Use applications and plans to organize work

Applications and plans let you organize logically related Planning Analytics Workspace assets such as books, views, and websheets in containers.

An application contains related assets that are grouped in sections. These sections might reflect the structure of your organization, planning and budgeting requirements, or any other relevant grouping of assets. While an application contains logically related assets, there are no implied or required actions associated with the assets or sections in an application.

A plan contains assets that are grouped in tasks. These tasks can represent discrete tasks or contributions that must be completed in a planning or budgeting process. While tasks can be ordered in a plan, there is no requirement for contributors to complete the tasks sequentially; they can be completed in any order. However, a plan administrator can define task dependencies, so that a task becomes available to users only upon the completion of a different task. Tasks can also be assigned a due date for contributions.

Access to sections in an application or tasks in a plan are controlled by Planning Analytics Workspace user group assignments. When a user group is assigned to a section or task, the security for the contained assets is updated to include the user group.

When you log in to Planning Analytics Workspace, your applications and plans are visible on the Your Applications tab at the bottom of the home page. Applications are identified by the icon, while plans show the icon.

Administrators can see all applications and plans on the home page, regardless of state or group assignments. Modelers, analysts and consumers can see open applications or plans in which they are a member of at least one of the user groups assigned to the included assets.