Spring 17 Release Notes

Known and Resolved Issues

Known application issues we are working to resolve, as well as any resolved issues for this release, can be found in the Host Analytics Support Portal, located at hostanalyticsinc.zendesk.com/home.

Support Portal Access

User authentication is required to access the Support Portal. To access the Support Portal directly, setup a password which will work with the email address you use to access your Host Analytics application as follows: 

1. Navigate to https://hostanalyticsinc.zendesk.com/access/help.

2. Enter the email address you use to sign into your Host Analytics application.

3. Open your email client and locate the email titled, "Host Analytics, Inc. password reset" and follow the instructions in the email.

Deprecated Items

An ongoing list of product features, components, and functionality which Host Analytics is planning to remove in future releases can be found in the Knowledge Base. Refer to the FAQs document for detailed information.

Report Books Deprecation

Report Books are deprecated as of this release. Subsequently, Report Books have been removed from the File Cabinet and search functionality, and you can no longer view Report Books in Favorites, Usage Reports, or Report Access with in your application.

Contact Support for detailed information.

UI Updates

The following changes have been made to the UI for this release.

Consolidation Icon

The Consolidation module icon has been changed to make it more distinguishable from the other module icons, and to serve as a better metaphorical representation of Consolidation activities.

Hierarchy Management Icons

Icon indicators for hierarchy management rollup operators are now shown in the viewing pane.

Refer to the System Icons topic for more information and images.

Features and Enhancements

Cross Browser Updates

With this release, the following remaining outstanding features and templates are now enabled, with the user interface, for use across all modern browsers:

• Initiatives Template

• Template Based HR

Dynamic Report Sets

With this release, Dynamic Report Sets are now enabled with a user interface across all the modern browsers. Now, the UI for Overview/General information, Single and Advanced Rule is common for both Static and Dynamic Report Sets.

Highlights of this change include: 

• Single Rule functionality captures Rule Definition, Description, Hierarchy Selection Option and Suppress Level Spacing, for the Dynamic Report Set;

• Advanced Rules can be built using multiple dimensions.

• Description text area can be used to enter additional notes or information regarding the Rule.

New UI, Add New Dynamic Report Set

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Options for Rule Types

The Option pull-down menu can be used to add the following to all Rule types (Single or Multiple Dimension, or Advanced Rules):

• Selected (default)—Members in the tree, as selected by user

• Children—Immediate children of members, as selected by user

• Selected + Children—Selected members, and their immediate children

• Selected + All Children—Selected members, and all levels of children under them

• Leaves—Leaf members at all levels under the selected members

• Selected + Leaves—Selected members, and their leaf members, at all levels

• Selected + Parents—Selected members, and their immediate parents

• Exclude Selected—All members in the tree, excluding those selected

Preview

When this option is selected based on the Rule definition, all the members are listed down in a grid. Members are displayed with/without indents based on the status of Suppress Line Spacing.

Save As Static Report

This feature allows to save the result set of Dynamic Report Set Rule as lines in a Static Report Set and apply formatting on them.

A few IE 11 Compatibility/Modern browser notes: All existing Report Sets that are created using IE 11 Compatibility On open in Advanced Rule by default and are editable. If Dynamic Report Set is saved as static from modern browser, Static report set Version in the File Cabinet is set to New. If Dynamic Report Set is saved as static from IE Comp ON, static report set version is set to 'Old'.

The following also occurs: 

• Code, Name, File Cabinet Folder are captured for the Static Report Set.

• Folder takes the Dynamic Report Set folder by default and is editable.

• Folder selection is subject to user security.

• User must have Edit or Full access to save the Dynamic Report Set as a Static Report Set.

• While saving it as a Static Report Set, Type is set to Static and the members are exposed as lines in Static Report Set.

• Suppress Level Spacing is applied to the Static Report Set.

• Line Type is set to Reference Account, Line Name is set to member label. 

• All the other fields in the Static Report Set take default settings and these can be updated later by accessing it from the File Cabinet.

Static Report Sets Formatting Enhancements

With this release, a few updates have been made to Static Report Sets. Column headers can now be aligned with the content. Also: 

• Support for double bottom border (cf. C15, in figure below);

• Negative number format display in Data Format Preview (cf. column G, below)

Report Collection Limitation

If five or more reports fail to execute, due to time out. during the running of a Report Collection or via Cloud Scheduler Process Flow, the Report Collection execution stops.

Row/Column Header Visibility Retained when Formulas Enabled

Row and Column headers are now visible in the grid of a Dynamic Report by default, regardless of the status of Show/Hide Row/Column headers, whenever the Insert Formula or Formula Exceptions pop-up is opened in the right pane.

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Org By Period, Change of Parent Org Enhancements

Org by Period functionality allows you to manage changes in organizational structure through acquisition, disposal, or change of parent company, and the associated changes for reporting and calculations.

With this release, you can now define the ownership changes of a company in the Ownership Changes pane. This allows you to define details of change of Ownership - Acquisition Period (From), Disposal Period (To), and Ownership Changes.

To open the Org By Period pane: 

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Hierarchy > Hierarchy Management.

2. Select the impacted leaf node from the hierarchy.

3. Click the Org By Period link.

For example, Acme Industries was a subsidiary of Acme Investments. In March 2017, majority share holding of Acme Industries was acquired by Acme Holdings, another company within the same group. Data of Acme Industries must roll up to different parents from the effective period to March 2017, with resultant data set as per figure below, with Data Acme Industries rolling up to New Parent from April 2017.

Ownership Changes

The first figure below shows a company which changed ownership from its parent company from Jan-16 to May-16, and then again from Jan-17 to Mar-17. The excerpt from a sample report in the second figure shows those ownership changes, in red font.

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Acquisition & Disposals

An Acquisition is the period from when the newly acquired company is active in the present organization. Values of the company are reported based on the period of acquisition. A Disposal is when the Company is inactive (i.e., defunct). Values of the company are stopped from the period of disposal.

The Acquisition & Disposals tab shows Scenario and dates of activity or inactivity, in the From and To fields, for the company.

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Org By Period Report Generation

When generating reports at the parent level with Org By Period data, each child is shown under the respective parent. If a report is required for a specific company, select the main company, and in the reporting dimension deselect the Org By Period reporting member.

FAQs

Q. Does ownership or parent change require changes in Data Entry settings? 

A. No. Data Entry is done to the same company, and the calculations appear under new parents.

Q. In Reports > Dimension selection, what is the new Company member under New Parent?

A. This is part of the functionality changes.

Q. How do I know under which roll ups a company exists?

A. Navigate to the Ownership Pane in Hierarchy Management.

Q. How do I generate data for the company for all periods without having to select newly created companies?

A. Select the company, and in reporting section deselect the Org By Period member.

Compensation Items Linked to Global Fields

Compensation Items are components to calculate various compensations paid to employees. Previously, any change in compensation items required you to update all the compensation items across all the budget entities, which is time consuming. Now, the option of linking a Global Field to a compensation item helps you more efficiently manage the changes.

For example, let's say the Fixed % Bonus item must be changed from 10% to 15%. This would require you to update the compensation item related to Bonus component. Linking the compensation item to a Global Field allows you to change the value of Global field from 10 to 15. You can then run the Simulation process to recalculate all the values.

One Time Expense, Basis

Basis has been added to allow users to configure a compensation item which is a one time expense or payment.

Mass Changes

Previously, the number of fields that could be edited in bulk in the Employee area were limited. Now, five additional fields can be edited:

• Home Budget Entity

• Hire Date

• Position Start Date

• Position End Date

• Position Budget Entity

Editing of these fields can be performed from the Employee Listing screen and Mass Update screen.

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Employee Add

Previously, if multiple employees needed to be added, you had to navigate to the Employee Add screen from the Employee Listing page and save. To add the next employee, you had to go back to the Employee Listing page and click Add to add next Employee.

This usability issue has been addressed by providing the option to Save the employee and Add the next employee with Save & Add Next.

This will help you add multiple employees and run the processing, reducing the number of clicks.

Employee Edit - Search

Previously, if multiple employees needed to be edited, you had to navigate to the Employee Edit Screen from the Employee Listing page, and edit the employee data and save. To Edit the next employee, you had to go back to the Listing page and click Edit to edit the next Employee.

This usability issue has been addressed by providing an option within the Employee Edit screen to search for an employee. You can make changes to Employee data > Save the employee > Search for next employee and edit.

This avoids having to come back to the listing page to edit the next employee.

Subline Template, Methods in Subline

Subline Templates have been enhanced to allow you to apply methods on the data in Subline Templates. This will help when inputting data in Subline Template by automated methods, instead of having to input into all periods manually.

Alternate Hierarchy Data Load

Previously, there was no way to load data into an alternate hierarchy. With this release, you can now load data (e.g., from an XLS) into the system using the Data Load Rules interface.

To load data into an alternate hierarchy: 

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Overview > Data Integration > Data Load Rules.

2. Click Select Sample Input File.

3. Browse for the Sample Data File under the File Information section of the screen (cf. first figure, below) then click Next or Define Overall Rule Settings.

4. Select Alternate Hierarchy from the Hierarchy Type section (cf. second figure, below).

5. Define the remaining parameters for the data load (e.g., input file manipulation, data mappings).

6. Click Load Data and then click Finish. The DLR for the alternate hierarchy is submitted for processing. A notification will be sent once processing is complete and the data is in the alternate hierarchy.

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NetSuite Data Connectors, Segment Data Load

Host Analytics provides Data Connectors, allowing users to integrate with NetSuite. The connectors provide the option to automatically pull data from NetSuite application and load it into the Host application.

Two types of data can be pulled from NetSuite:

• GL Data Load

• Segments Data Load

Administrators with a technical understanding of NetSuite application and database can configure NetSuite integration as follows: 

1. Maintenance > Admin > Configuration Tasks, then select Web Service Access.

2. Click Cloud Services > NetSuite. Enter data for the following:

   • Connection Configuration—Establish a connection from Host application to NetSuite application by entering NetSuite database user account and connection string details, then test the connection string.

   • GL Data Configuration—A default NetSuite application has four segments and allows further segments to be configured. (The Host application, on the other Hand, supports a maximum eight segments.) The basic four segments of the NetSuite application can be directly mapped to the segments of Host application. Additional custom segments of NetSuite Application need to be referred in this tab.The additional segments configured will be available for mapping in Data Loads.

   • Segment Data—You can load the default segments as configured in NetSuite.

   • Profiles—If data needs to be pulled from multiple NetSuite Databases, you can create multiple profiles corresponding to each database, and refer them in DLRs.

Once the above configuration is set:

• You must create Data Load Rules for GL Data and Segment Load Data;

• The NetSuite segments need to be mapped to the corresponding Host application segments;

• These Data Load Rules can be executed as part of Cloud Scheduler process where users can further configure the frequency of Data loads. Configuring Cloud scheduler allows you to trigger Data Loads to automatically pull data at frequent intervals or run instantly.

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Entity Currency

Entity Currency option allows users to generate Cash flow reports in Local Currency. Presently, to achieve this Users need to create multiple reporting members corresponding to each of the Local Currencies.

You add an Entity Currency to a reporting member as follows:

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Hierarchy > Hierarchy Management.

2. Select Finance Hierarchies as Type, then select Reporting for both Dimension and Hierarchy.

3. Click Show. Select the Reporting Currency node you wish to apply an Entity Currency to.

4. Select Edit Hierarchy.

5. From the Segment Properties section of the Properties pane, expand the Currency Code, select Entity Currency as the Currency Code.

Enable History Scenario for Cash Flow, Scenario Setup

When Budgets and Forecasts are prepared, history data may or may not be available. To address this, the scenario allows user to configure History periods from other scenarios which will be used for History data.

Subsequently, when the data becomes available for history periods, you want to generate the cash flow calculations based on the new data. To allow this, Scenario Setup screen is updated with Enable History Scenario for Cash Flow.

This setting allows you to select a scenario and period which will be used as base to calculate the Movement (MTD value) for first period in cash flow reports.

[Click to enlarge]

Reclassification Journals, Other Scenario Support

Reclassification Journals functionality is now extended to all scenarios. Previously, this limited to Actual scenarios.

Roll Up Operators, Hierarchy Management

The Hierarchy Management is now enhanced to display the roll up operators assigned to the Segment member. Previously, users had to select the member and view the operator in Properties pane.

This enhancement provides a simpler option to understand the roll up operators. Note that the Icons related to roll up operators have also been updated.