Important Guidelines for Use contains general information for users of Crystal Ball EPM. For best results, also consider the following information if you are using Crystal Ball EPM with Strategic Finance:
Assumptions and decision variables can be defined only on updatable cells. Forecast cells can be defined only on output cells.
Avoid updating the POV filter frequently when a Crystal Ball EPM model is defined on it. For best results, create an Account Group that contains all of the accounts used in a simulation or optimization and use that POV while using a model saved with Crystal Ball EPM variables.
Within a POV, you can change the scenario and still retain Crystal Ball EPM variable definitions. Measure must be standard to ensure that both input and output cells are available for defining assumptions and forecasts. With account groups, Crystal Ball EPM variables are retained as long as the cell intersections for Account and Time are still present in the new view.
If you switch a POV dimension and an intersection is no longer present for a Crystal Ball EPM variable, you will be prompted to do one of the following:
Retain and update to the current POV in the existing cell locations.
Remove the variables with no current data association.
Retain and Select the variables with no current data association. Then, you can restore the original POV and continue with the original data associations.
To improve performance, an option is added to the Crystal Ball EPM Preferences dialog to disable Microsoft Excel calculations during simulations. Speed is doubled, but only calculations based on Strategic Finance business logic will run.
After a simulation, all initial assumption values are restored and recalculated on the server so that server data is not modified by simulation or optimization operations.
Currently, Crystal Ball EPM variable information is not stored on the server. To save Crystal Ball EPM models defined on Strategic Finance entities, you must save the connected workbook to disk. Then, to use the model later, you need to open the saved workbook in Smart View and have it reconnect to the Strategic Finance server or a local entity file. Saved workbooks will reconnect to the source entity in a new Microsoft Excel session after a Smart View refresh. If the source is a local entity file (.alc), the entity file cannot be moved or renamed or the saved workbook will not be able to find it.
When you open an entity in Oracle Smart View for Office, the workbook is saved to a temporary location. If you use File, and then Save, the workbook is not easy to find. Also, it will be overwritten the next time you open that entity. So, whenever you attempt to save a Strategic Finance entity workbook that contains Crystal Ball EPM variables, the Microsoft Excel Save As dialog is displayed. You must save a workbook with Crystal Ball EPM variables before you close it, or the variable definitions will be lost.
Caution! | Workbooks with Crystal Ball EPM variables must be opened and saved with Microsoft Excel commands, and not those on the Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance ribbon. |
If a source entity is updated, the updated is reflected in a saved workbook as soon as it is reconnected and refreshed. If the change removed the POV containing Oracle Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management variable definitions, the definitions are lost.