Collect Anything!

Options For Collecting Data Other Than Numbers In Your Application

4/15/2016

Presented byPhil Brosnan

Why is Finit here?

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Finit takes pride in being a company of makers and Doers; people who dig in and get their hands dirty

We make and deliver personalized financial reporting solutions and experiences

…Not Company to Company, but Person to

Person

By listening, questioning, and analyzing

Some Finit Customers

Questions

About the Presenter

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Phil Brosnan(pbrosnan@finit.com)

Experience

3+ years implementing OneStream17+ years in Automotive Finance- Cost Accountant to Finance Director- System implementations: MfgPro, SAP,

EssBase, Global HFM (1,200+ users).

Certification/Education

Truman State UniversityBA – Business Administration/FinanceMA – Accountancy

Client TestimonialFinit has a remarkable reputation and no matter who you meet from the company, you can understand where the comments come from. Each of them is knowledgeable in so many aspects and takes the time to make sure the client fully understands the topic. They exceed the bar of professionalism while maintaining an enjoyable atmosphere.

Collect Anything! [What]

Slide 6

• Supporting Detail• I see a number in OneStream, but what's the detail behind it?

• Adjustment Commentary• Who's making an adjustment, when did they make it and why?

• Variance Commentary• Why is a number up or down over time or compared to budget?

• Bridge Analysis• What‘s driving the change versus a prior period or versus budget?

• Supporting Documentation• Where can we store attachments and supporting files?

• User Sign Off and Questionnaires• Where can we ask questions and collect responses?

Collect Anything! [How?]

Slide 7

• Supporting Detail• Stage Data Attributes• Cell Detail

• Adjustment Commentary• Standard Logs and Annotations on Forms• Journals

• Variance Commentary• Annotations

• Bridge Analysis• Special Dimension Members• Annotations

• Supporting Documentation• Attaching files to Intersections• Public Documents

• User Sign Off and Questionnaires• Certification Questions

Supporting Detail

Slide 8

• Use Case• Don’t want to store granular details in your reporting

cube, but still want visibility to see the detail behind a balance

• Examples• Detailed cash bank accounts making up the total Cash

Balance

• Have a detailed headcount file by person, but don’t want to store people in the cube, is there a way to still see the detailed people

• Detailed breakout of expenses in the Other Travel Expense Line

Source vs. Stage vs. Cube Data

Co Code Account Amount Co Code Account Amount Entity Account Amount

100 10001 100

100 10001 (90)

100 10001 45

100 10002 (30)

100 10002 110

100 10002 (10)

100 40001 100

100 40001 25

100 40001 60

100 61234 75

100 61234 20

Sales 185

OS Application

100 61234 95

US Cash 125

US Wages 95

US

7010002100

100 40001 185

GL Transactions OS Stage OS Cube

100 10001 55

Supporting Detail

Slide 10

• Attributes on Stage Data• Can import from soured system file or connector

• Can import via Excel

• Visible via Studio Reports or by drilling down on a cell• not directly in a cube view

• Not translated or consolidated

• 20 Text fields, 12 Value fields, Label, SourceID, and TextValue

• Cell Detail• Can enter on Forms

• Can load via Excel or CSV

• Visible via Studio Reports or by drilling down on a cell (not in a cube view)

• Not translated or consolidated

• Can be blocked (or forced) thru no input rules

Adjustment Commentary

Slide 11

• Use Case• Want to provide users a way to explain or provide

support for adjustments to data

• Want to see and track when adjustments were made and by whom

• Examples• Users GL only support local statutory reporting needs

and they need to make US GAAP adjustments in OneStream

• User loaded budget data, but FP&A wants to layer on an adjustment to that data but wants to preserve what the user loaded

Adjustment Commentary

Slide 12

• Journal• Can enter via the Journal Channel in workflow• Can load via an Excel or CSV file• Description field available for journal as well as each line

on the journal• Journal Audit available showing full trail of journal with

time stamps: submitter, approver, poster, etc. • Journal reports part of standard reports

• Annotations on Forms• Can enter via form in web, quickview, or excel add-in• Can report on annotations in cube views, quick views or

excel add-in• Audit History available for all data entered: amount,

timestamp, user

Variance Commentary

Slide 13

• Use Case• Allow users to enter free form text to explain

variances between two data sets

• Example• Budgeted AR was $1,000,000 but actual AR was

$1,500,000 and the user wants to be able to let everyone know that “New Customer ABC negotiated 90 day payment terms versus the 30 days that other customers agreed to”

• Salaries were up this month versus budget because “we added 2 new heads that we didn’t budget for”

Variance Commentary

Slide 14

• Annotations on Forms• Can enter via form in web, quickview, or excel add-in

• Can import via Excel

• Can report on annotations in cube views, quick views or excel add-in

• Audit History available for all data entered: amount, timestamp, user

• 5 View members: V#Annotation, V#Assumptions, V#AuditComment, V#Footnote, V#VarianceExplanation

Bridge Analysis

Slide 15

• Use Case• Identify, quantify and consolidate the main drivers of

a variance between two data sets

• Example• We know sales increased as a company for the

quarter versus last year. • How much of that increase was because of new customers?

• How was a change in the mix of products we sold? (i.e. Did we sell them more expensive products?)

• How much was an increase in volume of the product we sold?

Bridge Analysis

Slide 16

• Special Dimension Members• Allow for ‘standardized’ data sets (i.e. Mix, Volume, New

Customer, etc.)

• Data will translate and consolidate

• Can report on data in cube views, quick views or excel add-in

• Annotations• Can enter via form in web, quickview, or excel add-in

• Can import via Excel

• Can report on annotations in cube views, quick views or excel add-in

• Audit History available for all data entered: amount, timestamp, user

Supporting Documentation

Slide 17

• Use Case• Collect required documentation in OneStream and

validate and confirm that users have supplied it as part of their close process

• Use OneStream as a document repository for common close materials, users guides, etc.

• Example• Users are required to submit their detailed AR aging

report to a SharePoint site on a monthly basis, can we improve and track that process in OneStream?

• Store OneStream Training documents and videos in OneStream

Supporting Documentation

Slide 18

• Attaching files to Intersections• Attachments stay with data indefinitely, no more hunting for it in

emails, folders somewhere else

• Can add confirmation rules to make sure an attachment was provided

• Visible via Forms or by drilling down on an intersection

• Attachments are not consolidated so you do need to know the intersection that data was attached to

• Can attach any type of file (.txt, .pdf, .xls, etc.)

• Public Documents• Visible from OnePlace

• Can store any type of file (.txt, .pdf, .xls, etc.)

• Can store common POV’s, commons Excel Add-In files, etc.

Confirmations

Slide 19

• Confirmation Rule settings• Can vary by time period

• Can be a Warning (lets you pass), or an Error (hard stop)

• Can provide feedback to the user on the failure

• Every confirmation has a “Rule” behind it, and rules are highly flexible

• Confirmation Rules can check almost anything:• Does an account have a balance (headcount)?

• Do two accounts match (Cash and CashDetail)?

• Does an intersection have an attachment (AR Aging)?

User Sign Off and Questionnaires

Slide 20

• Use Case• Force users to answer and comply with a set of

questions or procedures as part of their monthly, quarterly or annual close process

• Examples• Audit requires users to email responses to 15

questions as part of our quarterly close process

• At the end of the year the Tax department sends users an excel file that they have to populate and send back by a certain date

User Sign Off and Questionnaires

Slide 21

• Certification Questions• Can vary by time period

• Can force or make optional responses

• Can set risk levels

• Can combine with business rules to force certain responses

Collect Anything! [Summary]

Slide 22

• Stage Data / Attributes Members (incl. Drill-down)

• Cell Detail

• Audit Logs (who, what, when, where)

• Annotations (why)

• Journals

• Special Dimension Members (bridge / walk / waterfall)

• Attaching files to Intersections

• Using Public Documents

• Confirmation Rules

• Certification Questions

Questions?

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Thank You for Attending!

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Today’s Presenter:

Phil Brosnan

pbrosnan@finit.com

General Questions:

Greg Barrett

gbarrett@finit.com

Copy of the slides or Recording:

Email us for a copy of the slides or a link to the recording

insights@finit.com

Past webinars:

www.finit.com/webinars

Follow us on Twitter for updates:

@Finit_Solutions

Addendix

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Loading Attribute Data into Stage

Slide 26

• Fields available:• Label (100 char)

• Source ID (unlimited)

• TextValue (unlimited)

• TextAttributes 1-20 (100 char)

• ValueAttributes 1-12 (decimal)

• Configured in the Cube Integration settings

• Examples:• Loading supporting Account detail.

• Loading headcount by Name.

• Kinda a poor man’s account reconciliation system.

Loading Cell Detail

Slide 27

• Right-click and choose “Cell Detail”

• Classification comes from |CellDetailClassifications| parameter. Shared application wide.

• Description is free-form

Using another dimension (UD8) with V#

Slide 28

• There are 5 annotation view members.

• But if you combine them with a UD8, you can have as many as you want.

• This works particularly well when the UD8 is a dynamic calc.• V#Annotation:UD8#French

Using Text1-8 properties on members

Slide 29

• XFGetMemberProperty(“Account”, “Cash”, Text1, “”, “”, “”)

• In 3.7, you can also do this from inside a CubeView.

Using List Parameters

Slide 30

• Makes cube values looklike text.

• But stored as a number

Custom Relational development

Slide 31

• Several of the Fishmarket apps (like PostOffice) make use of custom tables.

• You’ll need to develop the tables• thru the UI or get a DBA to do it on the back-end

• You’ll need to develop the dashboards to load/see data.

• To report on the data, you’ll need:• Studio reports, or

• a SQL Table Editor (ted) or Grid View, if you don’t need formatting

Comparing the options

Slide 32

Option Fields Length Reporting DataTables Notes

1 Loading Attribute Data into Stage Label 100 char Studio StageSourceData or No translation or consolidation

Source ID unlimited vSourceAndTargetData

TextValue unlimited

20 Text Attributes 100 char StageAttributeData

12 Value Attributes decimal StageAttributeData

2 Loading Cell Detail Classification ?? Method Query only

(Studio)

DataCellDetail, but the data is

inside an XML string.

Only on Forms data (not import)

Description ?? No translation or consolidation

3 Loading to V# annotation members V#Annotation (et al) unlimited CV / QV / Excel One per intersection

4 Loading more stuff to V# members

(incl files)

Annotation (et al) unlimited (incl

attachments)

Studio or right-click DataAttachment As many as you want

5 Using another dimension (UD8) to

expand V# capability

V#Annotation (et al) unlimited CV / QV / Excel As many as you want (based on

the custom dim)

6 Using Text1-8 (or other properties)

on members

Text 1-8 Excel (CV in 3.7?) MemberProperty

7 Using List Parameters to make

cube values look like text

CV / QV / Excel Used on CubeView columns

and rows

8 Journals Journal Name 100 char

Journal Description unlimited

Line Item Description unlimited

9 Custom Relational development

(Dashboards)