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, 2011
Ed DeLise ModeratorEd DeLise – Moderator
edelise@finitsolutions.com
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 Introduction The 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
‐ 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 y
ability 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.
‐ 3 ‐
been a huge benefit now that we have 2 small
children.
allowing my role in the
company to expand.

Some Finit Clients The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
•
‐ 4 ‐

About the Moderator The 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
‐ 5 ‐

About the Panel The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
Greg Barrett
Director of Finit Data Integrations Product Line
• 8+ years experience with Hyperion
Jay Hampton
8+ 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
Involved in 40+ FDM Projects
• HFM Certified
• Involved in 40+ EPM ProjectsCindy Eichner
Director of Essbase / Planning Practice
Rob Cybulski
Scott Sawers
• 2+ years as a consultant with Finit Solutions
• Essbase & Planning Certified
• Involved in 50+ EPM Products
Rob Cybulski
Finit Co‐Founder & President
• 12 years experience with Hyperion
• HFM Certified
Director of HFM Practice
• 6+ years as a consultant with Finit Solutions
• HFM Certified
• Involved with beta testing /
product strategy for FDM / HFM
‐ 6 ‐
• Involved in 20+ HFM Projects

How to Ask a Question The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
‐ 7 ‐

AGENDA The 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
‐ 8 ‐
 Workbench Error Message

What’s on Your Mind?
HFM
Scott Sawers
 HFM Eliminations
 C h Fl Cash Flow
 USD Overrides
 CTA

HFM - Eliminations The 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 y
place 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
‐ 10 ‐
Scott Sawers

HFM - Eliminations The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
at o s
Scott Sawers
‐ 11 ‐
Scott Sawers

HFM – Cash Flow The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
Cas o
We’re interested in
understanding how Cash
Flows are handled in HFM.
Scott Sawers
‐ 12 ‐
Scott Sawers

HFM – USD Overrides The 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
‐ 13 ‐
Scott Sawers

HFM – CTA The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
C
How are Currency TranslationHow are Currency Translation
Adjustments (CTA) captured in
HFM?HFM?
Scott Sawers
‐ 14 ‐
Scott Sawers

HFM
Jay Hampton
 Dynamic AccountsDynamic Accounts
 Application Size
 Extended Analytics

HFM – Dynamic Accounts The 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 y
stored 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
‐ 16 ‐
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
‐ 17 ‐
Jay Hampton

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
‐ 18 ‐
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
‐ 19 ‐
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
‐ 20 ‐
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 q
sheet 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 y
dynamic 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
‐ 21 ‐
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
‐ 22 ‐
Jay Hampton

HFM – Application Size The 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
‐ 23 ‐
Jay Hampton

HFM – Extended Analytics The 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
‐ 24 ‐
Jay Hampton

HFM – Extended Analytics The 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
‐ 25 ‐
Jay Hampton

/ l iHFM / Planning
Rob 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 Smartview
inherits 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
‐ 27 ‐
Rob Cybulski

HFM – SmartView The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
S a t e
Rob Cybulski
‐ 28 ‐
Rob Cybulski

HFM – Timeout The 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 –_p
Financial Management
WebApp@server_port – Properties (I
changed the timeout setting to 3600)…
Rob Cybulski
‐ 29 ‐
Rob Cybulski

HFM – TimeOut The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
eOut
Rob Cybulski
‐ 30 ‐
Rob Cybulski

HFM – Timeout The 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 , g
they 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
‐ 31 ‐
Rob Cybulski

HFM – TimeOut The 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
‐ 32 ‐
Rob Cybulski

HFM – Entity Hierarchies The 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
‐ 33 ‐
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
‐ 34 ‐
Rob Cybulski

l iPlanning
Cindy Eichner
 Logs Logs

Planning – Logs The 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
‐ 36 ‐
Cindy Eichner

FDM
Greg Barrett
 Location Folders
 Table Editor
 Workbench Error Message

HFM / FDM – Log Files The 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
‐ 38 ‐
Greg Barrett

HFM / FDM – Log Files The 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 y
events 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’s
Custom FDM Clean‐up tool which cycles through all the data p y g
and 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 Barrett
Jay Hampton
‐ 39 ‐
different policies regarding retention times.Jay Hampton

FDM – Location Folders The 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
‐ 40 ‐
Greg Barrett

FDM – Location Folders The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
ocat o o de s
Yes – this is normal and there
is no setting to change. ONLY g g
Files that are loaded manually
through the Import Screen will g p
get stored in the specific FDM
Location folders.
Greg Barrett
‐ 41 ‐
Greg Barrett

FDM – Table Editor The 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
‐ 42 ‐
Greg Barrett

FDM – Table Editor The 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 2
IE 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.aspx
vs.
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
‐ 43 ‐
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
‐ 44 ‐
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
‐ 45 ‐
Greg Barrett

Finit Contacts The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
Questions?
insights@finitsolutions.com
Questions?
‐> Ed DeLise
edelise@finitsolutions.com
Email us for a
f
678.296.3611
‐>Joe Mizerk
jmizerk@finitsolutions.com
copy of the slides or
link to the recording
j @f
919.349.5029
More EPM Questions?link to the recording. More EPM Questions?
ask@finitsolutions.com
‐ 46 ‐

Finit solutions whats on your mind october 2011

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