Release Notes: Version 5.5.1 - New Features & Enhancements

ADMINISTRATOR MODULE

Financial Budgeting

Activity – Functions added

The “Power of” ^ function was added for Activity formula calculations:

Ceiling and Floor functions (which are like the excel functions Roundup and Rounddown) now allow two parameters in idu - the first is the number the user would want to round, the second is the number of digits the user would want to round to.

Activity Actuals – Import and Export

This enhancement allows the admin user to import Global Assumption and Activity Input actual values.

The closed periods of a Forecast fiscal set will be populated with actual data at a more detailed level.

IMPORTS > Main > Global Assumption

The new checkbox ‘Overwrite from YTD period onwards’ has been added on “Global Assumption” import screen, when a Forecast fiscal set has been selected. When ticked, the closed periods of the forecast will not be updated by the import.

IMPORTS > Main > Global Assumption Actuals

A new import option for ‘Global Assumption Actuals’ has been added under Imports > Main for importing the Actuals.

MAIN > Global Assumptions

When ‘Refresh Actuals’ is run against a Forecast fiscal set, then the Global Assumption values in the closed periods will be replaced with the values from the new Global Assumption Actuals table.

If no Actual values exist, then the closed periods will be zerorized.

IMPORTS > Financial > Activity Category Item Input Value

The new checkbox ‘Overwrite from YTD period onwards’ has been added on “Activity Category Item Input Value” import screen, when a Forecast fiscal set has been selected. When ticked, the closed periods of the forecast will not be updated by the import.

IMPORTS > Financial > Activity Category Item Input Value Actuals

A new import option for ‘Activity Category Item Input Value Actuals’ has been added under Imports > Financial for importing the Input Actuals.

The following two Exports were added to the system:

EXPORTS > Main > Global Assumption Actuals Export

EXPORTS > Financial > Activity Category Item Input Value Actuals Export

Parallel Scheduled Tasks

This enhancement will increase the performance of Scheduled tasks by splitting the tasks into queue 1 and queue 2, which can be processed at the same time.

1. Queue 1 will process the tasks that involve updating or changing data stored in the idu database e.g. Imports, Clones, Syncs, Recalcs and Utilities.

2. Queue 2 will process the large data retrieval tasks, such as Report Batches and Recurring Schedules – Asset Notifications.

A “Queue” column has been added to the Scheduled Tasks screen.

The queue number 1 or 2 will only be displayed against tasks with statuses ‘Scheduled’ and ‘Busy’.

Scheduled tasks in the same queue are processed sequentially, scheduled tasks in queue 1 and queue 2 are processed simultaneously.

Sales Planning Module

Spread Factor added - Forecast Run Rate

Run rate functionality has now been applied to Sales Planning module as well.

This enhancement enables the user to select the predictive spread factor to execute run-rate calculations.

The “Run Rate” and “Compound” switches have been added to the Main > Spread Factor screen for a Sales Planning Forecast fiscal set.

A Run Rate Spread factor can now be selected for Standard budget type product attributes in a Forecast Fiscal Set.

A separate recalculation screen has been added to recalculate the Run Rate Sales values.

Run Rate Parameters Import added

Run Rate Parameters import has been added under Imports > Main > Spread Factor > Run Rate Parameters (Sales Planning).

Run Rate Parameters Export added

Run Rate Parameters export has been added under Exports > Main > Spread Factor > Run Rate Parameters (Sales Planning).

CLIENT MODULE

Layout Profile Column Sort

A new button has been added to the button bar in client to allow the user to sort the screen by any layout profile column.

Currently this functionality is available for Summary and Posting views in Financial Budgeting and Reporting, Sales Planning and Reporting and Asset Reporting modules.

Selecting the “Enable Sort” button, the ‘Account Structure Profile’ will be set to ‘None’ and disabled and all Summary Accounts on screen will be hidden.

The user is able to left-click any Layout Profile column heading in order to sort the screen by that column. Clicking the same column heading again will reverse sort the screen by that column.

Once finished, select “Disable Sort” button, and the screen will be returned in the previous state.

Financial Budgeting

Activity – Functions added

The “Power of” ^ function was added for Activity formula calculations.

Activity Actuals

This enhancement allows the admin user to import Global Assumption and Activity Input actual values.

The closed periods of a Forecast fiscal set will be populated with actual data at a more detailed level.

In a Forecast Fiscal Set, when ‘Refresh Actuals’ is run against the fiscal set in Admin, the Global Assumption and Input Actual values will be used to update the closed periods of the Forecast Fiscal Set. No Formula calculations will be run in the closed periods of a forecast fiscal set.

If no Input or Global Assumption actual values have been imported into the system, then the closed periods will be zerorised:

Note: When ‘Refresh Actuals’ is run against the forecast fiscal set, the Global Assumption and Input Actual values will not be used to update the Cost Centre Account level values of the Accounts linked to them – the Cost Centre Account level values will continue to be updated from the Cost Centre Account Value Actuals table.

Parallel Scheduled Tasks

This enhancement will increase the performance of Scheduled tasks by splitting the tasks into queue 1 and queue 2, which can be processed at the same time.

1. Queue 1 will process the tasks that involve updating or changing data stored in the idu database e.g. Imports and Recalcs.

2. Queue 2 will process the large data retrieval tasks, such as large Client Exports and Scheduled Reports.

A “Queue” column has been added to the Scheduled Tasks screen.

The queue number 1 or 2 will only be displayed against tasks with a status of ‘Scheduled’ and ‘Busy’.

Scheduled tasks in the same queue are processed sequentially, scheduled tasks in queue 1 and queue 2 are processed simultaneously.

Sales Planning Module

Forecast Run Rate

Run rate functionality applies only to Forecast fiscal sets and Standard Sales Planning accounts.

This enhancement enables the user to select the predictive spread factor to execute the run-rate calculations

Select the “Run Rate” spread factor and right click on the open periods to select the Number of Months option required to predict future values. The actual months, that are used in calculations, will be highlighted in pink.

The Straight or Compound Run Rates can be set up in the Administrator module.

The user can amend the escalation factor on calculations via the “Run Rate % (+-)” row.

For the Straight method run rate - selecting 2 months will calculate the average of the 2 months’ actuals and apply it to the rest of the open periods (7+8)/2 = 7.50).

Adding a 10% escalation for February – will apply such escalation to the remaining months (7.5* 1.10 = 8.25):