Another day, another solution to remember for later. When moving data from one application to another, shared members can sometimes flow through the integration with [Parent].[Child] notation. If loading the child member to the target application and the target does not have the same hierarchy, then this won't work. Or, like I did today, when loading entity elimination data from FCC to Planning, then only the parent entity is needed. A #FORMAT map can do some of this (and maybe all). #FORMAT can ignore specific positions, replace text, etc. Here's the doc link. But there are limitations to ..read more

When working with insertion rules, sometimes there is a need to calculate something only for specific entities. But, if that entity is shared - in other words, exists in multiple hierarchies or has multiple owners - there can be problems. Here's how to deal with this common problem. The need most arises with IF statements. The code usually looks something like this: IF(@ISMBR("331"))    do some calcs ENDIF; This code will pass validation and deploy successfully, but when trying to consolidate, an error is generated. Clicking the link and drilling into the error message will show t ..read more

An occasional requirement for an FCC implementation is to translate data at multiple currency rates. There's always actuals at the actual rates, but then you can translate actuals at last year's rate, actuals at the forecast rate, actuals at next year's budget rate, etc. These different translations provide the data to show whether operations performed well against the comparative data or did the exchange rate just work in their favor. There are a couple of different ways to set this up. The first question is whether to use a scenario or a custom dimension to hold the translation versions. If ..read more

Recently had to solve a problem during an implementation and as I've done before, I'm adding the solution here so I can find it again. An incoming trial balance file is delimited and has two columns for the amount: a debit column and a credit column. Each record will have a value in one of these but not both. If the file was fixed format instead of delimited, there is a built-in import format expression called DRCRSplit that will deal with the two columns. With the function, you specify the midpoint of the overall character count but with delimited files you don't have a consistent midpoint ch ..read more

The #1 best place to go for Oracle Cloud EPM info (yes, better than this blog) is Cloud Customer Connect. It is part community forum, Oracle training, announcements and guidance from Oracle product managers, and the ONE way to submit enhancements or customer requests for new features, etc. This last component is the focus for this post. Idea Lab is where everyone can go in and submit an enhancement request and explain why, the business case, etc. Others can review and upvote to indicate their interest in the same thing or downvote if they don't see the need. When I say "others can review," tha ..read more

It's been a while since the last blog post so thought I'd do one on a new feature that's everyone has been wanting to see: loading BS and PL data together instead of separately. The funny (well, not funny) thing is that I missed the announcement - it was listed down in the Actions and Considerations section of the release notes instead of in the regular new features section. A friend pointed it out to me and I'm thankful they did. The August release (23.08) introduced a change where you don't have to do separate loads for the balance sheet and the income statement in order for the system to re ..read more

The previous blog post described the new Smart View extension to bring Oracle EPM Cloud books into Microsoft Excel using Smart View and walked through the installation steps. Please refer to that post before proceeding with the below. This post will walk through how to use the extension to work with books. This new capability works with FCC, Planning/EPBCS, Tax Reporting, and Narrative Reporting. Note the books must be new Reporting books and not the old Financial Reporting books. Just another reason to migrate from FR.  Connect to the application using the Smart View panel and click on t ..read more

One of the Oracle EPM product features that has been requested for decades - yes, decades - is to bring a report book into Microsoft Excel. With the April 2022 update this can FINALLY be done. Granted, the report book has to be the new Reporting book and not the old Financial Reporting book. But think of it as one more reason to migrate from Financial Reporting to Reporting. This new feature works for FCC, Planning, Tax Reporting, and Narrative Reporting. Using the feature requires enabling a new Smart View extension that is being released with the April 2022 update. This blog post will cover ..read more

So, there is a question that comes up with the intercompany matching report. We load data and consolidate. We have entities with multiple currencies and all of the parent entities are a single currency. Why then is there a need to also run a translation step in order to compare all of the multiple currency entities in the same common currency as all of the parents? Looking at the intercompany matching report, the solution looks easy. Change the Currency dimension to Parent Currency. It works for regular reports, right? Here's what happens when the report is executed. You can change the Curre ..read more

As companies implement Oracle EPM Cloud components (FCC, Planning, ARC, etc.), EPM Automate is almost always a part of the process. Typically with data loads and backups, which all of the components need, but also restructures, database refreshes, and more. Along with the growth in these scripts is the need to communicate to users and admins the status of everything. Each script can send an email or a text with the status of each run. But with hourly data loads, backups, restructures, regression tests, etc. the number of emails can easily become overwhelming. An email or text should be sent if ..read more