2311.1 - Fluence Release Notes - Summary (November 26, 2023)

This Release will contain several new features and bug fixes. Details will be provided in Release Notes following the Release.

In order to use the Acquisition Balance Sheet or Disposal Balance Sheet input apps, the Conversion Dataview must now be tagged with #Conversion. 

In order to use the Disposal Balance Sheet input app, a Disposal movement must be created and tagged with with #Disposal. 

Highlights of the 2311.1 Fluence release include:

Platform

• The Metadata Audit Trail user interface has been enhanced to track changes to Mapping definitions and tables. This log can be used for troubleshooting or audit purposes.
• An Automated Import workflow task has been added to enable automated imports of data. The data can be loaded from an external FTP, Azure File Storage or Azure Blob Storage location defined through a secure connection string.
• Support for Azure Synapse Analytics pipelines has been added to the Application Integration workflow task. 
• A new option for Hierarchy Synchronization has been added. This option will compare an incoming Hierarchy Sync file with the current contents in a hierarchy and perform the required inserts, updates and renames to synchronize the Fluence hierarchy structure with the file provided.
• Workflow task assignments can now be easily managed using a visual table interface.
• Users can now copy and modify existing Import Definitions from the Data Import Definition editor.
• Open and closed periods as well as the Movement Classification have been extended to Journal Entries. Users will be unable to post JEs to closed periods or to invalid Movement and Account combinations.

Consolidation

• Additional Web Administration forms have been added, replacing most Excel based administration forms within Fluence Consolidation. A tile-based interface has been added to organize navigation to the forms. 
• The Manage Ownership input form has been converted to a web input form, now allowing the ability to control the Ownership Percentages displayed for input.
• Deferred Tax Calculation is now available. 
• Fluence now supports Entity specific foreign exchange rates. A new Entity rates input template has been added.
• Account Netting rules have been enhanced with an improved rule creation interface. Netting now supports netting for Cash accounts as well as the ability to define if the netting will only need to be calculated on leaf entities.
• Allocations have been updated to support calculations based on Year to Date or Periodic amounts.
• New "out of box" Workflow Processes are now provided to run the various Consolidation calculations.
• All Consolidation calculations have been updated to prevent users from running the calculations on any closed period and scenario combinations. 

• Business Acquisition data input has been updated to support users inputting data in non-local currency into the Conversion Dataview - simplifying the Conversion process. 

• A new Business Disposal input template is now available.

Disclosure Managment

• Fluence Disclosure Managment will be released on an aligned schedule with the rest of the Fluence platform and applications to better support on-going integration. 
• Disclosure Management is now compliant with WCAG 2 accessibility standards (level AA). This includes skip links, selectable font sizes, alternate text for third party screen readers, and more.
• Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are now supported as a data source and can be inserted and linked as a refreshable object into a Word or other PPT document.
• Document Bursting and distribution via email attachment is now supported, for Word, PowerPoint or PDF formats. 
• The document check-out/check-in process has been improved so that documents are automatically checked out when opened for edit and checked-in when closed. 
• Document export screen has been streamlined with additional options and task information to guide the user.
• A new Document Template property is now supported, which adds the ability to create multiple output copies associated to different data sources from a single document definition.
• The shared language dictionary used for text translations now supports Excel formula references, with improvements to word case and duplicate string handling.
• The application audit log now tracks user login and tenant access information.

Account Reconciliation

• The Match Rule Details and Match Group Dataset Filters forms have been enhanced, allowing users to create logical expressions using OR and parentheses to reduce the number of rules and provide ordering priority within a rule.

Fluence XL Reporting

• New options have been added to allow users to drill through to import details from within a FluenceXL Report.
• Query performance has been optimized.

This hotfix includes the following:

Platform:

• Fixed an issue where modifying a parent member in an alternate hierarchy would change the parent member with the same key in a different alternate hierarchy. When working with alternate hierarchies, only the leaf members should mirror each other.
• Improved the performance when updating members within the hierarchy manager.

None.

This hotfix includes the following:

Platform:

• Fixed an issue where errors were encountered when adding a dimension to a model.

Consolidation:

• Allocations have been updated to allow specifying if the source, target, driver or offset will use periodic or year to date values.
• Addressed issue running Consolidation when there were multiple Consolidation rules with the same account, audit and movement targets but different journal numbers.
• Addressed issue with Consolidation when no Parent Consolidation has been specified.

None.

This hotfix includes the following:

Platform:

• This hotfix includes an update to certificates for the Fluence Add-in. Users will need to upgrade the Add-in.

A new version of the Fluence Add-In will be deployed as part of this Release. Instructions on how to upgrade the Add-In can be found here Fluence Add-in Installation Guide.

This hotfix includes the following fixes:

Platform:

• Addressed an issue when renaming a member name and caption in the Entity dimension would rename the linked Intercompany member name but not it's caption.
• Addressed an issue when renaming an Entity member then making it a parent in the Entity dimension would update the linked Intercompany member name but it would incorrectly remain as a leaf member.
• Addressed an issue where more than 63 characters in the source value of a Data Import would result in an error when transferring data from the Staging Table to the Data Model. In this hotfix, the character limit has been reverted back to 255 characters.
• Addressed an issue when duplicating a line of detail in a web Admin Forms set the name of the detail to include a [Duplicate] pre-fix.
• Addressed UI issues in web Admin Forms in the Maintenance module.

Consolidation:

• Validation Report has been updated to allow displaying the report in local vs. selected currency
• Validation Report has been updated to allow selection of a specific validation rule or all validation rules when running the report. 
• Stabilization updates to the Consolidation and Conversion calculations.
• Addressed issues with the Align local TB to fiscal YE calculation to avoid clearing the Opening and Allocation movements or calculating result of period for retained/current earnings.
• Updated allocations to increase the number of decimals places retained when performing the calculations.

The parent Validation member in the accounts dimension must now be tagged as #ValidationRules in order to use the Validation - Validation Rules report.

This hotfix includes the following fixes:

Platform:

• Addressed an issue where selecting View Source Details from the Data Import Log rendered an error message in systems where there were Dimension Names which contained spaces, eg: Cost Center.
• Addressed an issue where a dimension's role could not be modified in the Model Manager.
• Addressed an issue in the JE module where the Delete and Edit icons were unavailable in the toolbar.
• Addressed UI issues in web Admin Forms in the Maintenance module.

Consolidation:

• Addressed issues related to Reports.

None.

This hotfix includes the following fixes:

Platform:

• Cutting and pasting a member to a new parent in Hierarchy Manager deletes the member that was cut.
• Fix issue where some roles were not able to view any folders in Fluence Explorer.
• Users were unable to complete Workflow Tasks which were assigned to Roles (versus individual users).
• Fixed an issue with View Source Details where the Target Member was not always rendered.
• Fixed UI issues in web Admin Forms in the Maintenance module.

Consolidation:

• Performance of Allocation calculations has been improved.

None.

This Release will contain several new features and bug fixes. Details will be provided in Release Notes following the Release.

None.

Highlights of the 2308.1 Fluence release include:

Platform

• A new Metadata Audit Trail user interface to allow authorized users to view logs that track changes to hierarchies, models and dimensions. This report can be used for troubleshooting or audit purposes.
• Ability to give permissions to select user roles to modify assigned mapping tables and data import definitions. This prevents users from modifying mappings owned by other individuals.
• Ability to retain and view the source records used in a data import. The new Import Logs interface displays a report showing the source and mapped values for any mapping and aggregation between the staging table and the model during import. From this report, a user can deduce which source accounts make up the value of a target account within Fluence.
• Ability to create a bursting workflow - create a workflow process for several business units quickly and easily by defining the workflow once and selecting the business units it needs to be cascaded. Dashboard panels can be configured to show the status of each task by each business unit.
• Select REST APIs are now available to login, populate and retrieve data from a Fluence client staging table. REST APIs also are provided to start and stop a workflows, and interrogate workflow status. This enables data imports to be externally initiated from staged data, or exported and retrieved using a model or model view extract.

Consolidation

• Inclusion of a new Investment Registry that allows you to track information throughout the life of your investments. The Investment registry allows you to record, track and maintain information about your investments. Once data is loaded to the Investment registry, the Direct Ownership percentages are automatically calculated for the specific entity and subsidiary.

• Ability to reclass accounts to asset or liability based on their sign. For example, if Cash is negative it is reclassed to Bank Overdraft. The netting calculation is also able to consider groups of accounts such as Taxes Receivable and Taxes Payable. If the net of the two accounts has a debit balance, the net amount is recorded in the Asset account. If the net of the two accounts has a credit balance, the net amount is recorded in the Credit account.
• Tagging support in Allocations - When a member is tagged within Fluence, that member or parent-child structure can be referred to by its tag in different areas of the application. This allows member names to differ across different tenants and data models, but still allow all productized Fluence rules logic to work across tenants.
• Main Fluence Consolidation Administration forms are now available as web forms within the Fluence portal. This allows for easier Consolidation rule administration with the ability to create, edit, delete and duplicate rules along with their details within the Fluence portal. The following web administration forms are available in 2308.1:
  • Calculation
  • Conversion
  • Consolidation
  • Intercompany Matching
  • Intercompany Booking
  • Rollover
  • Validation

Account Reconciliation

• Users now have the capability within the Matching interface to update End Dates for closed periods, provided the End Date falls within an open period or the last closed period.
• Users can now delete supporting items directly from the Matching interface, streamlining the data management process.
• Prevent users from importing transactions if there are associated supporting items, ensuring accurate and controlled data management.
• The supporting item icon will now be displayed, even if the item was created under a different match group or dataset, with informative messages indicating any Match Group or Dataset mismatches. Supporting item updates will be restricted for such cases, preventing errors during data management.
• Attachment icons have been optimized to hide when not applicable (e.g., 'Delete Attachment' icon when no attachment is added, 'Add Attachment' icon when an attachment is already present). Supporting item changes can now be conveniently undone by clicking on the Cancel button.

Fluence XL Reporting

• Prevent users from uploading data to closed periods in a Fluence model from a FluenceXL report with writeback enabled.
• Ability for users to use @user tags to other in-tenant users in FluenceXL Commentary. This allows a user to send Teams or email notifications with the comment, its data intersection, and a tenant link referenced within the message.

This update includes the following fixes and new functionality

Platform:

• Address issue renaming entity members where intercompany data can become orphaned. 

Consolidation:

• The Conversion process was failing on systems where the Dataview dimension was renamed.
• Calculation Multi has been updated to support dependent calculations when subsequent calculations did not create any data.
• Address issue running allocations with source account parent members.
• The Trial Balance Intercompany Input template now supports manual input to the 'Input' audit member when data is loaded to 'No Intercompany'.
• Address issue with JE Drillback from Fluence reports not working correctly in European Consolidation systems with a Group dimension. 
• Address issue with Calculation First causing duplicate values when no audit member was defined.
• Address issue generating conversion rates when using weekly timeperiods.
• Address issue where the Journal Entry Copy process was not copying all details from P12 to P1 in a system that did not have a Group dimension.

Account Reconciliation:

• Add restriction on transaction import for transactions with Supporting Item association.

This update includes the following fixes and new functionality

Account Reconciliation/Matching:

• Update the Reconciliation Review report for transaction and match supporting items.
• Ability to Open Item Schedule for General account reconciliation group type.
• Update dataset filters in Matching UI to accept a list of comma separated items for =, <>, starts with, ends with, contains, does not contain. Adding a Free Clause filter that accepts SQL server syntax to incorporate custom filters.
• Add filters for transaction and match supporting items.
• Prepopulate Start Date for new supporting items and group, account, and entity when applicable in the Matching UI.
• Update AccountRecCurrentPeriod global variable to use Name instead of Key value.

Platform:

• Added new functionality to design list panel links within Fluence Homepages to open FluenceXL reports in Excel versus the browser.
• Address UI issue in Workflow Contributor List panels on Homepages.
• Address issue when ImportOnlyOnOpenPeriodsConsol feature flag was enabled. Users were still able to import to a closed period for actuals scenario if the same period is an open period for a non-actual scenario.
• Address issue where the Export mapping errors as mappings link was no longer working.
• Removed the ability to update a shared member's properties from the Hierarchy Manager. Also updated the Import Hierarchy behavior to ignore any shared member properties in the import file. A shared member's properties will inherit it's corresponding base member properties when the Process button is clicked in the Models module.
• Increased the timeout when loading data to a staging table.

Consolidation:

• The Copy Journal Entry process has been updated for European Consolidation systems to exclude statistical movements from the current earnings calculation when a Journal is copied from Period 12 to Period 1.
• Address issue with Conversion when data was loaded to an Elimination Entity’s non-local currency.
• Address issue running the Conversion process a second time via Workflow if the Workflow process did not complete successfully on the first run.
• Address issue with the Run Calculations form on a French language system.
• Address issues with the Periodic calculation when calculation from Periodic to YTD after running the Copy Opening.
• Address issues with Manage Ownership form not storing ownership information for shared entities.

A new version of the Fluence Add-In will be deployed as part of this Release. Instructions on how to upgrade the Add-In can be found here Fluence Add-in Installation Guide.

This Patch will address the following:

Consolidation:

• Address issue in Conversion when calculating periodic values for an entity in non-local currency.
• Address issue in the Consolidation/NCI calculation where amounts in periods P2 to P12 were incorrect. 
• Address issue running the Copy Opening process in a system with more than one period having the same year and month property values.
• Address issue with Current Year Net Income process when posting a Journal Entry outside of the default input member in a non-standard consolidation dimension.

None.

This Patch will address the following:

Consolidation:

• Fluence now supports converting amounts in an entity's non-local currency. Data that may have been loaded to an entity's non-local currency will now be converted. 
• Address issue running the current year net income process when posting journal entries 

Review the CopyNetIncome Audit Property

Please make sure to review the CopyNetIncome property on members in the audit dimension. 

When posting journal entries, the system was not honoring the CopyNetIncome property on the audit dimension. This issue has been corrected.

The Current Year Net Income calculation when a JE is posted will now not calculate on any audit members where CopyNetIncome is set to FALSE. 

This Patch will address the following:

Platform:

• Address issue with extraneous Journal Configuration authorization being needed to use Journals module
• Address issue with extraneous Metadata Management and Configuration authorizations being needed to run Data imports
• Address issue with Workflow steps not working as expected when the Advance Rule "All predecessors have completed".
• Address issue when importing hierarchies without keys. 

Account Reconciliation:

• Address issue with activating Support button on Select Matching menu.

This Release will contain several new features and bug fixes. Details will be provided in Release Notes following the Release.

2305.1 Fluence Release Notes - Full (May 21, 2023) 

As of the May 2023 release, we have adopted a new naming convention. The format is YYMM.R where YYMM represents the year and month of the release, and R represents the release number. This change in naming convention has been made across the entire Fluence product suite to provide consistent and aligned versioning.

The Model Views features has been updated in this release. If you were using Model Views in a previous release, please contact Support so that we can update your environment appropriately.

Highlights of the 2305.1 Fluence release include:

Platform:

• Ability to create Model Views to simplify report building in FluenceXL.
• New Model Export workflow task that exports a Model or an existing Model View to a staging table or a file.
• New security reports to view User Information, Role Assignments, and Role Authorizations.
• Added capability to perform bulk import of Journal Entries which allows the loading of several journals via an Excel file.
• The Journal Entry Recurring "From" Date is now editable.
• Improvements to Hierarchy Manager including the ability to update properties via an Excel file, ability to upload partial hierarchies and improved alternate hierarchy maintenance.

Consolidation

• New FluenceXL consolidation financial reports have been added.
• New Compare Hierarchies report has been added to be able to validate members existence in the default vs alternate hierarchy structures.
• The Process Status report has been enhanced to allow viewing a trace log of data changes that occurred during a Fluence calculation.
• Conversion and Consolidation audit reports have been added.
• Intercompany Matching report can now be broken down by dimensions.
• Enhanced Copy Journal Entry process provides additional controls around copying journal entries that have already been copied as well as allowing the selection of a source and target scenario. 
• Enhanced validation rule capabilities including a new Enforce field to specify whether the validations will be hard (enforced) or soft as well as the capability to have a Workflow step that checks if validation rules defined in the system have passed or failed.
• The Allocation module has been enhanced to support alternate hierarchies.
• Export journal entries in bulk that include headers and details for a particular query from your system to a comma-delimited file from the Journal Entry module.  
• Import multiple general ledger journal entries in bulk using a comma-delimited or Excel file into your Fluence system from the Journal Entry module.

Account Reconciliation:

• Added ability to create supporting items from dataset transactions in the matching UI.
• Added ability to create supporting item from a match variance in the matching UI.
• Added a new form, Supporting Item Transaction, to display transactions associated with a supporting item.
• Updated the Reconciliation Details form to indicate supporting items association with dataset transactions and a link to a form to display transaction details.
• Improved error handling: Updated forms to restrict deleting transactions, match groups, and datasets that have item association.

Fluence XL:

• Ability to report against Model Views.

Fluence Disclosure Management:

• Several enhancements based on customer feedback.

This Patch will address the following:

Platform:

• Improve performance when opening workflows that contain many tasks that use parameters (for example, Review and Reporting tasks that contain Entity and Period parameters). 

Consolidation

• Address issue in Manage Ownership input form when Date dimension has been renamed.
• Address issue with Foreign Exchange Rate input form when period contains more than 12 leaf members.

Account Reconciliation:

• Address an issue with incorrect workflow status.
• Address an issue with decertifying an Approved recon after GL update.

This Patch will address the following:

Platform:

• Added the ability to re-order members in Hierarchy Manager. New context actions allow you to move members up and down with the hierarchy. Note: once you have started moving members up or down, other actions in the Hierarchy Manager Editor are disabled until you save your changes.
• Added the ability to copy a parent member and it's child members from a base to alternate hierarchy using the Copy context menu action.
• Added the ability to change the Operator of members in an alternate hierarchy. This allows for different roll-ups in the Alternate Hierarchy.
• Added the ability to change the Name, Caption, Tags and Properties of parent members in an alternate hierarchy.
• Fix issue where Property values were not rendering until the hierarchy was saved.
• Addressed other Hierarchy Manager issues.
• Improved performance when opening large Workflow processes from Fluence Explorer.

Consolidation:

• Addressed issue in Rules Configuration form.

This Patch will address the following:

Platform:

• The Hierarchy Manager has been updated to automatically select the row when right-clicking on a member. This will ensure that the subsequent context action pertains to correct selected row. This fix has been applied to both the Base Hierarchy Editor and the Alternate Hierarchy Editor.
• Fix an issue in the Alternate Hierarchy Editor where invalid context menu options were available when right-clicking on the base hierarchy.
• Fix an issue when Processing Metadata. This issue occurred in some cases where the Entity hierarchy contained entities where the p_EntityType property was set to NULL (blank).
• Optimize Workflow performance when there are several tasks started at once.
• Fix an issue where an error was thrown when a FluenceXL report that was added to Favorites was subsequently deleted.
• Fix an issue where FluenceXL reports encountered an error. This issue occurred in systems that include a Group dimension and the Default Reporting member was not specified for this dimension. In these cases, FluenceXL reports that did not include a manual selection from the Group dimension would cause an error when opened.
• Fix an issue when synchronizing entity and intercompany dimensions.

Consolidation:

• The Cash Flow Adjustment input app has been updated to allow input to Elimination entities.

This Patch will address the following:

Platform:

• A new option "Staging Source Values" has been added to the Clear Data Settings editor in Data Import Definitions.
  • Clear Data Setting specifies which members to clear in the data model when importing data from a staging table to a data model. This new option, Staging Source Values, uses the members found in the staging table to determine which members to clear in the data model. 

Consolidation:

• The Attribute Maintenance form now allows selecting a parent consolidation rule for account members.
• Address issue when running the Calculation Lineage report in a system that has multiple entity structures tagged as the #TotalGroup.
• Address issue when clicking the details link in the Consolidation rules form prompting for a rule selection.
• Address issue when running the Movement Validation report from within the Validation Rules report prompting for an account parameter.

Account Reconciliation:

• Address a saving issue sin the Groups form.
• Address issue with dates not displaying properly within Transaction Matching report headers.

This Patch will address the following:

Platform:

• Address issues with importing and exporting mappings
  • In some cases, importing mappings results in an error "Unrecognized file type". This issue occurs when the file being imported exceeds a certain size.
  • In some cases, the number of mappings exported is less than expected. This issue occurs when the Export button is clicked immediately after clicking the Save icon and the Save process has not completed. This may cause a loss of mapping data when the mappings are exported. 
• Address issue when posting journal entries. In some cases, when posting a JE, users received an incorrect message: "Error posting journal(s)". However, upon refreshing the Journals user interface, the journal was posted correctly.
• Address issue when adding a sibling then immediately saving in the Hierarchy Manager causes the hierarchy to re-render in collapsed mode.
• Address issues reporting on the Group dimension (only applies to systems that contain a Group dimension).
• Address issue where the Refresh SSAS Model Refresh action was not updating data.

Consolidation:

• Address issue with the Cash Flow Adjustment app using default input members instead of default reporting members for read only columns.

Account Reconciliation:

• Address issue in the stored procedure for calculating Unidentified Differences when the GL data is not unique per Account, Entity, and period.

Version

2022.4.0.1

Target date

December 21, 2022

Update Type

Hotfix Release

Overview

This Patch will address the following:

Platform

• Address issue where a user's Workflow Task List was empty when there were workflow processes that contained tasks with no due dates.
• Add support for dimension names containing spaces in the Journal Entries web interface.
• In the Journal Entries web interface, the balance indicator will round to 2 decimal places when validating if a JE is in balance. 
• SSAS Refresh was not syncing data

Service Interruption

No, system availability will not be affected by this update.