Tech Talks: Workforce Planning Express is now available!

Join Celeste Qian, Matt Kerslake and Tom Linton as they continue their series on Express Solutions with Planning Express! The trio will explore Planning Express and reveal how it isn't just for CPM Express but can be valuable for any project.

Workforce Planning Express

• What Workforce Planning Express Is: Workforce Planning Express (WPX) is a Solution Exchange accelerator built on top of Line Item Modeling (LIM). It is not a separate product — it injects pre-built configurations, formulas, drivers, accounts, and reports into a LIM workforce planning instance to dramatically reduce implementation time. Despite the "Express" name, it is application agnostic and works with any OneStream implementation, not just CPM Express.
• Plug-and-Play Architecture — Fully Unencrypted: The entire WPX solution is unencrypted. Implementers can inspect, copy, modify, or remove any pre-built component. Nothing is locked or constrained — the intent is to provide a starting point and toolbox, not a rigid framework. If a customer doesn't need a particular formula, report, or driver, it can simply be removed or ignored.
• How the Setup Works — The JSON Hand-Off: WPX acts as a configuration generator. You complete two setup screens in WPX — (1) point it to the target cube and account dimension where workforce drivers will live, and (2) define the POV for cube and global driver input forms (flow member, entity, accounts to display). WPX then exports a JSON configuration file. That JSON is imported into LIM during the workforce planning install, bypassing the manual setup wizard entirely and pre-populating fields, drivers, accounts, and formulas in one step.
• Pre-Built Register Fields and Control Lists: The JSON import pre-configures LIM's register definition with the most common workforce fields — employee ID, first/last name, title, employee type, salary, bonus, status, start/end date, and more. Standard control lists (e.g., standard vs. hourly employee, exempt vs. non-exempt) are also pre-built. Everything can be extended with the plus button or modified after the fact.
• 50+ Pre-Built Formulas: WPX ships with over 50 pre-built calculations covering salary (multiple methodologies for annual vs. hourly rates), bonus, payroll taxes (including complex items like FUTA and SUTA), PTO, 401K, benefits, and total compensation. A companion Excel workbook included in the package contains questionnaires that map customer requirements to the correct formula — useful for requirements-gathering conversations on day one. Formulas can be enabled/disabled individually; unused ones can be deleted. Copying before editing is recommended.
• Pre-Built Drivers and Cube Views: Global drivers (merit percent, overtime rates, working days, tax rates, 401K) and cube drivers (entity-varying rates like merit) are pre-populated. WPX also dynamically generates the cube views for driver input using the POV settings defined during setup — saving implementers from building and configuring these manually. These views can be modified or replaced entirely if the customer has different preferences.
• Pre-Built Reports: WPX includes out-of-box dashboards covering register analysis, cost analysis (total compensation breakdowns by cost center/account), and a people overview (headcount, FTE). These reports are built on LIM's secured data adapter, so LIM column-level security (e.g., hiding salary) is automatically enforced in reporting. The entire reporting workspace is visible and modifiable.
• Data Integration Accelerators: The WPX package includes sample connector business rule code for loading registered data from payroll systems — including employee-based, position-based, and job category-based planning patterns. A stage-to-register connector approach is also supported for data that requires mapping or transformation before loading. Implementation teams can use these samples as starting points rather than writing integration logic from scratch.
• Using WPX with Existing Implementations: If LIM workforce planning is already live and you want to add WPX reports, complete only the first two configuration steps (cube/account metadata and driver POV settings) and skip the third (generating metadata), then save. This populates the parameters the out-of-box reports need without overwriting existing configurations. Test thoroughly afterward.
• Multiple Instances: WPX can be used with multiple LIM instances (Workforce Planning 1, 2, etc.), but some manual configuration is required — references to LIM1 vs. LIM2 appear throughout the workspace code and need to be updated accordingly. When in doubt, open a support case.
• Key Takeaway: Workforce Planning Express collapses the typical LIM workforce planning implementation timeline significantly — providing a pre-wired starting point for fields, formulas, drivers, cube views, reports, and integration code that would otherwise be built from scratch. Because everything is unencrypted and modifiable, it functions as both an accelerator and a reference library, useful even for implementations that ultimately build their own configurations.

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