FCCS Updates (November 2017): Generating Custom Reports & More

The November updates for Oracle's Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud Service (FCCS) are here. This blog post outlines an array of new features, fixed defects, considerations, and future functionality you should prepare for. 

The monthly update for FCCS will occur on Friday, November 17 during your normal daily maintenance window.

NOTE: You can migrate maintenance snapshots from the current version of the service instance to the preceding version or to the next version. For example, snapshots from 17.08 can be imported into 17.07 and 17.09 service instances. Migration between the same versions is always supported.

Configurable Calculations

You can add your own custom calculations to the seeded default calculations for your applications. The system provides insertion points within the default consolidation process where you can include your own calculation rules created in Calculation Manager.

Integrations Between EPM Cloud Services

FCCS and Tax Reporting Cloud Service (TRCS) customers that have subscriptions to multiple EPM Cloud services can create connections between services and enable integrations between these EPM Cloud services using Close Manager functionality.

The pre-built and end user integrations enable customers to perform tasks within FCCS and TRCS that access other EPM Cloud functionality. For example, you can create end user integrations in FCCS to an Account Reconciliation Cloud Service (ARCS) environment, so that users can easily monitor reconciliation status from FCCS tasks.

Pre-built integrations and end user integrations are provided within Close Manager for the following EPM Cloud services:

• ARCS
• Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS)
• Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS)
• FCCS
• TRCS
• Profitability and Cost Management Cloud Service
  
  

Integration Available Between FCCS and TRCS and On-Prem Oracle E-Business Suite

You can now create a seamless integration between on-prem Oracle E-Business Suite and FCCS or TRCS so that tasks in the EPM Cloud service monitor events happening in the on-prem product required for the close process. For example, you can have an FCCS task set up to wait for the Journal Period Close event to happen in the on-premises Oracle E-Business General Ledger.

Generating Custom Reports for Close Manager and Supplemental Data Manager

You can now create reports for Close Manager and Supplemental Data. The reports can be generated in PDF, HTML, or XLS format.

Building custom reports for Close Manager and Supplemental Data Manager involves four steps and can only be performed by a Service Administrator:

• Create a Close Manager Query or Supplemental Data Query from the Actions button of the Queries tab
• Create a template
• Set up a report group
• Set up the report.

After a custom report has been built, the Service Administrator or other users with access can generate the report.

Journal Referential Integrity 

To prevent a referential integrity problem with journals from occurring in the application, FCCS verifies and prevents the deletion of any metadata member that is referenced in a journal.

Journals Display Currency Name

Journals now display the default currency at the end of the Entity name or alias.

Updated Opening Balance Adjustment Translation for Historical Accounts

For Historical accounts, the Opening Balance Adjustment is translated at the same effective rate as the Closing Balance from which the Opening Balance is carried forward. If Entity currency and Parent currency Closing Balance data does not exist in the prior period, then the Ending Rate for the prior period is used.

Limits on Dimension Members

For optimal performance, Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud now provides limits on the maximum number of dimension members allowed in each dimension. Starting with this update, Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud will stop you from saving non-compliant metadata with error messages explaining that you have exceeded the acceptable number of dimension members.

Changes to CSV Version of the Provisioning Report

This monthly update reverts the changes made to the CSV version of the Provisioning Report in the September monthly update (17.09) so that it now lists the application roles that are mapped to the predefined identity domain roles assigned to users. It also lists the groups to which users are assigned, even if the group is not assigned to any role. For example, if the user is assigned the Service Administrator role, the CSV version of the report lists one row for each application role mapped to the Service Administrator role.

Registering Duplicate Target Application Names in Data Management

Data Management supports registering target applications with the same name. This may be the case where a customer has multiple service environments and the application name is the same in each environment, or the application names are identical in development and production environments. This feature enables you to add a prefix to the application name when registering the application so that it can be registered successfully in Data Management and be identified correctly in the list of target applications.

Target applications with prefixes are not backward compatible, and cannot be migrated to a 17.10 or earlier release. Only a target application without a prefix name can be migrated to an earlier release.

Removal of Support

Classic Dimension Editor

Effective the February 2018 (18.02) update, the Dimensions link in the Navigator will link to the Simplified Dimension Editor. Consequently, the Classic Dimension Editor will not be supported starting with the February 2018 update to the service (February 2, 2018 for test and February 16, 2018 for production instances).

File-based Integration of Data Management with Oracle Fusion Financials Cloud

Oracle Fusion Financial Cloud Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting is now fully integrated with Data Management.

This enhancement brings the integration of Oracle Fusion Financials Cloud with Oracle EPM Cloud on par with the current, out-of-the-box, file-based integration. As a result, the file-based integration is being phased out starting the September update to the service.

If you are using file-based integration between Oracle Fusion Financials Cloud and Oracle EPM Cloud, Oracle recommends that you adopt this new integration as soon as possible.

Upcoming Updates to Plan For

Advanced Consolidation Capabilities

Advanced Consolidation features will be included in future updates. If the Ownership Management feature (which allows you to use Advanced Consolidation) is enabled, you will need to reconsolidate all existing data in order to re-populate the Proportion Consolidation dimension.

Fixed Defects

Considerations

Adding Base Members from Dimension Editor

If you add a base member from the Dimension Editor and select the Never Share Data Storage property, the system applies the Dynamic Calc property and the member is read-only.

To work around this issue, load the metadata through a metadata load, or add the member from Smart View with the Never Share property. In these cases, the storage setting will remain unchanged and you can enter data to the member.

Importing a Single Currency to 17.11

In a single currency application, when you try to import a single currency 17.10 Lifecycle Management zip file to a 17.11 environment, the import process might display ‘Invalid Attribute Dimensions’ errors.

The workaround is not to select the entire application for Lifecycle Management import. Instead, select the application and from the Artifact List, Select All artifacts. Next, expand the Plan Type until you see the Consol folder, and uncheck Attribute Dimensions. Finally, proceed with Import to create the application.

Smart View

SUMMARY DIALOG DISPLAY

In Internet Explorer, you may experience issues using the Open Summary dialog in Smart View. To work around this issue:

• Use the keyboard arrow keys to make your selection, then close and reopen the Summary dialog; or
• Minimize and then reopen the Summary dialog; or
• Use a different browser

USING FIREFOX ESR 52.4.2 WITH SMART VIEW

Future releases of Mozilla Firefox will be phasing out support for XUL-based add-ons such as Smart View. Starting in mid-November 2017, only add-ons and extensions built with new web extension technology will work in Firefox. Therefore, Smart View 11.1.2.5.710 only supports Firefox versions up to ESR 52.4.1. If you want to continue using Firefox with Smart View 11.1.2.5.710, do not upgrade your Firefox browser.

If your Firefox browser is set to automatically install updates, Oracle recommends changing the setting to “Check for updates, but let me choose whether to install them.” See the Firefox help for instructions on changing this setting.

Copying and Clearing Data

If you try to clear a shared entity, the base entity and all shared entities do not get cleared. To work around this issue, clear the primary entity in order to clear all shared entities.

If you copy or clear data, a blank dialog may appear if any members do not have an alias. To work around this issue, add an alias to any member without one.

Change in Calculation of CTA for Net Income/Retained Earning Current Accounts

In the August, 2017 update (17.08), the seeded Net Income hierarchy included a new member named “Retained Earnings Current – Opening Balance – FX-CTA” as a sibling of Net Income. Opening Balance calculation was done for the new member, which was automatically added during the upgrade process. Due to this change, if you have not yet done so, you must reconsolidate your historical data by running the Consolidation process.

CICTA Redirection Account Settings Not Retained After Upgrade

If you assigned an account as a CICTA Redirection Account, after you upgrade, the Redirection account attribute that you selected may be missing.

Self Service Upgrade

It is strongly recommended that you do not use the Upgrade Application Content settings in this update. Although a new Upgrade screen is available in Daily Maintenance, this feature is not fully functional.

FCCS Amount Override and Rate Override Accounts

If your application does not have any historical accounts defined, there will be no shared members under the seeded FCCS_Amount Override and FCCS_Rate_Override Accounts, which results in errors when refreshing the database.

A workaround is to add placeholder accounts. Under FCCS_Balance Sheet add FCCS_AmountOverride_Placeholder_Account and/or add FCCS_RateOverride_Placeholder_Account. Assign the exchange rate of Historical Amount Override for FCCS_AmountOverride Placeholder Account and Historical Rate Override for FCCS_RateOverride Placeholder Account.

Editing Dates in a Data Collection Period

In a Data Collection Period in Supplemental Data, editing Start, End, and Close Dates may result in an error that the date is outside the valid range.

Entity Member Names/Aliases with ICP Property

When you create an Entity with the ICP property enabled, the maximum length of the member name is 76 characters instead of 80, to allow for the ICP prefix.

Working with Metadata

Be aware of the following considerations:

• You should not make metadata changes that result in the following:
  • Changing a base member to which a journal has been posted into a parent member (other than in the Entity dimension in which journals are valid at a parent entity)
    If there are journals or Supplemental Data posted to those members, these changes can cause problems when accessing Journals or importing existing journals.
• When you use ad hoc grids in Smart View with Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud, do not add a root Period member on the grid. Make sure the root Period member is removed by either clicking Remove Only or selecting periods that are in the application and selecting Keep Only. If a Period member is left on the grid, then any changes to data that you make will fail to properly set the impact status of the Entities.