations and Universal Reports (static version), since they align with current best practices and are more future-proof. Older report types like Dynamic Reports are mostly for backward compatibility now.

For Universal Reports, the static version is better for performance and simpler maintenance — especially helpful when you're building from scratch, much like setting up systems in a strategy game where free download from clean structure matters for long-term success.

As for learning resources:

  • The official IBM documentation, while dense, is still the most updated.

  • There are good YouTube tutorials if you search "PAfE Universal Reports basics."

  • Also, some community blog posts walk through step-by-step examples (like converting Explorations into manageable Universal Reports).

If you like, I can also share a few handpicked beginner-friendly resources I used when learning — approaching it like mastering a new game really helped me!

Bryan Wan's profile image
Bryan Wan posted Sun April 27, 2025 06:38 PM

Hi Mark,

If you're looking for a structured, easy-to-follow way to get comfortable with PAfE (and each of its report types), I'd highly recommend checking out Cubewise's End User Pathway training. It’s designed specifically to help people like yourself — who may already know TM1 but are new to PAfE — approach reporting step-by-step, without feeling overwhelmed.

The training goes through:

  • Explorations (the foundation for navigating and analysing data),

  • Quick Reports (great for simple static layouts),

  • Custom Reports (for tailored, more flexible outputs),

  • Dynamic Reports (ex-Active Forms, still relevant for dynamic rowsets),

  • And importantly, Universal Reports — both the dynamic and static versions — explaining when and why you’d choose each.

The course is hands-on and focuses not just on how to use each report type, but also on building reports from scratch in a structured way, with a focus on understanding the strengths and use cases of each reporting option.

You can view the full Course Pathway here if you want to see how the End User Pathway fits into the broader training structure:
👉 Cubewise Course Pathway (PDF)

More info about the End User Pathway can be found here:
👉 Cubewise Education – End User Pathway (PAfE)

Hope that helps!

Bryan

Mark Hackett's profile image
Mark Hackett posted Mon April 28, 2025 03:24 AM

Thanks John for the detailed explanation - much appreciated! And thanks Emirhan and Bryan too (though I did notice a funny hyperlink in your response Emirhan - I was afraid to click on it).

Mark

Svetlana Pestsova's profile image
Svetlana Pestsova posted Mon April 28, 2025 09:01 PM

Hi Mark,

There are new PAfE course offered by IBM Business Partner - ActionKPI: Course: V020004G: IBM Planning Analytics - Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE) - IBM Training - Global

This training is based on the latest version of PAfE. 

Best regards,

Mark Hackett's profile image
Mark Hackett posted Tue April 29, 2025 02:37 AM

Thanks Svetlana! Appreciate that.

Mark

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