Plan Analyzer is designed to make your life easier by using Elate’s AI-powered Strategy Advisor to parse your company’s most robust strategic planning documents and prepare them for successful import into Elate.
Whether your strategy lives in scattered Google Slides, documents, or even images of whiteboards, Plan Analyzer synthesizes complex inputs and converts them into a structured, import-ready plan—so your strategy can be used across the organization in Elate.
Read on to learn how to use Plan Analyzer.
Accessing Plan Analyzer
If you are a Strategy Advisor customer and an Org Admin, you’ll see Plan Analyzer in the left-hand navigation.
If you’re new to Plan Analyzer, you’ll see:
An empty files table
The ability to Upload File
The option to complete a Strategy Import.
You can start by uploading files to Plan Analyzer. The file table gives you options to rename and delete your files as necessary as well. Uploaded files are securely stored in Elate and can be used later as part of a Strategy Import.
Strategy Import with Plan Analyzer
If you’re ready to build or update your Strategic Plan in Elate, it’s time to use Plan Analyzer.
Select Strategy Import in the upper-right corner. You will be directed to this modal.
2. Choose the strategic framework used to build your plan.
This helps Plan Analyzer interpret and map your document accurately.
If no framework was used—or it isn’t listed—select No Framework.
3. Select one or more files to upload.
If you haven’t uploaded files yet, select Add New File to upload directly from your device.
Please note the maximum file size is 20 MB.
Once your files are uploaded, you will see the confirmation modal and Plan Analyzer goes to work! Processing time may vary depending on the number and size of files.
After closing the confirmation modal, you will be redirected back to the Files table. If the import is still running, you’ll see a purple “Import in Progress” banner as shown below.
When Plan Analyzer is done analyzing your documents, you will be able to select "View Import".
Strategy Advisor will also send an email directly to your inbox with the link to view your import.
Selecting View Strategy Import will take you to the Strategy Import Workspace.
Editing & Preparing Your Strategy Import
The Strategy Import Workspace displays your strategic plan as interpreted and mapped by Plan Analyzer. As a reminder, Plan Analyzer extracts objectives, outcomes, themes, tactics, owners, date ranges, and more, and maps them to the Elate Way of Strategic Planning.
Use this workspace to review and refine your data by ensuring all required fields are populated (such as teams, owners, and date ranges) and making any major edits before finalizing the import.
When you first view your import, you’ll see all of your strategy's themes that Plan Analyzer Identified. In this example, "Program Excellence", "Employer Partnerships", "Operations & Data", and "Sustainable Funding" are all themes.
Use the arrows on the left to collapse or expand each theme and see the Objectives, Outcomes, and Tactics underneath each theme. In this example, "Deepen Employer Engagement" is an Objective under the "Employer Partnerships" theme and has an Outcome and Tactic tied to it: "Employer Net Promoter Score" and "Employer Success Manager Role", respectively.
Editing Your Plan Before Importing to Elate
Editing Themes, Objectives, Outcomes, or Tactics
Remember that Plan Analyzer is in Beta and is not perfect! Be sure to make an edits or tweaks to your plan that you need. Changes can also be made within Elate at any other time.
You can quickly edit items by clicking into a column cell to make any changes, as shown below.
Use the three-dot menu on the right of the table to quickly delete any unnecessary items.
For a more detailed editing experience, click on an item's name to open the Objective, Outcome, or Tactic detail. Make all the edits you'd like within the bigger modal.
Editing Your Plan’s Structure
You may also want to rearrange items within your plan, altering relationships or how things are nested together. To drag & drop items on your plan:
Select the pencil icon in the upper-right corner
2. Use the drag handle on the left to reorder objectives, outcomes, or tactics, or change the relationships between objects (creating child objectives, etc.).
Be sure to select Save in the upper right after making these edits or use "Cancel" to discard your edits.
In the video below, I utilized drag & drop to make "Enhance Wraparound Services" a child objective of "Measure Quality Rigorously".
Required Fields Before Import
Here at Elate we know that the best strategic plans have objectives, outcomes, and tactics containing "clean" data. This means that they are connected to a theme and have owners, teams, and durations properly assigned, helping everything run smoothly once your plan is put into action.
Plan Analyzer requires certain fields to be completed prior to importing your strategic plan. All Objectives and Tactics must have a team, owner, and date range assigned, all Outcomes must have a team and owner assigned as well.
If any of these required fields are missing on an object, Plan Analyzer will display a warning banner and you won’t be able to select Finalize & Import Plan until all required fields are completed.
In this example, there are 28 fields I need to complete prior to importing my data into Elate.
As you expand your Strategy Import, missing fields will be highlighted with a yellow warning icon. Click the icon to update with the required data. The banner will update as you tackle your to-do list.
Reminder: You can always make changes to your plan after it’s imported—nothing here is permanent.
A Quick Note About Owners
For security reasons, Plan Analyzer does not create new users in your Elate instance.
If an imported Objective, Outcome, or Tactic references an owner who does not yet exist in Elate, the owner will default to the person who initiated the import (you).
Finalizing Your Import
Once all required fields are complete, Finalize & Import will become available.
Selecting Finalize & Import will transfer all data into your Elate instance.
This action cannot be undone.
Important Notes
Currently, there is no way to save your work in Plan Analyzer in a draft state. We recommend reviewing, editing, and importing in a single session. Think: speed over perfection.
After import, your plan can be easily edited via the Hierarchy Table View on the Company Page. This view is very similar to Plan Analyzer and will give you the same high level view of your strategic plan, while also giving you the ability to edit and make changes.
FAQs
Q: I updated my strategy document and want to re-run the import. What happens to existing data in Elate?
A: Plan Analyzer does not detect previously imported items. Re-importing will result in duplicate themes, objectives, outcomes, or tactics.
Q: Can I save a Strategy Import and return to it later?
A: Not yet. Saving work-in-progress imports isn’t currently supported, but this capability is coming soon.