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For this release, FastClose have applied a major focus on making it easier to use the Designer application, with particular regard to new users. For example, presenting only the most commonly used fields and measures initially, to make it easier to identify the correct item to add to a report.
Enhancements to the library feature makes it more effective at ensuring consistency across reports, whether it be for formatting or for variables such as 'This Month'. Our standard template and solution reports now take advantage of this, so once you have updated the library, all of those reports are updated too.
A powerful new calculation engine built in to FastClose delivers the ability to define an extensive new range of calculations, such as date arithmetic, text manipulation, and much more. A library of over 50 functions, most of which will be familiar to Excel users, is now available within FastClose.
Some common examples which are now possible include:
Determining the number of days between two dates, such as between order date and ship date
Choosing a second column if the first column is empty, for example the estimated shipping date if the shipping date is missing
Subtotaling sales orders by the calendar month of the order date
Calculating differences in prices, such as the variance between the price on the invoice versus the price list
Picking the maximum or minimum of a set of amounts, often needed when calculating discounts or commission
The performance of reports which rely on many calculations has been increased by a factor of up to 6. The benefit increases with the number of rows and columns in the report and the number of calculations required. This is the latest boost in a series of improvements delivered with 3.0 and 3.1, resulting in many complex reports taking less than a tenth of the time to run.
Additional performance improvements have also been achieved when opening reports, from retrieving folders from the FastClose repository, to discovering the ERP schema.
To help achieve consistency when submitting budgets, each planning scenario is now automatically limited to the dimensions included on the first submission to that scenario. This prevents unintentional submissions to different levels of consolidation within the same scenario, though there is an option to override the restriction if desired. (FC-2117)
On re-running a planning report in Excel which has edited but unsubmitted budget numbers, the option is presented to preserve those edits or let them be overwritten with the last submitted planning data. (FC-2135)
When a planning scenario is added in Designer, it can now be selected right away in the Excel Add-In by clicking the Refresh button in the Member Selection dialog; no need to close and re-open Excel. (FC-2449)
In the search filter of member lists, an asterisk (*) at the end can now be used to match codes beginning with the specified characters, a question mark (?) matches any single character, and an asterisk at the start matches codes which end with the specified characters. (FC-2128)
Columns whose sort direction is set to 'unspecified' will now be sorted in ascending order, but only after sorting on any columns whose sort order is explicitly set to ascending or descending. (FC-2487)
The special value '<Asterisk>', which is used to match a member whose code is an asterisk (*), is no longer listed amongst the members of a dimension, because it is so rarely needed. The special value is still recognized and supported, however. (FC-1692)
The Templates tab of the Home dialog can now include shortcuts to related content in the Solutions tab, to highlight the availability of those solution reports. (FC-2010)
A Search tab has been added to the Home dialog, allowing you to find reports by name, no matter what folder they are saved in. (FC-238)
The size and position of dialogs are remembered during the session. (FC-2501)
The dimension hierarchy presented in Field Explorer and many dialogs has been simplified to make it easier to navigate. (FC-1647)
Dimensions and measures are now listed in two groups, 'Common' and 'See More', with the latter group minimized by default, to reduce the number of less commonly used choices presented. (FC-1796, FC-1797)
When searching for a column or dimension, the result now respects the 'Show All Attributes' checkbox, so only the more commonly used entries will be displayed by default. (FC-2511)
When an attempt is made to add an attribute to the rows or columns and that attribute is defined as a measure, the corresponding member is added to the Measures filter instead, as that is almost always what was actually intended. (FC-2444)
The Designer results grid can be zoomed in and out, using the new control in the bottom right of the window or by using the Control key and mouse wheel. (FC-2210)
Reset Labels and Hide Repeated Labels are useful column header actions from the Rows and Columns dialog which have been brought out onto the Layout tab of the ribbon for ease of access. (FC-2659)
Related member variables such as Current Period can be saved in the library and subscribed to across many reports, so the current period can be updated centrally. Due to the way the Excel Add-In saves filters selections independently of the report, it was necessary to introduce a dialog during opening which asks whether updated library values should be used. (FC-1971)
A new kind of variable - member set variables - allows the definition of multiple member selections, including ranges and wildcards, and can be saved in the library and subscribed to across multiple reports. A Member Set can be used to define the set of codes which represent revenue accounts, for example, for the purpose of inverting the sign of the numbers. (FC-599)
Standard template reports and solution reports can now include standard library items, and all three components are imported using a single, new, Import Content button in Designer. (FC-708)
Default format styles can be saved in the library and subscribed to, helping to deliver consistent formatting across reports much more easily. (FC-2569)
The Update Library dialog has clearer wording in its prompt, and requires a positive choice to be made, to help prevent unintentional updating of library items. (FC-2830)
Cell formats now allow number Display Format categories to be chosen, which allows easier formatting of all Variance % columns as a percentage, for example. Cell formats also support the 'Members and Values' selection mode, so those percentages can be colored red or green based on value, for example. (FC-1802)
Numeric attribute dimensions such as 'Unit Price' are automatically formatted with the default value format e.g. right-justified and with two decimal places. (FC-2445)
When exiting the Calculations dialog, the case of dimension, member and function names in the calculation expressions are automatically corrected. (FC-2377)
Multiple selection in the the Calculations dialog makes it possible to delete many calculations at once.(FC-191)
Validation feedback for the expression of a calculated member is displayed in the dialog as you edit it. (FC-2388)
A calculation expression can now be split across multiple lines, for improved clarity. (FC-2778)
Calculated members which multiply a member by zero to produce a blank or null result are upgraded to an empty expression, as this work around is no longer necessary. (FC-1485)
The default, automatic captions for calculations are more intelligently generated to make them easier to read. (FC-2654)
When a filter is added for a date dimension, the Validate option is no longer enabled, since any date should be input-able. (FC-801)
Add Dimension to Filters is a new option in the context menu of qualifying column headers, which adds a filter for that dimension to the filter panel. (FC-1140)
When choices made in the Rows and Columns dialog mean that the maximum number of columns is exceeded, it is possible to OK the dialog and then constrain filters to reduce the column count, where previously your changes would be discarded. (FC-2177, FC-2736)
Graphical improvements in the Edit Hierarchy dialog make it clearer whether two neighboring nodes are siblings. (FC-2224)
When the Edit Hierarchy Calculation dialog is opened, the hierarchy dimension is selected automatically. (FC-2227)
Removing filters which have no selections, or adding a new filter, no longer clears existing results. (FC-2447)
The Rows and Columns dialog now supports inserting whitespace columns. (FC-2564)
The Drill Through button has been moved from the Advanced tab of the ribbon to the Insert tab. (FC-2715)
The report name or its full path name can be copied from the context menu of the report tab. (FC-2791)
The Add-In Options dialog of the Excel Add-In provides the option to drill through to a new workbook instead of a new worksheet. The default setting is 'new workbook'. (FC-2450)
The location of the top-left cell of a FastClose report within a worksheet can be customized, allowing comments, headings, logos etc to be placed above and to the left of it. (FC-2570, FC-2758)
The Workbook Options dialog now shows the folder path of each report. (FC-2749)
Custom filter selections can be passed to the Reader via a URL link, alongside the report identifier. This allows links from Power BI, for example, to pass dashboard filter values such as period and year. (FC-2724)
A Reader URL link which specifies the report to open can now also instruct that the report to be run automatically. (FC-2771)
The list of recently opened reports can be cleared, in case they become irrelevant. (FC-2337)
FastClose server-side components have been upgraded to use Microsoft .NET 8, to benefit from the security, performance and quality improvements. (FC-1578)
The installers for Designer and the Excel Add-In no longer require the user to have administrative rights over the Windows PC. The apps can be installed on a per-user basis, and this is the default for new installs, which also enables users to upgrade them when their FastClose Server is upgraded. A per-machine installation requiring admin rights remains possible however, and is automatic on Remote Desktop Services servers. (FC-534)
ERP database queries can now be executed by the FastClose Server on behalf of client apps: a '3-Tier Architecture'. (FC-2708)
Combining the 3-tier architecture option with Azure Hybrid Connections, FastClose are trialling a solution that enables use of a SaaS FastClose Server with an on-premise ERP database.
On the Admin Home page, a shortcut button for Licence Keys is offered instead of Groups, because it is more commonly used. (FC-2528)
The Setup page includes a new Upload Logs button that makes it easier to send recent log entries to FastClose for diagnostic purposes. (FC-2477)
The End Date of licence keys in the Admin web app is labelled as 'Inclusive', for improved clarity. (FC-732)
When viewing the Scheduler Workflow Results page, the scroll position is maintained when the results are automatically refreshed. (FC-2139)
The Scheduler Workflow Results page shows just the first 50 most recent results initially, with an option to progressively show more. (FC-659)
The automatic Repository Cleaner now also purges old workflow results. (FC-597)
The Worker Service presents a much simpler web page to increase its security while still confirming it is operational. (FC-2123)
It is possible to specify in the catalog which attributes are offered by default on a per dimension basis, which is useful if the dimension shares a table with other dimensions. (FC-2453)
For the many dimensions which are based on the Directory table, such as Company and Organizational Unit, FastClose only lists the attributes which are relevant to that particular dimension, making it much easier to find the column you want. (FC-2520)
Catalog: Cubes for Nextworld's budgeting tables have been added to the catalog. (FC-2434)
Catalog: Measures AdditionalCurrencyCreditAmount and AdditionalCurrencyDebitAmount have been added to the GeneralLedgerDetails cube in the catalog. (FC-2510)
Version 3.2.0 includes all the fixes released for 3.1 up to 3.1.17, plus those below.
Outside borders defined for the label columns default format are now drawn around each group of label columns, as intended, rather than each label column individually. Inside borders can be used to define borders between each label column or row. (FC-2669)
A customized order of measures no longer gets discarded on changing the filter selections of a measure attribute dimension. (FC-2324)
Subtotal rows no longer repeat the label values of non-subtotalled columns to the left of the subtotalled column as this can be misleading. (FC-2398)
A cell format with no border was incorrectly suppressing a border defined by a hierarchy or subtotal row format. (FC-2662)
After deleting a dimension referenced in a hierarchy calculation condition, the report could no longer be run or re-opened. (FC-1714)
Templates and reports which require a feature or module licence which is not available are shown in gray in the Home dialog and cannot be opened. (FC-2635)
The About dialog only needed an OK button, not Cancel. (FC-2664)
Double clicking on a column header of the member list in the Edit Calculations dialog no longer causes the currently selected member to be added to the expression. (FC-2546)
No longer offers to create constant variable dimensions of types other than decimal because there is no support for them in other features. (FC-2622)
When you subscribed to a library variable, the library icon for the dimension did not display or update. (FC-2645)
The Next button was truncated in the Create New Template wizard. (FC-2663)
An error was needlessly being logged on opening the Drill Through dialog when a target report was not available. (FC-2665)
The Drill Through dialog was offering to add the caption of members to a URL, even if the dimension did not have member captions. (FC-2666)
An error could occur when exporting a report with just one or two rows to Excel. (FC-2683)
The cursor is now placed in the Name text box when you click Add in the Calculations dialog. (FC-2195)
When adding an individual member to a hierarchy, don't populate a currently selected range node instead (FC-2696)
The permitted set of characters for planning scenario names has been made more restrictive, to improve security. (FC-2753)
The Refresh button in the Available Field Items dialog was returning cached results, not querying the data source every time. (FC-2785)
The Manage Field Items dialog didn't remove members from the visible list when they were hidden, and didn't add them back when unhidden. (FC-1201)
When editing a hierarchy, if there were validation errors for invalid start or end of ranges, only the first error was being reported, rather than all of them. (FC-1229)
The Group checkbox option in member selection lists was not useful in Nextworld and is no longer displayed. (FC-1790)
The Path text box could make the Report Properties dialog open excessively wide. (FC-2790)
Planning submission and master table refresh was additionally querying an ERP data source other than the one associated with the planning database being submitted to. (FC-2750)
Many third party libraries used by FastClose applications have been updated to eliminate or mitigate disclosed security vulnerabilities. (FC-1260, FC-2320, FC-2577, FC-2731)
After a password change, all current sessions for the user are invalidated and the user is required to login again using the new password. (FC-1970)
When the FastClose Server is upgraded to a new feature version, all logged in sessions will be invalided, to ensure that any desktop client apps left running won't be used before they are also upgraded. (FC-2312)
The installers showed progress messages which were missing substitutions for placeholder values. (FC-2469)
Errors would be reported in Admin web app pages if the default or user time zone ID was not valid. (FC-2760)