FP&A Lite for Unit4 Financials by Coda
Factsheet
July 2023
FP&A Lite for Unit4 Financials by Coda
Learn how to get started with FP&A Lite
FP&A Lite helps transform Unit4 Financials by Coda into a more strategic platform with better dashboarding for analysis, planning and forecasting.
What is FP&A Lite and how can it improve my Unit4 Financials system?
June 2023
What is FP&A Lite and how can it improve my Unit4 Financials system?
For users of Unit4 Financials by Coda, FP&A Lite puts self-service analytics at your fingertips, allowing you to discover and understand financial information behaviour through a single lens. Discover more about this easy-to-deploy option and how you can put it to work…
At a glance: what is FP&A Lite?
FP&A Lite is a strategic cloud-only add-on for customers of Unit4 Financials in a cloud environment. It gives users the power to perform self-service analysis on financial profit & loss, balance sheet, and cash flow statements in a systemised, centralised environment, integrated directly with your financial data source. And the best bit is that it is now part of U4F cloud!
Placing on-demand analytics capabilities in the hands of ordinary finance team users, the solution simplifies complex data into meaningful insight to support better decision-making. In this way, FP&A Lite provides a valuable starting point on your journey to full financial planning and analytics capabilities.
Bridging the analytics gap: what needs to change?
Why do you need FP&A Lite?
To answer this, it’s worth thinking about the tools and processes that finance teams generally turn to when they want to interrogate financial data. For existing Unit4 Financials users, the standard technique tends to involve that workhorse of the finance department, Microsoft Excel.
You have a query and want to delve into your P&L, or perhaps you want to build up a more detailed picture of your cash flow or gain a better understanding of your balance sheet position. In all likelihood, your workflow will involve using the Unit4 Financials Excel add-in to pull the relevant data out, enabling you (in theory) to slice, dice, interrogate, and generate the answers you need.
Very quickly, however, the limitations of Excel can become all too obvious. Excel works well as a personal productivity tool. However, once you have multiple team members all involved in interrogating the data, adding input to spreadsheets – perhaps generating their own documents – you have inevitable issues with versioning confusion, compounded by the absence of any or adequate audibility controls within the solution. Let alone a disconnected system that does not drill through to the underlying source in U4F. All of this results in a lack of trust, wasted time, and stagnation in decision making.
The manual ‘lifting and shifting’ inherent in the process is time-consuming, resource-intensive, and prone to error. What becomes abundantly clear – particularly for a finance department that’s striving to do more with less, at the same time as focusing more on strategy – is that finance professionals need a more effective method for generating the answers to queries related to financial data: one that’s accurate, easy-to-use, and also easy-to-deploy.
The answer: FP&A Lite
FP&A Lite removes the need for time-consuming, error-prone manual data extraction. In its place, you get a single, centralised location for analysis and reporting, integrated directly with the original data source. Single click drill through to transactions to boost confidence and save time. Dynamic graphical representations for self service analytics. All of which puts you back in control of your financial data.
So how does it work? Let’s say you are looking at your out of the box FP&A Lite P&L, Balance Sheet, or Cash Flow, focusing on an individual cost centre via your FP&A Lite dashboard. You can use up to eight elements to facilitate the dice and slice analysis within the dashboard. When reviewing your data at leaf level and you want to investigate an individual figure. Simply click on the value to drill directly through to Unit4 Financials to investigate the underlying individual transactions.
What’s more, through a range of visualisations, you can see instantly how, for instance, revenue and expenses are split, and what makes up the individual items – right down to leaf level. Drag and drop to update the visualisation as needed – change the context of the data, pivot effortlessly, interact and understand, change and compare the actuals for different date ranges.
Likewise, on Cash Flow, get key visualisations on what’s driving the cash. Use the icicle chart to drill through your group structure. Define and track your KPIs. Drill down to different elements within the income statement, analyse the P&L contribution for different periods and spot any unusual patterns occurring across the numbers.
Discover more
FP&A Lite provides your finance team with a much-needed boost to their analysis and reporting toolkit, making it much easier to discover, flag up and make sense of the information behind your P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.
All system users can create their own dashboards for greater insights into organisational financial data. These can be shared as a public dashboard for increased collaboration and to support decision-making across the business.
FP&A Lite also provides a valuable stepping stone towards the adoption of full financial planning and analysis capabilities. The planning, budgeting, and forecasting component of FP&A can be instantly switched on through the adoption of the full Unit4 Financials FP&A solution, as the next natural step in your digital transformation journey.
FP&A Lite is therefore designed as an essential but easily deployable enhancement to your existing Unit4 Financials stack: an easy-to-implement bridge between legacy Excel-based workflows and full integrated planning capabilities. Best of all, FP&A Lite can be integrated into your existing Unit4 Financials setup in as little as five days.
Want to find out more about Unit4 FP&A Lite? For further information or to book an online demonstration, please get in touch with Millennium Consulting.
Unit4 Financials 2023 Q2 Release
June 2023
Unit4 Financials by Coda 2023 Q2 was made available on 13 June 2023.
The new release contains all the previous Unit4 Financials functionality and new features. Plus, many additional customer requested fixes, highlighting the importance of logging enhancements via Unit4’s Community 4U.
Highlights of the 2023 Q2 release include:
Administration
- Output Device Master
- Logon Event Housekeeping
- Scheduled Tasks
Technical
- New WildFly scripts
- Added HTTP security headers in WildFly
- ODBC Driver for SQL Server
Deprecated features
- 32-bit XL is deprecated. We recommend the use of 64-bit XL.
- The Message Board feature in Administration is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release.
General Fixes/Updates
An error is no longer shown when creating an Element Authorisation Rule Master that references Entity Masters which have disabled Element Statuses.
- Allowed user to save a message transport master when the password contains an asterisk.
- It is now possible to add a new field to a Flexi-Field Master without removing the associated Metadata Object Definition join from all affected Dataviews. The new vocabulary will have to be added to any required Dataviews manually.
- It is now possible to remove a generated matching line without getting an error when using a Tabular Input Template Master or when resolving the document before posting.
- ITK is not disabled by database connection problems during server start.
- All repository objects, including attachments, are now written to the disk, which allows for virus scanning before they are saved.
- The response returned by the ComSelectorMaster.List service now matches the schema.
- The response returned by the GenericBrowse.SelectForTransaction service now matches the schema.
- The response returned by the PresenterMaster.Get service now matches the schema.
- Element Long Name will also be updated when the Element Name is edited in Assisted Element. Reloading the Element will now reload the Long Name correctly if it exists.
- ‘Negative rate calculated’ errors in matching have been fixed.
- Account Summary now allows changes to be saved when it is accessed from a homepage/content provider.
- When running a scheduled task manually, the confirmation message has been enhanced.
- Degrading performance during matching and other applications has been addressed.
- When the Credit Limit required checkbox is ticked in Assisted Element, the user is no longer returned to the template code selection screen. Unticking the Credit Limit required checkbox will reset the Credit Limit to 0.
- ITK Data Editor now saves changes to monetary and other big numerical values correctly.
- Documents posted to intray with invalid data no longer introduce a checksum error.
- The ITK INPF process step will now handle UTF-8 with BOM encoded input files.
- When performing a quick print of a pay proposal, document lines are no longer duplicated when an External Reference URL field is populated and specified on the Selected Details presenter on the Pay/Collect master.
- When retrieving large amount of data using Generic Browse, the amount of memory used is reduced.
- The Tablelink transfer client (API) no longer causes the system to hang.
- An error is now given if you try to use assisted element with an umbrella element.
- Returning from viewing a log no longer writes an error stack trace to the container log.
- A serious error is no longer displayed in workflow when non-unicode characters are included in the document comments.
- Changing the document date in Billing will cause the currency exchange rates to be recalculated if the Company Master exchange rate date setting is ‘Document’.
- The diagram in the installation requirements has been updated to make it clearer that a clustered deployment requires a shared JMS environment
- Fixed Path Traversal Vulnerability in the Customiser. More information on the vulnerability on the OWASP website.
- Fixed XML External Entity Injection (XXE) vulnerability in XMLi. More information on the vulnerability is available on the OWASP website.
- The source transactions are preserved when capitalising assets with temporary numbers.
Further details on the new features, security updates and reported issues can be found in the release documentation on Unit4’s Community 4U.
Unit4 Financials by Coda 2023 Q1 was made available on 14 March 2023, find here.
Release dates for Cloud users
Unit4 Cloud customers are notified by Unit4 Cloud support when their pre-production and production systems will be updated. This information can also be found within the Cloud Services – Release Schedules area. View the 2023 Cloud Schedule here.
The Release Notes detailing the fixes and features within this release can be found in the Documentation area on Unit4’s Community 4U.
Upgrading Financials is not merely about accessing the new functionality that comes with a new software release. It is also about mitigating technology, operational, and business risk.
Unit4 Financials 2023 Q1 Release
March 2023
Unit4 Financials by Coda 2023 Q1 was made available on 14 March 2023.
The new release contains all the previous Unit4 Financials functionality and new features. Plus, many additional customer requested fixes, highlighting the importance of logging enhancements via Unit4’s Community 4U.
Highlights of the 2023 Q1 release include:
Administration
- User Master
Finance
- Element Authorisation
- Pay Format Files
- Deprecated features
General Fixes/Updates
- Information about the version of a Desktop Application has now been updated to refer to the About option on the application menu.
- The Browse Worklist link has been corrected in the workflow alert email, the link now opens Browse Worklist.
- Metadata Dataview – It is now possible to add new attributes when editing dataview joins.
- Resolved an intermittent logon issue in Workflow Designer and Print Formatter.
- Functional errors (with stack trace) generated in webservices are no longer output to the container log.
- Out of memory errors when exporting data have now been fixed as part of general improvements to state handling.
- The Installation Requirements have been updated to explain how to get Java 11 to print the same separators as Java 8 for certain locales (for example Swiss French).
- If a cost centre transfer fails to post (for example – when period access is closed), the asset is no longer kept locked.
- All rows in Billing Browse are selected when using the ‘Select All’ check box.
- Restricted tax lists set on finance document masters are now enforced in Intray Management and Browse Intray.
- Header only documents on the Intray can now be retrieved for modification and deletion in Intray Management and Browse Intray.
- An original user can now modify and post back to the intray (but not to the books) a document whose “Prevent posting to books by original user” flag is set.
- Column recnum on tables ‘oas_elmhistory’, ‘oas_inthist’, ‘oas_lethist’ and ‘oas_prlhist’ has been increased in size from smallint to int to minimise accidental rollover.
- XL will reauthenticate when the current session expires.
- Reduced the memory usage in the CSV Transformation and the Repository Output.
- Security of attachments has been improved
The Release Notes detailing the fixes and features within this release can be found in the Documentation area on Unit4’s Community 4U.
Release dates for Cloud users
Unit4 Cloud customers are notified by Unit4 Cloud support when their pre-production and production systems will be updated. This information can also be found within the Cloud Services – Release Schedules area. View the 2023 Cloud Schedule here.
The Release Notes detailing the fixes and features within this release can be found in the Documentation area on Unit4’s Community 4U.
Upgrading Financials is not merely about accessing the new functionality that comes with a new software release. It is also about mitigating technology, operational, and business risk.
Unit4 Financials Continuous Release Schedule 2023
January 2023
Release dates for on premise users
The Unit4 Financials platform is maintained via a continuous release model. Thanks to this predictable cycle of quarterly updates, users get timely access to the type of customer-driven enhancements that helps to keep the finance department ahead of the game.
| 2023Q1 Release | Released 14 March 2023 |
| 2023Q2 Release | Released 13 June 2023 |
| 2023Q3 Release | Planned 12 September 2023 |
| 2023Q4 Release | Planned 5 December 2023 |
These dates can sometimes be subject to alteration.
Release dates for Cloud users
Unit4 Cloud customers are notified by Unit4 Cloud support when their pre-production and production systems will be updated. This information can also be found within the Cloud Services – Release Schedules area.
| 2023 | Preview & Acceptance | Production |
| Q1 | 28th March 2023 | 22nd/23rd April 2023
(Released Maintenance Window) |
| Q2 | 27th June 2023 | 22nd/23rd July 2023
(Planned Maintenance Window) |
| Q3 | 26th September 2023 | 21st/22nd October 2023
(Planned Maintenance Window) |
| Q4 | 19th December 2023 | 20th/21st January 2024
(Planned Maintenance Window) |
These dates can sometimes be subject to alteration.
Updating your legacy systems
Upgrading enables you to:
- Access the latest functionality
- Reduce operational risk and processing costs
- Continue to access Unit4’s “in support” software maintenance and support package
- Ensure you are up to date with Unit4’s latest software security package
As an Elite Unit4 Partner, Millennium Consulting specialises in delivering a seamless upgrade, while also ensuring your upgraded solution is fully aligned with organisational requirements.
Unit4 Financials 2022 Q4 Release
December 2022
Unit4 Financials by Coda 2022 Q4 was made available on 6th December 2022.
The new release contains all the previous Unit4 Financials functionality and new features. Plus, many additional customer requested fixes, highlighting the importance of logging enhancements via Unit4’s Community 4U.
Highlights of the 2022 Q4 release include:
Administration
- Tasks
- SFTP key authentication
Finance
- Matching
- Deep links to browse transactions can show a period range
- Browse column widths
- Show last comment
Structured Output
- SFTP key authentication
- Removed features
General Fixes/Updates
- Message Transport Log can now be opened; previously an error occurred if data in the ‘com_logline’ was truncated.
- Password is not stored anymore in the database when the password field is cleared in Message Transport Master.
- Further improvements have been made to the metadata upgrade process and the metadata audit now reports invalid vocabularies.
- Recording successful logon and logoff events no longer causes a duplicate key error message.
- Manual depreciation is now included in the depreciation charge adjustment when performing a cost centre transfer.
- When trying to transfer Cost Centre on an asset where account security prevents the transfer, an error will be raised about not having access to the account instead of a serious error.
- Billing Performance has been improved when opening large documents in Billing Browse, the element short names are now only activated when the typeahead is activated.
- Named user licence count is now enforced for Finance users.
- Analyser will now open correctly from Browse Transactions and Aged Analysis.
- Cancel document memory usage has been fixed to handle more than 100 individual documents, without causing a system failure.
- Link table maintenance keeps padding on column ‘oas_linkhead.origdocnum’.
- Addressed some causes of account summary unmarshalling error.
- Table Link Transfer Client pads column ‘oas_linkhead.origdocnum’ correctly.
- Browse details can now show the most recent comment added using multiple edit (the last comment).
- Tablelink maintenance now auto sizes the column widths when presenting the data.
- The Matching request Input Extended/PostToBooks has been corrected and no longer gives an XMLi error.
- When Setting the Element Substitution value to “not used” the element value is now cleared allowing the element to be saved.
- Intray Management – it is now possible to remove a line comment.
- Flexi field caching in Assisted Element has been changed to allow Flexi field master changes to be reflected immediately.
- Pay Status toolbox no longer fails when using an Oracle database.
- Reminder letter proposals now calculates the page count correcting when items are deleted and no longer errors when reviewing the last page of the proposal.
- Copy document no longer errors if the document that is copied references an original document which has been archived.
- ITK Data Editor now allows Statement lines to be updated, and other data rows which contain Financials document numbers as a key. Please refer to the ITK User guide Unit4 Financials Metadata section for information on settings for the object definition.
- Posting an invoice with attachments now submits successfully to Workflow when it is automatically approved.
- A goods received note will now not be created when completing a partially received order line with 0 (zero) quantity.
The Release Notes detailing the fixes and features within this release can be found in the Documentation area on Unit4’s Community 4U.
Upgrading Financials is not merely about accessing the new functionality that comes with a new software release. It is also about mitigating technology, operational, and business risk.
How to use the intercompany functionality in Unit4 Financials
September 2022
For organisations comprising multiple corporate entities, Unit4 Financials intercompany functionality can mean more accurate transaction reporting, a lower compliance risk and a possible saving of hundreds of hours of valuable accounting time.
Here’s a closer look at how to put this functionality to work…
Understanding intercompany functionality
When the Unit4 Financials intercompany function is enabled, when you upload a transaction to the books of one company, the sending company document lines are automatically transferred and posted in another company (i.e. the ‘receiving company’).
The transfer takes place using intercompany processing (known in Unit4 Financials as ‘trace’). When the trace has been run, control postings are made in both the sending and receiving companies so that the transactions balance in each company.
You can also send document lines along a chain of companies (a process called forwarding).
Video demonstration
The following video takes a closer look at intercompany functionality in action. This includes:
• How to enter an intercompany transaction directly into Financials
• How to process a journal and run the intercompany processing
• Information on what master documents and templates are required to make the process work (your system administrator should have access to the masters and will be able to set this up for you)
In the video, we use Unit4 Financials for data entry, but you could set up a code Excel template, and this would do the same job for you.
How to unlock the full value of Unit4 Financials
From best practice advice, system optimisation and configuration through to migration from legacy systems, Millennium Consulting enables organisations to realise maximum return on their Unit4 Financials investment. For expert input from an Elite Unit4 partner, speak to us today.
Unit4 Financials 2022 Q3 Release
September 2022
Unit4 Financials 2022 Q3 was made available on 13 September 2022.
The new release contains all the previous Unit4 Financials functionality and new features. Plus, many additional customer requested fixes, highlighting the importance of logging enhancements via Unit4’s Community 4U.
Highlights of the 2022 Q3 release include:
Finance
- Unique index columns updated to not-nullable
- New task: table link element housekeeping
- New task: table link document housekeeping
- Clients can request access tokens from OpenID Connect providers
- Microsoft SQL Server specifiable ODBC Connection String
Addons
- Clients running on FIPS-enabled Windows systems
Deprecated features
- .NET router – The .NET router has been deprecated. The final release has not been determined.
- COM router – The COM router has been deprecated. This release, 2022 Q3, is the last to include the COM router.
General Fixes/Updates
- Workflow attachments can now be removed and added without error during the workflow process.
- The Configuration guide has been updated to remove redundant session management timeout settings.
- New metadata presenter field URL Prefix is now optional making the import compatible with exports from an earlier release.
- Merging two assets together does not now create a superfluous extra manual transaction.
- Billing Table Link no longer creates a document header without detail lines.
- Weekly interval scheduled tasks now continue to run after a year has elapsed since they were created.
- Periods (full stops) are no longer removed from external reference fields when uploading a statement via the statement load master.
- Pay can now display external reference URL and user reference URL.
- Export from Browse Details was not displaying external reference URL correctly.
- When a reversing document is posted and subsequently a partial match is performed on one of its lines, Financials no longer creates spurious document lines with no document headers.
- A primary key issue on the oas_himint table has been resolved so that, for example, it is now possible to update two or more financial years via hierarchies correctly.
- Certain vocabulary items on a Selector Master were incorrectly defaulting to always being mandatory.
- For input templates, prevent the repositioning of the remove line checkbox from corrupting existing input template customisations.
- Export to Excel from Browse Details no longer fails due to invalid characters.
- Reconciliation no longer displays a serious error when selecting the ‘From hard copy’ source.
- The punchout supplier configuration has been enhanced to allow user literals.
- Customising the Tax number field off the supplier search results form, now results in the field correctly disappearing.
- XL Journal Loader has been corrected to allow posting to multiple companies.
The Release Notes detailing the fixes and features within this release can be found in the Documentation area on Unit4’s Community 4U.
Read here to find out when Financials updates are scheduled for 2022, along with important information for legacy V13 and V14 users.
Does your 2023 proposed budget include your Unit4 Financials infrastructure?
August 2022
Does your 2023 proposed budget include your Unit4 Financials infrastructure?
As the budgeting season for 2023 gets underway now is the ideal time to turn your attention to your finance ecosystem to determine what changes would like to make for the rest of the year and into 2023.
Areas for improvement:
Process automation
Upgrading
Training
Cloud
Migration
FP&A
Streamline operations
Whether your journey in 2023 is to continue with Unit4 Financials or to upgrade to ERP or ERPx, we are here to support you.
Why choose Millennium for Unit4 Financials?
We are an Elite Unit4 Partner with more than 27 years of experience working with Unit4 Financials. That means we have the knowledge and experience to design, implement and support the right Unit4 Financials solution for your business.
Everything you wanted to know about Unit4 Financials Chart of Accounts
July 2022
But didn't know who to ask...
By providing a central record of all your company’s accounts, the chart of accounts (CoA) is the foundation for your business’ recordkeeping. Get it right, and the CoA will help to steer your key accounting processes, make it easier to follow financial reporting standards and provide a useful picture of the overall financial health of the business.
So how do you optimise your CoA so it becomes a financial reporting asset? This is where Unit4 Financials proves to be particularly useful. Thanks to its flexible elements structure, the solution offers huge scope to customise your CoA, so it is fully aligned to your requirements, enabling you to stay on top of both statutory reporting and internal management accounting.
To help you get the most out of Financials, read on to get the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions linked to chart of accounts…
Is there a way to download a chart of accounts with numbers and descriptions?
Yes.
Because Unit4 Financials uses metadata, it’s easy to locate the information you need by entering descriptions or codes into a generic browse master. Select the data view that you want to use and then use a presenter and selector to bring up a list of all relevant elements.
Depending on the view you use, you can use the browse master to retrieve more than just codes and descriptions. For example, you could use it to get information such as addresses and bank details.
Flexi-fields provide an easy way to define, capture and retrieve key information within Unit4 Financials. If you utilise the flexi-fields function, you can use it to create a view that will pull in key ancillary information against the elements. For instance, let’s say you have a project that is set up as an element. Using flexi-fields, you should be able to design and create a view that would not only just pull in that element, but also all the flexi-field information assigned to that element (e.g. attributes such as project manager, project type, start and finish dates etc).
Tip: for more information on this, take a look at our flexi-fields guide here.
Can you have different Charts of Accounts for different companies inside Unit4 Financials?
Yes, you can have different chart of accounts (element strings) for different companies within U4F.
And of course, it’s worth remembering that you could have two GL code structures relating to the same company; one being a local structure and the other being a corporate one using element substitution.
Each company has its own reporting and accounting requirements. For most, a single CoA is all that’s needed. If, however, you require more than one CoA, this is possible to set up within Unit4 Financials. Remember, that you can also have a different element string in each company but common GL code structure to enable consolidation reporting.
I’ve used a finance system that allowed the use of what were called ‘posting and reporting attributes’ and allowed the creation of relations between different attributes. Is there something similar in Unit4 Financials, and would this include element groups?
Element groups within Unit4 Financials can give you this capability. What’s more, a similar end result can also be achieved through flexi-fields, as this function enables you to create a relationship between different elements.
A word about Chart of Accounts design
There are two aspects to this.
The first is to ensure you get the element structure correct, otherwise the CoA will fail to include the information required by your organisation.
The second is the use of wildcards (*). The GL code structure should be configured to facilitate this. For example, if you need to retrieve fixed assets account information, it is a lot easier to enter a * in the box than to stipulate that you need to see all assets in the range of, say, 1,000 to 1,999.
Chart of Accounts demonstration
Our Spotlight video demonstrates optimal CoA design and configuration, showing you how to extract precisely the information you need directly from Unit4 Financials. Watch it here…
Is your Chart of Accounts still fit-for-purpose? Optimise the easy way with Millennium Consulting
Especially after corporate reorganisation or a shift in business focus, a fresh pair of eyes can be invaluable.
Millennium Consulting can help you design a new CoA and element structure to ensure alignment with current business needs. This includes expert workshops to understand your reporting and accounting requirements, along with creation of an element structure and CoA that’s customised for your organisation.
To discuss your options, please do get in touch.