March 2019 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	Feature	Notes
12 MAR 2019	Lifecycle Management Imports	Updated document. Added a consideration.
12 MAR 2019	New Metadata Validations	Updated document. Added an upcoming change.
21 FEB 2019		Created initial document.

Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud, March Update

This document outlines the upcoming Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud update.

Monthly Update Schedule

Oracle will apply the latest updates to your test environments starting at 23:00 UTC (15:00 PST) on Friday, March 1, 2019 and to your production environment on Friday, March 15, 2019, starting at 22:00 UTC (15:00 PDT). The updates will be applied to your environments during the first subsequent daily maintenance.

The Oracle Help Center provides access to updated documentation. The updates will be available in the Help Center on March 1, 2019. Some of the links to new feature documentation included in this document will not work until after the Oracle Help Center update is complete.

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

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.

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.

New Learning Paths

Use learning paths to interactively perform tasks and access related documentation, videos, and tutorials.

• Getting Started with Integration for Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud

Learn which options are available to you for integrating with Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud.

Announcements

No New Features in This Update

The March 2019 update (19.03) to the service contains only the software issues that were addressed after the February 2019 (19.02) update. Some fixes to reported software issues may have resulted in code changes, which will be reflected after the update is applied to your environments. Descriptions of the issues that are addressed in this update are posted to My Oracle Support.

The March 2019 update does not contain any new features.

Upcoming Changes

New Metadata Validations

Starting in Release 19.04, the service will include the following new metadata validations:

• Primary members must exist before (above) shared members
  • Not including the Entity dimension
• Level 0 member Data Storage types must be valid
  • Entity and Movement dimensions
    • Store, Never Share, or Shared
  • Data Source, Multi-GAAP and client-created custom dimensions
    • Store, Never Share, Shared or Dynamic Calc
• Level 0 members should not be Dynamic Calc or Dynamic Calc and Store without formulas
• Parent members should not have Member Formulas
• Aggregation operators (Consol Op) for all children of dimension names must be Ignore or Never
• Account type and aggregation operators (Consol Op) must match
  • Account dimension only
  • Limited to hierarchies within the FCCS_Balance Sheet parent member except the Cash Flow balance sheet
• Parent Never Share members of a custom dimension should not be used as a Shared member
  • Applicable to Multi-GAAP and custom dimensions

Tips And Considerations

It is recommended that all Metadata Validation error messages be reviewed and resolved. While applications with validation errors might not currently be experiencing issues, if future problems do occur, the first required step will be to resolve all validation errors.

Ability to Create New Composite Forms

Oracle will remove the ability to create new composite forms (forms that comprise multiple simple forms) starting with the April 2019 update to the service (April 05, 2019 for test environments and April 19, 2019 for production environments). After the April update, all existing composite forms can still be edited and used. Removal of the ability to create composite forms impacts only the creation of new composite forms in the service.

All customers are advised to use dashboards in place of composite forms. No more enhancements will be made to the composite forms functionality.

Previous announcements stated that this change will be effective starting with the March update.

Removal of Support for Transport Layer Security Protocol 1.0 and 1.1

Starting with the May 2019 update (Release 19.05) to EPM Services, Oracle will support only Transport Layer Security protocol version 1.2 (TLS 1.2) to communicate with EPM Cloud. To ensure the highest level of authentication and data encryption security, TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 will no longer be supported after your environments are updated on May 3, 2019.

NOTE: Support for TLS versions 1.0 and 1.1 will be removed for both your Test and Production environments on May 3, 2019.

Because most modern operating systems and browsers support TLS 1.2; users of such systems and browsers will not be affected by the deprecation of TLS 1.0 and 1.1. EPM Automate and Smart View are also not affected by this change.

After the 19.05 update on May 3, 2015, you cannot use client operating systems that do not support TLS 1.2 (for example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and Microsoft Windows 2002) to run operating system-specific commands (for example, code to run cURL tools to transfer data and custom code that integrates with the Rest APIs) against EPM Cloud. Additionally, Smart View installed on such systems will also fail to communicate with EPM Cloud. Similarly, you cannot use browsers that do not support TLS 1.2 protocol to access EPM Cloud environments.

If you are using on-premises FDMEE to integrate with EPM Cloud you must update your on-premises EPM 11.1.2.4 deployment to support TLS 1.2. Refer to the following Oracle Support document to enable TLS 1.2 support:

• How to enable TLS 1.2 with EPM 11.1.2.4 (Doc ID 2432564.1)

Oracle will provide you a temporary test environment if you want to test your custom code. To initiate a request for a temporary test environment, please submit a service request from My Oracle Support.

Classic Dimension Editor

With a view to allowing customers more time to familiarize themselves with the Simplified Dimension Editor, Oracle has decided to defer the removal of support for Classic Dimension Editor to a future update in 2019. Oracle will notify you at least two months prior to the removal of the feature.

EPM Cloud's New Look and Feel

In a future update, there will be a revised interface with enhanced navigation and a new theme called Sky Blue.

New Interface of Planning and Budgeting Cloud

The following services will adopt this new theme as their default interface:

• Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud
• Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud
• Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud
• Oracle Tax Reporting Cloud
• Oracle Profitability and Cost Management Cloud
• Oracle Account Reconciliation Cloud
• Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud
• Oracle Sales Planning Cloud

The revised interface retains existing functionality and enhances your Home page experience with a more responsive design. The Welcome panel and the global header readjust after resizing, which means less scrolling. Clearer announcements and notification areas are added to the Welcome panel, as are arrows to help you navigate easily between the Home page and your infolets. A bigger Navigator menu has improved usability, more themes for customization are included, and a bigger work area has more space to maneuver and provide better visibility. The interface is more consistent with other Oracle products, such as Fusion Applications.

After the interface is released, all new customers will use the new lighter-colored Sky Blue theme, and existing customers will keep their current theme. You can switch themes using Tools, and then Appearance.

• Watch Overview: Preview EPM Cloud's New Look and Feel video to view highlights of the new user interface theme.

Changes to Default Setting for Exporting Smart List Textual Data

Starting with the June update to the service (release 19.06), the default value of Export Planning Smart List textual data during daily maintenance for incremental data import application setting will be changed to No.

The current default value of this setting (Yes) impacts the performance of the daily maintenance process by also exporting text data associated with Smart Lists. The exporting of text data during daily maintenance is required only if you plan to use the daily maintenance snapshot to perform incremental or selective data imports. Because this is not a common customer scenario, Oracle will not, by default, include Smart List text data in the maintenance snapshot. This change ensures improved performance of the daily maintenance process.

NOTE: The snapshot that is created with the Export Planning Smart List textual data during daily maintenance for incremental data import option set to No is a fully contained snapshot that includes all metadata and data required to recreate your application.

If you have a requirement to include Smart List data in the maintenance snapshot for incremental data imports, you must change value of Export Planning Smart List textual data during daily maintenance for incremental data import application setting to Yes.

Key Resources

• Administering Planning for Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud
  • What Application and System Settings Can I Specify?
  • Setting the Daily Maintenance Process Time

Removal of XLS Report Export Option

Currently, the following report export options are available: xls, xlsx, pdf and html.

In a future release, the option for xls will be removed. Customers who have built custom reports must ensure that their reports will export as desired to one of the remaining formats: xlsx, pdf and html. This change applies to non-consolidation reports only.

Defects Fixed

Software issues addressed each month will be posted to My Oracle Support.

Considerations

Lifecycle Management Imports

If you are using calculated attributes, Lifecycle Management (LCM) imports may fail.

Tips And Considerations

If this occurs, re-run the LCM to resolve the issue.

Adding Shared Members in Smart View

When using Smart View, after adding a Shared Member, Refresh and Submit may not work correctly.

Calculation Status

When you change Ownership Data that uses a Consolidation rule and then consolidate, the Calculation Status is not correct for the partner and entity.

Copying Data

When copying an entity with a Calculation Status of No Data, the target should also have a Calculation Status of No Data. The Copy Data process is incorrectly setting the Calculation Status to Impacted.

Translation Override Rule Redirection

When you create a Translation Override rule, redirection does not work properly when you use a shared Parent account for the Source. The workaround is to specify the primary Parent account.

Simplified Dimension Editor and Metadata Validation

Some of the Simplified Dimension Editor errors (cells outlined in red) are false-positive errors (that is, incorrectly reported as errors). Data Storage errors for the following members should be ignored:

• Data Source --> All children of "FCCS_Source Entities" Entity --> "FCCS_Global Assumptions"

If you are using a Hybrid upgraded environment, the Simplified Dimension Editor does not show Dynamic Calc as an allowed value for Custom dimension parent member Data Storage. This issue does not occur in a newly-installed Hybrid environment. You can use the Classic Dimension Editor, Import Metadata, or Smart View to change the Data Storage value.

In addition, the Metadata Validator incorrectly shows validation errors for the following:

• Shared level 0 Scenario dimension members
• Parent members of the Scenario dimension

Consolidation Operator for Children of Dimension Name Members

All immediate children of the dimension name member must be set with an aggregation option of Ignore or Never.

Seeded dimension members should already have the Consolidation Operator set as Ignore. Use the top dimension member rather than the dimension name in forms and reports.

Consolidation Operator for Children of "LABEL_ONLY" Members

Children under a Parent member that has the "Label Only" data storage property must have the aggregation operator set to Ignore.

Self-Service Upgrade

It is strongly recommended that you do not use the Upgrade Application Content settings in this update.

Although a new Upgrade screen is available in Daily Maintenance, this feature is not fully functional.

Entity Member Names/Aliases with ICP Property

When you create an Entity with the ICP property enabled, the maximum length of the member name is 76 characters instead of 80, to allow for the ICP prefix.

Working with Metadata

Be aware of the following considerations.

You should not make metadata changes that result in the following:

• Changing a base member to which a journal has been posted into a parent member. If there are journals or Supplemental Data posted to those members, these changes can cause problems when accessing Journals or importing existing journals.

• When you use ad hoc grids in Smart View with Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud, do not add a root Period member on the grid. Make sure the root Period member is removed by either clicking Remove Only or selecting periods that are in the application and selecting Keep Only.

• If a Period member is left on the grid, then any changes to data that you make will fail to properly set the impact status of the Entities.

Smart View Summary Dialog Display

In Internet Explorer, you may experience issues using the Open Summary dialog in Smart View.

To work around this issue:

• Use the keyboard arrow keys to make your selection, then close and reopen the dialog, or
• Minimize and then reopen the dialog, or
• Use a different browser

Viewing the FCCS_VIEW_SYSTEM_MEMBERS

If you are using an Extended Dimensionality environment, users other than the Administrator can view the FCCS_CIEW_SYSTEM_MEMBERS and its hierarchy in the data form and Intercompany reports.

Viewing Members on Seeded Forms

If you are using an Extended Dimensionality environment, on seeded forms, use the View members, such as Periodic, QTD and YTD, instead of using functions to ensure the _RULE members are not accidentally added to the forms.

Unable to Refresh the Cube

A Cube refresh will not complete if a level 0 currency dimension member has the "Label only" data storage property, but this is not currently detected in the Dimension Editor or Metadata Validator.

Setting the Data Storage Property

The Metadata Validator may not recognize if a level 0 data source dimension member is incorrectly set to "Never share" as the value for the default data storage and Consol data storage property. No validation message is displayed. The Data Storage property for both the default and Consol data storage property should be Shared, Store, Dynamic Cal for a Level 0 Datasource member.

Horizontal Scroll on a Non-Tabular Form

In Supplemental Data forms, the horizontal scroll does not work on a non-tabular form, which is intended only for use on a single record. Do not use non-tabular layout if the form is meant for more than one record.

Do Not Change Members Formulas for Any Seeded Members

Do not change member formulas for any seeded member because it may cause consolidation to fail.

Setting the Data Collection Period

In supplemental Data, when setting the Data Collection Period (DCP), the Start, End, and Close dates must be inside the valid range.

Errors When Importing Accounts

Sometimes when importing an account, error messages may be generated because there are several accounts that reference an intercompany account in the Plug Account column but that account has yet to be encountered in the account file.

Try to reimport the account.

Exporting Data Collection Period Using Migration

In Supplemental Data, when SDM Data is exported through Migration by selecting a particular Data Collection Period (DCP), then all DCPs are incorrectly added to the listing file. Even though all DCPs are displayed on the snapshot selection, only the data for the selected DCP will be exported.

Editing Dates in a Data Collection Period

In a Data Collection Period in Supplemental Data, editing Start, End, and Close Dates may result in an error that the date is outside the valid range.