The following notes can help you use the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard effectively. They suggest ways to avoid unexpected results and can help you troubleshoot issues that might occur.
Avoid modifying worksheets created by the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard—Modifying those worksheets in any way other than adding Crystal Ball EPM data can lead to unexpected or invalid results.
Strategic Finance entity is locked while the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard is active—To avoid data synchronization issues, you cannot close or modify a Strategic Finance entity while the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard is open in Microsoft Excel with Crystal Ball EPM. If it appears that Crystal Ball EPM, Microsoft Excel, and the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard are all closed but the entity is still locked, check the Processes tab of the Windows Task Manager and close any instances of EXCEL.EXE that are still open.
Existing Strategic Finance data on the active worksheet is removed when the Finish button is clicked—If you are running the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard and the active worksheet already has Strategic Finance data from a previous run, that data is overwritten with new data when you click Finish in the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard.
Format of automatically saved Strategic Finance workbooks depends on the Microsoft Excel version—When you run a simulation on an unsaved Strategic Finance workbook, the workbook is automatically saved. If you are using Microsoft Excel 2003, the workbook is saved as an .xls file. If you are using Microsoft Excel 2007 or later, the workbook is saved as an .xlsx file. Any macros in the unsaved workbook are discarded when it is automatically saved.
If the hidden CB_DATA_ worksheet opens, minimize it without modifying it—If users select File, File Management, Read Excel File in Strategic Finance and then select a Crystal Ball EPM model workbook, the hidden CB_DATA_ worksheet opens when the workbook is imported into Strategic Finance. Because Crystal Ball EPM data is stored on this hidden worksheet, the worksheet should not be modified in any way to avoid corrupting the data.
Invalid value 65535 is entered for assumptions defined against deactivated accounts—If the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard is used to create a Strategic Finance worksheet, and then an assumption is defined on an account that has been turned off in the Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance entity, a value of 65535 is entered into the assumption cell during the simulation. This is an invalid value indicating that the assumption cannot be properly entered into the spreadsheet. No valid data is passed into the simulation and Crystal Ball EPM responds as if #N/A appeared as the original value in the assumption cell.
Avoid running more than one instance of Crystal Ball EPM loaded in Microsoft Excel against Strategic Finance. If you start Oracle Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management twice on a machine and run the Strategic Finance Setup Wizard in both instances of Microsoft Excel with Crystal Ball, the same instance of Strategic Finance is used in both sessions. This situation is similar to two users accessing the same unlocked database and data integrity issues can occur. Similarly, it is possible to run two Strategic Finance simulations at the same time from separate instances of Crystal Ball and Microsoft Excel/Crystal Ball against the same Strategic Finance entity. This should also be avoided, even if the instances are on separate machines.