Personal What-If Scenarios (2026R1)
Workday OfficeConnect 2026R1 lets end users create personal what-if scenarios without involving an Adaptive Planning admin — scoped to the individual, branched from a parent version, and invisible to others.
New in 2026R1
Personal what-if scenarios are new in Workday OfficeConnect 2026R1. End users can create their own scenario versions in Excel, branched from a parent version, without involving an Adaptive Planning administrator and without cluttering the shared version list.
Before 2026R1, every what-if version had to be created in Adaptive Planning by a planning admin or modeler — a slow process that produced a long, shared list of one-off versions. Personal scenarios solve both problems at once.
What you’ll need:
- Workday OfficeConnect 2026R1 or later
- A tenant where your administrator has enabled personal scenarios (it’s an Adaptive Planning model setting)
- Permission to read from the version you want to branch from
What a personal scenario is
A personal scenario is a version like any other, with three differences:
| Property | Personal scenario | Standard version |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility | Only the creator | Anyone with permissions |
| Creation | End user, in Excel | Adaptive Planning admin / modeler |
| Lifecycle | Created and deleted by the user | Governed by the admin |
| Storage | Branched from a parent version | Standalone |
Personal scenarios are stored on the Adaptive Planning server (so they survive workbook deletion and Excel crashes) but never appear in anyone else’s version list.
1
Open the Reporting pane and find Versions
In the OfficeConnect Reporting pane, expand the Versions node. You’ll see your normal shared versions plus a new My Scenarios group (only present in 2026R1+ tenants with the feature enabled).
2
Right-click the parent version
Right-click any version you can read — typically Working Forecast or Budget — and choose Create Personal Scenario from this version.
3
Name your scenario
Give it a memorable name like
WhatIf_HiringFreeze_2026Q3. The name appears only to you.4
Drag the scenario into a Version slot like any other
The new scenario appears under My Scenarios in the Reporting pane. Drag it into a worksheet cell exactly as you would a shared version. See Add Elements for the standard workflow.
5
Write data back to the scenario
If you have write-back enabled, you can modify values in the scenario and submit them — the changes affect only your personal scenario, not the parent version. See Enter Budget Data.
A common pattern: build a variance report comparing your personal scenario to its parent.
6
Place parent and scenario side-by-side
In separate columns, drag the parent version (B1) and your personal scenario (C1). Subtract them in column D:
=C2-B2.7
Refresh
You’ll see the deltas — exactly the impact of your what-if assumption.
Tips
- Don’t share workbooks containing personal scenarios. Other users won’t see your scenario in their Reporting pane, so the linked cells will show
n/afor them. If you want to share, copy the values out as static numbers or republish on the parent version. - Use clear naming. When you have several what-if branches active, names like
WhatIf_HiringFreeze_2026Q3are far more useful thanScenario_1. - Clean up regularly. Right-click any scenario in My Scenarios and choose Delete when you no longer need it. The server stores them indefinitely if you don’t.
- Personal scenarios don’t replace formal version management. For board-presentation what-ifs that multiple people need to see, ask your Adaptive Planning admin for a shared version.
Limitations
- Not available before 2026R1
- Requires the model administrator to enable personal scenarios on the tenant
- Personal scenarios cannot be made shared after the fact — copy data into a new shared version if needed
- The number of personal scenarios per user may be capped by your administrator
Result
You can branch any shared version into your own private what-if without admin involvement, evaluate the impact in Excel, then discard the branch when done.
Next steps
- View By (2026R1) — the other big 2026R1 feature.
- Compare Planning Versions — patterns for comparing any two versions, including personal vs parent.
- Enter Budget Data — write-back to a personal scenario uses the same flow.