Cloud Readiness / Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
What's New
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  1. December 2022 Update
  1. Revision History
  2. Overview
  3. Feature Summary
  4. Enterprise Performance Management
        1. Monthly Update Schedule
        2. Documentation Updates Available One Week After Readiness Documents
        3. Fixed Issues and Considerations
        4. Give Us Documentation Feedback
        5. Please Join Oracle Cloud Customer Connect
        6. Follow Us on Social Media
    1. EPM Common
        1. Announcing: New Guide to Create and Run an EPM Center of Excellence (CoE)
        2. New Consolidated EPM Cloud Accessibility Guide
        3. Support of Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) Groups in OCI (Gen 2) Environments
        4. New Version of Migration REST APIs
        5. New Version of REST APIS for Managing Users
        6. Direct Drill Support in Smart View
        7. Ability to Import Reports Background Color Into Excel Workbooks
        8. New Copy and Clear Data Process Automations Added Within Task Manager
        9. New Text Width Calculations Property for Text Cells, Text Boxes, and Note Boxes
        10. EPM Integration Agent Support for a SSL Connection to an Oracle Database
    2. Account Reconciliation
        1. New Attributes to Provide a Count of Currencies for All Buckets
    3. Enterprise Data Management
        1. Additional Sort Options for Nodes in Hierarchy Sets
        2. Commit Stage for Requests in Expressions
        3. CompareTo Method for Locations in Expressions
        4. Consolidation of In Flight Requests
        5. Data Source Column Added to Financials Cloud General Ledger Segment Values File
        6. Default Type and Inheritance Columns on Properties Page
        7. Download Request Items from Multiple Requests to Same File
        8. Download Transaction History with Workflow Details
        9. Download Viewpoint Query Results to File
        10. Enable and Disable Custom Validations in Node Type and Hierarchy Set Inspectors
        11. Enable and Disable Subscriptions in Viewpoint Inspector
        12. Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management Application Type
        13. Equivalent Nodes Validation for Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications
        14. Filter, Min, and Max Methods for Node Collections in Expressions
        15. Identify Read Only Properties in Node Type Converters
        16. Manage Descriptions in Additional Languages for Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications
        17. Manage Labels for Tree Nodes in Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications
        18. Merge Import Options for Auto Submit and Bypass Workflow
        19. Numeric String Property Data Type
        20. Redwood Theme for Email Notifications
        21. Request Comments and Attachments in Expressions
        22. Request State Option for Custom Validations
        23. Request Type Filter for Workflow Policies
        24. REST API to Query Request Activity
        25. REST API for Template Import and Export
        26. Viewpoint Load from File
    4. Financial Consolidation and Close
        1. Enterprise Journals External Validation Enhancement
        2. Ability to Change Seeded Accounts in Equity Pickup Module
        3. Data Discovery
        4. Viewing Ownership Management Locked/Unlocked Status
        5. Performance Substitution Variables
    5. FreeForm
    6. Narrative Reporting
        1. Report Package - Embedded Content Tables Support for Repeat Headers in Word
    7. Planning
        1. Improved Calculation for Turns Forecasting Method in Strategic Modeling
    8. Profitability and Cost Management
      1. Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management
        1. Ability to Create Multiple Rules At Once
        2. Ability to Create Multiple Rule Sets At Once
        3. Model Documentation Report Can Be Run from the Rule Designer
      2. Profitability and Cost Management
    9. Tax Reporting
        1. REST API for Copy Data
        2. REST API for Clear Data
  5. IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations

December 2022 Update

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Date Module Feature Notes
08 MAR 2023 Enterprise Data Management

Data Source Column Added to Financials Cloud General Ledger Segment Values File

Updated document. Added feature in December 2022.
13 JAN 2023 Financial Consolidation and Close Enterprise Journals External Validation Enhancement Updated document. Updated link information.
30 NOV 2022 Enterprise Performance Management IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations Updated document. Updated link information.
23 NOV 2022     Created initial document.

Overview

HAVE AN IDEA?

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GIVE US FEEDBACK

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.

DISCLAIMER

The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.

Feature Summary

Column Definitions:

Report = New or modified, Oracle-delivered, ready to run reports.

UI or Process-Based: Small Scale = These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.

UI or Process-Based: Larger Scale* = These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.

Features Delivered Disabled = Action is needed BEFORE these features can be used by END USERS. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them. For example, a) new or expanded BI subject areas need to first be incorporated into reports, b) Integration is required to utilize new web services, or c) features must be assigned to user roles before they can be accessed.

Ready for Use by End Users
(Feature Delivered Enabled)

Reports plus Small Scale UI or Process-Based new features will have minimal user impact after an update. Therefore, customer acceptance testing should focus on the Larger Scale UI or Process-Based* new features.

Customer Must Take Action before Use by End Users
(Feature Delivered Disabled)

Not disruptive as action is required to make these features ready to use. As you selectively choose to leverage, you set your test and roll out timing.

Feature

Report

UI or
Process-Based:
Small Scale

UI or
Process-Based:
Larger Scale*

Enterprise Performance Management

EPM Common

Support of Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) Groups in OCI (Gen 2) Environments

New Version of Migration REST APIs

New Version of REST APIS for Managing Users

Direct Drill Support in Smart View

Ability to Import Reports Background Color Into Excel Workbooks

New Copy and Clear Data Process Automations Added Within Task Manager

New Text Width Calculations Property for Text Cells, Text Boxes, and Note Boxes

EPM Integration Agent Support for a SSL Connection to an Oracle Database

Account Reconciliation

New Attributes to Provide a Count of Currencies for All Buckets

Enterprise Data Management

Additional Sort Options for Nodes in Hierarchy Sets

Commit Stage for Requests in Expressions

CompareTo Method for Locations in Expressions

Consolidation of In Flight Requests

Data Source Column Added to Financials Cloud General Ledger Segment Values File

Default Type and Inheritance Columns on Properties Page

Download Request Items from Multiple Requests to Same File

Download Transaction History with Workflow Details

Download Viewpoint Query Results to File

Enable and Disable Custom Validations in Node Type and Hierarchy Set Inspectors

Enable and Disable Subscriptions in Viewpoint Inspector

Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management Application Type

Equivalent Nodes Validation for Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications

Filter, Min, and Max Methods for Node Collections in Expressions

Identify Read Only Properties in Node Type Converters

Manage Descriptions in Additional Languages for Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications

Manage Labels for Tree Nodes in Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications

Merge Import Options for Auto Submit and Bypass Workflow

Numeric String Property Data Type

Redwood Theme for Email Notifications

Request Comments and Attachments in Expressions

Request State Option for Custom Validations

Request Type Filter for Workflow Policies

REST API to Query Request Activity

REST API for Template Import and Export

Viewpoint Load from File

Financial Consolidation and Close

Enterprise Journals External Validation Enhancement

Ability to Change Seeded Accounts in Equity Pickup Module

Data Discovery

Viewing Ownership Management Locked/Unlocked Status

Performance Substitution Variables

Narrative Reporting

Report Package - Embedded Content Tables Support for Repeat Headers in Word

Planning

Improved Calculation for Turns Forecasting Method in Strategic Modeling

Profitability and Cost Management

Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management

Ability to Create Multiple Rules At Once

Ability to Create Multiple Rule Sets At Once

Model Documentation Report Can Be Run from the Rule Designer

Profitability and Cost Management

Tax Reporting

REST API for Copy Data

REST API for Clear Data

>>Click for IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations

Enterprise Performance Management

Monthly Update Schedule

Test Environments: Oracle will apply this monthly update during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, December 2, 2022.

Production Environments: Oracle will apply this monthly update during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC on December 16, 2022.

NOTE: The monthly update will not be applied to any environment for which this monthly update is requested to be skipped using the EPM Automate skipUpdate command or service request to Oracle.

NOTE: Backing up the daily maintenance snapshot and restoring the environment as needed are self-service operations. Oracle strongly recommends that you download the maintenance snapshot every day to a local server.

The Oracle Help Center provides access to updated documentation. The updates will be available in the Help Center on Friday, December 2, 2022.

NOTE: Some of the links to new feature documentation included in this readiness document will not work until after the Oracle Help Center update is complete.

Documentation Updates Available One Week After Readiness Documents

Updated documentation is published on the Oracle Help Center on the first Friday of each month, coinciding with the monthly updates to Test environments. Because there is a one week lag between the publishing of the readiness documents (What's New and New Feature Summary) and Oracle Help Center updates, some links included in the readiness documents will not work until the Oracle Help Center update is complete.

https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/epm-cloud/index.html

Fixed Issues and Considerations

Software issues addressed each month and considerations are posted to a knowledge article on My Oracle Support. Click here to review. You must have a My Oracle Support login to access the article.

NOTE: Fixed issues for EPM Cloud Common components (Smart View for Office, EPM Automate, REST API, Migration, Access Control, Data Management/Data Integration, Reports, Financial Reporting, and Calculation Manager) are available in a separate document on the My Oracle Support “Release Highlights” page.

This provides visibility into EPM Cloud release contents.

Give Us Documentation Feedback

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content of the What's New document and the product documentation.

Please send us your feedback at EPMdoc_ww@oracle.com. In the body or title of the email, state that you are inquiring or providing feedback, and indicate for which EPM Cloud service and the monthly update cycle.

Please Join Oracle Cloud Customer Connect

Please take a moment to join the Cloud Customer Connect forums for EPM Cloud services. Oracle Cloud Customer Connect is a community gathering place for members to interact and collaborate on common goals and objectives. This is where you will find the latest release information, upcoming events, or answers to use-case questions. Joining takes just a few minutes. Join now!

https://cloud.oracle.com/community

NOTE: The Settings and Actions menu now contains a link to Cloud Customer Connect. To access this link, from the Home page, click the down arrow next to the user name (in the upper right-hand corner of the screen), and select Cloud Customer Connect.

Follow Us on Social Media

Follow EPM Cloud on YouTubeTwitterFacebook, and LinkedIn.

These are great resources for the latest updates and information about EPM Cloud.

EPM Common

Announcing: New Guide to Create and Run an EPM Center of Excellence (CoE)

A new guide will be available this month to help you create and run an EPM Center of Excellence (CoE). The guide describes best practices for creating and running an EPM CoE. It provides a checklist and a structured approach to help your organization successfully adopt Cloud EPM by leveraging a CoE.

An EPM Center of Excellence (CoE) is a unified effort to ensure adoption and best practices, and to drive transformation in business processes related to performance management and the use of technology-enabled solutions. The EPM CoE team:

  • Ensures cloud adoption, helping your organization get the most out of your Cloud EPM investment
  • Serves as a steering committee for best practices
  • Leads EPM-related change management initiatives and drives transformation

EPM Center of Excellence (CoE)

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Data Management, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: Using a CoE oversees your cloud initiative, and it can help protect and maintain your investment and promote effective use. Learn more about the business benefits of an EPM CoE.

Key Resources

New Consolidated EPM Cloud Accessibility Guide

Starting with this update, a new Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Accessibility Guide, which replaces the business process-specific accessibility guides, is available. This consolidated Accessibility Guide is the single source of accessibility information for all EPM Cloud business processes. Bookmarks to the current accessibility guides will redirect to this new guide.

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Data Management, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: The consolidated Accessibility Guide helps you quickly find accessibility information for all EPM Cloud business processes and components.

Key Resources

Support of Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) Groups in OCI (Gen 2) Environments

EPM Cloud OCI (Gen 2) environments now support Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) groups. You can add individual users to an IDCS group and then assign predefined roles to that group.

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Data Management, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

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NOTE:

  • The Role Assignment Report created from Access Control, EPM Automate, or REST API lists the predefined roles assigned to the users directly, even if they are assigned through IDCS groups.

  • When you clone an environment with the option to clone users and predefined roles, the cloned users on the target environment have the predefined roles assigned to them directly, even if they are assigned through IDCS groups.

Business Benefit:

Assigning predefined roles to an IDCS group removes the need to assign predefined roles to individual users. This simplifies the administration of predefined role assignment. Since IDCS groups can be synced with Identity Provider groups (such as MSAD groups), you can even add individual users to Identity Provider groups and assign the predefined roles to these groups in Identity Console.

Key Resources

New Version of Migration REST APIs

A new, simplified version of several Migration REST APIs has been released. This new version contains all parameters in the payload and does not require URL encoding while calling the REST APIs. The new version is backward compatible, so no changes are needed for existing REST APIs.

Previously, the new version applied to these REST APIs: Copy to Object Store (v2), Copy from Object Store(v2), Send Email (v2), Delete File (v2), Run Recreate on a Service (v2), Restart the Service (v2), List Files (v2), Copy a File Between Instances (v2), Copy Application Snapshot (v2), Run Daily Maintenance While Skipping the Scheduled Daily Maintenance (v2), Get the Build Version and Daily Maintenance Window Time (v2), Set the Daily Maintenance Window Time (v2), Manage Permission for Manual Access to Database (v2), Skip Updates (v2), Set Encryption Key (v2), Export Essbase Data (v2), LCM Import (v2), LCM Export (v2), Provide Feedback (v2), Rename Application Snapshot (v2), and Delete Files (v3).

Now, the new version applies to these additional REST APIs:

  • Upload Application Snapshot (v2)
  • Download Application Snapshot (v2)

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Data Management, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: The new version of the REST APIs is easier to use, and does not require URL encoding.

Key Resources

Role And Privileges

  • Service Administrators

New Version of REST APIS for Managing Users

A new, simplified version of several REST APIs to Manage Users has been released. This new version contains all parameters in the payload and does not require URL encoding while calling the REST APIs. The new version is backward compatible, so no changes are needed for existing REST APIs.

Previously, the new version applied to these REST APIs: User Access Report (v2) and User Audit Report (v2).

Now, the new version applies to these additional REST APIs:

  • Add Users to a Group (v2)
  • Remove Users from a Group (v2)
  • Assign Users to a Predefined Role or Application Role (v2)
  • Remove Users' Role Assignment (v2)

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Data Management, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: The new version of the REST APIs is easier to use, and does not require URL encoding.

Key Resources

  • Managing Users in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Role And Privileges

  • Service Administrators

Direct Drill Support in Smart View

You can now use Smart View to perform a direct drill. When direct drill is configured and you drill from Smart View, the drill down data from the source system is displayed directly in a new Excel sheet.

Applies to: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, FreeForm, Tax Reporting

To leverage this functionality, install the latest version of the Smart View client.

Business Benefit: You can now drill and view drill data directly in Excel.

Key Resources

  • Using Direct Drill in Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Ability to Import Reports Background Color Into Excel Workbooks

When importing a report to Excel, the background color specified for the report in the Report Designer is now applied to the Excel worksheets.

Applies to: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

Previously, background color was not imported with the report.

Business Benefit: By including background color when importing the report, users do not need to spend extra time applying background color in Excel.

Key Resources

New Copy and Clear Data Process Automations Added Within Task Manager

The Task Manager is enhanced with new integrations that allow to automate the copying and clearing of data within Financial Consolidation and Close and Tax Reporting. These automated tasks are available for both local and remote Financial Consolidation and Close and Tax Reporting connections.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: This lets you use Copy Data and Clear Data as an automated process in Task Manager.

Key Resources

New Text Width Calculations Property for Text Cells, Text Boxes, and Note Boxes

In Reports, a new Text Character Width property allows a designer to choose between more and less conservative sizing of text in text and heading cells in a grid, as well as text and Note objects. (Notes are in Narrative Reporting Deployment only)

  • The property can be set for the entire grid, or for individual text or heading cells. The property does not have any effect on data or formula cells. 
  • The property can have a value of Large, Medium, or Small.
  • By default, the property is set to Large.

For example:

Text Character Width = Large:

Text Character Width = Small:

Applies to: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: Improved control over text sizing in Reports.

Key Resources

EPM Integration Agent Support for a SSL Connection to an Oracle Database

The EPM Integration Agent now supports a SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection to an Oracle database.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management

To use a SSL connection to an Oracle database, customers need to set the JDBC URL in Application options and define custom JAVA properties in the EPM Integration Agent INI file.

Business Benefit: The SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol provides network-level authentication, data encryption, and data integrity.

Key Resources

Account Reconciliation

New Attributes to Provide a Count of Currencies for All Buckets

The following new attributes are added for the Balance dataset type: Source System Count of Currencies (Entered, Functional, Reporting) and Subsystem Count of Currencies (Entered, Functional, Reporting).

Business Benefit: These new attributes enable you to easily include the count of unique currencies loaded in both filters and views.

Key Resources

Enterprise Data Management

Additional Sort Options for Nodes in Hierarchy Sets

Nodes in a hierarchy viewpoint can be sorted differently based on the configuration of its hierarchy set.  The Group Parent Nodes First parameter allows for parent nodes to be placed at the beginning of the child list under a given parent.  The Sort Bottom Nodes By parameter controls how bottom nodes are sorted under parent nodes in the hierarchy.  These options can be set in the Hierarchy Set inspector.

Business Benefit: In some cases, it is desirable for parent and bottom nodes to be sorted differently in a particular hierarchy set.  For example, you may want parent nodes to be grouped together and custom ordered while using alphanumeric order for bottom nodes.

Key Resources

Commit Stage for Requests in Expressions

An IsCommit method is available for the Request Stage object in an expression to customize behavior of a custom validation, subscription, or policy when a request is in the Commit stage.

Business Benefit: Some validations, subscriptions, and policies need to function differently for requests in the Commit stage.

Key Resources

  • Request Data Type in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

CompareTo Method for Locations in Expressions

The Node object in an expression includes a CompareTo method which enables the comparison of two node locations to evaluate whether a given node instance:

  • Is the same as a specified node location
  • Has the same parent as a specified node location
  • Has some of the same ancestors as a specified node location

Business Benefit: This method is useful in situations where an expression needs to produce different results based on a comparison of node locations.  For example, to derive the value of a Data Storage property as stored vs. shared based on whether a particular node is the first location in the hierarchy and whether it shares a parent or ancestors with other node locations.

Key Resources

  • Node Data Type in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Consolidation of In Flight Requests

Multiple requests in the Approve or Commit stage can be consolidated into a single request by a data manager to be approved or committed together as a whole. In flight requests for the same view can be selected from request activity and consolidated together. During the consolidation process, a Consolidation type request is created and request items from the in flight requests are transferred to the consolidation request. The data manager can make changes to the draft consolidation request to resolve any conflicts from the consolidation process and submit the request.  The original requests are placed in Consolidated status and get moved to the Closed stage once the consolidation request has completed. The consolidated requests can be accessed from the Request inspector for a consolidation request.

Business Benefit: A group of related requests can be consolidated together to reduce the volume of individual requests which need to be approved or committed.

Key Resources

Data Source Column Added to Financials Cloud General Ledger Segment Values File

When exporting Financials Cloud General Ledger dimensions, a Data Source column was added to the generated GL_SEGMENT_VALUES_INTERFACE file with the keyword EDMCS automatically populated. This clears the values in all of the descriptive flexfield attribute columns for a value set being imported into Financials Cloud General Ledger if another value is not already present in those columns.

For more details, see the Special Handling for $null$ Value in Descriptive Flexfield Attribute Columns for Oracle Enterprise Data Management Integrations section of the Range-Based Hierarchy Creating using File-Based Data Import entry in the Oracle Fusion Cloud Financials Update 22D What's New document.

Business Benefit: Prior to this release, users had to specify $null$ in the applicable descriptive flexfield Attribute1 through 50 columns in the GL_SEGMENT_VALUES_INTERFACE file to clear the value for that attribute in the application while updating segment values. Now, the keyword EDMCS in the Data Source column automatically clears the values of the descriptive flexfield attributes in the application. This eases the management of segment value descriptive flexfield attributes.

Key Resources

Default Type and Inheritance Columns on Properties Page

Additional columns are displayed on the Properties page to identify whether a property is configured with a Specified or Derived default type or uses Positional inheritance. This allows for easy identification of properties which have these parameters configured with non-default values at the base, application, or node type level.

Business Benefit: Application owners who manage many properties want to quickly identify properties where some configuration was done which may influence the origin of a property value.

Download Request Items from Multiple Requests to Same File

Request items from multiple selected requests can be downloaded to a single file from the Request Activity page. This allows you to share or work with the data changes from multiple requests in the same file. The combined file can also be loaded into a new request to copy the changes from multiple requests to a different request..

Business Benefit: When a user is working with multiple related requests, it is helpful to include their request items in the same file so they can be reviewed together, loaded into another request, or shared with other parties if necessary.

Key Resources

Download Transaction History with Workflow Details

When transaction history is downloaded, workflow information for completed requests can be optionally included in the resulting file. A separate Workflow sheet is added which contains the workflow details for the requests whose transactions are included in the file. The Workflow sheet lists the workflow actions performed by users of each request along with related policy information for approvals and commits.

Business Benefit: In some cases, it is important to identify all contributing users of completed requests which created transactions, including approvers and commiters of those requests.

Key Resources

Download Viewpoint Query Results to File

Viewpoint query results can be downloaded to an Excel file for offline sharing or to work with the results in an external format. The file contains a row for each node included in the query results. Displayed properties configured for the viewpoint are output as columns in the downloaded file.  The file can be modified and reloaded into a request as necessary to apply data changes based on the query results.

Business Benefit: Downloading the results of a viewpoint query allows users to work with those results in an offline format or share with others.

Key Resources

Enable and Disable Custom Validations in Node Type and Hierarchy Set Inspectors

Custom validations can be enabled or disabled on the Validations tab of the Node Type and Hierarchy Set inspectors. In cases where multiple validations must be enabled or disabled, this option is more efficient than performing the action in the Validation inspector for each custom validation.

Business Benefit: In certain situations, it is necessary to disable or enable multiple custom validations at the same time.

Key Resources

Enable and Disable Subscriptions in Viewpoint Inspector

Subscriptions can be enabled or disabled directly from the Viewpoint inspector. In situations where multiple subscriptions need to be enabled or disabled, this option is quicker than performing the action in the Subscription inspector for every subscription.

Business Benefit: Sometimes multiple subscriptions need to be disabled and later re-enabled for the same target viewpoint.

Key Resources

Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management Application Type

A new application type is available in Enterprise Data Management to manage dimensions and mappings for the Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management business process in Oracle EPM Cloud. Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management applications can be registered on the Applications page and can include standard and attribute dimensions. Mapping bindings and viewpoints can also be created for Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management applications after registration. The application type includes bindings and connections for importing and exporting data.

Business Benefit: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management application dimensions and mappings can be managed in a dedicated application type in Enterprise Data Management.

Key Resources

Equivalent Nodes Validation for Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications

An Equivalent Nodes validation is available for Financials Cloud General Ledger applications to ensure the consistency of bottom level nodes across viewpoints in a dimension. This validation is used in conjunction with the Related Viewpoints parameter configured for a given viewpoint. Nodes in the current viewpoint which do not also exist in the related viewpoints will fail the validation. These validation issues can then be resolved accordingly.  The validation can be optionally enabled on the Validations tab of the Dimension inspector.

Business Benefit: When a dimension contains multiple trees, it may be necessary to ensure that the trees contain the same bottom nodes for reconciliation purposes.

Key Resources

Filter, Min, and Max Methods for Node Collections in Expressions

Additional methods are available for node collections in expressions to evaluate and return nodes in the collection which meet certain criteria.  The following methods can be used:

  • Filter - Returns a subset of nodes in the collection based on the specified predicate
  • Max - Returns a single node with the maximum value of the specified expression
  • Min - Returns a single node with the minimum value of the specified expression

Business Benefit: Some business rules need to return data values from a subset of related nodes or for nodes which have the minimum or maximum value of particular properties.

Key Resources

  • Node List Data Type in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Identify Read Only Properties in Node Type Converters

Read only properties are marked with a warning in a node type converter to make users aware that changes made to the source property cannot be propagated to the target property. This situation can happen when a property that was originally mapped in a node type converter is later configured as read only for an application or node type.

Business Benefit: When inspecting and modifying node type converters, it is helpful to identify situations where source values are being copied or transformed from the source node type but the target property is read only for the target node type.

Key Resources

Manage Descriptions in Additional Languages for Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications

Four additional languages are supported for descriptions of segment values from Financials Cloud General Ledger applications managed in Enterprise Data Management:

  • Estonian
  • Latvian
  • Ukrainian
  • Vietnamese

Properties for these languages can be included in node types, viewpoints, and bindings for applications of this type.  Data values for these properties can be imported and exported as necessary.

Business Benefit: Organizations which use these languages for segment value descriptions in Financials Cloud General Ledger can maintain these values in Enterprise Data Management.

Manage Labels for Tree Nodes in Financials Cloud General Ledger Applications

Labels for tree nodes in Financials Cloud General Ledger applications can be managed in Enterprise Data Management. When tree labels are registered for an application, a Tree Label property is added to node types and bindings for that application. The property is used to assign tree labels to node relationships in hierarchy viewpoints and the bindings enable tree labels to be imported and exported. An application-specific validation is available to ensure that only summary nodes can have tree labels defined.

Business Benefit: Tree labels for segment value hierarchies, which allow you to tag the nodes in a tree with a label in Financials Cloud General Ledger, can now be maintained in Enterprise Data Management.

Key Resources

Merge Import Options for Auto Submit and Bypass Workflow

Additional merge import options are available for application dimensions to control whether a resulting import request is auto-submitted and bypasses workflow policies. Previously, import requests would always be auto-submitted and would bypass approval and commit policies, but now that is configurable behavior. These options can be set on the Import/Export tab of the Dimension inspector.

Business Benefit: Disabling the auto-submission of an import request allows the request items resulting from a merge import to be previewed before the request has been submitted.  In addition, it may be desirable for users to approve and commit of changes originating from a merge import.

Key Resources

Numeric String Property Data Type

A Numeric String data type is available to manage string data values which consist of all numeric characters. System validations are enforced on property values to ensure they are numeric. Numeric string properties can be configured with a Padding parameter to prepend values with leading zeros if necessary. Properties of the Numeric String data type are treated like strings in expressions.

Business Benefit: Numeric String data type properties provide a better option to manage string data values which use all numeric characters.

Key Resources

Redwood Theme for Email Notifications

Email notifications sent from Enterprise Data Management now use the Redwood theme.

Business Benefit: The Redwood theme gives an enhanced look and feel in terms of colors and brings consistency across Oracle cloud applications.

Request Comments and Attachments in Expressions

Expressions can now evaluate request comments and attachments when used in a custom validation, subscription filter, or policy filter.  The Request object includes Comments and Attachments collections which can be used to perform conditional logic based on comments or attachments with specific characteristics for a given request.  The following methods and attributes are available for these collections:

  • Any
  • Count
  • Find
  • Get
  • IsEmpty
  • Size

Business Benefit: Some validations, subscriptions, and policies need access to comments and attachments for a request.  For example, a custom validation can check whether the owner of a request has added a comment or whether a file of a particular type is attached to a request.

Key Resources

  • Request Data Type in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Request State Option for Custom Validations

A Request State option is available for custom validations to control the state in which specific validations will run in the context of a request.   The Committed state is used to evaluate data after the request items and actions have been applied to the viewpoint.  The Visualized state is used to evaluate data before the request items and actions have been applied to the viewpoint.  Validations using the Visualized state are only run when validating request items and do not run when validating a viewpoint.

Business Benefit: Validations used to prevent certain nodes from being removed or deleted can use the Visualized request state to evaluate the nodes before they are removed or deleted from the viewpoint.

Key Resources

Request Type Filter for Workflow Policies

Policies can be filtered to conditionally enforce a particular policy for specific types of requests only.  The Request Type filter on a policy can be configured to one or more request types in the Policy inspector.  Existing policies are defaulted to the Interactive, Subscription, and Import request types only.  New policies will work for all request types unless configured otherwise.

Business Benefit: This provides an easy way to apply some policies to certain types of requests but not others without having to do it through an expression filter.  For example, you may want approval policies to be enforced for Interactive requests but not for Consolidation requests so that changes are approved before consolidation and do not need to be re-approved after consolidation.

Key Resources

REST API to Query Request Activity

A REST API endpoint is available to query existing requests using a variety of filters.  This endpoint can be used to find requests with particular characteristics of interest.  Requests which meet the specified filters are returned in JSON format.

Business Benefit: Request queries can be used by an automated process to identify requests with a certain status, in a specific view or stage, or owned by particular user in order to take further action on those requests.

Key Resources

  • Query Requests in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud Service

REST API for Template Import and Export

REST API endpoints are available to import and export templates in an automated fashion.  This enables incremental migration of application and dimension configurations across Enterprise Data Management environments using a systematic process with no manual intervention.  Template files are exported to and imported from the staging area.  Template preview and import results are returned in JSON format.

Business Benefit: Template imports and exports can be automated to migrate ongoing changes to application and dimension configurations across Enterprise Data Management environments in a programmatic manner.

Key Resources

Viewpoint Load from File

Data managers can bulk load data into individual viewpoints as an alternative to dimension import or using request files.   Viewpoint loads can be performed on the Load screen of the Applications page in the user interface or using the REST API.  Data can be loaded from a CSV file into a selected viewpoint using replace mode.  During a viewpoint load, data in the viewpoint is immediately updated and no request or transactions are created.  A history of viewpoint loads is available for review and monitoring.

Business Benefit: Viewpoint loads allow unbound and reference viewpoints to be loaded with data from external sources.  They also enable data files produced by viewpoint extracts from one Enterprise Data Management environment to be loaded into corresponding viewpoints in other target environments.

Key Resources

Financial Consolidation and Close

Enterprise Journals External Validation Enhancement

In Enterprise Journals, you can now externally validate the journal before submitting the results to the Approver. The External Validation option is available on the Create Targets screen with drop-down options None (no external validation is performed) or Custom (external validation is performed as per your configuration on this screen).

The following validation features are provided:

  • Validation Status - Displays the current validation status and appears as a tile at the top of the Journal Actions dialog before the Posting Status and also on the Journals Dashboard.

The Validation Status is available as a list filter and also as a new column. If the Validation Status is "Valid" or "Failed", clicking on it brings up the Validation Results dialog. The following statuses are available:

    • Not Validated
    • Ready To Validate
    • Validation In Progress
    • Valid           
    • Failed 
  • Validation Message - This shows the results of the last validation attempt, even if the Journal Validation Status has returned to "Not Validated".  The Validation Message is available as a new column.
  • Validation Results Link - If there is a validation message, clicking on the message link brings up the View Validation Results dialog.

Business Benefit: This enhancement allows an Enterprise Journal to be validated against any source system before it is approved.

Key Resources

Ability to Change Seeded Accounts in Equity Pickup Module

When Equity Pickup is enabled, an EPU system rule set configuration is created named Default Accounts and Movements. It includes the option to change the default entries for the rules set name and the metadata members. You can select the Equity Pickup source account, destination accounts, and related Movement members. In addition to modifying the default rule set configuration, additional sets of system rule configurations can be added.

Business Benefit: This enhancement provides the flexibility to modify and add sets of Accounts and Movement members used for Equity Pickup calculations.

Key Resources

Data Discovery

Data Discovery is designed to help you understand the data flow in Financial Consolidation and Close calculations and diagnose issues. You can run Data Discovery from data forms, or from Smart View. For the selected data cell, the Data Discovery process generates notes on metadata information, error messages and diagnostic suggestions. In addition, the process generates form grids based on Data Discovery rules and settings and the level of the cell.

Business Benefit: Data Discovery enables you to review and analyze data details and history and take appropriate action to improve performance and resolve issues.

Key Resources

Viewing Ownership Management Locked/Unlocked Status

The Ownership Management screen now includes a column that displays the Locked/Unlocked status of entities in Ownership Management based on their Approval Unit status.  For example, if an entity is Locked during the Approvals process, its status will be Locked in Ownership Management. Changes to Ownership Management are allowed for Unlocked entities and prevented for Locked entities.

If you want to disable this functionality, in this update you can add a substitution variable named LinkOwnershipandDataLocking and set it to False. When set to False, locking and unlocking requirements will not be applied. Note that in a future update, this substitution variable will be removed. See “Future Updates to Ownership Management Locking/Unlocking” in the Important Actions and Considerations section.

Business Benefit: The ability to lock Ownership Management settings ensures that changes cannot be made to settings that impact Entity data for which the Approval Unit is already Locked.

Key Resources

Performance Substitution Variables

The OptimizeConcurrency, OptimizePelimCalculation, EnableYearlyConsol, ParallelCustomDimDSO, and ParallelCustomDimTranslation substitution variables can be enabled to improve performance.

OptimizeConcurrency = True

This substitution variable improves concurrency of the consolidation process by executing some of the calculations at the very beginning or at the end. The degree of improvement depends on the entity structure of a given customer. Customers with deeper entity hierarchies will benefit the most.

OptimizePelimCalculation= True

This substitution variable improves Partner Eliminations (PElim) performance. If there is a consolidation performance degradation when deploying a user-created “Partner Eliminations Configurable Consolidation Rule” that has an account re-direction, adding this variable can provide significant performance improvement.

EnableYearlyConsol = True

The EnableYearlyConsol substitution variable can be enabled to improve performance for multi-period consolidations in applications that use the Dense/Sparse Optimization option (where Period and Movement are the Dense dimensions).

This substitution variable is applicable if the application meets all of these conditions:

  • The application uses the Dense/Sparse Optimization option (Period and Movement are Dense dimensions)
  • You have two or more dirty periods, and two or more hierarchy levels
  • The dirty entities are identical across periods
  • Equity Pickup sequence is not enabled

ParallelCustomDimDSO = True

This substitution variable improves the performance of the consolidation process in applications with Dense/Sparse Optimization, where the Period and Movement dimensions are Dense dimensions. To see performance improvements, you should set this substitution variable to True.

ParallelCustomDimTranslation = True

This substitution variable can improve the performance of the consolidation process in applications with Dense/Sparse Optimization, where the Period and Movement dimensions are Dense dimensions. To see performance improvements, you should set this substitution variable to True. If any degradation is noticed, you should delete this variable.

Business Benefit: These substitution variables help in improving consolidation performance.

NOTE: The degree of performance improvement varies widely across different applications as it is purely driven by the application design and data distribution.

FreeForm

There are no new features in this update except for the applicable features listed in the EPM Common section.

Narrative Reporting

Report Package - Embedded Content Tables Support for Repeat Headers in Word

The Report Package’s Embedded Content now supports repeating table headers within Word.

  • For Excel Tables, there will be some configuration required to enable the repeating header option.
  • For Report Grids, the repeat headers option will be inherited from the Report definition.

As Reports support repeating headers by default, most existing embedded content tables from a Report Reference Doclet will automatically have the repeat headers option enabled. This will be a change in behavior seen upon a refresh of the embedded content within the Word doclet. If you require the embedded table to not support repeating headers, the underlying Report definition will need to update accordingly.

Business Benefit: This enables you to view the table with a fixed header upon scrolling to multiple pages.

Key Resources

Planning

There are no new features in this update except for the applicable features listed in the EPM Common section.

Improved Calculation for Turns Forecasting Method in Strategic Modeling

The Strategic Modeling calculation for the Turns forecasting method for an account is improved so that the formula detects when a user has generated an Infinity (usually because there is a zero in the input data) and converts it to a NaN. The updated formula produces better behavior when the calculated value is used in subsequent calculations. 

Business Benefit: The updated calculation is consistent with the behavior from the on premise release and produces better results.

Key Resources

Profitability and Cost Management

Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management

Ability to Create Multiple Rules At Once

When creating the rules in a model, you now have the option to create multiple rules at once.

Business Benefit: Creating multiple rules at once is useful when you need to create a large number of rules in a rule set. You can create the initial outline of the rules, and then come back later and fill in the details for each rule. This can save you time and help you manage your models more efficiently.

Key Resources

Ability to Create Multiple Rule Sets At Once

When creating the rule sets in a model, you now have the option to create multiple rule sets at once.

Business Benefit: Creating multiple rule sets at once is useful when you need to create a large number of rule sets in a model. You can create the initial outline of the rule sets, and then later come back to define the specific details for each rule set. This can save you time and help you manage your models more efficiently.

Key Resources

Model Documentation Report Can Be Run from the Rule Designer

The Model Documentation report can now be run from the Rule Designer.

Business Benefit: The ability to run the Model Documentation report while working with rules in the Rule Designer eliminates the need to switch between the Designer and Model pages while designing and editing your rules.

Key Resources

Profitability and Cost Management

There are no new features in this update except for the applicable features listed in the EPM Common section.

Tax Reporting

REST API for Copy Data

You can use this REST API to run a Copy Data job using the job name specified in Tax Reporting. Before executing this job, you should create a Copy Data Job using this procedure: Using Copy Data Job.

Business Benefit: The ability to perform this task with a REST API allows you to schedule and automate this task.

Key Resources

  • Copy Data in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

REST API for Clear Data

You can use this REST API to run a Clear Data job using the job name specified in Tax Reporting. Before executing this job, you should create a Clear Data job using this procedure: Using Clear Data Job.

Business Benefit: The ability to perform this task with a REST API allows you to schedule and automate this task.

Key Resources

  • Clear Data in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations

One-Week Lag Between Readiness Documents Live and Help Center Live

Because Oracle readiness documents (What's New and New Feature Summary) are live one week before the monthly update is applied to Test environments, some links to documentation included in the readiness documents will not work until after the Oracle Help Center update is complete when the monthly update is applied to Test environments.

EPM COMMON

EPM Cloud Classic to OCI (Gen 2) Migration for Commercial Data Centers Has Started

One of Oracle's latest advancements, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), is the foundation of Oracle's second generation cloud. OCI, a purpose-built, best-in-class platform for running enterprise applications, is engineered from the ground up to run mission-critical databases, workloads, and applications while providing end-to-end security. Oracle's data centers around the globe are standardizing on the new OCI architecture which delivers even greater performance and reliability. There are a lot of EPM Cloud features that are available only in OCI. See Features Available only in OCI EPM Cloud Environments in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators.

Over time, Oracle plans to migrate EPM Cloud environments currently hosted in Classic commercial data centers to OCI. Two migration options are available:

If you opt for Oracle-managed migration, you don’t have to do anything at this time. Oracle-managed migrations are targeted to start around April, 2023, and last until the end of 2023.

If you plan to use Customer-managed migration, you should start this process as soon as possible.

NOTE: At this time, the environments hosted in US-Gov and UK-Gov data centers are not eligible for migration to OCI.

Key Resources:

Disallow Starting Certain Scheduled Jobs During the Daily Maintenance Process

Starting in 23.03, to prevent automatic backup from failure due to scheduled jobs, the system will disallow certain scheduled jobs to start while the daily maintenance process is running.

The following jobs will be prevented from starting during the daily maintenance:

  • Import Data
  • Import Metadata
  • Export Data
  • Export Metadata
  • Refresh Database
  • Clear Cube
  • Restructure Cube
  • Compact Outline
  • Merge Data Slices
  • Optimize Aggregation

If the system prevents a job from starting, the reason will be stated in the Job Details. If you've enabled email notifications for the Job Console, you'll receive a mail notification when a job does not start. If you have a job that is scheduled to start during the daily maintenance process, it is recommended that you reschedule your job to start outside of the daily maintenance window.

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

Calculation Manager Errors and Warnings Enforcement

In a future update, Calculation Manager will enforce the execution of the Errors & Warnings diagnostic tool for any rule being launched, validated, or deployed from it. If there are errors that result from this new process, Calculation Manager will not execute, validate, or deploy the rule. This new process will apply to all new applications once released. Existing applications will have a finite period of time to bypass this new process to allow you to modify the rules that violate the new Errors & Warnings diagnostic analysis. In all cases, existing rules that are already deployed will continue to run as-is without any change in behavior.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Planning, Planning Modules

Valid Intersection and Cell-level Security Import & Export File Format Update

In a future update, both Valid Intersection and Cell-level Security Import and Export files in .XLSX format will include new columns for each dimension in the Sub Rules worksheet. These new columns to support excluding all instances of members by name will apply to each dimension and will be positioned after each dimension’s “Exclusion” column. If you use these exported files for integration with other systems and the order of columns is fixed, you may need to modify your process to account for these new columns in these export files. The release of these new columns will coincide with the planned release of this enhancement for Valid Intersections and Cell-Level Security.

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

Change in Behavior for Grids Created from Groovy and REST APIs for ASO Cubes

In a future update, the suppression behavior for grids created via Groovy DataGridDefinitionBuilder and the exportdataslice REST API for ASO cubes will be made consistent with that of the run time data grids created using the Form Designer. Previously, if a grid was built for an ASO cube in Groovy or REST API, then the system used the NON EMPTY MDX clause to suppress missing rows when the suppressMissingBlocks flag was true. Now, when a grid is built for an ASO cube, it will use the NON EMPTY MDX clause when suppressMissingRows is true, and suppressMissingBlocks will be ignored. This means that ASO grids with suppressMissingRows true and suppressMissingBlocks false will now start using MDX. Likewise, ASO grids with suppressMissingRows false and suppressMissingBlocks true will no longer use MDX. Grids where the suppressMissingRows and suppressMissingBlocks flags had the same value will not be impacted. These changes may result in a change in behavior or performance for some ASO grids. If this happens and is undesirable, consider toggling the value of suppressMissingRows from the builder or the JSON payload in case of the REST API.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

Mandatory Steps Required to Make the Explore Repository Artifacts Accessible to Users

Prior to the July (22.07) update, Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud used the WORLD pre-seeded group to grant access to Explore Repository artifacts such as reports and folders. Starting with the July (22.07) update, the WORLD group was removed. If you previously used the WORLD group to grant access to repository artifacts, complete these steps to ensure that users can access Repository artifacts:

  1. Create a group in Access Control with all EPM Cloud users as its members.
  2. In Explore Repository, grant access privileges to the group you created in the preceding step.

For detailed steps, see Granting Access Permissions to Document Repository Users in Working with Financial Reporting for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud.

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Rolling Back Changes Made to Page Title Display for Horizontal tabs

Starting in the July (22.07) update, we have rolled back changes made in the April (22.04) update to the page title for horizontal tabs. The change was to not display the page title in horizontal tabs while using the Redwood Theme. From the feedback received on this change, we've decided to roll it back.

Applies to: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Alerts Cannot be Migrated to Prior Version

Due to a major upgrade in Alert functionality, any service that has defined Alert Types will not be able to migrate them or the Alerts that are based on them from the April (22.04) update to an earlier update. This normally happens if artifacts are moved from Test to Production during the two week period when Test is upgraded to the April (22.04) update while Production is still on the March (22.03) update. All other objects in the migration are not affected.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

Task Manager Email Notification Settings

Starting in the April (22.04) update, the service changed the handling of Task Manager’s Email Notification settings during a migration. The target service’s Task Manager Email Notification settings were updated with the settings from the source service. If a customer wants to retain the target service’s Task Manager Notification settings, they can generate an LCM export with the notification settings from the target service, perform the source migration, then import the LCM file with the notification settings.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

See LCM Export and LCM Import in REST API for Oracle Performance Management Cloud.

Date Format when Using the EPM Digital Assistant

When using the EPM Digital Assistant, note that the Date format is not taken from User Preferences, and the assistant does not ask which format to use for the date. The assistant attempts to detect the date format based on the user locale set in the browser and other common formats.

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Financial Consolidation and Close, Planning, Planning Modules,Tax Reporting

Removing Dimensions Before Rebasing a Financial Consolidation and Close or Tax Reporting EPM Digital Assistant Skill

If you want to rebase your Financial Consolidation and Close or Tax Reporting skill to use the November (21.11) update of EPM Digital Assistant, you must first remove some dimensions before rebasing.

  • Financial Consolidation and Close dimensions to be removed before rebasing: Scenario, Years, Period, Entity, Account, Currency, View, Consolidation, Data Source, Multi-GAAP, Intercompany and Movement
  • Tax Reporting skill dimensions to be removed before rebasing: Cube, Scenario, Years, Period, Entity, Account, Currency, View, Consolidation, Data Source, Multi-GAAP, Intercompany, Movement and Jurisdiction

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting

See Removing a Consolidation and Close or Tax Reporting Custom Dimension from an Extended Skill in Getting Started with the Digital Assistant for Oracle Cloud Enterprise Performance Management.

Performing Calculations Without Having to Submit Your Changes (Calc on the Fly)

In a future update, Financial Consolidation and Close and Tax Reporting will support calc on the fly. While the Application Settings option Enable User Formulas in Ad Hoc is available in this update, the feature is not yet supported for these products.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting

Data Maps with Mapping or Cross Applications

Data Maps with mapping or cross applications are not supported in this update. If the Data Map has mapping or is a cross-application, it needs to be attached to a form or included in the Groovy rule and run as a Smart Push.

Applies to: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Planning, Planning Modules

Purging of Audit Information

Starting in the February (23.02) update, audit records older than 365 days will be automatically purged. Purged audit records will not be stored or accessible. To prepare for this change, you may want to take a backup of historical audit data. To do this, select one of the following options:

  1. Export: Select the Export option on the Actions menu from the Audit card by selecting the appropriate filters.
  2. EPM Automate command: Use the exportAppAudit command. See exportAppAudit in Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud.

  3. EPM Automate script: Use the Windows or Linux scripts to automate the process of exporting and archiving application audit data to a local computer. See Automate the Archiving of Application Audit Records in Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud.

Submit a service request if you encounter problems backing up historical audit data.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting

Internet Explorer 11 End of Support and Smart View

Microsoft announced end of support of Internet Explorer 11 by June 15, 2022.

Do not uninstall Microsoft Internet Explorer, even after the end-of support date of June 15, 2022. Instead, you may securely disable Internet Explorer following Microsoft’s guidelines. In situations where the Internet Explorer browser would be called, the Edge browser will be launched instead.

Oracle Smart View for Office does not require the Internet Explorer browser specifically. However, Smart View depends on Windows components (for example, WinInet APIs) that may have dependencies on Internet Explorer. Microsoft recommends keeping Internet Explorer installed on the machine since uninstalling may cause other applications that are dependent on it to work incorrectly. Microsoft also recommends updating to the latest security patches as they become available.

For more information, Oracle Support Document 2877741.1 (Impact on Smart view with Microsoft decommissioning Internet Explorer 11 on June 15, 2022) can be found at: https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?id=2877741.1

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Updated Smart View Browser Extension Required for Chrome and Edge

An updated Smart View browser extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge is available. This extension is required for Oracle Smart View for Office to interact with supported browser-based EPM Cloud business processes in these ways:

  • Starting in a form or ad hoc grid in Smart View, use drill-through to launch an application web page in a browser.
  • Starting in a web application, launch a form or ad hoc grid in Smart View for Excel.
  • Starting in a Task List in Smart View, opening a task in a browser.

This required browser extension update is strictly for the Chrome and Edge browsers only. This is not an update for extensions, such as the Planning Admin or Narrative Reporting extensions, within Smart View.

This update is required only if your default browser is Chrome or Edge. If your default browser is Mozilla Firefox, then this update does not affect you.

The extension is available in the Chrome Web Store from either the Chrome or Edge browser. In the Chrome Web Store, search for "smart view" to locate the extension update. the version number is 22.200. Then follow the instructions for Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge in Installing Browser Add-ons in the Oracle Smart View for Office Installation and Configuration Guide.

Note that after January 1, 2023, the current browser extension will no longer work with Chrome or Edge. You must update your extension by that date in order to continue interactions between Smart View and browser-based business processes in EPM Cloud.

Applies to: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Planning Modules, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Office 365 Add-ins Command Change by Microsoft to Impact Buttons in Smart View (Mac and Browser)

To improve security in Office Add-ins, Microsoft Office 365 has made changes to its ExecuteFunction add-in command from October 30, 2022. Since Smart View for Office (Mac and Browser) uses this command in its ribbon buttons and menus, some buttons may stop working from October 30. For example, buttons such as Undo, Redo, or Refresh on the Smart View and provider ribbons. This issue is resolved in the latest Smart View update of 22.11. As the changes are limited to server update, you are not required to create and deploy a new manifest file again for resolving this issue.

For more information on Microsoft’s announcement, see Announcing changes to Office Add-ins’ ExecuteFunction commands.

Applies to: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting

Oracle Financial Reporting Statement of Direction

Please refer to the Statement of Direction for Oracle Financial Reporting:

Oracle Support Document 2910806.1 (EPM Cloud Financial Reporting Statement of Direction)

ACCOUNT RECONCILIATION

In a future update, Saved Lists will be renamed Saved Views.

ENTERPRISE DATA MANAGEMENT

Description Column Is Removable From Viewpoint Download

Starting in the November update (22.11), the Description column is not included in a viewpoint download file if the Core.Description property is not displayed for any node type in the viewpoint. Previously, it was always included in the file even when not used in the viewpoint.

FINANCIAL CONSOLIDATION AND CLOSE

Future Updates to Ownership Management Locking / Unlocking

Currently there is a single Process Management Approval Unit for all instances of a shared entity. As a result, when data for one instance is Locked in Process Management, all instances are Locked. The same Locking logic will apply to Ownership Management. When data is locked for an Approval Unit POV, Ownership Management settings are also locked for the same Approval Unit POV. As noted above, this link from Process Management Locking / Unlocking to Ownership Management settings can be disabled using a Substitution Variable. Note that this ability to disable the link will be temporary.

When future updates to improve Organization-by-Period functionality are made available, there will be one Process Management Approval Unit for each instance of a shared entity rather than one Approval Unit for all instances. When this is first implemented, the same Locking / Unlocking logic will apply. When the Process Management Approval Unit is locked, then both data and Ownership Management settings will be Locked, but on an instance-by-instance basis for shared entities. At this point, the link between Approval Unit Locking / Unlocking and Ownership Management settings Locking / Unlocking will no longer be able to be disabled. This is to ensure that a change in Ownership settings cannot cause Locked data to be impacted.

A further update will then be implemented to provide a little more flexibility in Locking / Unlocking Ownership Management settings. These settings will be able to be Locked before the Process Management Approval Unit for the same POV is Locked. Ownership Management settings will only be able to be Unlocked if the matching Process Management Approval Unit is unlocked. This will allow users to work on updating data without worrying about ownership settings affecting their results. Again, the link and dependency between Locking / Unlocking data and Ownership Management settings will not be able to be disabled.

Posting Data Against Global Assumptions

It is recommended that you do not post data against the Global Assumptions member in the Entity dimension. This member is used to store information such as currency rates. Starting with the July (22.07) update, if you post data against Global Assumptions, an error will occur.

Phased Approvals

If you decide to enable Phased Approvals in your application, take note of the following considerations:

  • You will need to manually modify your Data Status forms to replace the dimension member "FCCS_Status_ApprovalStatus" with the new member "FCCS_Status_ConsolidatedApprovalStatus".

  • If you try to export the application from the March (22.03) update and import it to the February (22.02) update, you must update your Data Status form by changing the dimension member FCCS_Status_ConsolidatedApprovalStatus back to FCCS_Status_ApprovalStatus.

  • Additionally, you will encounter errors during the import because new artifacts related to Phased Approvals are not supported in February (22.02).

Resetting Customized Changes After an Update

If you have made changes to the seeded Account hierarchy, those changes will be reset. If you have moved seeded members, the move action is retained, but any re-ordering you have done will be reset, and a restructuring will happen when the ordering is reset. The restructuring could take time, so plan accordingly. You may have to manually re-order seeded members again after the update.

Enterprise Journal Dimension Persistence

In a future update, all Enterprise Journal dimension attributes will persist their values once they are set in the Journal.

Consolidation Journal Application Roles Not Automatically Mapped to Any Predefined Role

In a future update, the following consolidation journal-related application roles will no longer be mapped to any predefined role, including Service Administrator.

  • Create Journals
  • Submit Journals
  • Approve Journals
  • Post Journals
  • Un-Post Journals
  • Manage Journal Periods

These roles will need to be explicitly assigned to new users from the Manage Application Role tab of Access Control. However, your existing users who already have these journal roles assigned will continue to have these roles assigned to them.

If you have any concerns, please open a service request.

NARRATIVE REPORTING

Working with Variables in Smart View for PowerPoint

When working with Smart View and the Narrative Reporting extension on the 32-bit version of Office 365, an intermittent issue occurs when inserting a variable into a PowerPoint doclet from the Variables panel. At times, the variable is not inserted correctly and only a blank space is inserted. Other times, the variable inserts correctly.

Workaround: Variables will insert without issues if you turn off Windows “Clipboard history.” Follow these steps to turn off the “Clipboard history” setting.

  1. From the Windows Start button, select Settings.
  2. Search for “Clipboard" and select Clipboard settings.
  3. In the Clipboard settings page, set the “Clipboard history” option to Off.
  4. Start PowerPoint and connect to Narrative Reporting.
  5. Open a PowerPoint report package, and then open and check out a PowerPoint doclet.
  6. Insert variables in the PowerPoint doclet.