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Data Entry 123 Part 4 – Seamless integration in the OneStream Workflow

We’re almost there: in the first episode, we installed and configured Data Entry 123 from the XF Marketplace, then we created a selector and 2 forms in the second episode, then we added calculations to the forms. Now, we are going to add the forms in the Workflow. 

First Things First

Create a new Workflow Profile, in our case, we create a simple Forms Workflow Profile:

Assign Forms to Workflows with ‘Forms Usage’

Go back to the Data Entry 123 Form Builder and select ‘Form Usage’ in the upper left corner.

This is where we are making the forms available for a Workflow Profile.

Again, you will have the same logic where you can create a Form Set with Form Set Members.

Now, go to the Workflow Assignment tab to assign Form Sets to Workflow Profiles. All these steps will give you a lot of flexibility.

In our case, we are assigning the Volume Form Set we just created to the Forms.Forms Workflow Profile. Note that you can have different assignments for different scenarios.

As always, make sure you save your work…

Attaching Data Entry 123 Forms to a Workflow Profile

Go back to the Workflow Profile and change the workflow name to ‘Workspace’ or ‘Workspace, Certify’

Then select DE123AsWorkspace_DFM – Data Entry 123 (Workspace)

Save your work and voila, you’re done!

With one Workflow Profile, you can have multiple forms and folders, automatic calculations and a very nice and pleasant interface to use. You can jump from one cube to the other and create a mini application that will look very professional and that will satisfy your most exigent clients!

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DataEntry 123 Part 3 – Compute more with Calculations

On the first episode, we installed and configured Data Entry 123, on the second opus, we created a selector and two entry forms. That’s a very good start, it is time to look at calculations, we are going to copy data from one cube to the other when a form is opened or data is saved.

Adding Calculations to a Data Entry 123 solution

We wrote a simple calculation that takes the numbers from the Fiscal Year Cube and shifts periods to match the Calendar Year periods. There are plenty of Time functions within OneStream,that can be a very good subject for a later blog post and we used a Data Buffer to copy data from one slice of the cube to the other, that can be another very good blog post.

Let’s get started and open the Calculation Builder from Data Entry 123:

Again, the same logic is applied with Calculation Group and Calculations: Groups, lists, all modular…

In our case, all calculations are executed from the FY forms: we need to execute the rule FY2CY when we save data and execute CY2FY when we open the form. For this, we check the appropriate boxes: FY2CY with ‘Run On Save’ and CY2FY with  ‘Run On Open’:

Good to know: when you check ‘Show in List’ box, the calculation will show in the form. You can also personalize the order to which the calculations will show in the drop down.

Tweaking Calculations POVs

What I like the most with executing calculations is that you can tweak the POV for your rule specifically:

The form pulls data from the ‘Sample FY’ cube, the cube POV can be whatever you want, the forms will take this value because it is hardcoded in the Cube View. Now, what’s great is that with Data Entry 123, I can run the calculation from the ‘Sample FY’ cube for the rule ‘CY2FY’ and from the ‘Sample’ cube for the ‘CY2FY’ rule. The OneStream calculation engine will take the POV setup in the Calculation builder and it gives a lot of freedom to developers.

Same, you have flexibility for the Time dimension:

Note that the rule will use the POV value of the Time and add some tweaks to it for all Calc Time Types except the last one ‘Member Filter’ where you can use a value from a selector. I try to avoid ‘Member filter’ and prefer to use what is on your POV because I prefer to manage Time exclusively from the POV for more consistency but I am sure there are use cases where ‘Member Filter’ comes very handy.

Attaching Calculations to a Form

Now, all we have to do is to attach the rule to the form:

And verify results:

And we are almost done! We created a form with calculations and all data is in sync now! Last, we need to integrate our beautiful Data Entry 123 forms in the OneStream Workflow to create a killer application.

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DataEntry 123 Part 2 – Build more with less with Selectors

In the previous episode, we installed and configured Data Entry 123. Now it is time to put the solution to work! In this post, I will show you how to create selectors. You will see that selectors are extremely configurable: your imagination is the limit. 

Let’s imagine our favorite coffee company, the AVBS Co has been acquired by a Japanese conglomerate like Mitsui (a company that started with miso soup by the way). We need to input and report numbers in both Calendar (January to December) and Fiscal Year (April to March).

Creating a Cube View

Let’s say we have a Cube View where we want to enter coffee volumes in tons for each product and for each Region. We need to create a selector for the Entity member (the region) and then we need to create two forms: one for a Calendar view and one for a Fiscal view.

Creating a Selector

Let’s go to Data Entry 123 to create a fancy selector:

Go to Selector List and open click on the + to create a new list:

We need to create a list of Entities, for this, you need to add a ‘List Name’, a ‘Label’, the ‘Member Filter’, which members do you want to show? And you need to select the dimension for your members and filter.

Don’t forget to hit the floppy disk button to save your work.

You can see your list with the Preview button:

Now, we need to include this list in a Selector Bar. Everything is modular in OneStream so the same list can be used in different bars that can be used in different forms. It’s up to you.

Create a Selector Bar, save it then add the Selector List to the Selector Bar. Each list refers to a Parameter. You will call this parameter from the CubeView, the parameter is E_DFM in our case. Don’t forget to save your work.

Calling a Selector from a Cube View

Go back to your Cube View and open the Object Lookup (the pair of glasses)

From there, find the object E_DFM, you can type part of the name if you don’t want to scroll down and look for it:

Copy to Clipboard and paste it for the Entity field:

Save your work and now let’s look at the results. For this, we need to link the form and the selector together with the Form Builder.

Creating your first Data Entry 123 Form

Go back to Dashboards -> Data Entry 123 and select Forms

The logic is the same as creating a Selector: you create a Group first then the item, so you can have the same form with different selectors giving different results.

If you cannot find your Cube View, make sure you are pulling from the correct Cube View Group in the Settings page

You can Preview the result clicking on the Preview button: the highlighted button

You will get a nice preview:

It’s not looking too bad, note that the rows in Green are totals and cannot be a direct input (you need to spread values to enter data at this level)

Duplicate Entry forms at a crazy fast pace

Now, let’s create a form for the Fiscal year in no time:

We need to duplicate the Cube View then use the form Designer to create the form in Data entry 123

Select the new cube:

Give a name your new CubeView. The only change you need to make is to change the Cube  property for your Cube View and use the Sample FY Cube

Create the form

Preview:

Note that the first period is April. Great, we now have 2 forms in Data Entry 123: one for Fiscal Year and another one for Calendar Year. In the next chapter, Compute more with Calculations, we are going to attach calculations to the forms to move data from one cube to the other.