The September updates for Oracle's Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) and Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS) are here. This blog post outlines several new features for both applications, enhancements, removal of support, and fixed defects.
The monthly update for PBCS and EPBCS will occur on Friday, September 15 during your normal daily maintenance window.
Integrated Business Process Navigation Flows
Service Administrators can set up connections that enable users to navigate across Oracle EPM Cloud subscriptions to create unified business process flows across multiple subscriptions, which can belong to any combination of EPM subscriptions. The following subscriptions are supported within this feature:
- PBCS
- EPBCS
- Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud
- Oracle Tax Reporting Cloud
- Oracle Account Reconciliation Cloud (ARCS)
- Oracle Profitability and Cost Management Cloud
- Oracle Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud
Considerations
Connections can be created using any of the following services as a source for the connection:
- PBCS
- EPBCS
- Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud (FCCS)
- Oracle Tax Reporting Cloud
All EPM service subscriptions can be connected from these source connections. Connections can also be created between subscriptions of the same service type. Following connections are supported with this feature:
- Connections where services are in the same domain within the same data center
- Connections across multiple subscriptions when services are in different domains and different data centers if an identity provider is set up for federated SSO
Automatic Application Snapshot Uploads to Facilitate Troubleshooting
While submitting feedback, Service Administrators can consent to submit the last maintenance snapshot of the instance to Oracle to expeditiously troubleshoot the issue and test fixes.
Oracle uses the submitted application snapshot for testing purposes only; no changes will be made to the application or data. If you consent to submit the maintenance snapshot, Oracle automatically encrypts and copies the log files and maintenance snapshot to Oracle Support.
Support for Single Sign-On Using Oracle Identity Cloud Service (IDCS)
You can configure single sign-on (SSO) access to Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud using Oracle Identity Cloud Services (IDCS), which provides a comprehensive cloud-based identity management and security platform that supports a universal set of access controls, permissions, and password security constraints.
Configuring SSO requires you to configure a SAML 2.0 link between Oracle Identity Cloud Service and Oracle EPM Cloud.
Simplified Provisioning Report
This release includes a simplified Provisioning Report that provides a concise view of the roles assigned to each user. In addition to providing the number of provisioned users, the enhanced report presents information on each provisioned user in one row to provide a comprehensive view of all assigned roles.
Enhancements to the Activity Report
To help you understand the processes that may impact the service performance, Oracle has updated the Activity Report, which now contains information on the top 15 user interface requests that took the most time to execute.
New Rest API, Copy Snapshot
You can now use a REST API to copy an application snapshot.
Selecting Identity Domain at Sign In
The sign in process no longer requires you to select an identity domain while accessing the service. To simplify the sign in process, the name of your identity domain is now derived from the URL that you specify.
Note: This is an Oracle Cloud enhancement, which may already have been rolled out through Oracle Cloud data centers
EPBCS Only
Ability to Add Child Members for OFS_Pension Plan
For the Financials business process in EPBCS, you can now add child members under OFS_Pension Plan, so that the associated Smart List in Workforce Planning shows more detailed accounts in the Benefits & Tax wizard.
Changes to Labels: Models and Consolidation Icons
In Strategic Modeling, the Models icon is renamed to Model View; the Consolidation icon is renamed to Consolidation View.
New Context Menu in Strategic Modeling
In Strategic Modeling on the web, you can right-click a cell to access a context menu that includes Account Forecast, Subaccounts, Goal Seek, Scenario Manager, and Audit Trail.
Ability to Add Sub Accounts in Bulk
In Strategic Modeling on the web, you can add subaccount members in bulk.
Ability to Change Default Unit and Currency
In Strategic Modeling on the web, you can change model properties including Default Unit, Default Currency, Input Decimal Places, and Output Decimal Places.
Upgrades to Strategic Modeling Reports
Reports in Strategic Modeling have improved performance and can be re-ordered and hidden.
Reports will be upgraded when you open a model for the first time, which may take some time. Check in the model after you open it to make sure that the upgraded reports are saved with the Model.
Removal of Support
Standard Interface (Planning and Budgeting Cloud Workspace Interface)
This change affects PBCS customers who activated their subscriptions on or before July 31, 2016 only.
The Simplified Interface, an option available in the service since November 2014, will be established as the standard across the service. As a result, the current Standard Interface, which is also known as the EPBCS Workspace, will not be supported starting with the December 2017 update to the service (December 1, 2017 for test instances and December 15, 2017 for production instances). After the deployment of the November update to production instances on November 17, 2017, bugs or enhancements for the Standard Interface will not be addressed.
To prepare for this change, join us for our webinar on September 19.
Financial Reporting Studio Desktop Client
Oracle is committed to providing a simple and intuitive user experience. To achieve this, Financial Reporting Web Studio, available since March 2016, will become the only environment for designing and building reports.
Oracle is providing additional time for users to transition from Financial Reporting Desktop Studio to Financial Reporting Web Studio. Tentative plans call for functional parity between Financial Reporting Web Studio and Financial Reporting Desktop Studio in late 2017, at which time, support for the desktop Studio will transition to the Web Studio and distribution of the Desktop Studio will cease.
Oracle recommends that you transition to using Financial Reporting Web Studio at the earliest opportunity. Please send questions and concerns to Oracle using the Provide Feedback option in the service.
File-based Integration of Data Management with Oracle Fusions 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 will be phased out starting the September update to the service.
Fixed Defects
|
Defect Number |
Description |
|
26614891 |
In Financial Reporting, the vertical scroll bar is now displayed correctly in the "Respond to Prompts" popups. |
|
26583972 |
When importing a Financial Reporting report in Smart View as FullyFormatted, the values for cells which have replacement text that contains both numeric and non-numeric characters are no longer stripped of the nonnumeric characters. |
|
26571651 |
In Strategic Modeling, subaccounts as a weighted average now total correctly, as appropriate for values such as interest rates. |
|
26554054 |
In Strategic Modeling, the Models icon is renamed to Model View; the Consolidation icon is renamed to Consolidation View. |
|
26550754 |
Composite forms now properly load when you change the Page selection, and you no longer receive a Java error. |
|
26540610 |
In Financial Reporting Web Studio, if you have a grid with more than 20 columns and you click Save after making a change, you are no longer returned to the far left of the report. |
|
26531423 |
You can now delete children of the member OFS_Adjustment to Revenue. |
|
26522684 |
Action menus now work consistently in simple forms that are included in a composite form. |
|
26520503 |
After refreshing an aggregate storage (ASO) cube in Smart View, members display as expected. |
|
26504227 |
When you add hiring requisitions for one fiscal year, the requisitions are carried over to subsequent fiscal years (until they are associated with an employee hire, their status is changed, or they are removed). Hiring requisitions added in future years don’t overwrite those added in previous years. |
|
26477618 |
The Merit Adjustment value is now calculated in subsequent years as of the month it is set for in OWP_Merit Month. |
|
26445428 |
Forms now display correctly if an attribute name contains “BR”. |
|
26421993 |
In Financial Reporting Web Studio, when a default member for a prompt is left blank, you no longer receive an "unable to process request" error. |
|
26417313 |
The @MDSHIFT Essbase calculation function now works correctly after Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud update. |
|
26357870 |
The browser freezing intermittently when navigating task lists is resolved. |
|
26309094 |
Shared members that are set to include their descendants with IDescendants now correctly include all members in rows and columns, even if the Suppress Missing Blocks option is enabled. |
|
25963632 |
Export step executes even when no data has been imported. |
|
25780133 |
When building reports in Financial Reporting Web Studio, custom text in column headers is now displayed correctly in the report output. |
|
25554729 |
With Internet Explorer 11, you can now enter data into multiple cells and use Tab without intermittent issues, such as the window closing. |
| 25464144 |
Intermittent display issues (for example, flickering) when navigating in forms are resolved. |
| 25249659 |
Smart Push executes successfully when an empty form is populated through a business rule run on save. |
To learn more about the simplified interface vs. workspace, register for webinar...
