HFM Student Reference Manual

Hyperion Financial Management

Hyperion Financial
Management
Developed in Partnership with and based on work by
Eric Erikson, 123OLAP



HYPERION FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 11.1.1
IMPLEMENTATION BOOT CAMP

Copyright Notice

Copyright 2009 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.
Based upon the copyrighted works of:
123OLAP
P.O. Box 459
Plymouth CA 95669
No portion of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval systems, for any
purpose other than the purchaser’s personal use, without the express written permission of Oracle
Corporation.

Trademarks
Windows/Windows 2000/Windows XP, and Microsoft Office
are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Excel, Windows/Windows 2000/Windows XP, and Microsoft Office are products of Microsoft
Corporation.
Essbase is a registered trademark of Oracle.

Other product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.
Disclaimer
The information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Neither Oracle Corporation nor 123 OLAP shall be liable for errors contained herein or consequential
damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.



TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
About the Author ........................................................................................ 1

Chapter 1 - Overview of Oracle Hyperion
Financial Management
Financial Reporting .......................................................................................................... 1-2
HFM Structure and Design ............................................................................................. 1-2
What is a Dimension? ........................................................................................................... 1-2
Members ............................................................................................................................... 1-4
Hierarchies - The Family Tree .............................................................................................. 1-5
Point of View ......................................................................................................................... 1-5
Drilling Up and Down a Dimension ....................................................................................... 1-6
Oracle EPM .......................................................................................................................... 1-6
HFM Server Architecture................................................................................................ 1-6
Summary............................................................................................................................... 1-7

Chapter 2a – Creating Applications – Profile and
Metadata - Classic
Application Profile ......................................................................................................... 2a-1
Creating the Application ............................................................................................... 2a-4

Managing Metadata ........................................................................................................ 2a-5
Loading and Extracting Metadata ............................................................................. 2a-9
Accounts .......................................................................................................................... 2a-10
Application Settings ..................................................................................................... 2a-12
Consolidation Methods ............................................................................................... 2a-14
Currencies ....................................................................................................................... 2a-15
Custom 1-4 ...................................................................................................................... 2a-15


Entity ................................................................................................................................. 2a-17
Scenario ........................................................................................................................... 2a-18
Organization by Period ................................................................................................ 2a-19
Putting Everything Together ..................................................................................... 2a-20
Summary........................................................................................................................... 2a-21

Chapter 2b – EPM Architect
EPMA vs Classic ............................................................................................................. 2b-2
EPMA Components .......................................................................................................... 2b-2
Dimension Maintenance ............................................................................................... 2b-3
Accessing EPMA .............................................................................................................. 2b-3
Application Maintenance ............................................................................................ 2b-10
Application Deployment .............................................................................................. 2b-13
Data Synchronization ................................................................................................... 2b-13
Application Upgrade..................................................................................................... 2b-17
Task Automation ........................................................................................................... 2b-18
Summary........................................................................................................................... 2b-19

Chapter 3 – Data Loading
The Native Format ............................................................................................................ 3-1
Data Loading Alternatives ............................................................................................. 3-6

Data Extracting Alternatives ...................................................................................... 3-11
Copying and Clearing Data .......................................................................................... 3-13
Summary............................................................................................................................. 3-15

Chapter 4 – HFM Rules
The Basics ........................................................................................................................... 4-1
Grouping Rules - Subroutines ....................................................................................... 4-2
Function and Dimension Syntax .................................................................................. 4-3
Variables .............................................................................................................................. 4-3
Restricting When Rules Run.......................................................................................... 4-4


Common Calculations ..................................................................................................... 4-7
Functions – Repeating Code........................................................................................ 4-11
Easy Performance Improvement – With HS ........................................................... 4-11
Calculating Manager ...................................................................................................... 4-12
Summary............................................................................................................................. 4-12

Chapter 5 – Creating and Building Lists
Member Lists ...................................................................................................................... 5-1
Creating Lists ..................................................................................................................... 5-1
Loading and Extracting Lists ........................................................................................ 5-3
Summary............................................................................................................................... 5-4

Chapter 6 – Shared Services
Security Basics .................................................................................................................. 6-1
Provisioning Users and Groups .................................................................................... 6-2
Creating and Assigning Classes .................................................................................. 6-5
The Other Way (for Classic Applications) ................................................................ 6-8
Organizing the Design .................................................................................................... 6-9

Summary............................................................................................................................. 6-10
Lifecycle Management ................................................................................................. 6-10
Shared Services – Other Features ............................................................................ 6-12

Chapter 7 – HFM Administrative Stuff
HFM Copy Application – Classic Only......................................................................... 7-1
HFM Utilities ....................................................................................................................... 7-7
HFM Administration ....................................................................................................... 7-10
System Messages ........................................................................................................... 7-10
Task and Data Audit ...................................................................................................... 7-11
Task Automation ............................................................................................................. 7-13
Other Administration Menu Items ............................................................................. 7-16
Process Control and Validations ............................................................................... 7-16


Creating Data Entry Forms .......................................................................................... 7-19
HFM User Group .............................................................................................................. 7-24
Typical Administrator Life ........................................................................................... 7-25

Chapter 8 – HFM End User Basics
Logging In and Logging Out .......................................................................................... 8-1
Tasklists ............................................................................................................................... 8-3
Creating Tasklists ............................................................................................................... 8-4
Adding and Saving Tasklists .............................................................................................. 8-5
Data Grids ............................................................................................................................ 8-6
Creating a Grid ................................................................................................................... 8-6
Modifying the Layout .......................................................................................................... 8-7
Member Selections ............................................................................................................. 8-8
Mulitple Member Selections for Rows and Columns .......................................... 8-10
Working With Data Grids ............................................................................................... 8-12

Grid Background Colors ................................................................................................... 8-13
Common Data Grids ......................................................................................................... 8-14
Data Entry - Multiple Ways........................................................................................... 8-14
Data Entry Forms ............................................................................................................ 8-15
Journals.............................................................................................................................. 8-16
Journals Overview ............................................................................................................ 8-16
Creating Journals ............................................................................................................. 8-17
Journal Templates ............................................................................................................ 8-20

Chapter 9 – HFM End User Next Steps
Intercompany Reporting – Some Background ......................................................... 9-1
Running an Intercompany Report ............................................................................... 9-2
Creating/Modifying an Intercompany Report........................................................... 9-6
Process Control ................................................................................................................. 9-7


Chapter 10 – HFM End User Reporting
Running Reports .............................................................................................................. 10-1
Hyperion Smart View for Microsoft Office ............................................................. 10-4
Smart View Functions for Microsoft Excel ............................................................ 10-6
HFM Forms within Microsoft Excel ........................................................................... 10-8
Ad Hoc Analysis .............................................................................................................. 10-8
Opening Reports in Microsoft Office ...................................................................... 10-10
Using Smart Tags .......................................................................................................... 10-12

Chapter 11 – Financial Reporting Studio
Laying Out a Report........................................................................................................ 11-3
Selecting Members ......................................................................................................... 11-6
Adding, Removing,and Moving Member Selections ........................................................... 11-7
Prompts and Current Point of View .................................................................................... 11-7

Placing Selections into Separate Rows .............................................................................. 11-8
Relationship Function Selections........................................................................................ 11-8
Relationship Function Alternatives ................................................................................... 11-10
Advanced Selections ........................................................................................................ 11-11
Lists Tab ........................................................................................................................... 11-12
Editing Selections Manually .............................................................................................. 11-12
Limiting the Point of View Selections ................................................................................ 11-13
Additional Rows/Columns ................................................................................................. 11-14
Previewing the Report ................................................................................................. 11-15
Saving a Report .............................................................................................................. 11-15
Page Dimension ............................................................................................................. 11-16
Text Rows/Columns within Grids ...................................................................................... 11-22
Inserting Functions ........................................................................................................... 11-23
Formulas ........................................................................................................................... 11-29
Charting ............................................................................................................................ 11-31
Chart Layout ..................................................................................................................... 11-32
Types of Charts................................................................................................................. 11-32
Chart Properties ................................................................................................................ 11-33


Chapter 12 – Workspace Reporting
Workspace ......................................................................................................................... 12-2
Logging into Workspace ..................................................................................................... 12-2
Books ................................................................................................................................... 12-7
Creating Books ................................................................................................................... 12-8
Deleting Reports from a Book........................................................................................... 12-10
Selecting Members for Books ........................................................................................... 12-10
Previewing Books ............................................................................................................. 12-12
Saving Books .................................................................................................................... 12-14
Book Setup ....................................................................................................................... 12-15

Batches ............................................................................................................................. 12-16
Scheduling Batches .......................................................................................................... 12-18
Batch Scheduler ............................................................................................................... 12-22
Canceling Batches............................................................................................................ 12-24
Batch Outputs ................................................................................................................... 12-24
Snapshots ........................................................................................................................ 12-26
Assigning Access to Snapshots ....................................................................................... 12-27
Batch Comman Line Processing .............................................................................. 12-28


I

Introduction

About the Author
The contents of this course are based on the work of Eric Erikson
Eric Erikson is a Hyperion Certified Professional™ in Hyperion Financial Management and
Hyperion Enterprise. With experience working with Hyperion Enterprise since 1993 and
Hyperion Financial Management since 2000, he has been exposed to hundreds of
consolidation and reporting applications for a wide variety of industries. Eric’s broad
consulting background includes working for Hyperion Solutions for several years and a large
Hyperion partner for three. While at Hyperion Eric began working with Hyperion Financial
Management before its commercial release. His technical skills encompass all aspects of
implementing these products. Eric is an active CPA licensed by the state of North Carolina
and has MS and BSBA degrees in Accounting from Appalachian State University.


I-2

1

Chapter

Overview of Oracle Hyperion
Financial Management

T

he focus of this Chapter is to review Oracle Hyperion Financial Management
(“HFM”) and understand the dimensional concepts. The first step is to frame where
HFM fits into an organization. Next is explanation of some key concepts of HFM
such as the application structure and design, dimensions and attributes, the hierarchical
relationships and terminology used throughout the product. We’ll finish up by talking about
the Hyperion product family and HFM’s server architecture. By the end of this chapter
students have the background necessary for the remainder of the course.

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Chapter 1: Overview

Financial Reporting

Financial reporting, at its core, is about creating balance sheet, profit and loss, cash flow, and
accompanying reports for a business. While there are many differences from one company to

another, there are many similarities. Many of these similarities are determined by GAAP –
generally accepted accounting principles. For example, year to date net income should be
added to a company’s retained earnings balance.
To provide the ability to report, companies use one or more chart of accounts to categorize the
data in their general ledger. Some accounts may have additional detail, like a list of
states/provinces for sales tax or a product family for revenue accounts.
Companies also have an organizational structure. This could be by legal entity, by cost center,
by manager, or a combination. For each entity a set of reports is required.
For a few companies the reporting for the overall company is a simple matter of adding the
accounts together across the organizational units. Usually, however, there are additional tasks,
such as currency translation or eliminating any intercompany balances or ownerships.
Along with consolidating the data, the data must be controlled. Approval of journal entries,
electronic certification, and controlled access (who can see what and when) are all features
that accountants and auditors expect from a consolidation system.
HFM is Oracle’s module for financial consolidation. The product was built with web
deployment and support for hundreds of users. Its predecessors extend back into the early
1980s when a company called IMRS developed and marketed a DOS product called Micro
Control. In 1991 the next generation product, with a Windows interface and file storage
intended for a file server, was released. Initially this product was called Hyperion; later the
company changed its name from IMRS to Hyperion and changed the product name to
Enterprise. HFM is the latest in this line, being released in 2000. While each product improves
on its predecessor in terms of functionality and architecture, some features conceptually work
the same way, as some basic accounting principles have not changed in that time!

HFM Structure and Design

Data in HFM is stored across a number of dimensions.
What is a Dimension?

Dimensions are parameters or pointers to an amount. Each amount placed into HFM will

have 12 dimensions defining the reference point for that amount.
The Basic Six…
Consider this sentence for an example of the basic six: Actual Net Income for Total
Company in June 2009 on a Year to Date basis was 100. In this sentence there are 6
dimensions:
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From the example…
Actual
Net Income
Total Company
June
2008
Year to Date

Chapter 1: Overview

What this is / other
choices might have been
Type of data
Budget, Forecast
Account
Total Assets, Sales, Taxes
Organizational Unit
Division, Cost Center

Time Period
Quarter1, Week1
Calendar or Fiscal Year
2002, 2007, 2020
View
Periodic, Quarter to Date

In HFM the dimension
is called …
Scenario
Account
Entity
Period
Year
View

The Next Five – Account Details…
There are five other dimensions that relate specifically to detail in the chart of accounts. The
first of the five is Intercompany Partner. If division A is booking intercompany sales with
division B, for instance, the account would be intercompany sales and the ICP dimension
would indicate that the sale was to B. For non-intercompany accounts, the partner is simply
[ICP None].
The other four are optional (each company specifies which to use and how) and can provide a
great deal of flexibility. Called Custom Dimensions, they allow for a greater level of detail
and can be used differently across accounts. For example, Sales may be reported by state,
customer, product, and sales rep; whereas Salaries may be reported by state and job grade. If
the application is designed appropriately, the states can be shared in both cases.
By having the ICP and custom dimensions reporting is easier and much more flexible than if
the detail was just stored in multiple accounts. Maintenance is also easier – in the state
example above, a new state would only need to be added once to the custom dimension vs.

twice (once for the sales account and once for the salaries account) and would apply to all
accounts to which the custom dimension is assigned.
The Twelfth – Consolidation Detail…
The last dimension is a bit different from the others in that it is not something that is based
within the company’s operations (like accounts, entities, products, etc.). The Value dimension
is used to show the detail of the consolidation of data from a member in the entity dimension
to its parent. There are various details available, like before and after currency translation and
before and after intercompany eliminations. Also, journal adjustments are segregated from
data loaded from the general ledger or other data sources. Data starts at the bottom, works its
way up the Value dimension to the parent entity where, after added together with the data
from the other children of the parent, the new data starts at the bottom again. Note: more
about the “children” and “parent” references below.
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Chapter 1: Overview

The member labels and the hierarchy for the Value dimension are predetermined.

The Value dimension looks as shown to
the left. The members in < > are specific
to the entity, regardless of the parent. The
[ ] members represent a combination of
the parent and entity. Data from a single
entity can consolidate differently based
upon the designated parent.

A parent entity is the sum of its children’s
[Contribution Total] members. This sum
feeds into <Entity Currency> at the
parent and the process starts over from
the bottom.

The commonly used ones are:
<Entity Currency>
<Entity Curr Adjs>
<Entity Curr Total>
<Parent Currency>
<Parent Curr Adjs>
<Parent Curr Total>
[Proportion]
[Elimination]
[Contribution]

Data loaded from the general ledger or manual input
Local currency journal adjustments
Sum of the first two
<Entity Curr Total> after currency translation
Translated currency journal adjustments
Sum of the previous two
Data after translation and ownership calculations
Intercompany and other eliminations – note this member
ONLY shows the elimination entries, not the full balances.
Usually the final amounts going from the entity to its parent.

Members

Members in HFM are the unique elements making up a dimension. Some sort of text or
numeric descriptor defines every member. This is referred to as a label. For example, in a
customer dimension, unique customer names or numbers may define the hierarchy of that
dimension. Each of these is a member. In addition, the regions that the customers may
belong to (the groupings) are also members. In other words, members are all the elements
that define the hierarchy of a dimension.
It is important to understand that member names must be unique in HFM within a
dimension. For example, Cash in Bank and Petty Cash cannot both be labeled as account 100.
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Chapter 1: Overview

Depending on the dimension there are various attributes or details that the system stores and
provides different functionality accordingly. The most common attribute is description, like
the description for account 100 might be “Cash.”
Hierarchies - The Family Tree

Hmmm….. What were those “children” and “parent” references about?
Dimensions have a natural hierarchy associated with them. As an example, think of a
company that has sales offices in their entity dimension. The lowest level of members would
be the sales office: Charlotte, Omaha, San Jose. The level above that may be a region: East,
Midwest, and West. The top level may be the country. Each lower level of the dimension is
more specific. In HFM terms the sales offices are children of the regions and the regions are
parents of the sales offices.
Another example: this time using the Account dimension. Total Assets may be made of

Current Assets and Long Term Assets. Under Current Assets are Cash, Accounts Receivable,
and Prepaids.
Any member that does not have a child – the lowest level – is called a base level member. The
hierarchy provides multiple benefits. First, the hierarchy defines the rollup. To the right, the
children of Current Assets are added together. If there
was a liability account among the asset accounts, like
Allowance for Doubtful Accounts, HFM would pick that
up (account type is one of the attributes for accounts) and
do the correct math. Also, the hierarchy allows for easy
report writing, like “Children of Current Assets.” The
advantage here is that if another child is added later, like
Inventory, then the report picks it up automatically. The
third advantage is for drilldowns, meaning a user can look
at Current Assets and then click and see the detail underneath.
There may be multiple hierarchies within a dimension. Entities are typically rolled up based on
a legal hierarchy, a management hierarchy, and others. Accounts may be rolled together
differently for US GAAP vs. IFRS reporting. The key thing is that base level data is stored
once. Members can roll into multiple parents for as many types of reporting as needed.
Dimension members are either base level members or they are parent level members.
Point of View

When looking for a specific amount in HFM, all 12 dimensions are required (the custom
dimensions, if not needed, use [None] as the default member similar to the ICP dimension
using [ICP None]). The point of view is the specification of each member for the 12
dimensions. Another way to say it is that the point of view is what the user wants to see, like
Year to Date Actual Net Income for Total Company in June 2009.

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Chapter 1: Overview

Drilling Up and Down a Dimension

Since the dimensions are organized with hierarchies, users can navigate in HFM by drilling
down (zooming in) the hierarchy or by drilling up (zooming out). This makes building
reports intuitive as you navigate the natural structure of each dimension.

Oracle EPM

HFM is the lead Financial Reporting & Compliance product in the Oracle Enterprise
Performance Management, Fusion Edition suite. The below diagram shows the major
components of the suite: HFM is the main “Financial Reporting and Compliance”
component.

HFM Server Architecture

HFM was designed to support any number of users that a company would have involved in
month-end consolidation and reporting. There are multiple logical layers that can grow as
needs warrant.
•
•
•
•

End users – end users connect via a web browser or Microsoft Office

Web layer – the web layer provides the web content to end users
Application layer – the application layer contains all of the intelligence and performs
all of the processing for HFM
Database layer – the database layer stores the data, metadata, web components, etc. in
a relational database
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For a small implementation, the web and application layers may reside on one physical server.
As the implementation size increases, these layers are first separated to different physical
servers and then additional servers are added to each layer.

Summary

HFM has 12 dimensions that are used to store the amounts. Each dimension is made of
members, some of which are base level members. Members are organized hierarchically with
children rolling into one or more parents. The point of view is the specification by the user of
the data that they want to see. HFM is part of a broader suite and is architected to
accommodate different numbers of users.

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2a
Chapter

Creating Applications – Profile and
Metadata - Classic

T

he focus of this Chapter is to review how to create and build applications using the
“classic” method. The first part is creating the profile, which defines the Year, Period,
and View dimensions along with languages. The other dimensions, currencies, and
application settings follow. Throughout are performance considerations to effect an efficient
design.

Application Profile

The application profile is the first piece to be created. The profile defines the years, periods,
and views available in the application. These items cannot be changed once the application
has been created – to change something, the admin will need to recreate the application and
reload everything.

Profiles are created in the Windows client. From the left frame, select Define Application
Profile. The interface pops up with icons across the top to guide the admin in the required
steps.

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Languages – HFM can store descriptions for entities, accounts, etc. for up to 10 languages.
Users select which they prefer. Generally add the languages that will likely be used, even if the
language will not be used soon.

The third screen is Define Calendar. This window sets up the time periods that will be
available. If using a standard monthly/quarterly calendar, the left side has selections to quickly
build the calendar. If something different is needed, the right hand side is used to establish the
base periods and a prefix if desired. The default is to number the custom periods sequentially:
this can be changed on a later screen. At the bottom is the starting year and number of years
to be available.

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When thinking of the start year, think of the history to be loaded. In addition, a previous year
to that may be needed to provide ending balance sheet balances.
For the number of years, consider the number of years the application will be used before
business requirements call for a complete rebuild. If long range planning is being considered,
then more years may be needed. Setting the number at 15 to 20 is common.
Most applications have months as the lowest period. If a greater frequency is
being considered, like weekly, then consideration should be given to the
importance of the data and whether it should be in a different application or
even a different Hyperion tool like Essbase. HFM builds tables within the
database to store data and columns are created for all periods whether used or
not – if the profile has weeks and a scenario is created that only specifies
monthly data, the table will still have fields for the weeks. These extra fields
adversely impact performance; however, the impact may be negligible for
smaller applications or immaterial if the frequent data is required.
To give a sense of how performance decreases as periods are added, a data record with
monthly periods consumes about 120 bytes of memory. Going to weekly data, the same
record consumes about 480 bytes. A daily data record consumes about 3,300 bytes. The more
memory consumed by each record means that fewer records can be loaded into memory at
any one time, which is important for consolidations and reporting.
The fourth screen is for the View dimension. Each period level, like Year, Quarter, Month,
needs a view member. Descriptions can be provided in each language.

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The fifth screen is to edit the periods. Periods can be moved around and the labels changed as
desired. The months are generally changed to have abbreviated labels with full descriptions.

The last screen is to save the profile. The location is not important to HFM as the profile will
be uploaded; however, the file should be kept in a safe location for future use and reference as
needed.
Creating the application profile only takes a few minutes; however, the consequences last
through the lifetime of the application.

Creating the Application

With a profile, the application can now be created. Creating the application can be done either
through the Windows client (click on Create Application on the left) or via the web. Either
way, the information is the same. Below is the web version.

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To reach this screen, log into the Workspace. From the Navigate menu select Administer,
Classic Application Administration, Consolidation Administration. Then, on the left side of

the resulting window click on Create Application.
Fill in the information and click Create. Application labels cannot start with a number and are
limited to 10 characters. See the help guide for more information. The Financial Management
Web Server URL will typically use port 19000 and end with /hfm. If the user management
project is blank then that will need to be created first within Shared Services.
The Year, Period, and View dimensions will be created. The value dimension is built in. The
remaining dimensions as well as some settings remain to be done. Also, the user who created
the application has been provisioned in security to be the administrator, but no one else has
access.

Managing Metadata

This section focuses on building the entities, accounts, custom dimensions, scenarios,
currencies and application settings. Some of these only take a few minutes (ie, currencies) –
some take longer. There are some basic concepts that work for all dimensions and will be
covered first. Specific information will follow for each item: commonly used attributes and
design and performance considerations.
Working with metadata can be done in a few different ways. This chapter will cover two – the
Metadata Manager way and the Notepad way. There are a couple of other methods not
covered here – EPM Architect and Data Relationship Management.
Metadata Manager is part of the HFM Windows client. It provides an interface for building
and maintaining the dimensions. It is best used for small amounts of initial entry or changes.
Working with Notepad or another text editor, large scale changes can be made – this method
is preferred for the initial build (like converting an existing 2,000 member chart of accounts
into HFM).

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