23.4 Release Notes

With this release, budget managers can open any Dynamic Report they have permission to access from the Budget Manager Experience home page. The home page now has a new Reports tab beside the Planning pane that lists all the reports. Budget managers can click the Reports tab and open the required dynamic report with just a couple of clicks.

To know more about Budget Manager Experience, click here.

With this release, users accessing a structured planning template can view the user history of that template with the new View Contributors feature.

The View Contributors feature displays a list of users who updated the template in the past 30 days with the last updated date. Selecting a user from the list will mark/highlight the cells the user updated in the past 30 days. Anyone accessing the template can view the changes made by the other users and update the data accordingly.

This feature helps you to track the changes made in the template when multiple users work on a template. If there is a mistake in the updated data, you can quickly identify the user who provided the incorrect data and rectify it with them. When used in conjunction with the comments feature, it empowers you to collaborate effectively with other users for planning/budgeting/forecasting within the Planful application.

In-Practice: Accessing View Contributors Planful

1. Navigate to the Planning Control Panel and select a scenario from the Scenario list.
2. Select a Budget entity from the Budget Hierarchy pane. Select the required template from the Template pane.
3. From the right pane, click Input or View under the Template Workflow section in the Actions tab. The selected template data is displayed.
4. Click the View Contributors icon on the top menu bar. The application displays a list of users who updated the template in the past 30 days.
   
5. Clicking on any user will mark the cells they updated in the past 30 days, and the user name appears on the top menu.
   
6. You can right-click on any marked cell and click Show History to view the detailed history of that cell.
7. Click the close icon on the user name to remove the markings.

In-Practice: Accessing View Contributors in Budget Manager Experience:

1. Log in to Budget Manager Experience and open any template from the Planning pane or the Action Items pane.
2. Click the View Contributors icon on the top menu bar. The application displays a list of users who worked on the template in the past 30 days.
   
3. Clicking on any user will mark the cells they updated in the past 30 days, and the user name appears on the top menu.
   
4. You can right-click on any marked cell and click Show History to view the history of that cell.
   
5. Click the close icon on the user name to remove the markings.

To know more about Budget Manager Experience, click here.

With SSO, you can access the Planful Spotlight platform seamlessly using a single login method, instead of using multiple logins for different platforms. Now if you are already logged in to the Dynamic Planning environment or any other Planful environment, you can use the same URL to log in to Planful Spotlight. Similarly, if you are already logged in to Planful Spotlight, you can use the same URL to log in to the Dynamic Planning environment or any other Planful environment.

All users must be unified and authenticated by the same login mechanism to take advantage of SSO in Planful Spotlight. Once unified, you can access all environments without the need for multiple logins.

Previously, users had to provide their credentials each time they logged in to different Dynamic Planning URLs, which could be time-consuming and inconvenient. However, with SSO, you can now seamlessly access all of these environments without visiting a login page for each system and environment. 

With Single Sign-On, users can rest assured that their login credentials are secure, as they are only required to provide them once. This reduces the risk of credentials being compromised or forgotten, allowing users to focus on their work rather than managing multiple login credentials.

The following are some additional points to consider while using the Planful Spotlight for Google Sheets:

• If an inactive user uses an SSO URL to log in to Planful Spotlight for Google Sheets, they will have to contact their Planful administrator.
• If an inactive user logs into Planful Spotlight for Google Sheets using any other Planful environment, they will have to contact their Planful administrator.
• If an inactive user uses a Dynamic Planning URL to log in to Planful Spotlight for Google Sheets, they can sign in to Planful Spotlight for Google Sheets but cannot access the DAP (Direct Acess to PCR) views and reports.

For more information, please refer to the Single Sign-on (SSO) for Planful Spotlight on Google Sheets.

With this release, you can process recurring journals for multiple periods with multiple processing options. Previously, users had to process recurring journals period by period, and this process would only create relevant standard journals. In order to post these standard journals, users had to navigate to the standard journal UI.

Now, you can process one or all recurring journals and create, overwrite, and post standard journals while processing these journals for multiple periods. This enhancement will reduce the clicks involved while processing a recurring journal.

Let’s understand this with an example:

In the Recurring Journal tab, select the Bonus UK journal. So when you click on the process action, the Process Recurring Journals dialog box pops up.

You can now process this journal for multiple periods, for example, Jan23 to March23. Along with the multiple period processing, you can either select Create Standard Journals, Overwrite Standard Journals, and Post Standard Journals processing options or select all.

This process will create relevant standard journals, post those standard journals, and overwrite the standard journals in case they have already been processed but not posted.

In Practice: How to process recurring journals for multiple periods

1. Navigate to Consolidation > Recurring Journals.
2. Select one or all Recurring Journals and click Process.Or
   
3. In the Process Recurring Journals dialog box, select From and To period.
4. Select either one or a combination of these processing options:
   • Create Standard Journals: This option processes recurring journals for a selected period and creates respective Standard Journals.
   • Overwrite Standard Journals: This option processes recurring journals for a selected period and overwrites the standard journals with status not posted.
   • Post Standard Journals: This option posts the standard journals created while processing the recurring journals.
     Or
     
5. Click Process.
6. The ADC task is triggered and you will receive a notification once the processing is complete.

In the Standard Journals screen, you can see standard journals created and posted for the respective period.

Now, you can auto-process recurring journals with multiple processing options for a predefined schedule with a cloud scheduler. This enhancement will reduce manual effort of processing recurring journals and posting standard journals for a predefined schedule. Till now, there was no automatic option to process recurring journals for a predefined schedule.

In Practice: How to schedule recurring journals

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Administration > Cloud Scheduler.
2. Select the Process Flow tab, and click Add.
   
3. In the General Information tab, fill the details for Code, Name, and Email Recipients.
   
4. In the Tasks Tab, click Add Task. A New Task dialog box pops up.
   
5. Select the task type as Recurring Journal and fill up all the details.
6. Select one or a combination of processing options from Create, Overwrite, and Post Standard Journals and select the relevant recurring journal to be processed.
7. Click Save.
8. In the Scheduler tab, define all the fields for the recurring journals you want to process monthly.
   

With this release, the Planful email notifications that users receive for Password Reset, Forgot Password, Account Unlock, New User Registration, or Login Confirmation have been enhanced for security reasons.

Until now, the hyperlinked URL in the email notifications could only be accessed once (single click). However, due to the antivirus programs installed on the users' systems, the URL would be first accessed by the antivirus program to scan for any potential virus before the user clicks on it. This causes the link to expire prematurely before the user can access it. To resolve this issue, we have increased the access permit to three clicks.

In addition, the URL expiration time for Password Reset, Forgot Password, and Account Unlock has been changed to 24 hours. While the expiration time for the email notification for New User Registration and Login Confirmation remains the same (7 days).

With this release, setting up templates is made easier with the Mass Load option now upgraded to Bulk Add. The Budget admin users can now easily set up templates and add multiple template line items in one go - significantly reducing time and effort.

Previously, creating the line items for a GTSC template was a tedious task, as you could select only at the leaf level, and add the required lines in several iterations. But now, using the Bulk Add option, you can conveniently select all the applicable dimensions at the Rollup and the Leaf level, and add the line items effortlessly.

The following is an illustration of the upgraded Bulk Add screen, where you can now select at the Rollup level.

The following is an illustration of the Mass Load screen, where you could select multiple accounts and the other dimensions only at the Leaf level.

Now let’s see the use case of how the Bulk Add option helps you in setting up templates.

Use case

The Bulk Add option helps the budget admins to manage and update the GTSC templates for their region, making it easier and more efficient.

Let’s understand this with an example:

George, a budget admin for the North American region in a multinational company has to manage and update the template for his region to reflect the latest business needs.

To do this, the Bulk Add option allows him to select multiple rollup/leaf combinations for all applicable dimensions, instead of adding one row at a time. All George needs to do now is to select the required segment members from the respective tabs of the Bulk Add screen.

Once he completes the selection and clicks the Add button, the GTSC template displays all the rows added based on the rollup/leaf combinations selected by George as shown below: