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Art of the Impossible

March 30, 2023
I had built graphs before, easy – right? So, I set up a Cube View, connected it to a chart, and began to click through every setting possible in the Advanced Chart Component to see how to overlay a line and a bar. I’ll save you some time checking, there is no combination of settings that gets you here. Next, I thought of the BI Viewer but with every good requirement there is an equal but opposite requirement that the client forgot to mention the first time around. They wanted to be able to export these into a Book. BI Viewer was now out as exporting to a Book is not a current function of it, back to square one. ...

Predicting the Future: Leveraging What-If Scenario Modeling for Life Insurance Organizations

March 23, 2023
With the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic sitting in our rear-view mirror and the potential for an economic recession looming ahead, the insurance industry is struggling to plan for uncertainty in the consumer market. A record $90 billion of life insurance policies were paid out in 2020 alone; nearly a 16% increase over the previous year. This unexpected volatility is pushing industry leaders to demand more of their Actuarial and FP&A teams. But what makes this industry different and what can be done to ensure insurance businesses are better prepared for the foreseeable future?...

There are many paths to enlightenment, or at least more than one to the current month

March 9, 2023
Well. I’ll be a…something or other OneStream never ceases to amaze me. Or perhaps my ignorance never ceases to amaze me (and so, so, so many others). I had zero, zip, zilch idea that the subject of this post was possible. Genius, or at least something close to that....

Exporting to Import, Part 6, Out, damned data!  Out, I say!

February 22, 2023
We are – finally – at the end of the hey-gang-let’s-have-fun-and-load-data-in-OneStream saga. Never let it be said that Yr. Obt. Svt. cannot take the thinnest of gruel and milk it for all its worth and more as it’s been almost three months of this folderol. But fear not, for we have, hopefully for all concerned, come to an end of this series on data loading. With that happy thought, let us turn to the subject of not loading data but getting rid of it....

Exporting to Import, Part 5, What If This Was In a Table?

February 1, 2023
Different technologies seem to have different data format predilections. In my Previous Technology Life, a relational data source was the default: secure, curated, managed, fast, flexible – I could go on and on but you get the idea. Whether extracted by IT in a data stage environment or brought together with some (at least if I wrote it) mildly-not-totally-garbage-but-probably-so SQL, relational data sources were (and still are) the standard for companies, cf. Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, MySQL, etc. So why doesn’t that seem to be the case with OneStream? Dunno, as the first word in CPM is Corporate. But much of life’s meaning escapes me or I refuse to listen to other people or perhaps, just perhaps, I’m right in my assertion. Stranger things have happened....

Exporting to Import, Part 4, Comment or No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

January 18, 2023
Yes, a rant as well as a brief departure from the ongoing and super-duper exciting (ahem) series on data loading . It’s going to feel great – for me; it may also be instructive – for you. Seriously, read this and ponder if this post doesn’t reflect your practice. If it doesn’t, it really should. And oh yes, this one is dedicated to my objectively younger taller and most definitely smarter and subjectively better looking brother, Celvin Kattookaran. He writes great code, but there is one itsy witsy bit that he misses…...

Exporting to Import, Part 3 or just how does the Level 2 Data Unit work?

January 7, 2023
Loading data into a Cube results in that data in the Cube. Loading additional data into said Cube (think of a new data point although the nuances of this get tricky as we shall see) results in the old data being retained and the new data as well. Data gets loaded; it sticks around. New data gets loaded; the old data sticks around and so does the new. Easy peasy, isn’t it? Except it isn’t because it doesn’t, not always....

Exporting to Import, Part 2

December 8, 2022
The last thrilling post on this subject ended with a Data Management Export Sequence data source. We must now map its fields to the super-duper AVBS application’s equally super-duper Sample cube. This is just a configuration exercise with no code needed....

Exporting to Import, Part 1

November 24, 2022
Moving cube data across scenarios (or entities or time or whatever) can be done via a Data Management Copy Data step or simple api.Data.Calculate statements or api.Data.ConvertDataBufferExtendedMembers. But what happens when there’s a need to perform a data movement and there’s a requirement for complex data transformation?...

Useless? Probably. Hilarious? Absolutely. Emojis, yes, emojis, in OneStream

November 9, 2022
There are times in every geek’s life (mine) where he must face the various vagaries and vicissitudes of life with unflinching good humor lest he lose what few precious marbles he has left. This is one of those times. OneStream’s role in performance management is serious. How could it be anything but unless financial consolidations and multiyear plans are the stuff of jokes? They are not. But life is not all a dire dirge for there are moments of rare joy that illuminate what otherwise might be a life of drab, dreary corporate existence. I live for them. I hope you do as well. This is one of those moments....

Off with their C#Local heads

October 26, 2022
Little – or big – things can have an impact. Sometimes they are a (gasp) Ferrari 308 in a ditch, sometimes they are data where data should never, ever, ever be. Double gasp....

Dynamic? Stored? Why not both?

October 12, 2022
Dynamic formulas are, by their very name, not stored. So what, you might say (I fear that many say that when I write but such is the way of the world), dynamic members are for reporting, stored calculations whether in a Business Rule or a formula, are for allocations and other calculations that are, well, stored. There are times, however, where the calculated results in a dynamic formula are needed in a stored calculation. Unfortunately, referring to a dynamic calculation within a Finance Business Rule (I believe this is true for the elventy million other kinds of rules as well, but I am of course always ready to be corrected), simply doesn’t work. Or does it?...

When a Global Isn’t and Then Is

September 28, 2022
Wouldn’t it (well, maybe?) be great if Lizard People (I invite you to read here if you’ve never heard of the term) controlled OneStream Business Rules? Briefly, an imaginary force – apparently from the Draco or maybe the Sirius or perhaps the Orion constellation* — controls the world, thus absolving humans from the responsibility of making it into the less-than-tidy state than it is today. So, kind of great for collective guilt, except for the all the evil bits that Lizard People bring to the table. Actually, no, not at all, but might it be equally great if there was some sort of omnipotent-and-not-at-all-malevolent force that controlled and shared data across Business Rules? There would be. And there is....

Remove Me From The Loop

September 14, 2022
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Using SQL In OneStream Finance Business Rules, Part 5 – Finally, Finally, Finally The End

August 31, 2022
Yes. Yes we are. Here it is, after a somewhat incredible delay (Could I have written this in one post? Maybe. I did learn a lot along the way so probably not. If the question is: should I have written this in one post, the answer is almost certainly affirmative. Such is the way of the world.) is the culmination of using SQL to drive Finance Business Rules. It looks a little complex but really isn’t. Trust me if you dare....

Using SQL in OneStream Finance Business Rules, Part 4: Escaping the Tyranny of the Data Unit

August 18, 2022
It is possible – barely so – that the maxim, “You can’t write outside of a Data Unit” isn’t quite as oppressive as the struggle Prisoner No. 6 faced in his quest for answers and freedom from his jailer’s shackles, but only by a hair’s breadth. Maybe. Probably....

Clean Business Rules

August 1, 2022
Do you ever see code spill over into the right-hand void? For most, you may have encountered situations where lines of code are not visible because they are just too long to fit onto your screen, like below....

Using SQL in OneStream Finance Business Rules, Part 3 – Lies, LINQ, and Lambda

July 20, 2022
Yes, Gentle Reader, in my last SQL and OneStream Finance Business Rule post, I pinky promised that the next post (this one) would finally cover really using SQL to drive said rules. I also said (actually I only did this in response to a comment from Cosimo Palmisano) that I’d cover LINQ and SQL....

Using SQL in OneStream Finance Business Rules, Part 2 – 1 or 0 or Nothing at All – Looping Data Table Collections In OneStream

July 6, 2022
In my last exciting (ahem) post on SQL in Finance Business Rules, I noted (ranted) that looping a zero-based Data Table using its one-based Count property made me sad. It does because it is – at best – inelegant. Why Microsoft, why did you take an object and give it two different item counts? The world may never know, but no matter, as my ex-coworker (Mustn’t there be a better way of wording that? If so, what is it? More literate readers, comment please.) Cosimo Palmisano pointed out, using VB.Net’s For Each…Next is a simpler way to loop a collection because it ignores the concept of a counter and instead iterates its way through a Collection. He’s right....

Using SQL in OneStream for Data Nerds (Part 2)

June 20, 2022
Now that we have some experience in creating a SQL statement to query OneStream’s backend data record tables, we can now focus on some other aspects that would also tie into an end-to-end SQL solution. Here we’ll cover loading a relational table with data (outside of the staging tables) and querying that data to tie into existing sales information already loaded to OneStream....

Using SQL in OneStream Finance Business Rules, Part 1

June 8, 2022
While the last thrilling (surely) post on SQL in OneStream focused on the core tables that store data, this post is about custom tables in Finance Business Rules. Custom tables can provide supplemental data that isn’t loaded into the Cube and isn’t in Stage or provide metadata (amongst other possibilities) for internal methods and functions. It’s relational, but not as we mostly know it....

Using SQL in OneStream for Data Nerds (Part 1)

May 24, 2022
For those familiar with SQL – in particular, T-SQL, since OneStream’s back-end relies on a MSSQL database – you’ll be happy to hear that you can build an end-to-end SQL solution within OneStream. For context, I have automated many financial and operational processes using SQL and have ported them over into different platforms (Tableau, Power BI, etc.) – you can do the same within OneStream....

Migrating A OneStream App Or Making GolfStream Yours Part 2

May 11, 2022
Migrating A OneStream App Or Making GolfStream Yours, Part 2 Just Desserts As The Duke (probably not, but why spoil the meme?) once said: Unpossible! Remember the triumph of Yr. Obt. Svt. in the last exciting blog post on migrating a OneStream application via a SQL Server file import? The process worked: I copied the......

Migrating A OneStream App Or Making GolfStream Yours: Part 1

April 26, 2022
Migrating A OneStream App Or Making GolfStream Yours, Part 1 From the Ashes of Disaster Grow the Roses of Success Were Yr. Obt. Svt. smart, installing a local copy of the GolfStream sample application would have fast, easy (the first part of this post shows how to do it and it really is simple), and......

How Many Connector Rules Do We Really Need?

April 12, 2022
Fellow OneStream enthusiast, if your list of OneStream Connector Business Rules looks like the below then this blog is for you. If it doesn’t, I hope you still find it useful or at least mildly interesting!...

No Calc To Calc

March 29, 2022
Have you ever wondered what you can do with the calculation type “No Calculate” when setting up a Calculation Definition in your Workflow Profile? It’s sort of odd: Calculation Definition implies a calculation; No Calculate does precisely the opposite. “No Calculate”, despite its name, is a powerful technique that can kick off a Data Management Sequence (to, um, calculate) from a Workflow Profile Process step, which opens the world to endless types of different scenarios (or at least calculations running after data loads)....

Keeping Your Balance With Unbalanced Math

March 15, 2022
Gentle Reader, if you – as your author most definitely was when he first researched it – are somewhat puzzled when reading about Unbalanced Math, this is post is for you as it is a powerful method that illustrates OneStream’s flexibility and utility, prevents pretty dramatic error messages, and stops you from writing stupendously ill thought out nonoptimal solutions to simple problems. Seriously, if you write Finance Business Rules, you need to understand this....

How Does OneStream Store Data?

March 1, 2022
A Financial Analyst Perspective Working with OneStream software for the first time, coming from a financial analyst background, I was always a bit confused by how data was stored for the reports I was creating or the hacked-together solutions I was deploying through OneStream reporting objects. I was familiar with data warehousing concepts and had......

What’s in a (Workflow) Name

February 9, 2022
It has been your author’s observation that the glue that holds OneStream applications together – Workflow – is a victim of terminological inexactitude. No, not that odious euphemism, but instead the common usage of just one term – “Workflow Profile” – for the four (arguably five) different Workflow Profile types. When we OneStream practitioners use the same word to mean many things, we confuse ourselves, make mistakes, and generally make everyone who touches the application unhappy. Happy is more fun....

New Hire and KC City Office Launch

October 8, 2020
Black Diamond Advisory Announces Chad Hatcher to join leadership team and launches Kansas City Office   Global firm builds executive team and emerges as the next leader in digital finance transformation    KANSAS CITY, MO August 4, 2020   (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Black Diamond Advisory was built to transform the office of finance by creating an industry powerhouse of......

West Coast Mixology Event ( City by the Bay)

October 6, 2020
Dear Finance Executive,    Join us on October 15, 2020 at 5:00 PM Pacific for a complimentary virtual mixology event powered by and Black Diamond Advisory, a Platinum OneStream Partner. Our guests will craft two cocktails with an award-winning mixologist. Learn about flavor balance and mixology skills with instructions, tips and stories along the way. We provide......

Modernizing the Federal Budget Formulation

October 6, 2020
REGISTER NOW Local government agency finance leaders within the Office of Budget & Management (OMB) and Comptroller offices are under pressure to improve decision support, increase transparency, and create efficiencies. With continued scrutiny of fiscal spending and the tightening of legislative budgets, the formulation process is evolving from line item approvals to performance-based budgets to......

Selecting a Performance Management Software with Your Head in the Clouds

September 30, 2020
How OneStream Software offers the most customer-focused cloud offering in the industry. “You’ve gotta start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and figure out where you are going to sell it.” – Steve Jobs, 1997 After years of being a happy OneStream customer and gaining......