08.05 Testing Your Planning Setup

08.05 Testing Your Planning Setup

Why test before going live

Before you distribute a planning template to contributors, you need to verify that submission actually works — that cells are editable, that data reaches the database, and that re-running the report shows what was submitted. This module covers how to do that and how to clean up afterwards.

Testing in Designer (quick sanity check)

  1. In Designer, open your planning report if you have one, or GL 06 Planning / Replanning This Year if you don't.

  2. Set any filters with a yellow background (a selection is mandatory for these)

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    and then run it.

  3. Look for cells with a yellow background — these are the planning submission cells. Yellow means the cell is editable and configured correctly for submission.

  4. Right-click on a yellow cell. A context menu appears. Select Submit Planning Value and type a number.

  5. If a cell you expect to be a submission cell is not yellow, right-click on it and choose Why Can't I Submit? FastClose will explain the reason — for example, the scenario is not in the column, planning is not enabled on the report, or the cell falls outside the permitted period range.

  6. Submit a test value and re-run the report. Confirm the submitted value now appears in the results.

Testing in Excel (the real test)

Designer submission is useful for a quick check, but your contributors will use the Excel Add-In. Test the full Excel flow before going live:

  1. Save the planning report in Designer.

  2. Open the saved report using the FastClose Excel Add-In (FastClose tab in the Excel ribbon → Open Report).

  3. Run the report. Planning submission cells will be editable (not locked). Non-planning cells — actuals, totals, hierarchy labels — will be protected.

  4. Type a test value into one or more planning cells.

  5. Click Submit in the FastClose Excel Add-In ribbon. FastClose shows a preview dialog listing every value about to be submitted, so you can review before confirming.

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  6. Click OK in the preview. FastClose saves the values to the planning database and re-runs the report automatically.

  7. Confirm that the submitted values now appear correctly in the results.

Cleaning up test submissions

Once you've confirmed submission works, clear the test data before going live:

  1. In Designer, go to the Layout tab → Scenarios.

  2. Select your scenario, click Edit.

  3. Click Delete All Submissions.

All test figures are removed. The scenario structure (code, caption, period range, dimension settings) is preserved.

What you've learned

You can verify that planning submission works end-to-end in both Designer and Excel, troubleshoot cells that aren't submittable, and clean up test data. You're ready to build your production templates.

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