finit solutions whats on your mind october 2011

Getting the Most out of EPM: Wh t’ Y Mi d?What’s on Your Mind?

October 28, 2011Ed DeLise ModeratorEd DeLise – [email protected]

www.finitsolutions.com

Th Fi it S l ti S iTh Fi it S l ti S i

Getting the Most out of EPM: What’s on Your Mind?

Finit IntroductionThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Finit Solutions specializes in consulting services in the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management Solutions suite of products:

Financial Consolidation– Financial Management (HFM)

Hyperion Enterprise

Planning and Business Intelligence– Planning

Essbase– Hyperion Enterprise– Financial Close Management– Disclosure Management

– Essbase– Profitability & Cost Management

(HPCM)

Integration– Financial Data Quality Management

(FDM)

Reporting Tools– Financial Reporting– Smartview( )

– Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)– Enterprise Performance

Management Architect (EPMA)

– OBIEE– Web Analysis– Essbase Excel Add‐in

www.finitsolutions.com‐ 2 ‐

– Other (ERPi, EIS, etc)



We take client service very seriously. The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

…our applications are now running better and faster which has returned some of our

There is no question that FINIT solutions have provided value to our IS staff and internal customers;

Finit has brought the in‐depth know how that would take us years to gain. They have the

personal lives to us.our IS staff and internal customers;when our staff and customers are happy, all aspects of our jobs improve. Your success was mine as my

recommendation to use Finit

y g yability to help cut through the "red‐tape“ …. saving me time and effort.

I can expect some kind of response back within the same day. We don't have the Finance

The new implementation has helped us replace so many manual systems and steps that were not only cumbersome but error prone

reflected well on my knowledge and judgment.Over the years I have learned so much from Finit such as custom have the Finance

group complaining about our Hyperion support anymore.

only cumbersome but error prone as well. This has resulted in huge saving of time and increased efficiencies.

scripting, Logic groups, switch and conditional mapping. You make me look brilliant!

The project to implement an automated constant currency calculation saved 28 working days a year and much of that time was spent working in the off hours. Having that free time in the evenings has

After spending an extended period of time with Finit, it helped me to develop my skill set with HFM, therefore

... our monthly closing is quite a bit less harried.


been a huge benefit now that we have 2 small children.

allowing my role in the company to expand.



Some Finit ClientsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

•




About the ModeratorThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Ed DeLise• VP Sales• With Finit since 2006• In the Hyperion World for 11

years (Hyperion / UpStream)• Bachelor’s degree in Finance

Accounting (Passed the CPAAccounting (Passed the CPA Exam ‐ keep that quiet though)

• Expecting #8 any day




About the PanelThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Greg BarrettDirector of Finit Data Integrations Product Line• 8+ years experience with Hyperion

Jay Hampton8+ years experience with Hyperion

• 6+ years as a consultant with Finit Solutions

• HFM Certified• Involved in 40+ FDM Projects

Finit Partner• 7+ years as a consultant / partner with

Finit Solutions• 7+ years experience with Hyperion

Involved in 40+ FDM Projects• HFM Certified• Involved in 40+ EPM ProjectsCindy Eichner

Director of Essbase / Planning Practice• 15+ years experience with Hyperion

Rob Cybulski

Scott Sawers

• 2+ years as a consultant with Finit Solutions• Essbase & Planning Certified• Involved in 50+ EPM Products

Rob CybulskiFinit Co‐Founder & President• 12 years experience with Hyperion• HFM Certified

Director of HFM Practice• 7+ years experience with Hyperion• 6+ years as a consultant with Finit Solutions• HFM Certified

• Involved with beta testing / product strategy for FDM / HFM


• Involved in 20+ HFM Projects



How to Ask a QuestionThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series




AGENDAThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

HFM / Planning HFM Eliminations C h Fl Cash Flow USD Overrides CTA Dynamic Accounts A li ti Si Application Size Extended Analytics SmartView Timeout Logging Off Users Logging Off Users Entity Hierarchies HFM / Planning Eliminations Logs

FDM FDM Log Files – HFM / FDM Location Folders Table Editor


Workbench Error Message

What’s on Your Mind?

HFMScott Sawers

HFM Eliminations C h Fl Cash Flow USD Overrides CTA




HFM - EliminationsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

We are going to be upgrading

at o s

We are going to be upgrading from Enterprise to HFM. How exactly do eliminations take yplace in HFM and where is the data stored? If you could help

h h d llus with that and an overall description of how the eliminations take place in HFMeliminations take place in HFM that would be great.

Scott Sawers


Scott Sawers



HFM - EliminationsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

at o s

Scott Sawers


Scott Sawers



HFM – Cash FlowThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Cas o

We’re interested in understanding how Cash Flows are handled in HFM.

Scott Sawers


Scott Sawers



HFM – USD OverridesThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

US O e des

Is there a “best practice” inIs there a best practice in terms of the easiest/best way to handle USD overrides into handle USD overrides in HFM?

Scott Sawers


Scott Sawers



HFM – CTAThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

C

How are Currency TranslationHow are Currency Translation Adjustments (CTA) captured in HFM?HFM?

Scott Sawers


Scott Sawers


HFMJay Hampton

Dynamic AccountsDynamic Accounts Application Size Extended Analytics




HFM – Dynamic AccountsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

From what I understand accounts with

y a c ccou ts

From what I understand accounts with attribute of dynamic are not stored in the database, but rather they are calculated on the fly. I have found that if you lock a

i d d th dd d i tperiod and then add new dynamic accounts then those accounts will not calculate until you unlock the period and run a calculation. If dynamic accounts are not ystored in the database why do you have to unlock the database since nothing is written back to the database. Or is there something actually written back to the database?actually written back to the database?

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton




I did confirm that Dynamic Accounts are NOT stored in the database even when data is locked

y a c ccou ts

stored in the database even when data is locked.

I also saw different behavior in locked cells in th t th d i t DID h ft Ithat the dynamic account DID change after I changed the rule even though they were locked.

Per the user’s question, this is the behavior I would expect to see since Dynamic accounts are calculated on the fly. We’ll follow up with the

t if h ’ i thi diff tuser to see if he’s seeing something different.

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton



HFM – Dynamic Accounts The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

If h i ti d i

HFM Dynamic Accounts

If you have existing dynamic accounts and then change the f l d d tformula, do you need to unlock periods to get the new l i th t?value in the account?

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton




No. Dynamic accounts are calculated every time you open a data grid / report / smartview sheet

y a c ccou ts

you open a data grid / report / smartview sheet with them in it, even if the entity you are looking at is locked or if the account is new and was not present when you locked the entity initially.present when you locked the entity initially. There is no need to unlock entities to get the dynamic account to calculate.

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton




Since dynamic accounts are

y a c ccou ts

Since dynamic accounts are calculated on the fly whenever we use the dynamic account in a id S i hgrid, report or Smartview then

we must be taking a performance hit. If this is true, p ,are there some guidelines or thresholds on the number of dynamic accounts to have indynamic accounts to have in your application?

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton




You are correct that Dynamic accounts are calculated on the fly every time they are requested in a Data Grid, Smartview

y a c ccou ts

y y y qsheet or report but we are not aware of any recommended guidelines for how many to have in an application. Typically most clients don’t have more than 10‐50 dynamic accounts. In addition, I’ve never heard of a client having too many g ydynamic accounts in their application.

Regardless of the number of dynamic accounts you have, the rule logic itself is probably a bigger area of concern if you’rerule logic itself is probably a bigger area of concern if you re seeing slow performance not necessarily the number of rules.

You could have 1 dynamic account but if the rule is inefficient and poorly written it could have performance impacts on the rest of the application.

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton



HFM – Application Size The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

D h tilit / i t

HFM Application Size

Do we have any utility /script to find size of each HFM

li ti i T bl ?application in a Tablespace? We have multiple HFM

li ti i TS d ldapplication in TS and would like to find size of each app.

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton



HFM – Application SizeThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

All HFM tables, regardless of how many applications you have are stored in one database / schema.

pp cat o S e

There’s no utility but several clients have run queries to count the tables associate with one prefix.

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton



HFM – Extended AnalyticsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

U f E t d d

te ded a yt cs

Use of Extended Analytics. How many

i thi ? Wh tcompanies use this? What are some of the main reasons

ld E t d dyou would use Extended Analytics?

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton



HFM – Extended AnalyticsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

More and more clients are using Extended Analytics for a multitude of uses: additional data warehouses, other

te ded a yt cs

Hyperion products, adhoc analysis, data backups, etc.

Jay Hampton


Jay Hampton


/ l iHFM / PlanningRob Cybulski

SmartView Timeout Logging Off Users Entity Hierarchies HFM / Planning Eliminations




HFM – SmartView The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

We use Smartview formula driven spreadsheets

HFM SmartView

We use Smartview formula driven spreadsheets (not ad hoc) quite a bit and sometimes have to send to non‐HFM co‐workers. When they open the spreadsheet they cannot see the numbers because they do not have Smartview. Doing abecause they do not have Smartview. Doing a Copy‐Paste Value can be time consuming when you want to preserve the other formulas in the spreadsheet. We tried saving with Manual Calculation but if the recipient has a spreadsheetCalculation but if the recipient has a spreadsheet open with Auto Calculation then our Smartviewinherits the Auto Calculation and the numbers will show error. Submitted question to Oracle but they had no solution. Is there a way we canbut they had no solution. Is there a way we can share Smartview spreadsheets with non‐HFM co‐workers?

Rob Cybulski


Rob Cybulski



HFM – SmartViewThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

S a t e

Rob Cybulski


Rob Cybulski



HFM – TimeoutThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Is there somewhere on the application or

eout

Is there somewhere on the application or web server or within HFM itself where I can adjust the timeout length for the applications? I found and adjusted the ti t f th W k d th ttimeout for the Workspace and that worked. I attempted to adjust the timeout of the applications via the deployment metadata – LWA – hfm@server_port –_pFinancial Management WebApp@server_port – Properties (I changed the timeout setting to 3600)…

Rob Cybulski


Rob Cybulski



HFM – TimeOutThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

eOut

Rob Cybulski


Rob Cybulski



HFM – TimeoutThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

In our HFM 11 1 2 1 when we

eout

In our HFM 11.1.2.1, when we logoff all users, they all still appear (for at least 10‐15 i ) E f l ffminutes). Even after you log off

and back in, it still shows all user sessions active, even though , gthey are really logged off. We run HFM on 2 servers and we have 3 different servers whichhave 3 different servers which are our HFM app servers.

Rob Cybulski


Rob Cybulski



HFM – TimeOutThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

eOut

Patch Set update 102 for HFM (11 1 2 1 102)(11.1.2.1.102)

Rob Cybulski


Rob Cybulski



HFM – Entity HierarchiesThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Entity Hierarchy Question: For

t ty e a c es

Entity Hierarchy Question: For USD companies, do you recommend that the main hi h i ONLY USDhierarchy contain ONLY USD parents? Makes it easier for USD historical overrides and for getting elimination data in USD, but is that a reason to NEVER have non‐USD parents in thehave non‐USD parents in the main HFM entity hierarchy?

Rob Cybulski


Rob Cybulski



HFM / Planning – EliminationsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Do customers usually perform eliminations on Hyperion Planning or do they use HFM for planning eliminations? Best practices (especially

/ a g at o s

planning eliminations? Best practices (especially if there are many elimination locations and many groups of elimination accounts)? If you need to feed HFM elimination data to Planning, what tools do you use and do you get goodtools do you use and do you get good performance from them? How do you feed the plan to HFM? What tools and do you get good performance? Do you redo eliminations or send them? How do customers usually present HFMthem? How do customers usually present HFM and Planning data in Essbase? Do they move items such as eliminations into Essbase children so the footing is easier to follow, do they educate their users in the complexity or don’t they care?their users in the complexity or don t they care? Do they load parent members?

Rob Cybulski


Rob Cybulski


l iPlanningCindy Eichner

Logs Logs




Planning – LogsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

• From Admin perspective : Can there be a log created for the EAS(backend) as currently we

ld t k h h d d t /

a g ogs

would not know who has done any updates / changes etc? By creating a log we can make out as who has made any updates / changes?

• From End user perspective : Currently for eg : if two users have access to the same set of cost centers , we cannot know who has updated last in a particular cost center. Therefore can we have a log kind of thing wherein the admins can check as to who had updated the particular cost center?updated the particular cost center?

Cindy Eichner


Cindy Eichner


FDMGreg Barrett

Location Folders Table Editor Workbench Error Message




HFM / FDM – Log FilesThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

/ og es

With regards to log files, can you tell me the location of the maintell me the location of the main HFM and FDM log files that should be regularly backed up/kept to a reasonable size? If you delete these files will HFM/FDM t ti ll t ?automatically recreate a new one?

Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett



HFM / FDM – Log FilesThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

FDM logs all imports, exports, and errors in separate files in the Outbox and Outbox/Logs folders. FDM also logs all key

/ og es

g g yevents to the FDM Database so they can reported on and audited. If you do delete or just move the log files FDM create new ones. Our best recommendation is to use Finit’sCustom FDM Clean‐up tool which cycles through all the data p y gand log files and archives the ones that are a prior to a date of your choosing. That way, you still have them, but they can stored in a separate directory so that Outbox and Log folders are not so cluttered.

HFM is similar as it logs activity in both the database, viewable through the web application, as well as in text files on the HFM application servers (HSVEventLog) Both theon the HFM application servers (HSVEventLog). Both the database logs and text file logs can be deleted without fear of breaking anything as they will both continue to be generated even if prior logs have been deleted. Every client has different policies regarding retention times

Greg BarrettJay Hampton


different policies regarding retention times.Jay Hampton



FDM – Location FoldersThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

My FDM Excel Journal Files are

ocat o o de s

not getting stored in the FDM Location Folders and the same thing is true for my Batch Loader files – they are only in the Batch Folders – not the Location Folders. Is this normal or is there a setting I can change?Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett



FDM – Location FoldersThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

ocat o o de s

Yes – this is normal and there is no setting to change. ONLY g gFiles that are loaded manually through the Import Screen will g pget stored in the specific FDM Location folders.

Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett



FDM – Table EditorThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

ab e d to

We recently upgraded to FDM 11 and our Table Editor Option has disappeared; how can we can this back?

Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett



FDM – Table EditorThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Thru version 11.1.1.3 you can still access the Table Editor by logging into FDM, opening a 2nd

ab e d to

Table Editor by logging into FDM, opening a 2IE browser for FDM and typing the regular FDM Address, but replacing “Main” with “TableEditor”. So the web address would be:h //FDMS /H i FDMhttp://FDMServer/HyperionFDM /Pages/Main.aspxvs. http://FDMServer/HyperionFDMhttp://FDMServer/HyperionFDM /Pages/TableEditor.aspx

In version 11 1 2 and on Table Editor Access isIn version 11.1.2 and on, Table Editor Access is now fully restricted.

Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett



FDM – Workbench Error MessageThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Wh I i W kb h th

o be c o essage

When I am in Workbench on the FDM Server I often get a Run Time Error ‘91’: Object VariableTime Error 91 : Object Variable or With Block Variable not set for some of the tasks inside thefor some of the tasks inside the Workbench. Do you know what might cause this or how to dealmight cause this or how to deal with it?

Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett



FDM – Workbench Error MessageThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

This is a ‘rights’ issue. Since the Workbench is a Windows Client it

o be c o essage

Workbench is a Windows Client it actually checks the ‘rights’ of the ID that logged onto the server to see if they have ‘rights’ to the FDM Folders,they have rights to the FDM Folders, not the rights of the ID that is logging into Workbench. If they do not have rights to the folders, you will get error. So you could even be a full Admin and FDM and get this error. Recommendation would be to h IT i th i ht f IDhave IT review the rights of your ID or have you log on with an ID that does have full Folder rights.

Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett



Finit ContactsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

[email protected]

Questions?‐> Ed [email protected]

Email us for a

f678.296.3611‐>Joe [email protected]

copy of the slides or

link to the recording

j @f919.349.5029

More EPM Questions?link to the recording. More EPM [email protected]


finit solutions whats on your mind october 2011

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