1. OUGF - Hyperion tips and tricks Prepared by: Aki Moilanen Oracle Hyperion consulting - Finland 13th May 2009 Note: Some items not applicable for ”pre 9.3” versions Note: Some items not applicable for ”pre 9.3” versions

2. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential Content 1.Miscellaneous tips & tricks for Financial Reports, Shared Services, Workspace 2.Smart View as efficient tool for both administrators and end users 3.HFM logs – a key thing for all administrators / consultants to know of 4.Extracting data from HFM – what are my options ? 5.Web data entry forms, how to build – what can be done ? 6.How to efficiently check effects of your application changes ? 7.From where to get more information ? Round table material (or if time, in main presentation) 8.Metadata/rules/member list handling in HFM – classic mode 9.What your HFM rules are doing “behind the scenes” ? 10.Keeping maintenance break in HFM 11.Miscellaneous HFM tips Note: Some items not applicable for ”pre 9.3” versions

3. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …1. Miscellaneous tips & tricks for Financial Reports, Shared Services, Workspace Workspace Sending links -Recipients must be defined as a user with a Workspace user name and password to open the linked item in a Web browser -You must select and send e-mail links one item at a time.

4. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 1.Miscellaneous tips & tricks for Financial Reports, Shared Services, Workspace Financial reports custom links (from OpenWorld 2008) Financial Reports facilitate user defined links -Customization can provide POV (Point of View) context sensitive links Examples include -Links to FM Web Data Entry forms -Links to FM Entity Details screens Web Data Entry form links allow retrieval of -Data entry forms required for correction of Validation errors -Data entry forms providing cell text entry for commentary -Data entry forms providing drill-back to FDM source data Entity Details links provide “drill through” to the source journals for adjustment details

5. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 1.Miscellaneous tips & tricks for Financial Reports, Shared Services, Workspace …Financial reports custom links (from OpenWorld 2008) Links include “hard-coded” server, cluster and application references http://demodrive:19000/hfm/DocMgr/OpenItemDirect3.asp?workspace=false &app=TOTCONSOL&cluster=DEMODRIVE&lngid=0&Name=Commentary &Path=analysis&DocumentType=3&DocumentFileType=3&sso_token=$SSO_TOKEN$& $CONTEXT$ Therefore, if reports containing these links are migrated from one application to another or from one environment to another, the links must be changed manually

6. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …1. Miscellaneous tips & tricks for Financial Reports, Shared Services, Workspace Workspace – personal pages or HTML Publish new Personal Pages or replace published Personal Pages using the content of your Personal Page. Publishing a Personal Page enables other users to copy it. Or you can have a link to HTML page where you store instructions etc.

7. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …1. Miscellaneous tips & tricks for Financial Reports, Shared Services, Workspace Shared Services If you need to do a lot of changes in Shared Services (security) and/or back up your Shared Services to yourself (always also have server level backups !) -Consider HSSImportExport utility -With that you can export and import.csv format files to HSS

8. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …1. Miscellaneous tips & tricks for Financial Reports, Shared Services, Workspace Shared Services If you need to clean application from provisioning => you can use de-provisioning (CONSIDER BACKUPS FIRST )! HFM: Together with security class “None” load (load None to all existing records in HFM sec class access) this is a good way to ensure that only latest security relies

9. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 2.Smart View as efficient tool for both administrators and end users Excel ad hoc grids -You can type in dimension members (1) -In “active” grid you can also use member selection (2) and e.g. utilize member lists (system and your own…) -You can: copy paste columns/rows, delete rows/columns with Excel std functions or with Smart View buttons etc. etc. 1 2

10. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …2.Smart View as efficient tool for both administrators and end users In grids you can drill down and up easily and choose also to what level to drill down - among with many other options (1) -You can drill down and up: in example account 300000 was drilled to (2) And you can set multiple options (2), like -Zoom in method -Indentation -Suppression (more items in Display tab!) 2 1

11. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …2.Smart View as efficient tool for both administrators and end users In grids you can also calculate, consolidate and translate -Note though that consolidation status window is not provided in Excel ! (you can see the status of consolidation from running tasks in HFM web also for consolidations started in Smart View)

12. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …2.Smart View as efficient tool for both administrators and end users Copy data point -To present data, Word or PowerPoint is often preferable to Excel. Smart View enables you to copy data points from Excel and paste them into Word or PowerPoint, creating linked views (dynamic data) between applications. -Simply copy data point in source (1) and paste it to target (2) 1 2

13. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …2.Smart View as efficient tool for both administrators and end users …Copy data point -Especially in MS Word you can highly benefit from data points – simply refresh from Hyperion menu to get latest data (1) -You can edit POV (2) -and the formula also (by right clicking and choosing toggle field codes) (3) 1 2 3

14. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …2. Smart View as efficient tool for both administrators and end users VBA with Smart View -Smart View enables you to customize and automate common tasks by using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) functions. Think about possibility to make e.g. consolidation grids with macros !

15. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 3.HFM logs – a key thing for all administrators / consultants to know off LogAlways On ? FileDBComment Task AuditYes  Who did and what task ?  When it was started / ended ? System MessagesYes  Error messages  Warnings  Information messages Data auditYes  Data audit log, who stored what data and when  If turned on => cleaning/archiving has to be taken care of ! ALL (THESE) LOGS HAVE TO BE REGULARLY ARCHIVED/CLEANED !

16. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …3.HFM logs – a key thing for all administrators / consultants to know off Remember to clean all of these reqularly ! It is a good idea to check system messages reqularly during reporting (to find out if any problematic items) In next 2 pages Task audit and System Messages explained in more details

17. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …3.HFM logs – a key thing for all administrators / consultants to know off Task audit You can export this file to CSV => then you can e.g. in Microsoft Excel - statistics of how long each task has taken (checking performance on system) - statictics of actions per user (to e.g. Instruct users doing large number of calculations) - statictics of who have used system (to identify ”idle” user accounts) -... You can do so much with just a couple of pivots etc !

18. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …3.HFM logs – a key thing for all administrators / consultants to know off System messages You can check these 1) From web or 2) by using a utility called HFMErrorLogViewer - Available in installation package (most likely you can find it from your application server) 1 2

19. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 4.Extracting data from HFM – what are my options ? As quite many of you have asked this… OptionComments Data Extract from HFM  good for additional backups (not to replace DB backups though !)  for moving data between applications  for checking rules etc. Note: Only does support e.g. in value dimension and part of custom dimensions Extended Analytics from HFM  The only ”standard” way to get e.g. All custom dimension levels out from HFM  Consider performance ! (idea is not to export everything, but more like quite limited part of data for e.g. reporting outside Oracle Hyperion)  Needs preparations before can be done Report / Smart View / (forms)  Mainly for analysis purposes with limited amount of data at once “on the screen” (slow/complicated for large amounts of data retrieved at once) Other options  WriteToFile with rule => slow and complicated to build up (NOT RECOMMENDED)  Data directly from DB => Difficult/only part of data (NOT RECOMMENDED)

20. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 5.Web Data entry forms - how to build, what can be done Consider building in Excel as an option to Web (both end up to same) !

21. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential...5.Web Data entry forms - how to build, what can be done You can do (highly) formatted forms (more examples in next pages) Have comment columns/rows and line items, etc…

22. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential...5.Web Data entry forms - how to build, what can be done (more from Oow2008 material) You can insert graphic, such as icons below, like example (pm_fail.gif) Style:background:url(../images/pm_fail.gif) no-repeat; background-position:center You can insert these to row headers (1), cells etc. CustomHeaderStyle:border: ;color: black ;background:url(../images/docdata-entry.gif) no-repeat; background-position:Right;background-color: #cbdae7 To Indent -Text:indent: 8; 1 1 Note: before doing advanced formatting – check that forms work properly with formatting you plan to use (with browser versions used in your company) ! And remember always to consider performance when building forms ! Note: before doing advanced formatting – check that forms work properly with formatting you plan to use (with browser versions used in your company) ! And remember always to consider performance when building forms ! Possibilities for formatting are very wide... You can also wrap headers etc. etc.

23. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential...5.Web Data entry forms - how to build, what can be done Linked forms Use this option to specify a link to another data form. Use with Link. Links are references in row definitions. You can specify up to 64 links (Link1 - Link64). Links do not need to be numbered sequentially. Example R1=A#Salaries, Cell_Link1 Link1=Dynamic Addmember (NOTE: you can choose what member list is available for users – instead of [Base] e.g. do your own ACTIVEICP list for intercompany entries etc.) Use this option within a Row definition to add an icon to the form which, when clicked, enables users to select members to add to the form. The new members are added to the form and the user can then enter data for these members. You can use the AddMember option with the Account, ICP, and Custom1 through Custom4 dimensions.

24. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 6. How to efficiently check effects of your application changes ? Use Excel and Smart View to create pre and post comparisons -Sheet or column(s) where you store as values all key accounts/entities/other dimension combinations before changes (a) -Sheet or column(s) where you have same information coming with HsGetValue formulas (b) -Sheet or column(s) where you compare “a” and “b” For more detailed analysis you can extract data from application before and after (limitation is that only supported)

25. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 7.From where to get more information ? - HFM (and other Hyperion) information Discussion groups (a very good way to learn/get advices) Oracle consolidation group (no membership required) http://www.oracle.com => in main page, resources: discussion forums YAHOO HFM group (requires membership) http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hsfm/ Oracle Hyperion documentation library Version 9.2.1http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12032_01/welcome.html Version 9.3.1http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E10530_01/doc/nav/portal_1.htm Version 11.1http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12825_01/index.htm

26. OUGF - Hyperion tips and tricks round table part Prepared by: Aki Moilanen Oracle Hyperion consulting - Finland 10th May 2009 Note: Some items not applicable for ”pre 9.3” versions Note: Some items not applicable for ”pre 9.3” versions

27. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 8.Metadata/rules/member list handling in HFM – classic mode Often load of metadata fails because of forbidden characters in metadata (e.g. in member or description fields) If error message is not telling exact item => check your metadata/member list rule file section by section to identify false items (use “playground” application where nothing important is existing)  Metadata: if you don’t know which dimension has problems => load to test application with merge dimension by dimension until you find the problematic dimension  Metadata: then if possible take lines away from.app file for that section and try reloading to identify problematic line(s) in.app file Consider using Microsoft Word “compare and merge documents” or similar tool to find out changed items especially for rules and member lists -this is a excellent way to confirm changes between situation A and B (e.g. Q2 2009 application vs. Q3 2009 application) -also possible for metadata, especially in.app format

28. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 9. What your HFM rules are doing “behind the scenes” ? - note ! In chapter 2 you would not perhaps see these Extract e.g. 10 base entities and some parent entities with extract data -Select good representatives (e.g. large entities from different BAs if BA-specific rules) -Set extract to include “Calculated data” -Only typically need to extract base accounts (as their reveal rule “errors”) -You can start with one period/year and then check more…  look for e.g. following items -Zeroes (especially for a lot of those), same number repeated multiple times… -Changes in lines where you did not anticipate changes (depending on personal preferences:  use “Compare and merge documents”  Or e.g. Microsoft Access / Microsoft Excel to compare lines Create (Excel) grid where you look for values per value dimensions etc. WriteToFile is a key to find out multiple things -In which value dimension members calculations do happen ? -What is the source account value just before calculation (calculation order) ? -In which section of rules entity does “visit” -Timing of different rules sections (calculate, consolidate, translate…)

29. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …9.What your HFM rules are doing “behind the scenes” ? - WriteToFile – short version 1 2

30. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential …9.What your HFM rules are doing “behind the scenes” ? - WriteToFile – timing your rules 1 2 First you store info (1) -Note: you can do this in calculate, translate etc. And then you write info to file (2) -Note BDebugcalc variable to control writing to file DO NOT USE WRITETOFILE IN PRODUCTION (MENT FOR DEBUGGING IN TEST/DEV!) CHECK THAT WRITETOFILE LOG IS NOT CREATED IN PRODUCTION SERVER(S) !!!

31. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 10. Keeping maintenance break in HFM Consider setting admin group to HFM application server(s) – see HFM manuals for more info -Note: provision some role to defined admin groups for all applications Sample of maintenance break steps 1.15 minutes before break - prevent new users from getting into the HFM (see HFM admin guide) 2.Notify users that are using the system that they have 10 minutes to exit 3.utilize e.g. task audit and users in the system functions in HFM 4.e-mail is often good way to notify users 5.Throw out users from system who haven’t logged out in 10 minute time frame 6.Take data backup (file out) 7.Do maintenance (load files in) 8.Test system briefly (e.g. small consolidation) 9.Let users in 10.Notify users that HFM can be used again 11.Monitor system behavior for some time (e.g. 30 minutes)

32. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential 11. Miscellaneous HFM tips You can copy paste HFM system reports (e.g. matching and Journal Reports) to Microsoft Excel by simply 1)Activating window by clicking it 2)Pressing CTRL+A to select all (or doing the same from mouse right click menu) 3)Pressing CTRL+C to copy content to clipboard (“”) 4)Choose empty Excel sheet and Press CTRL+V (or other option from Excel to paste clipboard content) If you use standard consolidation rules - consider application setting “Consolidation Rules” to be set to R (instead of N) => “hard-coding” some of the value dimension members Consider task automation e.g. for repeated consolidations and data extracts (but check performance and stability before “taking into production” !)

33. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential...11. Miscellaneous HFM tips If you use process control - Locking is not “mandatory” to protect data from changes -“Review level 9”-approach a equivalent option (you can give review level 9 access to only e.g. administrators) -In addition to “review level 9” you can do noinput rules for all previous periods (only few lines of code and rapid to cache) No need for unlocking/locking when needing to apply application changes You can make partly “dynamic” noinput-rules with HsGetCell and flag accounts (from OpenWorld 2008) -Use HsGetCell to read from flag accounts whether to turn certain noinput-rule on or not for certain POV -Still you need to get HsvDataSource-process to “restart” (all users need to log out), but you don’t need to load rules (no OK SC situation)

34. © 2009 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential...11. Miscellaneous HFM tips Extract ”parent – descendant” relationships for e.g. security use