March 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	Product	Feature	Notes
18 APR 2022	EPM Common	REST API for Import Data - Parameter to Stop on Error	Updated document. Revised feature information.
23 MAR 2022	Financial Consolidation and Close	Performance Substitution Variables	Updated document. Revised feature information.
08 MAR 2022	EPM Common	Introduction of Quick Start Checklists for Oracle Smart View for Office	Updated document.  Delivered checklists in March 2022 update.
08 MAR 2022	EPM Common	Updates to the Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators Guide	Updated document. Revised feature information.
28 FEB 2022	EPM Common	EPM Automate Updates	Updated document. Revised feature information.
24 FEB 2022			Created initial document.

Overview

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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.

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Feature Summary

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, March 4, 2022.

Production Environments: Oracle will apply this monthly update during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, March 18, 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, March 4, 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 will be posted to My Oracle Support.

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 take our quick survey or 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.

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Follow EPM Cloud on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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

EPM Common

New Tutorial

A new tutorial for Data Integration guides you through the different methods to load data using the Data Integration user interface. Specifically, you will:

• Perform a basic numeric data load
• Perform a multi-period load with period data in columns
• Perform a multi-period load with row-based dates
• Perform a data load with multiple accounts in columns with numeric data
• Perform a data load with multiple accounts in columns with all data types

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

Business Benefit: Tutorials provide instructions with sequenced videos and documentation to help you learn a topic.

Key Resources

• Loading File-Based Data in Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Updates to the Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators Guide

The Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators guide now contains a dedicated chapter on monitoring  EPM Cloud using Activity Reports, Access Logs, Role Assignment Report, Oracle Cloud applications, and the Oracle Cloud portal. It now contains detailed descriptions of the different metrics displayed in the report

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

Business Benefit: The new section in the Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators guide helps you monitor your EPM Cloud environments using the different reports that Oracle offers. Monitoring your environments will help you find any issues with the environments, in addition to proactive monitoring that Oracle performs on your environments.

Key Resources

• Monitoring EPM Cloud in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators

Updates to the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Operations Guide

The Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Operations Guide has been updated to provide information on outbound IP Addresses of Oracle Cloud Data Centers to help you troubleshoot issues in the following areas when the target environment has IP allowlist enabled but does not have the outbound IP address of the data center where the source environment is located: Clone Environment User Interface and cloneEnvironment EPM Automate command, copysnapshotfrominstance EPM Automate command Copy Application Snapshot REST API, Navigation Flows, and ERP Integration. The updated guide also contains information on resolving EPMAT-7 Unable to connect as few SSL certificates are missing in the keystore error and EPMAT-7: Unable to connect as above-mentioned SSL certificates are missing in the keystore error.

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

Business Benefit: Information in the EPM Cloud Operations Guide helps you troubleshoot issues and report issues and requests to Oracle.

Key Resources

• Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Operations Guide

Introduction of Quick Start Checklists for Oracle Smart View for Office

Wondering how to start using Oracle Smart View for Office? Use these checklists on your first day. Follow the steps to do initial tasks like install Smart View, set up connections for users, deploy extensions, log in, navigate, open forms in Excel, submit data, and perform ad hoc analysis. The checklists are organized by predefined roles for Service Administrators and Power Users.

Smart View for Office Quick Start Checklists

We’ve added links to the Smart View checklists to the existing checklists for Account Reconciliation, Financial Consolidation and Close, Narrative Reporting, Planning, and Profitability and Cost Management.

Business Benefit: These quick start checklists help you learn how to speed up your first day using Oracle Smart View for Office.

EPM Automate Updates

A new version of EPM Automate is now available. This version of EPM Automate supports OAuth 2.0-based authentication for OCI (Gen 2) environments. The encrypt command has been modified to encrypt the refresh token and client ID for accessing EPM Cloud OCI environments using OAuth 2.0. The login command has been modified to support signing into an OCI environment using an encrypted file containing an OAuth 2.0 refresh token and client ID. The login command has also been modified to import mising SSL certificate from the proxy server automatically. This version also includes these new commands:  exportBackgroundImage, exportLogoImage, importBackgroundImage, and importLogoImage. The replay command has been enhanced to replay REST APIs and EPM Automate activities. Additionally, the Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud guide has been updated to indicate the predefined roles required to run each command.

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

NOTE: addUsers, removeUsers, assignRole, and unassignRole commands do not work with OAuth 2.0. They still require basic authentication. All other EPM Automate commands now work with OAuth 2.0 in OCI (Gen 2) environments.

Updates to the encrypt Command

This command has been enhanced to encrypt OAuth2.0 refresh token and client ID for accessing OCI (Gen 2) EPM Cloud environments.

Updates to the login Command

This command has been updated to support signing into an environment using an encrypted file containing an OAuth 2.0 refresh token and client ID for accessing OCI (Gen 2) EPM Cloud environment.

Additionally, on Windows computers, the command now automatically identifies missing proxy server intermediate security certificate that may prevent you from establishing a connection and adds it to the JRE installed under C:\Oracle\EPM Automate. This prevents login errors related to security certificates.

On Linux computers, this command now identifies the missing security certificate from the proxy server, downloads it, and display an error. A user with root access can then install the downloaded certificate in the JRE available in the JAVA_HOME identified in the environment variables.

exportBackgroundImage Command

Exports the background image used in an Account Reconciliation environment to a JPG file so that you can import it into another environment.

exportLogoImage Command

Exports the corporate logo used in an Account Reconciliation environment to a JPG file so that you can import it into another environment.

importBackgroundImage Command

Imports the background image from an export file into an Account Reconciliation environment.

importLogoImage Command

Imports the corporate logo image from an export file into an Account Reconciliation environment.

Updates to the replay Command

This command has been updated to replay REST API or EPM Automate activities, in addition to Smart View activities, on Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules, and Tax Reporting environments to enable performance testing under heavy load to verify that user experience is acceptable when the service is under specified load.

Updates to the Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Guide

Each command description in the Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud guide has been updated with a new section that identifies the predefined roles that can execute the command.

Business Benefit: Changes to the login and excrypt commands support the use of OAuth 2.0 with EPM Automate, a long standing customer request, which obviate the need to use basic authentication.

The exportBackgroundImage, exportLogoImage, importBackgroundImage, and importLogoImage commands help you clone background image and logo from an Account Reconciliation environment to another and eliminate the need to use the UI to manually update them after cloning an environment. This is especially useful when migrating from a Classic to OCI (Gen 2) environment.

Changes to the replay command helps you stress test your Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules, and Tax Reporting environments for REST API and EPM Automate activities.

Updates to the Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud guide helps users other than Service Administrators to identify the commands they can execute within a business process.

Key Resources

• Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud:
  • Installing EPM Automate
    • encrypt
    • exportBackgroundImage
    • exportLogoImage
    • importBackgroundImage
    • importLogoImage
    • login
    • replay
  • Authentication with OAuth 2 - Only for OCI (Gen 2) Environments in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

REST API for Import Data - Parameter to Stop on Error

When using REST APIs to import data, you can now use an optional stopOnError parameter to stop the import process if an error is encountered during the import. If you specified an error file, you can then review the rejected data record that has the error. The record is included in a ZIP file that is stored in the outbox where you can download it for review. Use this option to continue data load even when an intermediate errors occur, for example, if data load finds an unknown member or invalid data value. This is only applicable when the source type is Essbase.

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

Business Benefit: This parameter can benefit customers who want to stop the import data process and review data that contains an error before continuing to import the data into their environment. Continuing the import could result in failures in some functionality later on.

Key Resources

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

Role Information

• Service Administrators

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

During ad hoc analysis you can perform calc on the fly in Smart View and in your Planning, Planning Modules, or FreeForm business process without having to submit changes to the database.

Applies to: FreeForm, Planning, Planning Modules

When this feature is enabled:

• In the web application, when you open an ad hoc grid, you can perform calc on the fly.
• In Smart View, use the Insert Member Formula option in the Planning Ad Hoc ribbon to perform calc on the fly in your ad hoc grid.

You can enter values or change existing values in the data cells and see the cells with formulas refresh immediately with the calculated values. You do not need to submit the changes to see the calculated values. When you have completed all your changes and are satisfied with the calculations, you can then submit the modified values to the database. Or you can close without submitting your updated values.

Business Benefit: You can perform multiple calculations quickly without having to submit the changes to see the results.

Steps to Enable

Administrators must enable calc on the fly in the web application.

1. In the web application, click the Navigator, and under Application, click Settings.
2. In the Other Options section, select the Yes option from the Enable User Formulas in Ad Hoc list.
3. Click Save.

Users can also enable calc on the fly in their user preferences. This user preference setting overrides the application setting.

1. In the web application, click the Navigator, and under Tools, click User Preferences.
2. In the Preferences page, click the Display tab.
3. In the Other Options section, select the Yes option from the Enable User Formulas in Ad Hoc list.
4. Click Save.

Tips And Considerations

• In the web application, hover over a cell to see the formula associated with the cell.
• In Smart View, the formulas appear as tool tips in the cells with formulas.

Key Resources

• What Application and System Settings Can I Specify? in Administering Planning
• What Application and System Settings Can I Specify? in Administering and Working with FreeForm
• Setting Your Display Preferences in Working with Planning
• Performing Calculations Without Having to Submit Your Changes (Calc on the Fly) in Working with Oracle Smart View for Office
• Performing Calculations Without Having to Submit Your Changes (Calc on the Fly) in Working with Planning

Updates to Information in the Activity Report

The Activity Report now includes tables that contain design and runtime metrics for Task Manager.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting

Task Manager Design Metrics Available in the Activity Report

Task Manager Runtime Metrics Available in the Activity Report

Business Benefit: These design and runtime metrics help you understand the structure and usage of your applications, and troubleshoot functional and performance issues.

Key Resources

• Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators:
  • Monitoring EPM Cloud
  • Task Manager Design and Runtime Metrics

Drill View Enhancement

When drilling into Smart View, Data Integration now uses the last used view on the Drill landing page. If no last used view is found, Data Integration uses the default selection in Application Options.

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Financial Consolidation and Close, Freeform, Planning, Planning Modules, Tax Reporting, Profitability and Cost Management, Smart View

Business Benefit: Smart View can now view drill data from multiple applications, plan types, and integrations. Prior to this update, only the drill view in Application Options could be used.

Key Resources

• Adding a Custom View to the Drill Through Landing Page in Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Use Approval Groups to Manage Submission Phases

Approval groups divide approval units into more granular subsets of data which can then be submitted for approval in phases.

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

Approval groups enable you to submit a portion of the data for review first, while other data can be reviewed later. During the review process, you can promote each phase of the approval unit rather than the entire approval unit.

Business Benefit: Phased submission using approval groups will enable you to meet different approvals requirements without the need for additional scenarios.

Key Resources

• Managing Submission Phases with Approval Groups in Administering Planning
• Managing Approval Phases in Administering Financial Consolidation and Close

Enhanced Comment Management in Supplemental Data Manager

Users with the same role on a Supplemental Data Form now have the ability to manage each other’s comments. For example, a preparer can review the comments and delete any comments entered by other preparers when the form is not yet Closed. However, the preparer will not be able to delete any comments added by approvers/integrators on the form.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: This feature makes it easier for team members with same role to manage each other’s comments.

Key Resources

• Adding Comments into Supplemental Data Forms in Working with Financial Consolidation and Close

EPM Cloud Filter Members by Security in Reports

Going forward, in all member selector and POV controls, the member hierarchies and choice lists will be filtered by security for EPM Cloud Platform data sources throughout Reports. This is the behavior going forward, there is not a user preference or server setting to enable or disable this behavior.

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

Business Benefit: This feature respects EPM Cloud Platform metadata security when using Reports, instead of displaying all members.

Key Resources

• About Defining Members in Designing with Reports for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• About Previewing a Report in Working with Reports for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Consolidation of Common Chart Types in Reports

Previously in Reports, some of the common charts were split into multiple chart types instead of having individual charts controlled by properties. Now the number of chart types has been consolidated and additional properties are exposed to streamline the number of chart types and provide consistency with the EPM Cloud Platform Dashboards 2.0 chart-type presentation. Additional Orientation and Stack properties were also added for the Line and Area chart types.

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

Business Benefit: This feature provides ease of use when selecting chart types.

Key Resources

• Chart Properties in Designing with Reports for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Data Integration Workbench Enhancements

Data Integration includes a many enhancements to the Workbench in Data Integration.

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

The enhancements include:

• Customers can now view member mapping. Member mappings define relationships between source dimension member values and target dimension members in one dimension.

• Customers can view the source file.

• A Show option enables customers to filter the type of data to display in the data grid including: Valid Data, Invalid Data, Ignored Data, and All Data.

• An Export Data option enables customers to export Excel data to a CSV file with a header row. Data can be exported in online or offline mode, and the data can be filtered.

• A Target View option enables customer to view specific details associated with target data used in the integration such as the dimensions to which data is loaded.Customers can also select a target row and view the source data associated with the item.

• A File Browser option launches a file browser from which customers can navigate to files in folders, upload, download and delete files.

• A Delete Import Data option enables customers to delete imported data from data tables for a selected POV period. This option enables you to clear data from thesystem so that you can start over when loading data.

Workbench in Data Integration

Business Benefit: The Workbench in Data Integration now shares many of the same features available in the Data Load Workbench in Data Management but with a more modern look-and-feel and responsive design

Key Resources

• Reviewing the Data Integration Status and Viewing Results in the Workbench in Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management

Account Reconciliation

Enhanced Security for Transaction Matching Reports

The Apply Security option is now available on the Generate Query dialog for Transaction Matching. Administrators can apply the security filter for Transaction Matching report queries by selecting this option. Based on the roles and reconciliations to which users are assigned, they will only see data that they are authorized to view.

Business Benefit: The Apply Security option provides enhanced security by ensuring that user reports contain only the data that the user is authorized to view.

Key Resources

• Creating a Query in Administering Account Reconciliation

REST APIs to Export and Import Application Properties, Background Image, and Logo Image

The new REST APIs export the application settings related to Redwood Experience, theme, email notification, and business process name, background image, and logo image from your application. After your application is migrated or cloned, you can use the appropriate REST APIs to import the application settings, background image, and logo image. These REST APIs are an alternative to using the equivalent EPM Automate commands.

Business Benefit: These REST APIs eliminate the need to use the UI to manually update the background image, logo image, or application properties after an Account Reconciliation application is cloned. This is especially useful when migrating from a Classic to OCI (Gen 2) environment.

Key Resources

• Export Application Properties in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• Import Application Properties in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• Export Background Image in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• Import Background Image in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• Export Logo Image in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• Import Logo Image in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Enterprise Data Management

Determine Node Type for Calculated Parent

When calculating the parent for a node being inserted into a viewpoint, the parent's node type is determined based on the configuration of hierarchy set for the target viewpoint. If the node type for the node being inserted allows children in the hierarchy set (Child Option = All or Selected), then the parent's node type is the same as the child node. If the node type for the node being inserted does not allow children in the hierarchy set (Child Option = None), then the node type for the parent is set to whichever node type allows children.

Business Benefit: In cases where a target viewpoint uses multiple node types and the parent is calculated for a node being inserted into that viewpoint, it is necessary to enable the parent node to be a different node type than the child node.

Key Resources

• Calculated and Stored Properties in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Audit Completed Transactions in Request Inspector

Transactions which result from a completed request are displayed on the Audit tab in the Request inspector. This provides an efficient way to audit the transactions for a particular request that is inspected from the Request Activity page. Transactions are grouped for easy association to request items and can be downloaded to an external file if desired. Request action details for completed request items are no longer available on the Details tab of the request inspector.

Business Benefit: While viewing the details of a completed request, sometimes it is desirable to see and download the transactions resulting from the request.

Key Resources

• Viewing the Transaction History for a Request in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Dimension Templates

Individual application dimensions can be exported from a source environment to a template and imported from a template into a target environment. Dimension templates can be used to create new dimensions or update existing dimensions in a target environment. A dimension template contains a single dimension and related artifacts including data chain objects as well as common objects such as views, properties, lookup sets, and global connections used by the dimension. Templates consist of metadata only and do not include data, requests, or transaction history for a dimension.

Business Benefit: Administrators need the ability to migrate metadata objects across Enterprise Data Management environments at a lower level of granularity than an entire application.

Key Resources

• Working with Templates in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Download Viewpoint Validation Results to File

Viewpoint validation results can be downloaded to a file to access the data offline and share the information with other parties outside of Enterprise Data Management. The downloaded file includes the nodes with validation issues along with their properties, relationships, and failure messages identifying the problems to be resolved. Corrections to the data can be made in the file and loaded as request items to resolve the validation issues.

Business Benefit: In situations where many validation issues exist, it may be necessary to share the issues with other users to collect feedback or make bulk changes to the data using a file editor.

Key Resources

• Validating a Viewpoint in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Enhanced Job Results for Merge Import

When merge imports are run using the REST API, the import job results now include links to the request and request items created by the import process.  These links can be used to check the status of the import request and access validation messages for any request items which failed validations.

Business Benefit: In cases where merge imports create requests which have validation issues, it may be necessary to check the status of the import request and log the validation messages for failed request items as part of an automated process.

Key Resources

• Get the Result Body of the Job Run with the Given ID in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud Service

Financial Consolidation and Close Adapter Update

An FCCS.Allow Upper-Level Entity Input property is available for Financial Consolidation and Close applications in Enterprise Data Management. This property is included in existing applications and will be added to new applications during the registration process. Dimension bindings for imports and exports which previously used a constant value for this data will use the property instead. Application and node type level overrides can be defined for the property as necessary.

Business Benefit: This property aligns the Enterprise Data Management adapter with the properties available in the Financial Consolidation and Close business process.

Key Resources

• Predefined Properties for Financial Consolidation and Close Applications in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Hierarchy to List Viewpoint Subscription Improvements

Subscriptions from Hierarchy to List viewpoints have been improved to synchronize node property changes which were coupled with hierarchy related actions in the source viewpoint.  When property updates are made to nodes which were inserted, moved, reordered, or removed in a source hierarchy viewpoint, the property updates can now be propagated to a target list viewpoint if the properties are configured to be copied in a node type converter used by a subscription.

Business Benefit: List viewpoints which subscribe to changes made in a source hierarchy viewpoint need property updates to be synchronized for nodes which were edited in conjunction with a hierarchy relationship action.

Property Uniqueness Constraints

Constraints are used to enforce the uniqueness of node property values within a particular scope. Property uniqueness constraints can verify unique property values in bound node types for an entire application or within a specified dimension. Constraints are checked for node properties when request items or viewpoints are validated. Owners and service administrators can configure constraints at the application level for properties with defined values only. Uniqueness constraints are currently limited to the Core.Name property only.

Business Benefit: Some properties require unique values across all bound nodes in an application or a dimension to maintain data integrity.

Key Resources

• Working with Constraints in Administering and Working with Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud

Request Lineage

A request lineage diagram is available in the Request inspector to identify related requests which precede and/or follow the current request. The request lineage includes the originating request along with subscription requests which were generated from it. For each request, you can view important details such as its title, status, owner, viewpoints that were affected, and the subscription(s) which were used to create it. You can inspect any request in the lineage to access more information such as items, comments, attachments, workflow, and history.

Business Benefit: When changes are synchronized across viewpoints using subscriptions, it is desirable to understand where the changes originated, which viewpoints did or did not receive the changes, and why.

Key Resources

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

REST API for Connection Management

REST API endpoints are available to manage application and global connections using automated processes.  

The following endpoints have been added:

• Update an application connection
• Test an application connection
• Get all global connections
• Get a global connection
• Update a global connection
• Test a global connection

Business Benefit: Administrators need the ability to periodically update credentials stored in application and global connections to comply with organizational security policies.

Key Resources

• Global Connections REST Endpoints in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud Service
• Application Connections REST Endpoints in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud Service

OAUTH2 Authentication in Enterprise Data Management REST API Guide

Documentation covering the configuration and usage of OAuth2 authentication has been added to the REST API Guide for Enterprise Data Management. OAuth2 authentication can be used when integrating with the Enterprise Data Management REST API in OCI (Gen2) environments only.

Business Benefit: Using OAuth2 lets you use an OAuth token to access an Enterprise Data Management environment, obviating the need for basic authorization (using passwords).

Key Resources

• Authentication with OAuth 2 - Only for OCI (Gen 2) in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud Service

Financial Consolidation and Close

Use Approval Groups to Manage Submission Phases

Create approval groups to divide approval units into more granular subsets of data which can then be submitted for approval in phases.

Approval groups enable you to submit a portion of the data for review first, while other data can be reviewed later. During the review process, you can promote each phase of the approval unit rather than the entire approval unit.

Business Benefit: Phased submission using approval groups will enable you to meet different approvals requirements without the need for additional scenarios.

Key Resources

• Managing Approval Phases in Administering Financial Consolidation and Close

Approval Template for Separate Approve and Lock Processes

A new approval template named “Consolidation – Separate Approve and Lock” is available to allow the approval and lock processes to be performed by different users. You can assign one group of users to approve the entity, and another group of users to lock the entity. When you create an Approval Unit Hierarchy, the new template will be available for selection from the Approvals Template dropdown list.

Business Benefit: Using the new template allows you to assign separate users or groups for the approval and locking processes.

Key Resources

• Setting Up the Approval Unit Hierarchy in Administering Financial Consolidation and Close

Enhanced Database Refresh Process

The OLURatesLoad substitution variable is now enabled by default, which improves refresh database performance. The more scenarios, currencies and rate accounts in an application, the more noticeable the improvement will be.

Business Benefit: The performance of the refresh database process has been improved.

Key Resources

• Refreshing the Database in Administering Financial Consolidation and Close

Enhanced Metadata Validation for Solve Order Property

The Metadata Validation process includes additional checks for the correct Solve Order property of various dimension members, seeded Movement members, and parent/member combinations. It displays a warning message if the Solve Order property is not correct.

Business Benefit: The metadata validation warning alerts you to errors with the solve order settings, which can impact performance and data integrity.

Key Resources

• Metadata Validation Messages in Administering Financial Consolidation and Close

Year-to-Date FX Variance Translation Calculations

An option to set the FX Method to Year-to-Date has been added to enable the Year-to-Date calculation of FX Opening and FX Movements. This option can be applied when the default Translation Method for Flow accounts is Year-to-Date. To enable the FX Method YTD calculation, you must first add a substitution variable named YTDFXCalculation and set the value to True. The FX Method option will then be displayed on the Default Translation Methods page.

Business Benefit: Adding the FX Method option provides for FX Variance calculations that match the default translation settings.

Key Resources

• Specifying Default Translation Settings in Administering Financial Consolidation and Close

Enhanced Comment Management in Enterprise Journals

Users with the same role on a journal now have the ability to manage each other’s comments. For example, a preparer can review the comments and delete any comments entered by other preparers when the journal is not yet Closed. However, the preparer will not be able to delete any comments added by the approvers on the journals.

Business Benefit: This feature makes it easier for team members with same role to manage each other’s comments.

Key Resources

• Managing Enterprise Journals in Working with Financial Consolidation and Close

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 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

New Template for Creating Multi-Cube FreeForm Applications in Smart View

A new Excel template workbook, PlanningApplicationTemplate_FreeForm.xlsx, allows you to create a multi-cube application for your FreeForm business process from Smart View.

FreeForm applications are not constrained by dimension requirements of standard applications. FreeForm applications can contain any combination of up to 12 ASO and BSO cubes. The FreeForm App creation template provides a starter example of dimensions that you can modify or delete to create cubes and dimensions for a FreeForm application.

The new multi-cube FreeForm template replaces the two previously-available templates that allowed you to create only a single-cube FreeForm ASO or BSO application.

From the Settings and Actions menu in your business process, select Downloads, and then click Download Application Templates to obtain the complete set of templates, including the new FreeForm template. The zip file you download contains these templates:

• PlanningApplicationTemplate_FreeForm.xlsx—Creates a FreeForm application
• PlanningApplicationTemplate.xlsx—Creates a Planning application
• PlanningApplicationTemplate_epbcs.xlsx—Creates a Planning Modules application
• PlanningApplicationTemplate_sample.xlsx—Creates the Planning sample application, Sample

Open the PlanningApplicationTemplate_FreeForm.xlsx template in Smart View and modify the sheets according to your requirements.

Business Benefit: Using the new downloadable FreeForm template workbook, you can quickly create, model, and manage a multi-cube application containing both ASO and BSO cubes in Smart View.

Key Resources

• Using Smart View to Manage Applications in Administering and Working with FreeForm
• Using Smart View to Manage Applications in Administering Planning

Narrative Reporting

Create a Shortcut for Remote Library Artifacts

This feature provides the ability to create a shortcut from a Remote Library artifact such as a Report, Snapshot Report, Book, Bursting Definition, or a third-party file.

NOTE: Remote Libraries are configured by the Service Administrator. If an administrator log in to the Remote Library and deletes the artifact or file, then all the shortcuts that are pointing to that remote library artifact or third-party files will be redundant in the local, as in the Narrative Reporting Library.

Business Benefit: Provides users an easy way to access a Remote Library Artifact.

Key Resources

• Working with Connections and Remote Libraries in Administering Narrative Reporting

• Creating and Editing Connections in Designing with Reports for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

• Working with Reports for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud:
  • Working with Reporting Artifacts in Remote Libraries
  • Creating a Shortcut for Remote Library Artifacts

Planning

New Videos

Two new videos are available:

• Configuring Machine Learning (ML) Model Import

Learn how to configure ML model Import for Bring Your Own Machine Learning. You import a fully trained ML model into Planning. You follow the steps in a wizard to map, analyze, and test the model. After saving the model, two Groovy rules are created. To complete the integration process, see the related video for deploying an ML model to Planning.

• Deploying a Machine Learning (ML) Model to Planning

Learn how to deploy an ML Model to Planning. After configuring the ML Model Import, you integrate the PMML file into your planning application by creating an Action Menu with the Groovy rule generated from the configured ML model. Then you associate the Action Menu with a Planning form. When Planners run the rule from the form, the rule returns the set of predicted values.

Business Benefit: Videos provide 3-5 minute overviews and step-by step instructions to perform tasks and achieve an outcome.

Strategic Modeling Consolidations Renamed to Scenario Rollups

In Strategic Modeling, consolidations have been renamed to scenario rollups. To support this change, the user interface has been updated:

• Consolidation View is renamed to Scenario Rollups.
• Model View is renamed to Models.

You'll see this change in Strategic Modeling on the web, and in Strategic Modeling in Smart View.

Business Benefit: The new naming conventions distinguish Strategic Modeling scenario rollups from Financial Consolidation and Close consolidations.

Key Resources

• Working with Strategic Modeling in Smart View

• Working with Planning Modules
  • Working With Strategic Modeling

• Administering Planning Modules
  • Configuring Strategic Modeling

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

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

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

Loaner Program for Cloud Infrastructure Generation 2 Testing and OCI Migration Assistance Early Adopter Program

Oracle EPM Cloud is now live on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Gen 2 environments. If you are interested in testing your application performance on an OCI environment, open a service request following the process at https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/enterprise-performance-management-common/tsepm/op_procs_loaner_envs.html and request for a loaner environment in an OCI data center for a duration of 30 days with the business justification as “Want to test application performance in an OCI Gen 2 data center”.

After you have performed the testing, submit Provide Feedback from the loaner environment. Create a service request using the normal support process, if you have any issues or feedback for the OCI environment. For more information, see What is a Gen 2 Cloud?

Additionally, Oracle has instituted a program to assist a limited number of early adopters on Oracle Cloud Classic to migrate to OCI. For more information, see Oracle Cloud Classic to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Migration Assistance Program for Early Adopters.

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

Task Manager Email Notification Settings

In a future update, the service will be changing the handling of Task Manager’s Email Notification settings during a migration. The target service’s Task Manager Email Notification settings will be 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, 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 release of EPM Digital Assistant, note that 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 an upcoming release, 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 release, the feature is not yet supported for these products.

Applies to: Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting

SMART VIEW

Strategic Modeling with Smart View Requires Smart View Version 21.100

Starting with the November 2021 update (21.11), Strategic Modeling requires Smart View Client version 21.100 or higher in order to support necessary improvements when using Strategic Modeling with Smart View. To download and install Smart View, see Downloading and Installing Clients in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud.

Crystal Ball for EPM Extension in Smart View

The Crystal Ball for EPM extension in Smart View that allows users to define a Crystal Ball model using EPM Cloud grids to perform simulations using Crystal Ball in Smart View is not supported or available for installation starting from the January 2022 update (22.01).

Smart View Add-on Installation for Task Manager and Supplemental Data Manager

In a future update, the installation of Smart View add-ons for Task Manager and Supplemental Data Manager will change. At that time, users of the Smart View add-ons will need to uninstall and re-install their add-ons to take advantage of the latest features and fixes.

PLANNING

Default EPM Task Manager Option During Application Creation

In a future update, we're adding a new task flow type to Planning called EPM Task Manager. EPM Task Manager helps you define, execute, and report on the interdependent activities of a business process. It provides centralized monitoring of all tasks and provides a visible, automated, repeatable system of record for running a business process. When implemented, you'll see two task flow type options during Planning application creation: Task List and EPM Task Manager. EPM Task Manager will be the default option.

Current Task List based Planning applications will not be impacted by this new option and default setting in the App creation wizard. There will be no migration from existing Planning Task Lists to the upcoming EPM Task Manager. Customers who wish to continue using the current Planning Task Lists should choose the Task List Option during application creation.

PLANNING MODULES

Removal of Strategic Workforce Planning from EPM Cloud Workforce Planning

In a future update, the Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) enablement option will be removed for all EPM Cloud Planning Modules (Standard and Enterprise) and Enterprise Planning applications that have not already enabled this feature in the Workforce Module. Customers who have already enabled this feature will see no change in their existing applications with this feature already enabled. No new applications will support this feature after this change.

Strategic Workforce Planning functionality is provided in the Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Service (SWPCS) product, which contains robust SWP functionality that is not available in the existing EPM Cloud Planning Workforce module feature. SWPCS is an Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) product built on EPM technology. For more information about SWPCS, please refer to the Strategic Workforce Planning information on www.oracle.com.

If you have any concerns about this change, please contact Oracle Support.

NARRATIVE REPORTING

Removal of File Transfer Utility (EPMCTRL)

Starting in the May 2022 release (22.05), the File Transfer Utility will be removed. Customers should use EPM Automate, which includes all the commands currently available in the File Transfer Utility (EPMCTRL), going forward. If you have any concerns about this change, please contact Oracle Support.

For more information, see Oracle Support Document 2835672.1 (Oracle Narrative Reporting File Transfer Utility Statement of Direction) can be found at: https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?id=2835672.1

NOTE: The commands for deprecated features, such as the Narrative Reporting Application and Disclosure Management, will not be supported in EPM Automate.

Updates to Narrative Reporting Sample Content

Please note that in an upcoming release, the Narrative Reporting samples will be updated as follows:

• Newer Year dimension member numbering in the sample application

• Updates and facelift for Reports and Report Packages

• Additional sample reports with Notes

• Sample folder will be organized with subfolders for each artifact type (For example Reports, Report Packages, and so on.)

• All sample content will be automatically deployed and imported when a user performs a Get Sample Content action from the Downloads menu. ZIP files will no longer be downloaded, requiring manual import.

NOTE:

• If you are on an old Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud Service (EPRCS) SKU (pre-June 2019) and have deployed a Custom Application, the sample application will not be deployed. In this case, the Reports and Report Package reference doclets will not be refreshable, since the sample application will not exist.

• Sample content for deprecated functionality will no longer be included, such as the Disclosure Management samples or the sample application load files (pre-June 2019 SKU).

• If you have existing content in the Samples folder with the same name and folder location as the updated artifacts, it will be overwritten. Other artifacts, whose names do not conflict with the new sample content, will be retained.

FINANCIAL CONSOLIDATION AND CLOSE

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 release 22.03 and import it to release 22.02, 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 release 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.