Oracle/Hyperion has long been the standard-bearer for ease-of-use with financial reporting and analytics. Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS) carries on this legacy with three main presentation components:
Reports
Print-quality reports are designed using Financial Reporting (FR) Web Studio. It is a web-based design tool that looks much like the current Financial Reporting Studio desktop client. The URL to connect the tool to the EPBCS instance is slightly different than the URL to the simplified interface. However, the process for authoring reports remains the same as the old FR client.
Reports built with the Financial Reporting tool can be output in a variety of formats. Reports can be grouped into books, scheduled in a batch job, and distributed via email. Interactive features in HTML format allow users the ability to refresh data in real-time, drill down on data, and even export the finished product to Excel.
Dashboards
Dashboards provide visual information useful for decision-making throughout the planning and forecasting process. Each business process module comes with standard dashboards, and more can be added. They are designed to be intuitive and interactive.
Dashboards are comprised of forms and charts. Upon changing the selections in the Point-of-View, users see immediate results in the forms, multiple chart types, and tiles on the dashboard.
Depending on the dashboard’s design, the following options are available:
- Drill down to more detail
- Dynamically link to URL or add a place for comments
- Change chart types on the fly
- Access form options to filter data row sets
- Customize charts in dashboards
Smart View
Microsoft Office integration is provided via the Smart View Office add-in. Once installed, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint receive a new ribbon with context-sensitive options. Connecting to EPBCS is similar to on-premises applications, however the URL is SSL-enabled and points to the Oracle cloud.
An ad-hoc grid can be launched from an existing data entry form and modified in Excel. Grids also can be started in Excel and saved back to the EPBCS instance (with formatting) for use by other users. There are a variety of drill/pivot/filter options that make data discovery extremely easy for finance users. Plans also can be entered into Excel grids in real-time and saved to EPBCS.
The many features of Smart View are beyond the scope of this post. But the integration between Excel and EPBCS is so feature rich, many users opt-out of using web browsers entirely unless on a mobile device.
