Before you Begin

This 90-minute tutorial shows you how to configure and enable features in Projects. The sections build on each other and should be completed sequentially.

Background

Planning provides five complete, planning and budgeting solutions for Financials, Workforce, Capital, Projects, and Strategic Modeling. They include built-in best practice predefined content including forms, calculations, dashboards, drivers, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

In this tutorial, you configure and enable features in Projects.

With Projects, you can bridge the gap between project planning systems and the financial planning process. You can assess the impact organizational projects and initiatives have on overall corporate resources and ensure they align with short and long term financial targets.

You use Projects to evaluate how assets and resources related to corporate initiatives are allocated, and analyze their probable return on investment.

Before you can start planning for projects, you must enable features. Enable only the features you want to use. You can incrementally enable components to best meet your project planning needs; however you must enable all the dimensions you want to include in the application the first time you enable features.

What Do You Need?

An EPM Cloud Service instance allows you to deploy and use one of the supported business processes. To deploy another business process, you must request another EPM Enterprise Cloud Service instance or remove the current business process.

  • Have Service Administrator access to an EPM Enterprise Cloud Service instance. The instance should not have a business process created.
  • Download the following import files:

Creating the Application

In this section, you create a Module-based Planning application.

  1. On the Enterprise landing page, for Planning, click SELECT.
    Landing page
  2. On the Planning landing page, for Create a new application, click START.
    Planning landing page
  3. In the Application Wizard, for General properties, enter or select the following:
    Detail Value
    Name EPMPLAN
    Description EPM Projects
    Application Type Modules
  4. Verify your selections and click Next.
    General properties
  5. In Details, for Time Period, accept the default: 12 Months.
  6. Set the Start and End year to: 2020 to 2029.
  7. Accept the following default time period selections:
    Detail Value
    First Month of Fiscal Year January
    Weekly Distribution Even Distribution
  8. Verify your selections.
    Time period selections
  9. For multicurrency, accept all default selections and click Next.
    Multicurrency
  10. Review application details and click Create.
    Review application details

    The application creation process takes a moment to complete.

    Application creation status - creating application

    Application creation status - refreshing database

    When the application creation process completes, an information message displays.

    You can click OK to proceed to the home page, or click Configure to proceed to the Configure page for modules.

    Application creation status completed
  11. Click Configure.

Enabling Features

In this section, you select which features in Projects to enable and set the application to display the Redwood Experience.

Selecting Features and Components

  1. On the Configure page, select Projects from the dropdown list.
    Configure page

    The Configure page for Projects is displayed.

    Configure page for Projects
  2. On the Configure page for Projects, click Enable Features.
  3. In Enable Features, select Project Type, and then under Internal Projects, select Indirect.
    Selecting project types

    You can enable Contract, Capital, and Indirect project types. In this tutorial, you enable Indirect projects.

    Indirect projects have a cost impact but don’t generate revenue. If a project is classified as Indirect, you can do only expense budgeting for the project. You can, however, plan financial and non-financial benefits of the project.

  4. Select Project Benefits, then select Financial and Non-Financial.
    Project Benefits

    For indirect and capital projects, an additional way to analyze project finances is by tracking project benefits. By planning project benefits, you can quantify the financial benefits to help justify the need for the project. You can also plan the non-financial benefits of a project, which can be used to justify a project and help measure a project's success.

  5. Select Expense, then:
    • Under Driver Based, select Labor and Equipment
    • Direct Input

    Expenses

    You can plan expenses for all project types.

  6. Scroll down to Map/Rename Dimensions.
  7. In Map/Rename Dimensions, review the preselected dimensions for Projects.
    Map/Rename Dimensions
  8. For Program, select Enable.
  9. In the upper-right, click Enable.
  10. At the confirmation message, click Yes.
    Confirmation message

    The enable process takes a moment to complete.

    Enable process
  11. At the information message, click OK.
    Information message
  12. Sign out and sign back into Planning.

Enabling the Redwood Experience

  1. On the home page, click Tools, then Appearance.
    Redwood
  2. In Appearance, select Enable Redwood Appearance.
  3. For Display Business Process Name, select No.
    Appearance
  4. Click Save.

    After saving, the application displays in the Redwood theme.

    Redwood experience applied

Specifying Application Settings

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), and under Application, click Settings.
    Go to Application Settings
  2. In Application Settings, under Number Formatting, set the Thousands Separator to Comma.
    Thousands Separator
  3. Under System Settings, select Display Users' Full Names.
    System Settings
  4. Click Save.
  5. At the information message, click OK.
    Information message

Importing Entities

In this section, you import entities as part of the configuration process.

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), then under Application, click Configure.
  2. On the Configure page, select Projects from the dropdown list.

    The Configure page for Projects displays enabled features. You can now start configuring components.

    Projects Components
  3. Click Entities.
  4. In Import Metadata for Entity, click Choose File.
    Import Metadata dialog

    Note:

    Depending on your browser, the button label may display Choose File or Browse.
  5. Navigate to where you saved Entity.csv, then select or open it.

    Once selected, it displays as:

    Import Entity
  6. Click Import.

    Tip:

    Oracle recommends validating your import file before running the import process. The import file included in this tutorial has been tested and validated.
  7. In Options, select Refresh Database if Import Metadata is successful and click OK.
    Options dialog
  8. At the information message, click OK.
    Information message
  9. In Import Metadata, click Close.
  10. On the Configure page for Projects, verify that the status for Entities shows as In Progress.
    Import entity status
  11. From the cards on top, click Jobs.
    Navigate to Jobs
  12. In Jobs, locate the following jobs and verify that they completed successfully:
    Jobs completed

Assigning Values to User Variables

User Variables were added when the business process was created. User variables act as filters in forms, enabling planners to focus only on certain members. In this section, you set values for user variables.

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), then under Tools, click User Preferences.
    User Preferences
  2. On the left, click User Variables.
    User variables
  3. For each variable, click its Member Selector (Member Selector) to select a member as the variable's value:
    User Variable Member
    Currency USD
    Entity Operations US
    Reporting Currency USD
    Scenario Plan
    Version Working
    Years FY21
  4. Verify your selections and click Save.
    User variables with selected Members
  5. At the information message, click OK.
    Information message

Setting the Timeframe and Granularity for Plans

In this section, you set up the timeframe and period granularity for Project plans.

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), then under Application, click Configure.
  2. On the Configure page, select Projects from the dropdown list.
  3. On the Configure page for Projects, click Planning and Forecast Preparation.
    Planning and Forecast Preparation

    The Planning and Forecast Preparation dialog is displayed.

  4. For Period, select Mar.
  5. For Plan Start Year, select Current Fiscal Year.
  6. Verify your selections:
    Fiscal year details
  7. For Plan, set all years to Monthly.
    Monthly planning

    Typically, projects are planned and calculated in detail monthly. If your organization plans using a different time period, make sure to select the appropriate time period in your application.

  8. Click Forecast.
    Forecast
  9. For Forecast, set all years to Monthly.
    Forecast monthly
  10. Click Save.
  11. At the validation message, click OK.
    Validation message
  12. Click Close.

Importing Job Codes

In this section, you import resource class members. The Resource Class consists of labor, material, and equipment codes. You import detailed jobs to use for planning project expenses.

Reviewing the Job Smart List

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), then under Create and Manage, click Smart Lists.
    Create Smartlist
  2. From the available Smart Lists, select Job and click Edit (Edit).
    Edit the Job smart list
  3. Click the Entries tab.
    Entries tab
  4. Note that there are no Job entries other than the OPF_Detailed_Jobs placeholder:
    Smart List Entries
  5. Click Cancel.

Adding Resource Class Members

  1. On the Configure page for Projects, click Resource Class.
    Resource Class
  2. In Import Metadata for Resource Class, click Choose File.
    Choose File

    Note:

    Depending on your browser, the button label may display Choose File or Browse.
  3. Navigate to where you saved Resource_Class.csv, then select or open it.

    Once selected, it displays as:

    Import Resource
  4. Click Import.

    Tip:

    Oracle recommends validating your import file before running the import process. The import file included in this tutorial has been tested and validated.
  5. In Options, select Refresh Database if Import Metadata is successful and click OK.
    Options dialog
  6. At the information message, click OK.
    Information message
  7. In Import Metadata, click Close.
  8. On the Configure page for Projects, verify that the status for Resource Class shows as In Progress.
  9. Optional: Navigate to Jobs to verify that the import process completed successfully.

Verifying the Imported Resource Class Members in the Job Smart List

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), then under Create and Manage, click Smart Lists.
    Create Smartlist
  2. From the available Smart Lists, select Job and click Edit (Edit).
    Edit the Job smart list
  3. Click the Entries tab.
    Entries tab
  4. Review the added Smart List entries:
    Smart List Entries
  5. Click Cancel.

Adding Expense Accounts

In this section, you import custom expense accounts to include in planning projects.

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), then under Application, click Configure.
  2. On the Configure page, select Projects from the dropdown list.
  3. On the Configure page for Projects, click Expense Accounts.
    Expense accounts
  4. Review the predefined expense accounts by changing the Category and Component dropdown list selections.
    Expense accounts
  5. For Category, select Other.
  6. For Component, select Total Other Expenses.
  7. Review the expense accounts in this category and component.
    Other Expenses
  8. Click Actions and select Import.
    Import
  9. In the Import dialog, click Choose File.
    Import dialog

    Note:

    Depending on your browser, the button label may display Choose File or Browse.
  10. Navigate to where you saved Expenses.xlsx, then select or open it.

    After the import completes, members are added to the Expense Accounts dialog for the selected category and component.

    Updated members
  11. Click Save.
  12. At the information message, click OK.
    Information message
  13. Click Close.

Adding a Custom Project Category Property

In this section, you create a Smart List and associate it with a project property.

Creating a Project Category Smart List

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), then under Create and Manage, click Smart Lists.
    Create Smartlist
  2. Click Create (Create).
  3. Enter the following properties:
    Property Value
    Smart List Project_Category
    Label Project Category
  4. Verify that entered the Smart List name and label correctly, and click the Entries tab.
    Smart List properties
  5. In Entries, click Actions and select Add.
    Adding entries
  6. Accept the default ID and enter the following properties:
    Name Label
    IT Information Technology
  7. Repeat steps 5 through 6 to add the following entries:
    Name Label
    NPD New Product Development
    MKT Marketing
    BT Business Transformation
    DT Digital Transformation
  8. Verify your entries and click Save.
    Smart list entries

Adding the Project Category Smart List to Project Properties

  1. Click Navigator (Navigator), then under Application, click Configure.
  2. On the Configure page, select Projects from the dropdown list.
  3. On the Configure page for Projects, click Project Properties.
    Project Properties
  4. In Project Properties, click Actions and select Add.
    Project Properties

    A new row is added to the Project Properties dialog.

    New row
  5. Enter the following member properties:
    Property Value
    Name Project Category
    Alias Project Category
    Time Balance Flow
    Data Type SmartList
    Smart Lists Project_Category
  6. Verify your entry and click Save.
    Project category
  7. At the information message, click OK.
    Information message
  8. Click Close.
  9. On the Configure page for Projects, click Actions and select Refresh Database.
    Refresh database
  10. In Refresh Database, click Create.
    Create job
  11. In the next Refresh Database, accept all default selections and click Refresh Database.
    Refresh database
  12. When prompted, click Refresh.
    Refresh db prompt

    Refreshing the database takes a moment to complete.

    Cube progress

    Cube progress

    Cube progress
  13. Click Finish.
  14. Click Close, twice to close both Refresh Database dialogs.

Adding Members to the Program Attribute

In this section, you add members to the Program attribute.

  1. From the cards on top, click Overview.
    Overview
  2. In Application, click Dimensions.
    Dimensions
  3. For Cube, select All.
    Cube
  4. Click Program.
    Program

    Edit Member Properties for Program is displayed.

    Program member properties
  5. Click Add Child (Add Child).
  6. In Add Child,for Number of members to add, enter 3 and click Apply.
    Add Child

    Three (3) rows were added to the grid.

    New rows
  7. Replaced the untitled member names with:
    • Transformation
    • New Tech
    • Management
  8. Verify your entries and click Save.
    Saving new members

    Grid cells change in color to confirm that the entries were saved.

    Saved entries
  9. Click Cancel.
  10. In Application - Dimensions, click Actions and select Refresh Database.
    Refresh database
  11. In Refresh Database, click Create.
    Create job
  12. In the next Refresh Database, accept all default selections and click Refresh Database.
    Refresh database
  13. When prompted, click Refresh.
    Refresh db prompt

    Refreshing the database takes a moment to complete.

  14. Click Finish.
  15. Click Close, twice to close both Refresh Database dialogs.

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