December20 Release Notes
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December20 Release Notes

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Article summary

Enhancements to Application Behavior

Platform

  • In the Help and Support window, when you click Support & Community Portal by using the Customer Support icon, the existing link to Zendesk is replaced by the Salesforce community portal link.

Dynamic Planning

  • You can suppress both zeros and blanks when you cascade a report with the Leaves of <Member> filter.

Structured Planning: Ability to Hide Compensation Items

With the December 20 release, we have added the ability for Admin users to hide the required compensation items for other Admin and End users. This enhancement enables you to hide any sensitive information such as salary or benefits. This feature hides the required compensation item from the Employees tab (Admin and End users), Employee Add/Edit pages, Employee report, all Views and Dynamic reports, Report sets, Standard reports, and the Customize Roster page.

Note:
This enhancement is available for the Workforce Planning UI.

Enable Workforce User Access Tab

  1. Go to Maintenance > User & Role Management, and then click the User tab.
  1. On the User tab, click the three dots list box, and then select the Approval Role Setup option.
    The Approval Role Setup dialog box is displayed.
  1. From the User list box, select a user and then select the Enable Workforce User Access Tab check box.

  1. Click the Save icon.
    The User Access tab is enabled for the required user.

Add User Access Permissions

After you have successfully enabled the User Access tab, follow these steps to enable permissions for users:

  1. Go to Maintenance > Workforce Planning Setup, and then click the User Access tab.
  1. From the Compensation Item list box, select the required compensation item.
  1. Click Apply.
  1. Select any one of the following options from the list under the Permissions column:
  • Read - This option allows users to view information for the selected compensation item.

  • Hide - This option hides the information for the selected compensation item, and then users cannot view any information related to that compensation item.

Note:
The Hide option hides the compensation item from the Employees tab (only for Admin and End users), Employee Add/Edit pages, Employee report, All Views and Dynamic reports, Report sets, Standard reports, and the Customize Roster page.
  • Edit - This option allows users to edit information for the selected compensation item.

Note:
Hiding the Salary Wages compensation item will hide the Annual Salary, Hours, Hourly Wage, and Salary Class compensation details. This option also disables users from adding new employees to the Workforce Planning template because salary items are mandatory to add a new employee.
  1. Click Save.
    When you click Save, a job is submitted in Cloud Scheduler and a notification is displayed. You can navigate to the Cloud Scheduler and check the status of the job. An email is also sent to you confirming the job’s status.
    After you have saved the compensation items, the updated permissions are reflected in the Workforce Planning reports across all scenarios.
Note:
You can select multiple compensation items and permissions for multiple users. After you have set the permissions for a compensation item, they are applicable across all scenarios if the same compensation item exists in those scenarios.

Use Case

User 1 has Read permission for the Bonus compensation.

User 1 has Edit permission for the Allowance compensation.

When the admin selects the Bonus and Allowance compensations from the Compensation Items list box and then clicks Apply, the permission for User 1 is displayed as Multiple because User 1 has different permissions for the Bonus and Allowance compensations.

  1. To refresh the screen and view the previously saved data, click Reset.
Note:
If Workforce Analytics(workforce cube) has been enabled for an application, to view the compensation items list on the User Access tab, Admin users must publish the compensation items on the Compensation Items tab.

Export User Access Permission

After you have successfully added the User Access Permission, follow these steps to export the access permissions for users.

  1. On the User Access tab, click the Export icon.
    The Export dialog box is displayed.
  1. Select any one of the following options:
  • All Permissions - To export all user permissions for all compensation items.

  • Edit - To export only the Edit permissions for users for compensation items.

  • Read - To export only the Read permissions for users for compensation items.

  • Hide - To export only the Hide permissions for users for compensation items.

  1. Click Export
    The list of user access permissions is exported.

Dynamic Planning: View Formula Used for Calculation in Spotlight Web and SpotlightXL-Views and Reports

In Spotlight Web and SpotlightXL, you can now understand how a value at a particular cell intersection is being calculated by viewing the formula in the formula bar. For example, for all cell values that are derived using a calculation, you can view the formula associated with the calculation directly in the formula bar, while all cell values that do not have any calculation associated with them, you will see the respective cell values in the formula bar.

The following image displays the formula in the formula bar of Spotlight Web.

The following image displays the formula in the formula bar of SpotlightXL.

Note:
If the formula characters are more than 255, you must navigate to Model > Formula screen to view the complete formula.

How does the functionality work

Now, while you are working on any Report or View, the application constantly validates each cell intersection and verifies if any formula is defined within the calculation that is mapped to the artifact. For example, if your calculation contains formula, aggregation, map, or some other step, the application validates all these steps, finds the exact dimension intersection based on the scope, and then retrieves the formula and displays it in the formula bar of Spotlight Web and SpotlightXL.

Let us take the following example to understand the details.

If you have a View or Report containing different details such as Topwear, Bottomwear, Footwear, and so on for different seasons, and you are using these details to calculate the total for the “Men” section, then you can view the formula associated with the calculation in the formula bar as shown in the image below.

In the example above, for displaying the formula associated with the calculation for the “Men” section, the application first validates the properties to check if the Enable Save property is set to Yes and whether a Calculation is mapped to this particular View or Report as shown in the image below.

Once the application identifies a Calculation, the application next verifies all steps available in the calculation and checks if a formula is available in it. In the example above, SubVarFormula is the formula associated with the calculation for the “Men” section as shown in the image below.

Next, the application validates the formula details available in the Formula property and displays the formula in the formula bar. In the example above, the application validates details such as Formula Design, Formula Members, Dimensions, and so on for SubVarFormula, and displays the formula in the formula bar.

Note:
The only purpose of this functionality is to display the formula associated with any calculation in the formula bar. This functionality does not affect the existing model calculation or model design in any way.

Business Value

This functionality provides you the flexibility and ease of viewing a formula defined within the calculation directly in the formula bar of Spotlight Web and SpotlightXL. You can conveniently view a formula on the go while you are working on any Report or View. This functionality significantly saves time and reduces the effort previously required to understand how a value at a cell intersection is being calculated. Prior to this release, you did not have an option to view how a value at any particular cell intersection was calculated.

This functionality is applicable for a View or Report where save is enabled and the artifact has a calculation associated to it. However, this functionality is not applicable for any View or Report that is for analysis or reporting purposes.

Note:
This functionality is now available for preview in your Production environment if you opt in. Contact the Planful Support team to enable this functionality in Production.

In Practice

  1. In Spotlight Web or SpotlightXL, select a View and navigate to any cell intersection that has a calculation associated with it.

  2. View the formula in the formula bar.

Limitations

  1. If the Enable Save property is set to Yes and the Calculation on Save property is configured with a calculation, then the formula configured in the calculation will be displayed in the formula bar. For any other calculation where the Enable Save property is not set to Yes, then the formula will not be displayed.

  2. If the Enable Save property is set to Yes and the Calculation on Save property is configured with a calculation. Still, if the application runs a different calculation, then the formula displayed in the formula bar and the formula configured in the calculation will not match.

  3. If multiple formulas are configured for any intersection, then the application will display only one formula in the formula bar.

  4. The way in which the formula is displayed in the SpotlightXL varies slightly with the way in which it is displayed in the Spotlight Web. The formula in the SpotlightXL starts with an additional =@SpotlightFormula in SpotlightXL.

Platform: Community and Support Portal being moved from Zendesk to Salesforce

In the Help and Support window, when you click Support & Community Portal by using the Customer Support icon, the existing link to Zendesk will be replaced by the Salesforce community portal link.

All users can access the content in the Salesforce community and support portal without the need to sign in. However, only support administrators can contact the Planful support team; they must sign in to the Planful Salesforce community portal to do so. Admin users must sign in to create a new ticket or review existing tickets; they can later save the login credentials for easy access in the future.

All Support Administrators will receive an email from Service Cloud with the login credentials that they can use to access the Support Community between December 18-20, 2020. If you did not receive the email or are unable to locate it, contact us at servicecloudhelp@planful.com and we will resend your login information.

The Planful Support Community will go live beginning on December 28, 2020.

With this change, our phone number is also changing. The phone number is +1 (833) 588-0286 (International callers dial US (775) 285-5462) and it will also be reflected on the Planful website and Planful application.

In addition to creating new tickets and reviewing existing support tickets, you will also have access to a self-service community where you can view knowledge base articles, connect with peers via product groups, or easily contact a support agent when required.


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