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Excel4apps Wands SAP 20.2.1

Release Notes

www.insightsoftware.com/wands

Copyright Excel4apps Pty Ltd 2019 | of 18

Table of Contents

1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4

1.1 Upgrading from Version 4 ........................................................................................................ 4

2 Version 20.2.1 ................................................................................................................................. 5

2.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................... 5

3 Version 20.2.0 ................................................................................................................................. 5

3.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 5

3.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................... 5

4 Version 20.1.1 ................................................................................................................................. 5

4.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 5

5 Version 20.1.0 ................................................................................................................................. 6

5.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 6

5.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................... 6

5.3 Planning Wand ......................................................................................................................... 6

6 Version 5.6.1 ................................................................................................................................... 7

6.1 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................... 7

7 Version 5.6.0 ................................................................................................................................... 7

7.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 7

7.2 Planning Wand ......................................................................................................................... 7

7.3 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................... 7

8 Version 5.5.1 ................................................................................................................................... 8

8.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 8

8.2 Planning Wand ......................................................................................................................... 8

9 Version 5.5.0 ................................................................................................................................... 8

9.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 8

9.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................... 9

9.3 Reports Wand ........................................................................................................................... 9

10 Version 5.4.2 ................................................................................................................................... 9

10.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 9

10.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................... 9

10.3 Planning Wand ....................................................................................................................... 10

11 Version 5.4.1 ................................................................................................................................. 10

11.1 General ................................................................................................................................... 10

11.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................. 10

12 Version 5.4.0 ................................................................................................................................. 10



12.1 General ................................................................................................................................... 10

12.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................. 11

12.3 Planning Wand ....................................................................................................................... 11

13 Version 5.3.2 ................................................................................................................................. 11

13.1 General ................................................................................................................................... 11

13.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................. 11

13.3 Planning Wand ....................................................................................................................... 12

14 Version 5.3.0 ................................................................................................................................. 12

14.1 General ................................................................................................................................... 12

14.2 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................. 12

14.3 Reports Wand ......................................................................................................................... 13

14.4 Planning Wand ....................................................................................................................... 13

15 Version 5.2.2 ................................................................................................................................. 13

15.1 General ................................................................................................................................... 13

16 Version 5.2.1 ................................................................................................................................. 13

16.1 General ................................................................................................................................... 13

16.2 RDM ........................................................................................................................................ 15

16.3 GL Wand ................................................................................................................................. 15

16.4 Planning Wand ....................................................................................................................... 16

16.5 Reports Wand ......................................................................................................................... 16

17 Known Issues ................................................................................................................................. 16

17.1 Office 365 Calculates on workbook open ............................................................................... 16

17.2 Slow performance with large volumes (Excel calculation) ..................................................... 17

17.3 Citrix compatibility ................................................................................................................. 18



1 Introduction

Set out below is a summary of the enhancements and bug fixes in this release of the Excel4apps Wands for SAP.

Please note, while we endeavor to perform as much testing as possible on all new releases, we strongly recommend that you always test a new release in a development environment before deploying to production. Specific attention should be placed on testing larger and more complex reports. This version has been tested on ECC6 EHP8 and S/4 HANA 1610.

1.1 Upgrading from Version 4

There is no upgrade process from version 4 as the new architecture is completely different from the previous version. Version 20 can be installed independently of version 4 and both can co-exist on an SAP server during the transition to version 20.

Workbooks created in version 4 will need to be converted.

Version 20 will require its own license key. The version 4 key will not work.



2 Version 20.2.1

2.1 General

2.2 GL Wand

3 Version 20.2.0

3.1 General

3.2 GL Wand

4 Version 20.1.1

4.1 General

Feature Description Benefit SSO Generate SSO Ticket option correction Enables SSO access

Feature Description Benefit Cost Element Descriptions Cost element descriptions not populating

corrected Bug fix

Discover GL Accounts Use the chart of accounts list for discover Enhancement

Expand FSV Set Expand FSV set one level corrected Bug fix

Feature Description Benefit EULA Updated EULA Enhancement

Feature Description Benefit Projects/Internal Order balances

Validation to ensure the user option is selected when retrieving these types of balances

Enhancement

Currency Drilldown for currencies requiring decimal shifts corrected

Bug fix

Overall Plan Company code default value Enhancement

Feature Description Benefit Stop calculations An update to Microsoft’s asynchronous function

handles resulted in Excel becoming unresponsive if Wands calculations where stopped

Bug fix



5 Version 20.1.0

5.1 General

5.2 GL Wand

5.3 Planning Wand

Feature Description Benefit Community Remove obsolete community icons Enhancement

Launch Option to enable launch directly from the desktop added

Enhancement

Feature Description Benefit Universal Journal Drilldown to plan values in ACDOCP added Enhancement

CCA balance Exclude button greyed out as it is not a valid option Enhancement

COPA and SPL description Value label for parameter corrected Bug fix

SPL SPL custom fields added to the create list of values dialog

Enhancement

Universal Journal 20 configurable fields added to the Universal Journal function

Enhancement

Logging Improved server logging for daily balance functions Enhancement

Universal Journal Criteria sheet parameter name corrected Bug fix

Financial Statement Hierarchies

Financial statement hierarchies have now been added back

Enhancement

Report Wizard The cost center header parameter defaults a value so that the report does not error

Enhancement

Cost Elements Include old cost elements for reporting purposes Enhancement

Overall Plan New balance function to retrieve overall plan values for internal orders and WBS elements

Enhancement

Daily Drilldown When using the open at key date functionality and the from and to dates are blank, the drilldown results in an error

Bug fix

Feature Description Benefit Cost Plan Internal order, WBS, functional area and variable

plan value parameters added Enhancement



6 Version 5.6.1

6.1 GL Wand

7 Version 5.6.0

7.1 General

7.2 Planning Wand

7.3 GL Wand

Feature Description Benefit New GL drilldown Numeric segments failing drilldown Bug fix

Daily GL Multiple GL account selection for parked documents

Bug fix

Feature Description Benefit License Non GLW user assignment logon exception Bug fix

User List Launch configuration option added to limit the SAP user list

Ease of use

Launch New launch transaction created Enhancement

Logging Improved logging Enhancement

Feature Description Benefit S4 financial New S4 financial planning function added Enhancement

Activity planning Parameters added to enable variable planning Enhancement

Authorization Updated authorization check introduced in EHP8 Enhancement

Feature Description Benefit COPA Master data caching for large lists removed Faster launch time

New GL drilldown Correction for New GL balance sheet YTD line item drill down

Bug fix

COPA Null field check Bug fix

Expired CO objects Cost and profit center lists to include expired objects

Reporting on old objects

CCA/Order Balance Records with debit type 1 and 2 included in debit only balances

Bug fix



8 Version 5.5.1

8.1 General

8.2 Planning Wand

9 Version 5.5.0

9.1 General

Attributes Master data attributes added Enhancement

Master Data Functionality to cache master data Enhancement

GL Accounts Option to discover company code specific accounts Enhancement

Feature Description Benefit SAP connector Support for message server settings Enable message server

connection

SAP connector Support for SAP router setting Enable SAP router connection

Launch Remove use of batch files Avoid anti-virus blocking

Launch Compression parameter enabled Bug fix

Process Release unused excel4apps.exe process Bug fix

Maintenance Ability to remove users from the maintenance transaction

Ease of use

Feature Description Benefit Load plan Values greater than 9,999,999 allowed Bug fix

Feature Description Benefit SSO Environment variable values with spaces corrected Bug fix

License Key Manual license key dialog showing twice Bug fix

Launch process Provided exe to install the launcher and client file before launching

Faster launch time

Login Add the SAP login dialog to the windows task bar Launch visibility

Copyright Added copyright info Notification



9.2 GL Wand

9.3 Reports Wand

10 Version 5.4.2

10.1 General

10.2 GL Wand

Launch Updated splash screen Updated product information

Feature Description Benefit Universal Journal S/4 HANA balance, criteria and drilldown function New balance function

PCA balance Added the object class parameter to the PCA balance, criteria and drilldown functionality

Additional filter option

Expand User option to ignore GL accounts blocked for posting in the chart of accounts when expanding

Exclude unused GL accounts

LOV Filter for the create list of values does not clear Bug fix

Feature Description Benefit Pivot Tables Allow the use of pivot tables Bug fix

Layouts Disable the sort by and group by Bug fix

Feature Description Benefit Launch process Launch files retrieved from a network share Faster launch time

Feature Description Benefit Cost center master data caching

Improved cost center master data caching Shorter log on time

Account sets Account sets not resolving child values Bug fix

Financial Statement Version hierarchies

Financial statement version hierarchies removed. Workaround is to copy it to an account group with KE5B

Account groups expanding

GL document drill down Selecting vendor or customer field in document drill down layout causes an exception

Bug fix

Parked document Drilling on a vendor or customer parked document results in exception

Bug fix



10.3 Planning Wand

11 Version 5.4.1

11.1 General

11.2 GL Wand

Feature Description Benefit New GL drill down New GL drill down on S/4 HANA systems enables

new transaction types Avoid drill down errors

FICO object list Customer and Vendor added to the FICO object drop down list to enable Discover and Show

Report building for Customer and Vendor

Performance Performance improvement for the CCA, IO, SKF, PCA, Projects and New GL balance functions

Improved performance

12 Version 5.4.0

12.1 General

Feature Description Benefit EXCEL4APPS authorization object

EXCEL4APPS authorization object Authorization object available in role

Improve Launch Transaction Option to change the launch download folder and to download the client application directly

Easier application launch

JDK 11 launcher The new JDK 11 launcher does not require SAML ID provider selection

Successful launch

SSO selection memory Remember the selected setting for SSO Setting memory

User selection process Only users tagged with the EXCEL4APPS authorization object are shown in the list of SAP users to manage

Improved user selection process

Feature Description Benefit S/4 HANA New GL planning Replace option enabled for New GL planning on

S/4 HANA systems Replace option available

Feature Description Benefit Excel process Excel orphan process clean up Orphan process clean up

Launch transaction Required authorization checks performed Highlights missing authorizations

Launch Ability to configure a port for the SAP Java connector to use

Flexible configuration



12.2 GL Wand

Feature Description Benefit Create List of Values dialog filter

Search for the list of values you want to create instead of scrolling through a long list

Easily find the correct list of values

Report Wizard Check to ensure at least one row filter is added Bug Fix

Sub Menus for Criteria Sheet

Menu separators make it clearer to differentiate between criteria sheet types

Improved menu structure

FBL5N drill down A new drill criteria sheet provided to be able to perform actions similar to transaction code FBL5N

The ability to report on customer values

New function to report on Vendor values

A new drill criteria sheet provided to be able to perform actions similar to transaction code FBL1N

The ability to report on Vendor values

Apply the SPL table group configuration

Read and apply the selected configuration for each SPL table group

Enables a configurable SPL function

SPL table group configuration

Provide a configuration transaction to enable choosing the custom fields to be used for an SPL table group

Provides simple configuration of the SPL function

Add group objects to the SPL balance function

Create SPL balance functions for group objects Easier balance creation

SPL balance Provides a new balance function in GL Wand to enable balance and drill down reporting on the special purpose ledger

Enables SPL reporting in GL Wand

Daily Customer Function Enables reporting on customer balances at a daily level

Ability to report on Customer balances

Daily Vendor Balance

A new balance function to report on vendor balances at a daily level

Enables vendor balance reporting

12.3 Planning Wand

Feature Description Benefit Prevent PW posting locks

Prevent locking of PW postings Prevents locking of PW postings

13 Version 5.3.2

13.1 General

Feature Description Benefit Java 11 Launcher Java 11 Launcher Zero client install

13.2 GL Wand

Feature Description Benefit Insert COPA function Company code sets bug fix Bug fix

Ledgers S4CORE tables missing on HANA database Bug fix



13.3 Planning Wand

Feature Description Benefit Load New GL Missing field in HANA 1610 Bug fix

14 Version 5.3.0

14.1 General

Feature Description Benefit Java Connector update Java Connector update Remain up to date with the

SAP Java connector

14.2 GL Wand

Feature Description Benefit Logon performance improvement

Logon performance improvement Improved logon time

Logging class name truncated

Logging class name truncated Improved logging

Company Code Sets A company code set can now be selected instead of having to list out many company codes in a function

Ease of use

Report Wizard The report wizard feature allows the quick creation of a report with the formulas already referenced to the input parameters

Ease of report creation

Indirect Exchange Rates Ability to return the indirect exchange rate Retrieve indirect exchange rates

Expand hierarchy up A hierarchy can be expanded upward, with the group totals at the bottom of the list of individual values


Fewer pop ups during launch

The pop up to choose whether to open or save the file after clicking launch has been removed

Quicker launch

Retrieve Automated Attachments

Retrieve automated attachments Attachment retrieval

Expand hierarchy to individual values

When performing an expand hierarchy, if a group contains a range of values, the range is expanded into the individual values


FBL3N in GL Wand The daily GL balance function has been enhanced to be able to use options similar to the FBL3N transaction code

Execute drill down criteria sheets in a similar fashion to the FBL3N transaction code

Return blank for * value in get object description

A blank is returned for a * value in the object description function instead of an error

Removes an unnecessary error



14.3 Reports Wand

Feature Description Benefit Featured Views Documentation

The featured views documentation URLs were updated

Updated documentation

Output with pivot table The ability to automatically create a linked pivot table when the Reports Wand report is created


Tool tip for limit criteria Tool tip for limit criteria Assistance on field use

Clear individual filters from parameter list

Ability to clear individual filters in the parameter list


Remove open report button The button to open a report was removed due to redundancy with standard Windows open file functionality

Cleaner toolbar

Rename parameter list buttons

Rename parameter list buttons Clearer meaning

Data preview resets columns

Data preview bug fix Bug fix

Field categorization in the layout editor

The fields in the layout editor have been categorized


Minimum fields in report layout

The initially selected fields in the report layout was reduced to the minimum


14.4 Planning Wand

Feature Description Benefit Load Activity Input Plan New Planning Wand function to enable uploading

activity input values. New feature

Exclude Planning Wand Functions on Snapshot

Exclude Planning Wand Functions on Snapshot Planning Wand functions can still be refreshed

15 Version 5.2.2

15.1 General

Feature Description Benefit

Backward Compatibility Minor changes made to support older ECC6 systems in line with the system requirements.

Bug fix

Attachments Improved attachment retrieval support Enhancement

16 Version 5.2.1

16.1 General


Reports Wand documentation links

Reports Wand documentation links corrected Bug fix




RDM Workbook naming Introduced the "Add Parameter(s) To Worksheet" option to optionally add the RDM parameters value to the worksheet names of the RDM output Workbook. Selecting "Yes" adds the parameter value to the resulting output worksheet name to easy identify the parameters used in calculating the sheet.

Allows the user to control the naming of the worksheets contained in the RDM output file by optionally appending the parameters used when executing the sheet.

Licensed product security in Shared Templates

When viewing the shared template drive, the only products that will show up in the dialog will be those that are enabled for access unless being viewed by an admin or this security feature is turned off.

This change helps to restrict access to locations that were already restricted from the logged in user account.

Expand causes Excel to stop responding

An issue was identified that would under certain circumstances and with a very specific combination of options, cause Excel to stop responding when executing the Expand function.

Bug Fix.

JWS Do not close warning

When launching from a JWS screen, an applet opens with the excel4apps logo. There is small text stating to not close the window. Now there is text added to the logo telling stating "Do not close this window".

This helps to clarify that the applet window needs to remain open while using an Excel4apps product.

Select Single Sheet for RDM processing

RDM now provides the ability to distribute only selected worksheets from a source report.

Provides user with greater distribution flexibility.

Logging Framework Improvements

The application logging framework will now log toolbar actions when logging level is set to FINE.

Improved application diagnostics.

Shared Templates - Update workbook with current

When you create a new Shared Templates file, the browser dialog opened to the user home folder. Then the user had to navigate to the file they wanted. We are now opening the browser dialog to the current location of the active workbook.

The user will now have a quicker and easy way of creating new template files for Shared Templates.

SysAdmin Options: User Permissions: infinity symbol not displaying correctly

When you upgrade to a later java version, the infinity symbol does not always display correctly. We have changed the symbol from an inline symbol to a UTF-8 char code symbol, so it displays correctly every time.

With this fix, the user will no longer see a broken image in the system admin dialog.

Add-in name change

The Java add-in name was changed to avoid conflict with the version 4.xx add-in name

Improved version interoperability



16.2 RDM


RW Integration Allows for distribution or RW reports Distribution of Reports

Wand reports

16.3 GL Wand


Get Daily GL Balance Retrieves Line Item level (BSIS/BSAS) information from General Ledger and sums to balance

Report and drill down on Daily balances.

Get SKF Balance (CCA) Retrieve SKF balances by Cost Center Report and drill down on SKF CCA balances.

Get SKF Balance (PCA) Retrieve SKF balances by Profit Center Report and drill down on SKF PCA balances.

Get SKF Balance (IO) Retrieve SKF balances by Internal Order Report and drill down on SKF IO balances.

Get Activity Type Balance Retrieve Activity Type balances Report and drill down on Activity Type balances.

Get Exchange Rate Retrieve Exchange rates Report on exchange rates

Get Offsetting Account Retrieve Offsetting Account Value and Type Get offsetting account information

Get Attachments Retrieve attached file Get attachments

SAP Subtotal Drilldown does not reflect the actual total

When you perform a drilldown that includes a subtotal on the balance column, the overall total shown at the bottom is a combination of the subtotals balance and the overall balance.

With this fix, the overall balance when performing a drilldown with a subtotal on the balance is displayed correctly.

Daily GL balance date format on criteria sheet

Date formatting error on criteria sheet corrected

Usability

SAP Subtotal Drilldown does not reflect the actual total

When you perform a drilldown that includes a subtotal on the balance column, the overall total shown at the bottom is a combination of the subtotals balance and the overall balance.

With this fix, the overall balance when performing a drilldown with a subtotal on the balance is displayed correctly.

Statistical Key Figure (PCA) versions missing

Statistical Key Figure (PCA) balance wizard missing the version list

Version selection

Statistical Key Figure list of values

Support for pre 4.0 statistical key figures added

Additional values available

Statistical Key Figure groups listed in wizard

Statistical Key Figure groups were listed incorrectly in the balance wizard

Correct values displayed

Statistical Key Figure attributes

Attributes of Statistical Key Figures added Attribute reporting

Data preview on GL Wand template

Data preview button removed from GL Wand templates

Avoid confusion



16.4 Planning Wand


Load Activity Output A Planning Wand function for uploading plan values to the New GL. Loads plan prices and quantities to Activity Types and Cost Centers

Load plan values for Activity Output.

Load SKF Plan A Planning Wand function for uploading plan

values statistical key figures. Load plan values for

statistical key figures.

16.5 Reports Wand


Create Report - filter by Module

Filters visible Views by Module Easier to find the views

you want.

Create Report - filter by Featured

Filters visible Views by Featured Easier to find the views

you want.

Create Report -search/sort by Similar T-

Code Metadata populated by Excel4apps

Easier to find the views you want.

Create Report -search/sort by Sub-

Module Filters visible Views by sub-module


Create Report -search/sort by Sub-Module Description

Sub-Module description is taken from the final Sub-Module in the sequence


Create Report - CDS View Documentation

Provides hyperlink for Views documented by SAP

Easily get additional documentation for a view

Create Report – Back button

Allows user to return to Create Report dialog without cancelling and re-opening

Easier navigation of views

Create Report - Data Preview

Displays first 5 rows of data to assist with field selection

Sample data to assist with view discovery

CO views included in Finance filter

CO CDS views included in Finance filter Finance related views displayed for filter

Featured CDS views Additional views added to the featured list Additional featured views

Suppress Reports Wand admin column

Unused column in the product selection dialog suppressed

Avoid confusion

Snapshot of Reports Wand formulas

Reports Wand formulas included in snapshot process

Snapshot of Reports Wand formulas

17 Known Issues

17.1 Office 365 Calculates on workbook open

By design the Excel4apps custom Excel functions will not recalculate when a workbook is opened. We use standard Excel features to achieve this. Excel’s standard behavior is that when a workbook is opened the last calculated result will be displayed in the cells and no calculation is triggered. In the background we restore the last function results for all Excel4apps custom functions so that they are



available in the session. Those results will be used until a recalculation is performed using one of the “Refresh” buttons on the Excel4apps toolbar.

An issue has been noted in Office 365 (latest build but could occur in previous releases as well) where Excel triggers a recalculation when a workbook is opened. This will occur specifically for workbooks that have not been saved on the local PC e.g. items opened from a network drive or email. The calculation is triggered before our application has an opportunity to restore the last function results and therefore an Excel4apps calculation begins in order to resolve the functions which currently have no result in the session. This behavior does not occur on other Excel releases, only Office 365. It is unclear why Excel is functioning in this manner. The problem is likely an Excel bug.

What you can do to work around the issue:

• Set the Excel calculation mode to manual before opening the workbook and then set it back to automatic once the workbook is opened. This ensures that our application has an opportunity to restore the last function results before the calculation is triggered.

• Alternatively, set the Excel4apps calculation mode to “Off” before opening the workbook. Again, this ensures that our application has an opportunity to restore the last function results. The functions will initially resolve to “pending”. You can then return the Excel4apps calculation mode to “On” and trigger an Excel refresh using Ctrl-Alt-F9 which will then resolve the functions using the last results.

17.2 Slow performance with large volumes (Excel calculation)

When processing workbooks containing a large calculation volume, typically around 100 000 or more, the process of returning the final answers to Excel can take a significant amount of time. During this process the Excel status bar shows a calculation percentage which slowly increments.

We have conducted extensive testing around this issue and have concluded that there is nothing we can change in our application to improve the performance. This is an Excel process that is running and we cannot influence it in any way.

This problem is compounded by the fact that during Excel4apps calculations (triggered by using one of the refresh buttons on the toolbar) we switch the Excel calculation to a single processor (single threaded process). This is required to prevent the occurrence of an Excel bug which manifests as a “Out of resources” error or Excel crashing with certain workbook configurations.

What you can do in the short term:

• Lower volumes calculate exponentially faster, for example in our benchmarking, a workbook with 50 000 calculations completed almost 9 times faster than a workbook with 100 000 calculations. Therefore try and keep workbooks to smaller sizes where possible or calculate in sections to keep the volume being processed lower.

• Workbooks with complex dependent formulas tend to perform the worst. So limit this where possible.

• The Excel bug mentioned above does not affect all workbooks. You can therefore try disabling the option that restricts the calculation to using a single processor. If the calculations complete without error, you can leave this setting disabled and this should improve the performance of the Excel calculation. The option can be found under the GL Wand options.

What we are doing:



We are investigating alternative options to stream our calculation results back to Excel. The option we are currently using is the technology that Microsoft recommends for our requirement but clearly cannot handle the required volumes and also has a number of bugs which Microsoft does not seem to be addressing.

This investigation of alternatives will unfortunately take some time to complete and the development of a new solution is likely to be a significant project. But please be assured that we are working as quickly as we can to find a solution to process large calculation volumes efficiently.

17.3 Citrix compatibility

The Excel4apps Wands application is supported on a Citrix Desktop. However, deploying Excel via Citrix Application Streaming, as a standalone application, is not supported. Our recommendation though, seeing as there is no longer a client installation, is to run our product from the PC rather than from Citrix.

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