Hyperion Planning Training

Day 2 Objectives
Learn the components the comprise a Data Form
Construct Basic and Intermediate level Data Forms
Understand common options used with Data Forms
Create Business Rules used in conjunction with Data Forms
Learn design Best Practices for Data Forms

Designing Data Forms

Data Entry Forms are Centrally Maintained and Consistent

Across Web and Excel

Form layout
Display options
Form contents
Access permissions
Business rules
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Data Forms - Definitions

Data Form A grid display that enables users to enter data
into the database from an interface such as a Web browser,
and to view and analyze data or related text.
Point of View (POV) One or more fixed dimension member
values that determine context for Data Form pages, rows, and
columns. All data in the Data Form is constrained by the Point
of View.
Page Axis Combination of dimension member values that
determine context for Data Form rows and columns. Users
switch between dimension member combinations by selecting
Page values using drop-down lists from the page axis.

Data Forms Plan Types

Specify 1 - 3 Plan Types for the Application:
P&L
Balance Sheet
Cashflow

Associate Data Form with a plan type, this determines the

data form's valid Account and Entity members. Entered data
is saved to the selected plan type's database.
Note: can NOT change the plan type for Data Form after it is
assigned

Data Forms - Versions

Version Types:
Standard Target - Values entered from parent level and allocated
downward
Standard Bottom Up Values entered at the lowest member level and
aggregated upward

Bottom Up versions only allow data entry for rows and

columns with level 0 members. Rows and columns set to
parent members are read-only.
Target versions allow data entry in parent members

Creating Data Forms

Select Data Form folder

Assign Data Form Name and Description
Assign Data Form Plan Type
Assign dimensions to Rows and Columns
Select Row and Column dimension members
Add Segments for separator borders and hidden or readonly data
Define Page and Point of View dimension members
Optional: Composite Forms

Layout

Data Forms - Precision

Set the number of decimal positions displayed for Currency,
Non-Currency, and Percentage Values:
Minimum Precision to add zeros to numbers with a small number of
decimals
Maximum Precision to truncate and round the decimal portion of
longer numbers
Examples:
Value -123 and Minimum Precision - 3 123.000
Value - 123.4567 and Maximum Precision - 2 123.46

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Business Rules

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Business Rules with Essbase Administration Services for Classic

Graphical mode vs Enhanced (Source) mode

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Calculation Manager from Workspace for EPMA applications

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Business Rules and Data Forms

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Business Rule Runtime Prompts

Runtime prompts are variables such as members, text,
dates, or numbers that users enter or select before a
business rule is run
Use Members in Form option will use the current members
selected in the POV and Page Axis as the default members
in business rules runtime prompts, they can be changed
before launching business rule
Hide Prompt option (valid only when Use Members in Form
option selected) will hide runtime prompts if all variables can
be read from the POV and Page Axis

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Business Rule Runtime Prompts

By default, the values for processed runtime prompts are
stored in the database and can be viewed from the Job
Console
If many users run business rules with runtime prompts,
tracking these values uses significant system resources. To
improve performance, you can turn Off function to capture
runtime prompt values by adding
CAPTURE_RTP_ON_JOB_CONSOLE property to the
properties table, with value of FALSE (to turn On, change
value to TRUE).

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Business Rules Further Details

For discussion of how settings and conditions affect the
display and values of runtime prompts, see Understanding
Runtime Prompts in Hyperion Planning Administrators
Guide
For creating business rules and additional information, see
Hyperion Business Rules Administrators Guide

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Additional Data Form

Components

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Data Forms Adjusting Data

Increase/Decrease values By Value (a specific amount) or
By Percent
Adjust data for multiple cells simultaneously if cells are at
same dimension level (e.g. Jan, Feb, Mar)
Adjust data by typing an operator in a cell ( +, , *, /, or %),
followed by entering a number

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Data Forms Spreading Data

Options to distribute or spread values:
Spread value in a summary time period back to its base time periods
Spread values among children and parents proportionally, based on
existing distribution
Spread values based on weekly distribution
(4-4-5, 5-4-4, 4-5-4, or None, as set in application)
Fill the parent's value to its descendants
Spread value over time periods while temporarily locking certain cell
values

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Data Forms Spreading Data

Account Type, Time Balance property, Data Type,
dimension hierarchies and the existing distribution of data
determine how values are spread
See How Spreading Works in Hyperion Planning Users
Guide for specific details and examples
Use Grid Spread to increase or decrease values across
multiple dimensions ON the data form
Use Mass Allocate to spread data to member descendants
including those NOT ON the data form
note: use requires Mass Allocate role and property

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Data Forms Mass Allocation

With Mass Allocate role and Mass Allocate enabled as the
Data Form property, you can spread data using Mass
Allocate, which:
Allocates data to all the source cell's descendants even to cells not
displayed on the Data Form
Allocates across multiple dimensions
Does not require that you have access to the target cells
Cannot be undone after you Mass Allocate values
Is processed with dynamically-created calc scripts
Executes the calc scripts against the Essbase server, against all
dimension combinations

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Data Forms - Supporting Detail

Supporting detail helps you build and communicate bottomup values with details not included in the database outline. It
also provides a way to drill down into data, to better
understand how it was derived. For example, you may want
to add line items for employees in a department to more
accurately plan travel expense.
Supporting detail can include text, values, and operators that
define how data aggregates.

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Supporting Detail Rules

Supporting detail does not change members in outline
You must have cell write access to create, change, or
delete supporting detail
You must have cell read access to view supporting detail
You cannot update data into aggregate values with
supporting detail
You can only add supporting detail to base time periods
Number and Precision formatting is not reflected in the
Supporting Detail window

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Data Forms Annotations

Annotations are comments, notes, explanations, or other
types of external remarks that can be attached to a Web
document or a selected part of the document.
[http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/attaching_annotations/what_is_an_annotation.html]

With appropriate access, users can add or view annotations

which can be plain text or include URL link to a comment or
URL of up to1,500 characters. URL links can be to .TXT,
.DOC, .XLS, and .PDF files.
Account Annotations
Planning Unit Annotations (Scenario/Version/Entity)

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Data Forms Cell Text Annotations

With appropriate write access, users can add annotations
called cell text to the cell at any level:
Non-level 0 members, Calculated members, Dynamic calc
members, read-only members
Cell Text can be up to 1,500 characters
If users selects cell range, they can enter same cell text for
all cells in range
Cell Text is stored on server and can be viewed by all users
with read access to data cell

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Data Forms Cell-Level Documents

If administrator selects the Enable Cell-Level Document data
form property, users can associate EPM Workspace
documents to the cell
Documents can be a URL or any file type
Files must exist in the Workspace repository before beings
associated with a cell in data form
As with Cell Text, Cell-level documents can only be updated
by users with write access to data cell and viewed by all
users with read access to data cell

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Data Form Cell Background Colors

White: default
Yellow: dirty cells, whose values changed but are not yet
saved
Light blue: read-only cells
Tan: locked cells
Teal: cells having supporting detail

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Customizing Data Forms with JavaScript

Appendix A in Hyperion Planning Administrators Guide
describes using JavaScript to customize data forms.
Programmers familiar with JavaScript can customize
Planning data forms in these ways:
Add buttons to link to web pages or run JavaScript code
Modify behavior when users save data forms
Modify behavior when the focus enters or leaves a cell

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Additional Data Form components

Menus: Shortcut menus accessed by right-clicking that can
open URLs, data forms, workflow, or business rules.
User Preferences: options for e-mail, aliases, member
selection, offline planning, workflow, display, printing and
user variables
User variables: Selectable members on the row, column,
page, or POV. Before you can open a data form having a
user variable, you must select a value in preferences. After
that, you can change the variable on the data form or in
preferences.

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Workflow and Task Lists

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Planning Unit
Planning tracks budgets by Planning Units a specific
scenario, version, and entity combination. Scenarios and
versions are the basis of the review cycle. For example, IT
Cost Center (an entity) submits data for Plan (a scenario)
and Best Case (a version). You start, view, and promote
planning units, and can view history of the budget review
process and user annotations by planning unit.
Planning units are in one of six states: Not Started, First
Pass, Under Review, Signed Off, Not Signed Off, and
Approved

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Planning Unit - States

Not Started: Budget administrators initiate the review process
using the Start action
First Pass: Users with access permissions can enter data and
promote planning units and assign owner
Under Review: Only the current owner or budget administrators
can modify data or perform actions
Signed Off: Only the current owner or budget administrators can
modify data or perform actions
Not Signed Off: Rejected, only the current owner or budget
administrators can modify data or perform actions
Approved: After approved, the budget administrator becomes the
sole owner and can modify data or perform actions.

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Planning Unit - Status Actions

Promote: For planning units in First Pass, changes the state
to Under Review and assigns ownership to another user.
Subsequent promotions transfers ownership from one
reviewer to another.
Sign Off: Changes state to Signed Off, but doesnt transfer
ownership of the planning unit
Reject: Changes state to Not Signed Off and requires the
previous owner, or another selected owner, to make another
iteration of plan
Approve: Changes state to Approved

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Planning Unit Entity Hierarchy

Entity hierarchy relationships affect review process:
Promote or Reject action to parent results in Promote or Reject action
to the descendants (unless previously Approved), the parents owner
becomes the descendants owner
Approve action to parent results in Approve action to the children
When all children are promoted to the same owner, the parent is
promoted to the owner
After Sign Off action to all the children, the parent status changes to
Signed Off

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Planning Unit E-mail Alerts

Application owners must 1st specify a valid e-mail server in
order to enable e-mail notification
In User Preferences, users can then select to Enable
E-mail Notification and Copy the Application Owner
After e-mail notification is configured, users receive e-mail
from application owner when they become the planning unit
owner Subject: NEW OWNER: Plan (Scenario, Version,
Entity)

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Planning Unit Annotations

After a planning unit has been started, users with read
access to planning unit can add or view annotations about
the data in a planning unit.
Administrators can report on annotations to check planning
unit status for a set of scenarios, versions, and entities.
Reports can be based on process status and displays the
planning unit title, author, date, and annotations with the
most recent annotation first.

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Task Lists
Administrators and interactive users create and
manage task folders and task lists, detailed lists of
tasks to guide users through the planning process
by listing tasks, instructions, and due dates.

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Task Lists
Users can view:
Task Name, Status and View link (if instructions for
completing task are provided)
Due date - When tasks must be completed
Alerts - Visual cues about your progress, and the
completion date and time:
Green: On schedule
Yellow: Approaching due date
Red: Past-due

E-mail alerts - Notification of upcoming and past-due

tasks

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Task Lists
Completing tasks depends on the task type. Tasks
can include URLs, data forms, workflow, business
rules, or descriptive tasks. For example, a task can
require a user to view a web page, enter data,
promote a planning unit, launch a business rule or
read information, such as reminders or instructions.
After completing task, users mark the task as
complete. The alert changes to a datetime stamp
reflecting completion date and time. Dependent
tasks must completed before the primary task.

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Task List Type

URL Task: opens a specified web page
Web Data Form: opens a specified Data Form in a
specified Data Form Folder
Business Rule: launches a specified Business Rule
Name for a specified Plan Type
Workflow: starts the workflow process with a
specified Scenario and Version
Descriptive: provides text of descriptive tasks

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Task Lists e-mail Alerts

Adminstrators can send e-mail notification to users for
tasks that are past due and/or past a defined alert date
and before due date, specifying the timing and
frequency of alerts (e.g. every 2 days or every 4 hours)
Administrator must configure an valid SMTP e-mail
server using System Settings
Users can also select to be notified by e-mail from Job
Console Notification when a job they launch (e.g., a
business rule) completes or generates errors

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Thank You

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