Writeback in Plan

Plan supports writing back and exporting planning data to multiple destination types, including file-based destinations, data warehouses, and data lake storage. It writes back forecasts, scenario models, and user inputs to backend destinations.

Unlike conventional BI and planning tools that require predefined database schemas and IT-managed writeback infrastructure, Plan supports dynamic database configuration and runtime table creation. Writeback structures are generated automatically based on planning context. Plan also supports semi-structured, on-the-fly writebacks and can write to multiple destinations simultaneously.

This article covers writeback, adding a destination, performing writeback, and logs.

Start writeback

To access writeback options and start writeback, select the Writeback tab.

The Writeback tab includes:

Writeback: Execute writeback.
Destination: Add and manage writeback destinations.
Data: Customize data-related options for writeback.
Logs: View detailed information for each writeback event.
General: Configure writeback-related settings.

Add destination

Add one or more destinations to save data using Writeback.

On-premises database servers must be directly reachable from the internet for writeback. They must have a public IP address with port forwarding.

Data writeback capabilities are subject to specific row limits depending on the file source or destination used. While local file formats such as Excel and CSV support a significant volume of up to 200,000 rows, cloud-based integrations via OneDrive and SharePoint are restricted to a much smaller capacity of only 250 rows.

Perform writeback

Go to the Writeback tab, and then select Add Destination.

2. In the Create Destination dialog, select + New next to Select a Connection to create a new connection, or choose dropdown to select an existing connection.

After selecting the connection, provide the required details:

Database Name: Select the target database.
- In the Select destination database dialog, browse and select the required database from the OneLake catalog.

Schema: Specify the schema (for example, dbo).
Table Name: Enter the name of the writeback table.
Decimal Precision: Specify the number of digits after the decimal point for numeric columns.

Important: This is a one-time setting and cannot be changed later.

Text Length: Define the maximum length for string columns (for example, Length of all string columns = 512) or choose Custom.

After configuring all required fields, select Add to create the destination.

4. After you configure all required fields, select Add to create the destination. The SQL database destination is now configured and ready for writeback.

5. Select Writeback to write your data table. A notification shows the writeback status.

After completion, a confirmation message is displayed.

You can view the written data in the destination database.

6. After the initial writeback, you may add or remove row or column dimensions as you build your report. If the destination structure must change because of these updates, a notification appears. You can drop and recreate the table with the updated structure before the next writeback.