Oracle EPM: Hierarchy Calculations

Most implementations have some statistical calculations, particularly with accounts. There are multiple levels of calculation complexity. Member formulas is usually the go-to place to write these; however, for simple calculations, there's another option. And it has a benefit that member formulas don't have!

Create an alternate hierarchy with the parent member representing the result and the children representing the inputs. Then use the consolidation operator to add/subtract/multiply/divide or calculate a percentage. In the below example, FCCS_Gross Profit is being divided by FCCS_Gross Sales to calculate a gross margin percentage. And with the percentage option there is no need to multiply the results by 100.

If the calculation needs parentheses, then create a mid level parent to represent that part of the formula.

Now, the benefit. A user can view the result on a report, data grid, etc. and then drill down into it to see the components. The result member is just a parent member, after all. So that's helpful.

Applying the Most Basic IT Concept to Oracle EPM Cloud: Reset Service

There are different reasons why I write blog posts. Sometimes to illustrate something or to talk about the merits of attending Kscope23. You will be going to Denver, CO, USA this June, correct? If you haven't registered, may I suggest going to https://kscope23.odtug.com/ and checking it out.

This one is a reminder that no matter how impossible something seems, there might be the easiest fix for it.

Another consultant reached out with the following problem: an admin user who is properly provisioned with the service administrator role logs into an environment and doesn't see the admin cards on the home screen. My response was maybe the navigation flow has been customized or maybe the admin is logging in with a native ID instead of the SSO ID or along those lines. Both of which I've seen. They got back to me with a simple answer: they reset the service and everything is fine.

Resetting the service is like rebooting a computer. You flip the switch off and on, wait a few minutes, and see if the problem clears up. The thing is, how do you reboot an Oracle EPM Cloud environment? You really can't go to the nearest Oracle data center and start flipping power switches (at least I hope not!). Fortunately, Oracle provided a way to do it: EPM Automate.

Here are the two (well, three steps needed). Either with a command line or a batch script, log into the environment, run the reset service command, wait, and then log out.

AutoTune optimizes the database (use for Planning, FCC, and Tax Provision only) and -f skips the confirmation step. Here's the doc link on how to use the resetservice function.

https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/enterprise-performance-management-common/cepma/epm_auto_reset_service.html

Resetting the service can also be useful when reports don't run, data forms don't open, or just something seems off. I have reset a service for all of these reasons.

When in doubt about something not working right (or before trying to resolve seemingly impossible problems), reset. It works for personal computers; it works for Oracle EPM Cloud.