Recent releases
3.92 - May 12, 2025
For details on what’s changing in the release cycle and platform infrastructure, please visit: Upcoming Changes to Apptio Planning's Release Cycle and Platform Infrastructure
In-App Training Hub
The in-app training hub is an embedded learning experience built directly into Apptio Planning. It provides step-by-step, self-paced guidance within the product interface—no separate logins or external help portals required. Designed to simplify onboarding and support continuous learning, the guide helps users access the right training at the moment they need it, driving faster adoption and improved productivity.
Current guides include:
- Apptio Planning Overview
- Accessing Plans
- Basic Expenses Table Operations
- Submitting Plans
- Checking Plan Status
- Comparing Plans
- Reports & Analytics
The in-app training hub is available to all Apptio Planning users, and we’ll continue to expand it with new topics in the future.
Select the Training Hub icon to access the training guides:
Now in Beta: Apptio Assistant for IBM Apptio Planning
We’re excited to introduce the Apptio Assistant—an AI-powered support tool that helps users get answers to questions about IBM Apptio Planning and related how-tos. This assistant is designed to enhance the user experience by providing on-demand help, especially for new users navigating the platform.
The assistant can be enabled for specific users and is ideal for individuals who are new to Apptio Planning.
What to Expect as a Beta Tester
Participants should plan for the following time commitments:
- A 30-minute kickoff call to review the testing program
- ~1 hour to interact with the assistant and ask product or TBM-related questions
- A 1-hour feedback session to share your experience
- Occasional follow-up emails from the Apptio AI team
Interested in participating?
Sign up here: Beta Sign-Up Form
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where mandatory fields in the Labor tab were not automatically highlighted.
3.91 - April 28, 2025
Enhanced Export Functionality
This release enhances the Export feature by introducing a comprehensive “Export All” option, allowing users to export all dimensions and attributes in the plan schema.
- New "Export All" Option: Exports a complete dataset, including all dimensions and attributes in the plan schema.
- Renamed Export Options:
- "Export Layout Only" is now "Export Layout" for clarity.
- Existing "Export All" is now "Export for Re-Import", indicating it only includes editable fields required for re-import.
- Tooltips for Clarity: Each export option includes detailed tooltips to explain its purpose.
- Export All: Exports the full plan schema, including all dimensions and attributes.
- Export Layout: Exports the latest saved layout, including all visible columns and filters.
- Export for Re-Import: Exports all editable fields in a format suitable for re-importing data.
New "Last Updated" and "Modified By" Columns for Plan Line Items
We've added a Last Updated and Modified By column to all Plan Line Items tables—including Labor, Labor Activity, Contracts, Assets, and Financials. The Last Updated and Modified By columns shows the date, time, and username of the last user who edited each line item. The timestamp automatically adjusts to your locale settings for a personalized experience.
- Resolved an issue where updating actuals in an open plan or creating a plan from a baseline incorrectly generated forecast line items with zero financial cost, leading to unnecessary rows. Now, only line items with financial values are included.
- Improved the performance of importing Labor Activity plan data when Working Calendar is used.
3.90 - April 14, 2025
Maintenance Release
This release contains system maintenance updates and bug fixes.
- Fixed a bug where the Project filter did not work for Admin users.
- Resolved a performance issue affecting the Expenses page loading for users with All Projects level permissions in Integrated Investment Planning.
- Resolved a bug where opening a month in Spend Management inadvertently opened multiple months and reverted them to "NEW" status.
- Resolved an issue where Variance Analysis displayed incorrect plan variances after changes were made to the Department hierarchy.
3.89 - March 31, 2025
Export Variance Commentary
This release adds the ability to export variance commentary as a .csv file directly from the Variance Analysis report. With this enhancement, customers can efficiently access all variance drivers and explanations in a structured format. The exported data can be seamlessly integrated into TBM Studio or other BI tools for deeper analysis and reporting.
Bug Fixes
- Resolved an issue in the Expenses view where the revert icon was not visible when Labor > Base Compensation was overridden.
- Fixed an issue where Project Actuals data did not update after modifying the project details from the Projects list.
- Addressed a performance issue affecting the Expenses page loading for users with All Projects level permissions in Integrated Investment Planning.
- Resolved an issue in Variance Analysis where incorrect financial data was displayed for non-existent Departments in a forecast comparison.
- Fixed an issue where an error occurred in Variance Analysis when a user provided a variance driver without adding a comment.
- Resolved an issue where opening a month in Spend Management inadvertently opened multiple months and reverted them to "NEW" status.
3.88 - March 17, 2025
Restricted Access Dimensions
This release introduces the ability for Admins to designate specific dimensions as "Restricted Access", ensuring that only authorized users can modify them. This enhancement helps maintain data integrity and prevents unintended changes.
- New “Restricted Access” Setting : Admins can mark specific dimensions as Restricted Access in the Edit System Attribute dialog within the Schema.
- Granular Permissions : Only users with the new EditRestrictedDimensions
permission can edit these dimensions.
- Read-Only Display : Users without this permission will see Restricted Access dimensions as read-only across the Expenses table.
- New View Tooltip : A tool tip will appear when hovering over Restricted
Access fields, indicating that the dimension is read-only.
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Import Behavior :
- Users with EditRestrictedDimensions permission can import and modify Restricted Access dimensions.
- Users without EditRestrictedDimensions permission will have Restricted Access dimensions automatically skipped during import, preserving existing values.
- A warning message will notify users when Restricted Access dimensions are ignored during import.
- Change History : Changes to Restricted Access dimensions are tracked in Change History.
- Permissions : A new EditRestrictedDimensions permission has been introduced and assigned to Admin and Budget Process Owner roles in Frontdoor.
Enhanced Variance Threshold Configuration with AND/OR Operator
- AND – Variance must meet both absolute value and percentage thresholds.
- OR – Variance must meet either the absolute value or percentage
thresholds.
Updated Community Links
Community resource links have been updated to their new locations on the IBM Community platform.
- Exported FTE periodic values are now correctly rounded and limited to two decimal places.
3.87 - March 3, 2025
Maintenance release only
This release contains system maintenance updates and bug fixes.
- Optimized the Delegation calculation logic to prevent performance degradation when adding line items.
- Resolved an issue in Apptio BI where a user was unable to access the "Planning" data source under Data Source Management.
- Removed the duplicate Project dimension in Apptio Costing integration when Integrated Investment Planning is enabled. (Requires Apptio Standard).
- Resolved an issue where date dimensions displayed as NaN when line items were grouped in the New View.
- Fixed an issue where Grouping settings in the New View do not persist as expected.
3.86 - February 17, 2025
Enhanced Variance Analysis
This release expands variance analysis capabilities, allowing Admin users to compare Forecasts against plans (Budgets or Forecasts) in Open and New states for any selected time period, such as full-year variance.
- Users can now configure variance analysis between Forecast and Plan (Budget or Forecast) for flexible time periods, enabling more comprehensive financial tracking and planning.
- All active plans in Open and New states are now available in the Compare To Plan dropdown when configuring variance analysis. However, please note that Cost Center Owners will not have access to view variance analysis when comparing to a plan in the New state.
- The Account Category column has been added to the Variance Analysis table, enabling better
categorization and tracking of financial data.
- Previously, variance analysis was limited to Forecast versus Actuals, but this enhancement
provides greater flexibility to analyze financial performance across different scenarios.
Note: When comparing to Forecast Periods , Admin users can select " Update Variance Analysis " to refresh variance calculations, ensuring variance amounts reflect the latest forecast updates. This option is available in the "..." menu on the Variance Analysis page.
Variable Contract Extensions for External Contracts
- Set up compounding contract extension adjustments for External Contracts.
- Define unique adjustment percentages for each contract extension.
By incorporating these adjustments, you can achieve more accurate financial modeling, accounting for factors such as inflation and rate changes over multi-year planning cycles. To know more, see here .
3.85 - February 3, 2025
Remaining Forecast Total in Forecast Plans
This release introduces a new feature in the New View that allows users to toggle the Remaining Forecast column on or off in Forecast Plans. Remaining Forecast provides a sum of all forecast periods in the first plan year, offering a quick and consolidated view of remaining forecasted amounts.
- Fixed an issue where filter settings were not retained when switching between tabs on the Expenses page.
- Fixed an issue in Apptio BI reporting where Labor Activity FTE data was incorrectly displayed when grouped by quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly intervals. This fix applies to Integrated Investment Planning.
- Resolved an issue where importing Cost Object Permissions did not trigger an error for non-existent usernames in Frontdoor.
- Addressed an issue where exported plan data did not adhere to the configured number formatting settings.
- Resolved an issue where the Boolean Cost Center attribute value was incorrectly displayed as "false" in plan comparisons.
- Fixed an issue where Cost Center is not automatically populating in the Labor tab after creating a new line item.
- Fixed an issue where Automated Data Management (ADM) loaded forecast data into the wrong fiscal year for fiscal calendars with non-January start dates.
- Fixed an issue where the commenting feature is disabled when using the Japanese Locale setting.
- Resolved an issue where the "Contract Type" field was not saved when adding a new row in the Contracts tab while using Japanese language settings.
3.84 - January 20, 2025
Variable Contract Extension Adjustments
- Apply compounding extension adjustment on each contract renewal.
- Extend the contract for a duration less than plan length over current default behavior of always extending the contract for the full plan length.
- Set different extension adjustment percentages for each contract renewal.
- Provide comments to support each renewal adjustment
This feature enables more accurate modeling by accounting for specific financial changes, such as inflation or rate adjustments, across multi-year planning cycles.
Note : This feature is available only when the New View is enabled.
To know more, see Variable Contract Extension Adjustment .
Project Expense KPIs
- Project Total : Displays the combined total of operational (OpEx) and capital expenditures (CapEx) associated with a project. This is calculated as the sum of financial line items where Project ID is not null.
- Charges Total : Shows the total credits applied from Project Labor Activity expenses, calculated as the sum of line items where Cost Type = Charges.
These KPIs are accessible on Expenses > Summary , Dashboard and Summary pages. Additionally, the Charges Total KPI is included in Expenses > Labor Activity . With the addition of tooltips, users can now view detailed explanations for each KPI directly within the interface, enhancing clarity and usability.
IBM Planning Analytics Integration
We are excited to announce the integration of IBM Planning Analytics with IBM Apptio, enabling seamless connectivity between these platforms to enhance financial planning and analysis. This bi-directional integration allows users to unify their planning processes, align financial data, and drive more accurate, data-informed decisions across their organization.
- Automatically sync financial data between IBM Planning Analytics and IBM Apptio to ensure a consistent view of budgets, forecasts, and actuals.
- Combine Apptio’s IT financial management capabilities with IBM Planning Analytics’ planning and forecasting tools for more comprehensive and integrated planning processes.
- Reduce manual effort and errors with automated data exchange, ensuring financial plans are always up-to-date.
To enable the IBM Planning Analytics data connectors, refer to the configuration guide linked below.
IBM Planning Analytics Integration Configuration Guide
Note : This integration requires IBM Planning Analytics Software as a Service (cloud).
- Resolved an issue where admin users were unable to view columns marked as sensitive after assigning cost object permissions with view restrictions.
- Fixed an issue with Forecast Plan baselining, where selecting a forecast start month in Year 2 caused the baseline plan to fail in copying lines for all years.
- Addressed an issue in Expenses > Contracts , where default values were not populated when adding a new contract line with hidden "Start date" or "End Date" dimensions.
- Resolved an issue with Actuals import where providing a project code instead of a cost object code resulted in an invalid cost object and cost center mapping error.
- Migrated the Create Variance Analysis dialog to the modern user interface. Note: This update is purely a visual enhancement with no functional changes.
- Resolved an issue where importing lists with special characters adds unintended double quotes to text values.