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

Posted by Jun on September 30, 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 October update, it will apply the latest updates to test environment on Friday, October 5th, 2018 and to production environment on October 19st, 2018.

In this patch, these are the major updates:

Enterprise Planning Cloud

1.New EPM Automate Utility Version

A new version of the EPM Automate Utility is available with this update. This version includes the renameSnapshot command, which enables you to rename a snapshot available in an environment to prevent the maintenance process from overwriting it. Customers who have small applications can use this command to archive snapshots in the environment subject to snapshot retention policies.

This version also includes updates to the rundailyMaintenance command, which has been enhanced to take skipNext as a new optional parameter. This parameter allows you to skip the next occurrence of the daily maintenance process. Use this parameter to prevent the daily maintenance process from interfering with long running ad hoc processes

2.New Functions in Calculation Manager

The @CalcMgrDatesToExcel custom functions has been added to Calculation Manager. This function converts multiple dates in YYYYMMDD format to Excel dates.

3.Improved Daily Maintenance Performance and New Application Setting

This update introduces a new application setting which improves automated maintenance window (AMW) performance.

Prior to this update, the daily maintenance backup would perform a data export of the Essbase data plus the Planning member-driven Smart List intersections with their corresponding text labels. Thus for high volume data customers, the hour-long daily maintenance process was not long enough to complete a full data export.

Due to optimization done in 18.10, daily maintenance no longer needs to export member driven Smart Lists. The backup generated during the daily maintenance process now creates a snapshot where the data can be used to clone an environment.

New application setting: Export Planning Smart List data during AMW

No—Creates a complete application backup during the maintenance process, such that data can be used as part of a full restoration
Yes (default)—Performs a complete export, such that data can be incrementally imported to an application (this option may lengthen the maintenance process duration)

If you need to perform an incremental (or selective) data load, then keep the default option (Yes) to perform a complete export during the maintenance process, including the Planning Smart List data.

4.Support for Master-Detail Relationships between Forms in a Dashboard

You can now design dashboards that support master forms and objects with details. When you tag a form in a dashboard as master, the selection of members in the master form filters to the members in the target objects, and the target objects show only the details that are relevant to the members selected in the master form.

To create a dashboard containing a master form and target objects:

Create a new dashboard or open an existing dashboard that has at least one form and one or more target objects.
Ensure the dashboard is in designer mode by clicking Actions, and then clicking Edit.
Select the form on the dashboard that you want to designate as master, click the Settings icon for that form, and then select Tag as Master.

To filter the data in the target forms or charts that is relevant to the data in a master form, right-click the relevant data in the master form and select Apply Context.

Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud

1.Intercompany Reports Currency Dimension Information

When you generate Intercompany Reports, the reports now display Currency information. The Currency dimension is displayed in the report header, which enables you to determine the Currency member used by the report.

2.New Consolidation Audit Trail Report

Administrators and Power Users can now run a Consolidation Report that provides a detailed audit trail of the consolidation process.

The report displays for a selected parent entity, the original reported closing balances and all the adjustments, including manual journal entries, Multi-GAAP adjustments and automatic eliminations generated by Intercompany elimination and consolidation rules, detailing the net contribution of each immediate child entity, and any variance. The report is available in HTML, PDF, and XLS formats.

3.Extended Dimensionality

If you want to use more than two Custom Dimensions, you must request the Extended Dimensionality update from Oracle Support.

After you apply the update, you must create a new application. You cannot modify the number of dimensions in an existing application. When Extended Dimensionality is enabled, you will see the option to create four Custom dimensions. If the application is enabled with the Multi-GAAP reporting option, you will see the option to create three Custom Dimensions.

4.Working with Multiple Close Manager Schedules

Administrators can now perform various actions on multiple Close Manager schedules at a time. This can be helpful if your application has a large number of schedules.

You can perform these actions on multiple schedules: Set Status, Reassign Users, and Generate Report Binders.

Profitable and Cost Management Cloud

1.REST API Update Supports Using Rules from a Model POV on Different Data POVs

The Run ML Calculations REST AP resource now enables you to run calculations using rules in a model POV against data in a different data POV without copying rules across POVs. A new parameter, dataPOVName, supports this enhancement.

The runcalc EPM Automate command also includes this update.

Account Reconciliation Cloud

N/A

Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud

1.Performing Auto Tag in Disclosure Management Report

Disclosure Management Auto Tag process enables you to tag the Level 4 Table Text Block in each table report. The user must first manually tag the Document and Entity information (DEI) section which has been created in a hidden Excel document, and manually tag the targeted table in the Word document with the appropriate Level 3 table text block tag.

Enterprise Data Management Cloud

1.Oracle Financials Cloud General Ledger Application Adapter

A new Oracle Financials Cloud General Ledger application adapter is available to manage segment values and trees for GL charts of accounts in Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud. The adapter includes:

Registration of Segments and Trees using a new application type
General Ledger properties and validations
Import of segment values and tree versions from files
Export segment values and tree versions to Financials Cloud connection or file

2.Delete Application

Applications which have been previously registered can now be deleted from the system entirely. The delete operation also deletes all dimensions, node types, hierarchy sets, node types, viewpoints, and request items for the application.

3.Add Related Nodes across Viewpoints

When adding or inserting a parent node into a hierarchy viewpoint from another viewpoint, you have the option to include descendants, children, or bottom level nodes of the parent node from the source viewpoint.

4.PROPERTY INHERITANCE

Inheriting properties enable property values of parent nodes to be inherited by descendant nodes below them in a hierarchy node set. Inheritance of property values can reduce the manual effort of maintaining properties and ensure consistency of their values for entire branches of nodes. Inherited property values can be overridden at a lower level to handle exceptions.

Positional inheritance allows property values to be inherited based on their position in a hierarchy (ancestor list). In a hierarchy with shared nodes, a node can be in multiple positions and can inherit different values for each position.

Properties used in Custom applications can be enabled with inheritance during application registration.

5.Property Value Origin

A Property Origin indicator is available when viewing details of a property for a node in a viewpoint. This indicator identifies the origin of the current value of the property. A property value can have the following origins:

Default – default value
Defined – stored property value
Inherited – inherited from an ancestor
Derived – calculated

6.Level Property for Nodes In Hierarchies

The CoreStats.Level property is available to identify the level of a node in a hierarchy viewpoint. The Level is calculated starting from the top nodes in the node set for the viewpoint. Top nodes are level 1, their children are level 2, and so forth. This property is required for some application types (such as Oracle Financials Cloud) and optional for others. The Level property can be added to node types of other applications in these optional cases.

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