Collect data with an input workbook#

Reportworq can collect numbers two ways. A contribution campaign generates a form per contributor, tracks who has submitted, and routes approvals. Data collection does none of that: it sends a workbook out, lets the recipient fill it in and send it back, and posts the values to the target system when it arrives.

The two are separate processes, and a round uses one or the other. They are not two halves of the same feature, and a campaign does not hand its data to data collection. This page covers the workbook route. For the campaign route, start at Contribution (write-back) overview.

How the two differ#

When to use it#

Reach for the workbook route when the ceremony of a campaign is not worth it, or would not work at all.

• Your contributors are outside the business, or offline. A regional partner or a franchisee can fill in a workbook without an account and without a connection.
• The round is small or occasional. For a handful of submissions once a quarter, assignment, reminders, and approvals are overhead rather than help.
• The workbook already exists. If a spreadsheet is already the way a team submits numbers, and it already carries its write-back formulas, data collection keeps that habit and automates the posting.
• You want the round to live in email. Send the workbook as a normal distribution, and let replies land in the monitored mailbox.

Choose a campaign instead when you need to know who has and has not submitted, when submissions need approval before they count, or when each contributor must see only their own slice.

Before you start#

• The Contribution capability must be licensed. Data collection is part of it and has no separate entitlement.
• An administrator must have configured Data Collection, and for the email route the monitored mailbox. See Data collection processing.
• You need a connection to the target system, and rights to write to it.

Build the input workbook#

1. Build the workbook the way you want the contributor to see it, with the input cells where they would expect them.
2. In cells the contributor does not need to see, usually a hidden row or a hidden worksheet, add a write-back formula for each value you want posted. The formula names the target and the intersection, and points at the cell the contributor types into.
3. Match the function to the measure and the target system. Planning Analytics uses DBS and DBSW for numeric measures and DBSS for strings; SQL, Workday Adaptive, and Anaplan each have their own. For signatures, arguments, and the traps, see Contribution functions.
4. Protect or lock everything that is not an input cell, so a contributor cannot move the values out from under the formulas.

The write-back formulas do nothing until the workbook is processed. They stay inert while the contributor works, which is why the workbook is safe to open in Excel on any machine. They evaluate only when the data collection engine runs the returned file in write-back mode.

Send it out and get it back#

1. Distribute the workbook as you would any other report, and burst it if each recipient should get their own copy. See Distribution overview.
2. The contributor fills it in and returns it, either by replying to the monitored mailbox or by having someone upload it.
3. An administrator processes the item, or it processes on arrival if Automatically process uploaded files is turned on.
4. Check the outcome in the write-back activity list. Each item shows its file name, who submitted it, when it arrived, when it was processed, and its status.

Notes and limits#

• A returned workbook is trusted. Whatever the write-back formulas resolve to is what gets posted, so anyone who can edit the workbook and get it into the mailbox can write to the plan. Use a campaign when you need per-contributor control over what can be changed.
• There is no submission tracking. Nothing tells you that eleven of your fourteen regions have replied. If that matters, use a campaign.
• A consolidated cell is rejected by default on a numeric write, matching the Planning Analytics Excel add-in. Turning on Proportional Writeback posts the value for allocation across the leaf cells instead. String writes are unaffected.
• Removing provider formulas removes the ability to write back, unless you keep the input formulas. When you distribute a workbook that is meant to come back, check the Formula Options setting on the output. See Output formats.

Related topics#

• Contribution functions for the write-back formulas in depth
• Contribution (write-back) overview for the campaign route
• Data collection processing for the engine, the mailbox, and troubleshooting