Budget Wand for Oracle

Updated Excel4apps Wands for Oracle pre-release available (5.3.0)

9 April 2013

The updated pre-release of the Excel4apps Wands for Oracle version 5 (version 5.3.0) is available. This release includes the Report Manager functionality from GL Wand 4 now badged Reports Distribution Manager (RDM) along with the remaining GL Wand 4 functionality that had not yet been converted in the 5.2.0 release. Also included in this release is Budget Wand.

The download is available under the products menu on our web site www.excel4apps.com.

GL Wand (Oracle) compatibility with Office 2013

25 March 2013

We have tested GL Wand with the official release of Excel 2013 and are happy to report that we are compatible. The specific version tested was 4.31, the current latest release. This is the minimum version that must be used as it will ensure that the files are correctly installed into the Office 2013 folder structure (there is a workaround available for older releases of GL Wand). The GL Wand 4.31 client requires version 4.30 of the server components so please ensure that is installed before installing this client version.

Please note that there are known issues with the Excel 2013 beta release and this is not supported with GL Wand. Only the official Office 2013 release is supported.

Updated GL Wand 5 pre-release available

10 October 2012

GL Wand 5 updated pre-release (version 5.2.0) is available. Included are support for Excel 2003 and Excel 2010 64bit as well as much of the outstanding GL Wand 4 functionality like FSG import, Hide Zeros, Report Wizard, Undo Expand and Undo Hide Zeros and an updated drilldown template framework.

The download is available under the products menu on our web site www.excel4apps.com.

GL Wand 4.31 released

19 September 2012

GL Wand for Oracle version 4.31 is available. This version addresses a few product issues from previous releases and includes a few modifications and enhancements:

• Limit which responsibilities are available in GL Wand.
• Customise the delimiter characters that GL Wand uses if they clash with characters used in your segment values.
• Access the users report from the options window.
• Store your Excel4apps account number to make this easier to locate. The number is also transmitted when requesting a license key or logging a case to make it easier to identify you.

GL Wand 4.31 requires the GL Wand 4.30 server component.

Introducing the new GL Wand 5 Pre-release!

3 May 2012

GL Wand 5 has taken the best functional elements from its incredibly successful predecessor and wrapped them into a completely new Java-based framework, designed exclusively for the strengths of an Oracle environment. GL Wand 5 is about ease of use, ease of deployment, flexibility, and speed of refresh and drill downs. Experience the benefits of easier and faster reporting by trialing GL Wand 5 today.

See the GL Wand 5 pre-release datasheet here.
Start the GL Wand 5 pre-release trial free here

GL Wand 4.25 released

9 December 2011

GL Wand 4.25 sees the introduction of the Reports Wand Administrator. This exciting new feature allows for user friendly creation and maintenance of Reports Wand definitions directly from Excel. The Reports Wand Definition Wizard carefully guides the user through the Reports Wand Definition creation process in a simple and streamlined manner. Another standout feature is the ability to easily assign Reports Wand Definitions to Reports Wand users via Oracle request groups. This eliminates the hassle of making these assignments though Oracle Applications.

Please read more about Reports Wand Administrator in the online user guide for GL Wand 4.25 http://www.excel4apps.com/oracle/downloads/glwand/4.25/user_guide/index.htm

GL Wand 4.25 (incl Reports Wand Administrator) requires the GL Wand 4.20 server component.

GL Wand 4.15 released

9 December 2010

An updated version of GL Wand is available. This version includes support for Excel 2010 64 bit as well as supporting the "&" character in a segment value which was previous not allowed. Also included is a new operator for Get Balance segment parameters which will return only the intersection of two sets of criteria. A number of smaller bug fixes are also included.

GL Wand performance optimisation update

17 November 2010

Check out the latest tips and tricks for maximising GL Wand performance. Relevant for customers running on Oracle E-Business suite.

Reports Wand Seeded Reports Listing from 4.05 - requires seperate download

20 August 2010

Listing of currently available seeded reports querying Oracle Projects, System Administration, Assets, Payables, Receivables, HR & Payroll.

New Reports Wand module for Oracle E-Business Suite wide reporting (Release 4.05)

15 January 2010

Feature Description: Run Excel based reports based on your own custom SQL queries. This new module provides incredible flexibility in terms of filtering, sorting, formatting and refreshing real-time data from any area in Oracle in an Excel reporting environment. Link reports to each other for multi-level drill to detail, drill to anywhere type reporting. Please read the data sheet on our web site for the details or watch a demo on http://www.youtube.com/excel4apps Feature Benefit: Flexible reporting from any area in Oracle e-Business Suite. Reports Wand is available as a cost plus option. Please contact your sales representative for details and for a free trial.

Calculated formulas on GL Wand drill down reports (Release 4.05)

15 January 2010

Feature Description: You can now add calculated formulas to the GL Wand drill down reports as user defined columns. Please see the user guide for more details. Feature Benefit: More flexibility added to the drill down report layouts. Also facilitates including a Run Report formula in an existing GL Wand drill down report which will allow you to drill to additional detail which is not provided in the standard drill down layouts. The Run Report functionality is part of the new Reports Wand Module available as a cost plus option.

Get Balance and drill down by journal source and category (GL Wand 4.05)

15 January 2010

Feature Description: A new parameter has been added to the Get Balance function which allows you to specify a journal source and category. The returned balance will then only include journal lines having that source and category. The drill down to detail will then also only return journals having that source and category. Feature Benefit: Enables you to get balances on an account at a more detailed level than the overall account balance. The functionality can also be used to extract journals based on a particular source and category.

Drill down performance improvement in release 4.05

15 January 2010

Feature Description: The drill down logic has been enhanced to improve performance. Where possible GL Wand will batch the drill down calls and fetch the results from Oracle in batches. The user also has the option to cancel the process. This option will be enabled by default but can be disabled under the advanced GL Wand options. Feature Benefit: Faster drill downs, quicker population of the results into Excel and the ability to stop the process.

Get Exchange Rate Function (Release 4.05)

15 January 2010

Feature Description: Ability to fetch daily exchange rates out of Oracle using a GL Wand function. Feature Benefit: Exchange rates can be fetched directly from Oracle using a function, therefore users don't have to manually fetch these out of Oracle for use in what-if analysis using GL Wand reports.

Reports Wand coming in version 4.0

11 December 2009

Reports Wand for realtime reporting from any area in Oracle will be available as an add on from GL Wand 4.0. Download the Reports Wand datasheet or see the demo.

Audit Get Balance feature helps identify glwNoAccess reasons in release 3.89.0

29 October 2009

A new option on the tools menu - "Audit Get Balance" - can assist in determining why a Get Balance formula returns an error. It can specifically assist with providing information as to why a Get Balance formula returns glwNoAccess by identifying the segment and segment value which contains security rules.

Sets of Books list of values (Release 3.89.0)

27 July 2009

The 'Create List of Values' functionality as been extended to include a list of value listing all Sets of Books. Organisations reporting across sets of books can easily create a Set of Books List of Values that will be dynamic.

Currencies list of values (Release 3.89.0)

27 July 2009

The 'Create List of Values' functionality has been extended to include a list for Currencies. Organisations reporting across multiple currencies can easily create a dynamic Currencies List of Values that users can access by double clicking the cell containing the List of Values.

Novell Groupwise email supported in release 3.89.0

27 July 2009

Novell Groupwise email is now supported as an email client by the GL Wand Report Manager in addition to the previously supported Outlook and Lotus email clients. The Report Manager is used to mass produce and distribute GL Wand reports to users.

Convert FSG Reports to GL Wand (Release 3.89.0)

27 July 2009

GL Wand now contains a feature which will extract an FSG report definition into an Excel worksheet and allow you to rapidly convert the FSG to a working GL Wand report.

Drill down to OPM supported in release 3.89.0

27 July 2009

GL Wand now supports drill down to Oracle Process Manufacturing in Oracle 11i.

Change in the Get Balance “all values” parameter (Release 3.85.0)

2 December 2008

Feature Description: Previously when leaving a particular Get Balance segment parameter empty, GL Wand would assume that you want all values for that segment. You had the option to either specify a “%” to denote all values or simply leave the segment parameter blank. This functionality has however caused problems in certain situations. For example a user copies and pastes a Get Balance formula onto a new row. The Get Balance formula is linked in the segment 3 parameter to column A, however on this new row the value in column A is blank. If your GL Wand calculation is it set to “On” this calculation will start and may take a long time to complete as GL Wand is assuming you want all values for segment 3. Feature Benefit: You must now specifically enter a “%”to denote all values. This gives GL Wand the ability to know whether you are specifically requesting all values or that you have simply not completed entering the formula yet. This change also prevents GL Wand from duplicating the calculations which can result in certain cases when Excel does not initially get the calculation dependencies correct. This can happen when you derive the segment values using an Excel formula like Mid or the GL Wand Split_Text.

New calculation option for Get Balance in Release 3.85.0

2 December 2008

Feature Description: The GL Wand logon screen now has a new check box which allows you to select an alternative method for processing Get Balance formulas. You can select this option at each logon and vary it to suit which ever method provides you with the best performance for particular GL Wand reports. Feature Benefit: In certain situations this alternate Get Balance processing method can result in a significant performance improvement. When selecting this option, the initial GL Wand logon may be slower. We recommend testing your slower GL Wand reports using the old and the new method to determine which method is better for your environment.

Get Balance now supports converted amount (Release 3.85.0)

2 December 2008

Feature Description: The Get Balance formula now contains a new option for the translated flag, namely “C” for converted. When using this option GL Wand will return the converted amount in functional currency for a particular entered currency. Feature Benefit: This amount type was previously not available in GL Wand.

Discover parent hierarchy (Release 3.85.0)

1 December 2008

Feature Description: You now have the option of extracting the hierarchy for a segment into an Excel sheet. Starting with a parent value GL Wand will extract the full hierarchy for that parent value and display it indented in an Excel sheet. Feature Benefit: Previously GL Wand only extracted the segment values in alphabetical order, you now have the option to extract this information in the hierarchy sequence and view the full hierarchy.

Explode using the parent hierarchy (Release 3.85.0)

1 December 2008

Feature Description: You can now perform an explode using the Oracle defined parent hierarchy. Previously GL Wand would perform and explode on a summary report by splitting it down to the lowest level children only. You can now explode a report down one level of the hierarchy or down the full hierarchy for all levels. Feature Benefit: More flexibility when exploding reports into their detail. You are now able to see the detail one level down the hierarchy (or for the full hierarchy) rather than only seeing the lowest level children.

Expand using the parent hierarchy (Release 3.85.0)

1 December 2008

Feature Description: You can now perform an expand using the Oracle defined parent hierarchy per level of the hierachy. Previously GL Wand would perform and expand down to the lowest level children only. You can expand down one level of the hierarchy or down the full hierarchy for all levels. Feature Benefit: More flexibility when expanding values into their detail. You are now able to see the detail one level down the hierarchy (or for the full hierarchy) rather than only seeing the lowest level children.

Support for specifying segment criteria spanning account combinations in Release 3.80.0

12 October 2008

Feature Description: In the past the Get Balance function only supported criteria independent to each segment e.g. seg 2 = 100 or 200 and seg 3 = 1000 or 2000. This would result in GL Wand returning all the possible combinations of those segment 2 and 3 criteria. It is now possible to specify criteria spanning the account combination using the new Get Balance syntax. This means that you can create new complex criteria for your Get Balance formula e.g. (seg 2 = 100 and seg 3 = 1000) or (seg 2 = 200 and seg 3 = 2000). With this criteria GL Wand will no longer return all the possible combinations but rather only the combinations you specify. Feature Benefit: Significantly enhanced reporting capability for customers requiring the ability to specify criteria for account combinations rather than individual segment values only. Previously this required using multiple Get Balance formulas to achieve the same result. Now you have the capability of specifying these complex criteria in a single Get Balance function.

New drill down sources will be supported in Release 3.80.0

2 October 2008

Feature Description: GL Wand now supports drill down to the sub ledger for the following new journal sources - Marketing, PYA Transactions (Fed), Budgetary Transaction (Fed) and Payables for the Treasury Confirmation category.

Get Balance and drill down to balances based on DFF criteria (Release 3.80.0)

2 October 2008

Feature Description: GL Wand now has the ability to extract balances and perform a drill down using information stored in the segment values descriptive flexfields. Feature Benefit: Report based on your descriptive flexfields information.

Expand feature extended to work across segments. (Release 3.80.0)

2 October 2008

Feature Description: Previously the expand feature would allow you to extract all the child values that are included in your criteria for a single segment. You can now expand values using criteria spanning multiple segments. Feature Benefit: Expand complex segment combination criteria. Use this feature to extract account combinations that are in use.

New Product Preview: Introducing Budget Wand!

18 September 2008

Customers ask for it, and we listened. The success of GL Wand has proved that Oracle Financial users appreciate being able to work in Excel. Our newest product, Budget Wand is a new GL Wand add on that will allow users to meet their important financial budgeting and forecasting requirements, quicker and easier than ever before -- all from within Excel. The features of Budget Wand allow users to create and edit models, distribute them, collect budget values, validate budgets and upload them to Oracle quickly and easily – all in real time. Visitors to Oracle Open World will have the opportunity to see Budget Wand for the first time.

Budget Wand - new product announcement

25 July 2008

Budget Wand, our latest product is nearing readiness for customers to trial. If you are considering improvements to Oracle’s General Ledger budgeting functionality, then we encourage you to include a Budget Wand evaluation as part of that. About Budget Wand Budget Wand will allow Excel to be used as the front end to the Oracle General Ledger Budgeting functionality. We expect that organisations’ “Budget Administrators” will be able to use their advanced Excel skills and Budget Wand to create comprehensive Budgeting and Forecasting models that meet organization specific requirements. Budget Wand roadmap Budget Wand release 1.0, planned for 2008 will contain the key features and benefits outlined in the Budget Wand preview.pdf. Release 2.00 planned in 2009 will include features to improve the management and control of the overall budgeting process and as well as some of the top customer enhancement requests. Budget Wand beta Barring unforeseen technicalities, we are intending to release a Beta version to interested parties in August 2008, initially for 11i customers. Depending on the enhancements identified a full version release will follow that. Please see Budget Wand preview for more information.

GL Wand 3.59 released

3 July 2008

Version 3.59 of GL Wand was released on 21 June 2008. This is a roll up patch release containing all the fixes and patches since version 3.55. This version of the client software works in conjunction with version 3.50 of the server components.

Wider List of values form in Release 3.59

27 June 2008

Feature Description: Made the list of values form column widths wider to accommodate value sets with more characters. In future these forms will be resizable by the user. Feature Benefit: Easier to read segment values that contain many characters

Undo and refresh Expand already in Release 3.55.0

9 June 2008

Feature Description: You are now able to undo the last Expand operation at the click of a button. The new Refresh Expand functionality allows you to highlight a range that was previously expanded and GL Wand will retrieve the latest values from Oracle and refresh the Expand results. Feature Benefit: Undo an Expand operation at the click of a button rather than needing to remove the inserted lines manually. Refresh the Expand with the latest information from Oracle.

Rolling period and offset reporting already in Release 3.55

9 June 2008

Feature Description: The period name function has been extended to allow you to return the period name for an offset e.g. Period Name 2008, 3 offset by -2 will return the name for Period 1 of 2008. A new function was added called Period Offset. You can enter a period and offset e.g. Mar-02 offset -2 will return “Jan-02”. This function can also return the period as a range e.g. “Jan-02-Mar-02” which can be used in conjunction with the custom to date (CTD) balance type to create a rolling period type report. Feature Benefit: More flexible period reporting.

After Upgrade to Oracle R12 Get Balance is incorrect

5 June 2008

After upgrading to Oracle release 12 your Get Balance formulas may start giving an incorrect balance. The reason is that there is a new balance option in release 12. In the past you could report on "Entered" or "Translated" balances. In R12 you can report on "Entered", "Translated" or "Total". GL Wand supports this new "Total" option. For all Get Balance calculations where you want to see the full balance on the account you should now use the "Total" option. You can do a find and replace on your reports to replace "E" with "Total" to fix the Get Balance formulas in existing reports.

Excel 2007 file format (.xlsx) in Release 3.55.0

3 June 2008

Feature Description: By default GL Wand would always save files and prompt to open files that were in .xls format. The Excel 2007 format has now been included when GL Wand prompts to open a file and will be used when saving files on Excel 2007. Feature Benefit: Extended support for Excel 2007 file format.

Nett value on journal report for entered and accounted in Release 3.55.0

3 June 2008

Feature Description: Two new fields have been added to the journal drill down report. They are Accounted Nett and Entered Nett. Feature Benefit: The journal drill down report can be used for further manipulation in Excel without needing to first add a nett column manually each time.

Undo option for hide zeros in Release 3.55.0

3 June 2008

Feature Description: The new Undo Hide Zeros option will automatically undo the last hide zeros operation. Feature Benefit: No longer necessary to manually unhide rows that where hidden by the hide zeros operation.

Explode a report into one sheet per child segment value in Release 3.55.0

3 June 2008

Feature Description: The Explode report feature allows you to duplicate the current sheet for each child segment value that rolls up to the selected criteria. Start with a complete GL Wand report and select a cell that drives the Get Balance formula e.g. a cell containing a parent department value. Clicking the Explode report button will create a new sheet for each child value of the selected parent department. Feature Benefit: Duplicate your GL Wand report to create one sheet per child value for the selected criteria at the click of a button.

Invalid picture will be in Release 3.55.0

27 May 2008

Feature Description: An error message "Invalid picture" was received in certain cases when loading GL Wand. This problem has been fixed. Feature Benefit: Bug Fix

Dependant segments, correct description for duplicate segment values in Release 3.55.0

26 May 2008

Feature Description: When using dependent segments in the accounting flexfield the correct description could not be determined if there were duplicate segment values. A new parameter has been added to the Get Segment Description function and other key functions that will allow you to indentify which segment value you are looking for based on the independent value. Feature Benefit: Extended support for accounting flexfield’s that contain dependant values sets.