EPM Cloud Updates – August 2018 – EPBCS, FCCS, PCMCS, ARCS, EPRCS & EDMCS

Posted by Jun on July 28, 2018

Oracle releases the application updates documentation on new features and fixed issues from the Applications Release Readiness site. From there, you will be able to check the update for Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Performance Management.

A quick recap of the EPM applications.

For PBCS, Enterprise Planning Cloud (EPBCS), FCCS, PCMCS, ARCS, EPRCS and EDMCS, usually, the latest update will be installed on the first Friday of each month to test environment, and third Friday of each month to production environment. The update will be applied during the normal daily maintenance window.

For the August update, it will apply the latest updates to test environment on Friday, August 3rd, 2018 and to production environment on August 17th, 2018.

In this patch, these are the major updates:

Enterprise Planning Cloud

1.Restrict Currency Calculations in Forms Based on Scenario Definition

For simplified multicurrency applications, a new option in Application Settings enables currency calculations in forms and batch currency rule based on the scenario definition. To select this new option, from the Navigator, click System Settings and Defaults, and then Current Application Defaults. On the Application Settings tab, select Yes for Enable currency calculation based on scenario time period.

2.Folder Support for Dashboards and Infolets

The listing pages for dashboards and infolets now support folders. Folders enable you to assign permissions to all artifacts within a folder rather than assigning permissions to each individual artifact. The listing pages for dashboards and infolets will look and behave the same as the listing page for data (forms). All three artifact listing pages (forms, dashboards, and infolets) use the same folder hierarchy and all artifacts and folders reside under a root folder called Library.

To create a folder, click the Navigator, and then click Forms.
To assign permissions to a folder in the artifact listing, click the Actions menu associated with the folder.
To move an existing artifact into another folder, click the Actions menu associated with the artifact, click Move To, and then select the folder to which you want to move the artifact.

Search and Filter will also work for dashboards and infolets in the same way as they do for forms.

3.Financial Reporting Studio Desktop Client

Starting with this monthly update, Oracle will stop distributing the Financial Reporting Desktop Studio installer. The command line utilities associated with Financial Reporting Desktop Studio will also be discontinued starting with the 18.08 update.

Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud

1.Ability to Create Journals for Entities with Different Parents

You can now create and post journal entries for entities that have different parents.

2.Enabling Auto-Creation of Blocks for Configurable Calculations

When you create configurable calculations, you can enable the Auto Create Blocks option to have the system automatically create missing blocks. This can resolve issues with missing data when you run configurable calculations.

3.Support for Journal Import and Export Tasks in Jobs

Journal import and export tasks are now available in the Jobs console. The tasks include Journal Import, Journal Export, Journal Template Import and Journal Template Export. You can select to run these jobs immediately or schedule them for a later date. Job status and logs are available from the Jobs console.

4.Supplemental Data – Power (Exponential) Calculation Added

In Supplemental Data and Close Manager, a new scripted calculation allows you to use POWER(x,y) to raise one number to the exponential power of another. The usage is: POWER(x,y), where x=BASE NUMBER, and y=EXPONENT. x and y can be attributes or calculations, as long as they are numeric.

5.Supplemental Data – Close Date in Supplemental Data Calculation

In Supplemental Data Manager, Close Date is now available as a selectable attribute for Calculation in Data Sets. It is available from the “Add Attribute” drop-down list on the Calculation tab of Data Set Attributes and can be used in calculations.

6.Referential Integrity for Account Types in Posted Journals

To prevent a referential integrity problem with journals from occurring in an application, the system now prevents users from changing the Account Type of an account member that is used in a Posted journal. If you need to change the Account Type of a member used in a Posted journal, you must first unpost the journal.

Profitable and Cost Management Cloud

1.New EPM Automate Utility Version

A new version of the EPM Automate Utility is available with this update. This version includes updates to the clearPOV command, which has been enhanced to clear data regions within a POV. Previously, this command was used to clear all artifacts and data from the POV.

2.Modify Filters with Express Editing

As in previous Oracle Profitability and Cost Management Cloud updates, you can use the Calculation Rules menu to replace members in the Target, Source, and Destination tabs. This feature is now extended so you can replace members within the rule filters as well. You now can select members of attribute and user-defined attribute (UDA) dimensions. These selections apply to the filters on the specified rule tabs.

Account Reconciliation Cloud

1.Auto Match Tolerance Levels Can be Expressed as a Percent and Variance Limit

In Transaction Matching, an enhancement was added to the auto match calculations to allow tolerance levels to be expressed as a percentage and a variance amount. In the past, only values could be entered for tolerance levels. This change to the auto match calculations affects:

Default attribute mapping
Auto match rules
Manual match rules

2.Changes to Filtering on Unmatched Transactions in Transaction Matching

In Transaction Matching, filters are now saved for each user by match type, match process and data source. This means that a user can log out and come back in and retain their filtering choices. The Status field that was originally on Unmatched Transactions was moved to Filter Conditions where you can use the filter condition, Attribute, to view All, New, or Supported.

3.New Reconciliation List Column Available for Days Overdue

In Reconciliation Compliance, a new column showing the Days Overdue for a reconciliation can be selected for display. For example, it will show 0 Days Overdue if the Preparer is late but overall the reconciliation is not overdue.

Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud

1.Drill Through to Source Data in Management Reporting

Management Reporting now provides the ability to drill through to a source system data, while viewing the report or grid in HTML preview. Drill through needs to be defined in the underlying data source (EPM Cloud source with Cloud Data Management or Fusion Applications Essbase Provider).

2.Pdf-Based Report Packages Supports Both Word and Excel Format

Users can now add Microsoft Word and Excel documents into PDF-based Report Packages. Users can develop report content using the Microsoft Word or Excel documents. For Microsoft Excel files, you can select worksheets that need be included in the Report Package. The Microsoft Word and Excel documents can be converted to PDF files and can be merged within the PDF Report Package.

3.Improved Variable Panel Display in Smart View

The loading and display of the Variables panel is improved in report packages containing a large number of variables. The Variables panel now uses a paging mechanism, with 50 variables displayed per page. At the top of the Variables panel, use the left and right arrows or the page number drop-down to navigate the pages when more than 50 variables are present.

Enterprise Data Management Cloud

1.Enhanced Align Behavior When Used with Compare

The Align option is turned on when you click Run or Refresh to perform the Compare Relationships or Compare Property Values operation. You can now use the toolbar button action to turn Align off and navigate viewpoints independently. This is particularly useful, for example, when dragging nodes under one parent in a source viewpoint to a location under a different parent in the target viewpoint.

These are the August updates for EPM Cloud. I will keep my eyes on the monthly updates and will share more ideas going forward. See you next time.