Why should I archive scenarios?
Catalyst allows you to create as many scenarios as you want, which is great, but if you're not careful you can end up with a long list of irrelevant scenarios bogging down your instance.
It's best practice to archive old or irrelevant scenarios once you're done using them. Not only will that clean up your list when viewing your settings in Catalyst or when applying filters in Excel, but it will also speed everything up.
How will this impact my work?
- Archiving scenarios is a way for an administrative user to improve processing time of scheduled job refreshes by removing unused scenarios from being processed. These scenarios are not lost, but are stored in an archive if needed in the future.
- Archiving a scenario will remove (at least temporarily) data from a cube corresponding to that scenario. Meaning it can also affect dependent scenarios and calculations. The scenario is not simply disabled, the data is actually removed from the tables that build the cube when a scenario is set to "archived".
Commonly asked questions
Q: Does archiving a scenario change the values loaded to that scenario?
A: Not quite, no. It will not change what data is loaded, but it will affect what is shown (and calculated) in the cube. If a scenario is archived, both that scenario and anything that depends on it will not be shown either.
Q: Can we archive and unarchive a scenario as many times as we want?
A: Yes!
Q: Can we archive any type of scenario (e.g. Actual, Forecast, Budget, Proforma)?
A: Technically, yes, but there are some exceptions. We have logic in place that does not allow you to archive scenarios that other scenarios depend on. For instance, if you have a TTM scenario, it's most likely using another scenario to build out its periods, therefore that scenario it's referencing could not be archived. In sum, if Scenario A uses Scenario B, Scenario B cannot be archived.
Q: When can we archive?
A: You can archive 24/7/365.
Q: What if a refresh or cube rebuild is happening in the background? Will our archive still process?
A: Yes, your archive will still process and a refresh or rebuild will not interrupt that.
Q: If we have data flowing in automatically from our ERP, does that data flow into an archived scenario?
A: No, archived scenarios are basically like snapshots in time when they are archived. No updates to that scenario occur while in that state, including automated or manual data uploads.