Refer to the Uploading section for more information on how to upload the Update action.
To carry out an Update to the existing Forecasts, More4apps recommends downloading the Forecasts to the worksheet. You can restrict the download parameters to narrow down the search results.
You must have the columns Project Number, Plan Type, and Version Number in the Forecast Version section for the Update to be successful.
Note: When updating the column ‘Is Locked’, Excel automatically converts manually entered values ‘true’ and ‘false’ to ‘TRUE’ and ‘FALSE’. The capital letters will be rejected by the web service on Upload. Either select the ‘true’ or ‘false’ values using the Data Form or enter an apostrophe at the beginning of the word if you are entering the value manually into the cell (e.g., ‘true).
When updating, Forecast Versions (Header) Upload Action mode should always have ‘Update’ against it to update the header and lines.
The 'ETC Start Date' column, which is a read-only and download-only column, is very important when updating EAC values. Any values on the sheet corresponding to periods prior to the 'ETC Start Date' will be disregarded, as these periods might already have Actuals recorded. Only the periods from the 'ETC Start Date' onwards are eligible for entering or modifying EAC values.
Example below shows the periods highlighted in yellow where EAC values can be entered. These periods are on or after the ETC Start Date of 1-JAN-2024.
The periods highlighted in green shows where EAC values cannot be entered as these periods may contain Actuals values. If you enter values into these periods, they will be ignored when you upload the changes to Oracle.
When you’re making changes to EAC values, the following sections must have the upload action of ‘Update’:
· Forecast Versions
· Planning Resources
· Plan Lines
Forecast Versions Update
Only the values below can be updated in the Forecast Versions section:
● Name
● Description
● Status (the next allowable status for the Forecast must be valid)
● Is Locked
When you are updating the Status of a Forecast version, make sure that the next allowable status is a valid status for the Forecast. Oracle will return an error if you attempt to update the status with an incorrect status in the budget status hierarchy.
Adding Planning Resources and Plan Lines
To create new lines in an existing Forecast, the following sections must have the upload action of ‘Create’:
· Planning Resources
· Plan Lines
The Forecast Version Upload Action column must contain ‘Update’.
Extending Planning End Dates
The example below demonstrates how to extend the resource ‘Planning End Date’ by entering EAC values for future periods.
Andrew Moore's current Planning End Date is set for 01/01/2024, and his EAC values are recorded only up to period 01-24. To extend the ‘Planning End Date’ for Andrew, you can simply enter EAC values for subsequent periods and then upload them. For Andrew Moore, EAC values have been added up to period 05-24.
Upon downloading the updated Forecast version for review, you can see that Andrew Moore's ‘Planning End Date’ has been shifted to 31/05/2024, accompanied by EAC values entered up to 05-24.
To Clear/Delete periods values
If you want to clear / delete a period value from a plan line, you cannot enter [CLEAR] in the cell to do this (highlighted red in the example screenshot below). Instead, please enter the value ‘0’ to clear out the existing value (highlighted green in the example screenshot below).
1. Navigate to the plan line from which you want to remove a period value.
2. Locate the period value that you wish to clear out or delete.
3. Instead of using the [CLEAR] command, input the value '0' in place of the existing period value.
4. Upload the change to ensure that the period value has been successfully cleared out.
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