Can FCCS supports granular level data reporting?

Problem Statement

There is a need of Profitability report by legal entity, by account and department as well as by location. Ask is can FCCS generate profitability by department reports? Can FCCS generate profitability reports at lowest level?

FCCS functionality

Yes. Why not! It completely depends on how flexible you configure your application. You can definitely generate a report at lowest level you loaded the data.

FCCS is designed based on industry best experiences. FCCS provides inbuild 11 standard dimensions and upto 4 custom dimensions (If the application is enabled with the Multi-GAAP reporting option, you can create three Custom dimensions.)  Based on business requirements, 4 custom dimensions can be chosen. Once data will be loaded into FCCS across the custom dimensions, reports can be built.  It completely depends on how application is configured. There are few one-time setups that you have to consider and make the application flexible to generate such reporting.

Note -

1.If you still have 2 custom dimensions in your application, FCCS application needs to be updated to 4 custom dimensions (Extended Dimensionality update).

2. When the Extended Dimensionality update is applied, your existing application (with 2 dimensions) will no longer be available. You must create a new application (with 4 custom dimension). You cannot modify the number of dimensions in an existing application.

Solution 

In FCCS to meet this requirement you should have Legal Entity, Account, Department and Location as your dimensions and while generating the report you should consider creating in such a manner, that you don’t face performance issues.

You can generate a Financial Reporting (FR), Management Reporting (MR) or Smart view (Template based) report. FR is not recommended as will have to migrate to MR at a point of time so it's better to create a report in MR or Smart view. 

Point to consider -

1. Drill Down functionality should be applied when we have need to see data across all levels of dimension. User can start drilling down to top member and reach out to desired level of dimension.

2. Instead of hard coding of members in selection window, use the member functions like Children, Descendants functions.

    

3. Based on business requirements, Financial Report or Management Reports can be scheduled as well and reports in email to inbox/ placed to specific folder.

4. Keep the unrequired dimensions to POV.

Thank you!

Created by - Megha Gupta & Mohit Jain

Announcement: Data Management Feature Migration to Data Integration

Data Integration is the next generation of the Data Management user interface, enabling users to easily build and manage Cloud EPM integrations.

 As feature parity between Data Integration and Data Management becomes complete, Data Management features will be turned off, and users will use the new Data Integration user interface instead. This transition is gradual.

The user interface pages listed in the table below are no longer available in Data Management but are available in Data Integration. 

Please note -

• Data Management is not going away – only few features will move to Data Exchange.
• Profitability and Cost Management customers are not affected by the migration and do not see a change in their Data Management user interface. 
• REST APIs are not impacted by this change.
• Integration definitions built with Data Management are also visible in Data Integration, which enables an easy transition. (Data Integration is a new user interface on the Data Management data model and does not require migration of content from Data Management to Data Integration).
• Anu additional new integration features will only be included in Data Integration, and will not be back-ported to Data Management. 
• Critical bug fixes and security fixes will still be made to Data Management until all features are fully migrated. In addition, all features from Data Management will be migrated to Data Integration with the exception of the following:

• The batch feature will be replaced by the new Pipeline feature. 

• The Report Definition feature will not be migrated, only the Report Execution feature.
• The ability to create new Custom Applications in Data Management will no longer available, and we should use the “Data Export to File” application type instead.

These changes apply to ARCS, FCCS, TRCS, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management,  FreeForm, Planning, and Planning Modules

Thank you!

Major update for Audit requirements - Retain comments, attachments and job status after a user is removed

Previously, when a user was removed, the user’s comments, attachments, and job status records were also deleted. This meant that the user’s activity was lost.

In a major update from April 2024 update, now, the user activity records are retained for comments, attachments, and job status records, even after the user is removed. For example, these records continue to be displayed in:

• Comments and attachments on cells in forms
• Comments and attachments that are part of a maintenance snapshot
• The job status on the Jobs page
• Job status records that are imported and exported using EPM Automate or EPM REST APIs

This change is applicable to only Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Tax Reporting.

Major business benefit of this update is that user activity records are retained even after a user is removed for audit purposes and to keep history of the user actions.

Thank you!

Loading Oracle ERP Cloud Exchange Rate (FX) to Oracle EPM Cloud

From May-2024 update, In Data Integration, customers can now extract exchanges rates (FX rates) from the Oracle ERP Cloud using an ERP Cloud FX Rate adapter. The adapter is used as a data source in Data Integration. The adapter enables customers to select daily conversion rates for specific combinations of foreign currency, dates, and conversion rate types. This feature is only available for the standard load method.

The ERP FX Rate adapter supports period mapping requirements for the FX rate. The source data from the Oracle ERP Cloud is provided by the conversion date. Date-based FX Rate data is converted to EPM periods so it can be easily mapped and loaded to EPM Cloud applications. 

This update is applicable to FCCS, FreeForm, Planning, Tax Reporting

EPM Cloud customers who wish to use the new adapter are required to be on Oracle Fusion Cloud Financials Update24B in order to extract FX rates from the Oracle ERP Cloud.

Business Benefit: The ERP Cloud FX Rate Adapter is a purpose-built adapter, which enables customers to pull FX rates from the Oracle ERP Cloud without having to build custom BI Publisher reports. Using this feature, organizations have ready access to exchange rate values when determining revenue allocation for currency-denominated revenue streams.

Thank you!

Performance Improvement - Enabling the faster load time for the Jobs page

As per new updates from April 24, the Jobs page and the Jobs Filter will display only last day's data. Before this update, the Jobs page used to default to display three days of data under Recent Activity. Now the Jobs page defaults to display only the last day's data. Similarly, the filter’s Start Time and End Time dates default to yesterday and today to have only a one day difference.

This feature enables a faster load time for the Jobs page, allowing you to more quickly view the status of recent activity.

This feature is only applicable to Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Tax Reporting.

To view the Jobs page:

1. Click Application, and then click Jobs.
2. View the jobs list under Recent Activity to see the last day's activity.
3. To change the default display, click the Filter icon.

Thank you!

Introduction of new report for Cosmetic changes in Transaction Matching in ARCS

For Transaction Matching profiles that are integrated with Reconciliation Compliance, the Cosmetic Changes Report displays all cosmetic changes for a reconciliation during a specified Period. Cosmetic changes are operational changes made after a reconciliation is submitted and they do not result in the reconciliation being reopened.

What is Cosmetic and Non-Cosmetic Changes

Loading transactions into Transaction Matching may cause period-end reconciliations to be reopened. This happens automatically, without a warning message, since the importing of transactions is, typically, a scheduled job performed after business hours.

The system handles transactions differently based on how they affect the period-end reconciliation. Changes to transactions can be classified into non-cosmetic changes and Cosmetic changes.

Non-Cosmetic Cosmetic Changes to Transactions in Transaction Matching

Non-cosmetic changes automatically reopen period-end reconciliations. If the period is locked, non-cosmetic changes are not allowed.

Following is a list of non-cosmetic changes:

• Import one or more transactions whose Accounting Date is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date

• Delete one or more transactions whose Accounting Date is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date

  The deletion can be done from the Unmatched Transactions tab or by searching using the Job Id.

• Unmatch a match with an adjustment, if the Accounting Date of the adjustment is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date and the Extract Status of the adjustment is Open
• Match with Adjustment where Accounting Date of the adjustment is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date

• Delete Support from one or more transactions with Accounting Date is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date. 

  Note: Adding Support is a cosmetic change.
• Edit transaction Accounting Date or Balancing Amount when Accounting Date is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date

The Closed Through Date is defined as the period-end date for the last Preparer completed reconciliation. For example if the Preparer is working on April 2022, and the most recent previous reconciliation completed is March 2022, then the Closed Through Date is 31-March-2022 (assuming that’s the End Date of the March period).

Cosmetic Changes to Transactions in Transaction Matching

Cosmetic changes automatically update the subtotals on the period-end reconciliation. Because the reconciliation balancing (unexplained difference) is not affected, the reconciliation is not reopened.

Following is a list of cosmetic changes:

• Match Set created and all transactions have an Accounting Date that is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date

  The cosmetic effect is that the Total Unmatched and/or Unmatched Supported is reduced equally.

• Match Set is Unmatched and all transactions have an Accounting Date that is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date

  The cosmetic effect is that the Total Unmatched and/or Unmatched Supported is increased equally.

• Match Set created and some transactions have an Accounting Date that is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date, others have Accounting Date greater than the Closed Through Date

  The cosmetic effect is that, for the affected sources, the total Unmatched and/or Unmatched Supported is reduced, and Matched In-Transit is increased, equally.

• Adjustment Match Set is Unmatched and Accounting Date of Adjustment is greater than the Closed Through Date

  The cosmetic effect is that, for the affected sources, the total Matched In-Transit is reduced, and the Total Unmatched is increased equally.

• Unmatch a match with an adjustment, if the Accounting Date of the adjustment is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date and the Extract Status of the adjustment is Closed

• Support is added to Unmatched Transactions having an Accounting Date that is less than or equal to the Closed Through Date

  The cosmetic effect is that the Total Unmatched is reduced, and Total Unmatched Supported is increased equally.

 To generate the cosmetic changes report:

1. From the Home page, click Matching, and then select the reconciliation for which you want to generate the cosmetic changes report.
2. In the Balancing panel of the Overview tab, select the period for which the report must be generated.
3. Click Actions and select Cosmetic Changes Report.





4. The Information dialog is displayed containing the Job ID of this report generation job.

                                

5. Click the link in the Information dialog to display the Jobs page.

6. For Job ID, click the Succeeded link to view the generated report.

        

The file name of the generated report is in the format Cosmetic_Changes_Report_ACCOUNT_ID_<JOBID>_<YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS> <SERVICETIMEZONE>.csv.

Business Benefit: This feature enhances usability by providing a single report containing all cosmetic changes made to a particular reconciliation. Auditors can also easily view and track changes made to a reconciliation from the time it was submitted until date.

Thank you!

Introduction of new EPM Automate Command "essbaseBlockAnalysisReport"

In April-2024 update, Oracle has introduced new EPM Automate command and REST API to creates the Essbase Block Analysis report that helps you analyze the Essbase data to support the tuning of Block Storage Option (BSO) cubes (generally, used for calculations) in your application. 

The Essbase Block Analysis report is helpful to resolve performance issues resulting from patterns of data, for example, repeated numbers in Essbase BSO cubes. The report provides information on these three areas:

1. Percentage of blocks with only Zero:  Shows the blocks that contain only zeros as a percentage of all the blocks contained in the export file.

2. Top 10 Repeated Numerical Cell Values By Percentage of Numerical Cells:  Shows the top 10 repeated values as a percentage of all the values in the export file.

3. Top 100 Dense Member Combinations with Repeated Values:  Shows the top 100 dense combinations with repeated values in the cube. The Cell Value column shows a value for each member, in the order it appears in the hierarchy, as a different column. For example, if Period is across the column, there will be a different column for January, February, and so on. Other dense dimension(s) appear in the rows. This should help you identify the locations of the repeated values.

In this blog, we will talk about the new  essbaseBlockAnalysisReport command only. Required Roles to run this command is Service Administrator. This command applies to Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, Tax Reporting.

How to use -

epmautomate essbaseBlockAnalysisReport EXPORT_DATA_FILE.zip REPORT_FILE

where -

• EXPORT_DATA_FILE.zip is the name of the zip file that contains the Essbase data that was previously exported from of a BSO cube using the exportEssbaseData command.
• REPORT_FILE is the name for the HTML formatted Block Analysis report file.

Note:
Before running this report, use the exportEssbaseData command to export the data from the cube for which you want to create the Block Analysis report to a zip file. You may export level0 or all data as needed. Run this command to create the Block Analysis report for this zip file. The report is created in the outbox; you can use the downloadFile command to download it to a local computer or the sendMail command to email it.

Example

epmautomate essbaseBlockAnalysisReport Plan1_cube_data.zip block_report.html

Thank you!

New Feature - Option to select Balance and Detail Balances while creating custom reports based on Reconciliation Compliance data

In addition to using the predefined reports, ARCS administrator can create custom reports in Reconciliation Compliance or Transaction Matching.

The Service Administrator can create custom reports by default. Other users who are assigned the Reconciliation Manage Reports role can also create custom reports. 

Creating a query is the first step in creating a custom report. ARCS allows to use inbuilt option of "Generate Query". 

                                  

The Generate Query dialog assists admin user in creating a query against the database by allowing user to select any existing attribute in the product to be queried and/or filtered against. The dialog then generates the SQL to match the attributes and filters specified, at which time you can modify and enhance it.

Before the May-2024 update, under the Reconciliation Manage Module, user can query the existing attributes from Reconciliation, Profile and Transactions. 

        

From May 2024 update, additional attributes are supported when creating custom reports based on Reconciliation Compliance data. In the Generate Query dialog, user can select Balance and Detail Balances when specifying the attributes to be queried or filtered.

This feature enhances the functionality of custom reports by enabling you to use additional attributes when creating custom queries.     

Thank you!

New Feature - Ability to specify 'Consolidation' members for copying and Clearing Data in FCCS

In FCCS, you can now specify Consolidation dimension members, when you use Copy Data or Clear Data,

System allows to use the default Entity Input, or select Parent Input, Contribution Input, or Translation Currency Input if they are enabled. 

The Currency dimension is automatically set to the proper value based on the selected Consolidation member.

The ability to select Consolidation dimension members enables user to use Copy and Clear Data functionality for additional user-entered data specific to your application.

Copy Data

Clear Data

Thank you!

Plan to Remove Users Administration and Groups Administration from Audit Reports

Auditing Overview

Use the Audit feature to view tasks performed by users. You can filter audited tasks by audit type (for example, Data, Approvals, or Clear Cell Details), date range (for example, Yesterday or Last 60 Days), and username.

You must be a Service Administrator to enable audit tracking, and to view and export audit information.

To access the Audit feature-

Go to Navigator -> Tools -> Audit

These are the types of user activities the system can log in the task audit:

Plan to Remove Users Administration and Groups Administration from Audit Reports

Currently, you can get information on Users Administration and Groups Administration from the Audits Reports available in the Identity Console. In an upcoming monthly release, information on Users Administration and Groups Administration will no longer be included in audit reports.

In the Enable Audit dialog box, the Users Administration and Groups Administration options will remain available for some time to allow customers who already have these records to view any existing user and group provisioning records. However, after this change, no new records will be displayed in the Audits Report.

This change applies to: Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, FCCS, FreeForm, Planning, and TRCS

Thank you!