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!

Removal of Support for Custom Application in Data Management

Custom Application in Data Management

Custom application was used to extract data from the EPM Cloud, and then the data was pushed into a flat file instead of being loaded to an EPM Cloud application. The custom application was superseded by the Data Export to File feature in an earlier update. The Data Export to File feature has enhanced functions and capabilities.

Removal of Support for Custom Application in Data Management

Since the September (23.09) update, custom target applications can no longer be added in Data Management. (Existing integrations that use a custom target application will not be impacted and will still run without any changes.) 

If you still have a custom target application, it is recommended that you use the Upgrade Custom Applications option to migrate your existing custom target application to a data export to file application. Follow the below steps to upgrade 

• On the Workflow tab, under Other -> System Maintenance Tasks, select Upgrade Custom Applications.

• Click Execute.
• From Execute Script, and then in Value, specify the name of the custom target application to migrate from the LOV.

• To browse custom target applications, click Image shows Search button, and from the Search Parameter Value screen, select the custom target application and click OK. To migrate all custom applications, in Value, enter All Custom Applications. 

• You can monitor the progress, go to the Workflow tab, under Monitor -> Process Details.

• You can see the Application Type before and after migration

         Before migration

                 

After migration

           

The migration converts existing file formats from the custom target application to the file formats used in the data export to file option and retains all the existing setup. When the custom target application has been converted, you can run same integration as before. Data export file applications are available both in Data Management and Data Integration.

Thank you!

Ability to Disable the 'Submit Application Snapshot' Feature in the 'Provide Feedback Utility' from April 2024 update

Ability to Disable the 'Submit Application Snapshot' Feature in the Provide Feedback Utility

If your organization enforces a policy that restricts data access, which prevents Service Administrators from submitting application snapshot to Oracle, the Submit application snapshot check box in the Provide Feedback utility will be greyed out. A Service Administrator has got option to manage data access settings for the environment using REST APIs or EPM Automate commands. In this blog, we will discuss about the newly introduced EPM Automate Comments.

The setRestrictedDataAccess and getRestrictedDataAccess commands are available with this update. 

setRestrictedDataAccess Command

This command configures EPM Cloud environments to prevent Service Administrators from consenting to submit an application snapshot to Oracle while using the Provide Feedback utility. 

Required Roles

Service Administrator

Usage

epmautomate setRestrictedDataAccess true|false

Examples

• Prevent Service Administrators from consenting to submit an application snapshot:

  epmautomate setRestrictedDataAccess true

• Allow Service Administrators to consent to submit an application snapshot:

  epmautomate setRestrictedDataAccess false

getRestrictedDataAccess command

This command displays whether an EPM Cloud environment is configured to prevent Service Administrators from consenting to submit an application snapshot to Oracle or not.

Required Roles

Service Administrator

Example

epmautomate getRestrictedDataAccess

Applies to:  Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Data Management, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: This change in behavior enforces your organization's data sharing policy related to submitting snapshots while submitting feedback to Oracle.

Thank you!

Randomization of Daily Maintenance Start Time

Starting with April 24 update, the Daily Maintenance Start Time of EPM Cloud environments are updated by assigning a random minute at which the maintenance process starts. 

Before:

Before this update, the daily maintenance started at the top of the hour, for example at 2:00 p.m. UTC (14.00 on a 24 hour clock) only. 

With this update:

This change modifies the start time by adding a value for minute (for example, 2:24 p.m. UTC (14.24 on a 24 hour clock). A Service Administrator can change the daily maintenance start time to a more desirable minute, if needed.

Applies to: Account Reconciliation, Enterprise Data Management, Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Narrative Reporting, Planning, Profitability and Cost Management, Tax Reporting

Business Benefit: This change ensures that the daily maintenance load on EPM Cloud infrastructure is distributed throughout the hour.

Thank you!

Is it possible to integrate non oracle systems to ARCS and get reconciliation done frequently without any manual intervention?

Problem Statement

Is it possible to integrate non oracle systems to ARCS and get reconciliation done frequently without any manual intervention?

ARCS Functionality

Oracle ARCS is a robust and secure solution for managing and automating account reconciliation period end processes, and performing large scale transaction matching, improving efficiency and accuracy of financial processes and statements. With ARCS key capabilities, you can perform tasks such as automate high volume transaction matching and directly integrate with period end reconciliations.

It is a purpose-built solution on the cloud for managing the global reconciliation process.

You can load transactions for past and current period and can perform complex reconciliations across unlimited data sources using unlimited attributes.

Solutions

To load data to ARCS you can use file-based integration. It does not matter what ERP system you are using be it Oracle or Non -Oracle or your non-financial data systems. You can extract data in file in required format and can automate the whole data upload process. There are various ways to load data into Oracle Account Reconciliation.

Methods of Loading Data into Account Reconciliation

There are various ways to load data:

1. Use the Account Reconciliation user interface to load pre-mapped data.
2. Importing Transactions directly from Excel using the Smart View Extension for Reconciliation Compliance.
3. Use the EPM Automate Utility 
4. Use the Data Management or Data Integration
5. Use the EPM Integration Agent 

1. Use the Account Reconciliation user interface to load pre-mapped data

 Transactions and balances can be imported using flat files in ARCS. it allows to - 

• Import pre-mapped balances for both Reconciliation Compliance and Transaction Matching
• Import pre-mapped transactions for Reconciliation Compliance
• Import pre-mapped transactions for Transaction Matching

2. Importing Transactions directly from Excel using the Smart View Extension for Reconciliation Compliance
You can use Excel to load transactions into Reconciliation Compliance by using the Smart View Account Reconciliation extension. The direct integration requires the base installation of Smart View plus the Smart View extension for Reconciliation Compliance.

3. Use the EPM Automate Utility 
EPM Automate enables users to remotely perform tasks within ARCS. EPM Automate provides the commands to import pre-mapped balances, import pre-mapped transactions, import balances using Data Management or Data integration, import mapping, import rates and import attributes values.

4. Use the Data Management or Data Integration

ARCS provides the flexibility to import balances and transactions by using Data Management or Data Integration.

5. Use the EPM Integration Agent 

Data and Metadata can be extracted from on-premises data source and then load the data directly to the ARCS using the EPM Integration Agent. The EPM Integration Agent executes a query against an on-premises relational database and then loads the data or metadata to the EPM Cloud. The EPM Integration Agent is defined as a data source for an integration. The EPM Integration Agent may also be extended by way of scripting to access other data sources including third-party REST APIs, non-relational sources, or any system or systems that can be accessed using a Jython, Groovy, or Java program.

Thank you!

How FCCS View dimension helps in improving the performance of data loads!

How FCCS View dimension helps in improving the performance of data loads!

In FCCS Application- Under View dimension, there are three members under a parent member “FCCS_View_System Members”: “FCCS_QTD_RULE”, “FCCS_HYTD_RULE”, and “FCCS_YTD_RULE”. 

Details -

FCCS provides an Application Settings option to disable View calculations. By Turning this setting to "Yes" -

1. This option disables computation and storing of YTD, HYTD, and QTD data for data input (through forms, data import, Data Management, and so on) in the YTD, HYTD, and QTD members. 

2. Turning this setting to "Yes" will help in improving the performance of data loads.

3. Once data is loaded, ese the required YTD_RULE, HYTD_RULE, and QTD_RULE members to see the respective View data after data load. 

4. Data will not be populated and updated in the YTD, HYTD, and QTD members after data load.

To disable View calculations:

1. Click Application, and then click Settings.
2. Set the Disable To-Date View Calculations option to Yes.
3. Load data.
4. Use the YTD_RULE, HYTD_RULE and QTD_RULE members to see the YTD, HYTD and QTD data.

However, if there is requirement to use the YTD, HYTD, and QTD members, you will have to run the Update View Calculations rule for all the Scenario/Year/Period/Entities for which data was loaded when this option was set to "Yes", and pass QTD, HYTD, and YTD as parameters so that the values are correctly computed and stored.

This will make sure future data loads will correctly populate the "Never Share" YTD, QTD, and HYTD members.

Update View Calculations rule can be run at any time, regardless of the calculation status.

To update View calculations:

1. On the Home page, click Rules.
2. From the Business Rules list, select UpdateViewCalculations.
3. Select or enter dimension members for Entities, Period, Scenario, Year, View, and Currency, and click OK.
4. Click Launch to run the rule.

   
   

Thank you!