Hold is a Breakback feature that allows you to temporarily ‘hold' values in cells, so that any changes (increasing a total for example) do not affect the value. You can release held cells once you've made your changes. It's really useful if you want to update totals without impacting a value for a line item or if you want to change values for a particular line item without changing the overall total.
Say you want to adjust a forecast. You might want to use Breakback to change a total but you don't want this change to affect some of the line item values. With the Hold feature, you can hold selected cells so that any Breakback calculation change doesn't affect them (the change to the total will only impact non-held items).
For example, if you want to change the value of a total for Q1 for which Breakback is enabled but you want the forecast for a single month to be unaffected by the recalculation, apply a hold to the cell:
The Feb cell is colored gray to indicate the hold.
Now, update the cost total in Q1:
Here, Feb is held (20) and Breakback is applied to Q1 (100). Anaplan takes the difference (100-20=80) and spreads this to all un-held cells using a pro-rata of existing values.
So, Jan=> 10/(10+30)*80=20 and March=30/(10+30)*80=60.
If a change affects a total that is held, Breakback will run a calculation on the total and all other (un-held) cells are recalculated.
Q1 is held. If we update the value for Jan…
…the total for Q1 (60) is held and one cell (Jan=20) is changed.
Anaplan takes the difference (40) and spreads it back to all un-held cells.
So, Feb=> 20/(20+30)*40=16 and March=30/(20+30)*40=16.
Hold & Release Cells
You can hold any numeric line item cells in a dashboard or module grid provided that the line item you are working with has Breakback enabled, including:
- A single cell, row or column
- Multiple contiguous cells, rows or columns
Right-click on a cell, point to Breakback and then click Hold. (Or, on the Data menu, point to Breakback and then click Hold.)
The held cell will color gray.
If two users are editing the same data at the same time, held cells do not apply to other users. For example, if you were to hold cells and another user modifies the values of the data in the held cells, or if Breakback is executed, then the hold is ignored for the other user. The user who held the cells is informed that data has changed once they attempt to submit their own data and the grid is updated to the latest values.
Release Cells
You can release held cells at any time — right-click on the held cell, point to Breakback and click Release. Click Release All to release all held cells. Gray shading is removed.
If Breakback is disabled for a line item, any held cells are released.
Hidden / Filtered Cells
If a row or column contains hidden items, or items are filtered out at the time a selection is made and held, only the visible cells are held. You can select the row or column header, but the header itself is not shaded (because not all items in that list are held).
If you subsequently change a filter or select Show All then any held cells are released.
If Compare, Conditional Formatting, Sort or Filter is applied to a grid, any held cells are released and all held cell information is lost.
Close a Module, Dashboard or View with Held Cells
If you've updated your data and applied hold to a number of cells, the cells are released on module or dashboard once you close.
When holding cells in a module, if that module appears on a dashboard on a different Anaplan tab, the cells are not automatically held – even for the same user.
This restriction applies all the time (not just when closing views), and also applies to views that are on the same dashboard or tab.
Change the Value of a Held Cell
You can change the value of a held cell. The system will set the new value and recalculate and the cell will remain held. If all cells in a selection or category are held and you attempt to change a value in a single cell, the recalculation will fail and the grid will revert to the initial value. A message to indicate that the calculation was constrained is displayed.