Oracle EPM Planning and Budgeting Administration Training Course

Course overview

Finance teams depend on planning applications that can withstand changing assumptions, preserve ownership of forecast inputs, and produce auditable numbers for management review. Oracle EPM Planning administrators must translate these requirements into reliable applications: dimensions that support analysis, forms that guide users to the right inputs, calculations that allocate and aggregate correctly, integrations that refresh actuals, and security that limits access without obstructing the planning cycle. This course addresses the operational and technical work required to administer Oracle EPM Planning for annual budgets, rolling forecasts, workforce plans, capital plans, and management reporting.

Participants configure and maintain Oracle EPM Planning applications using the application design principles that drive usable and controllable planning models. They build dimensions, hierarchies, member properties, forms, dashboards, approval units, data maps, Smart View templates, business rules, and Groovy rules. The course also covers Oracle Calculation Manager, data loading and mapping with Oracle Data Integration, security provisioning, substitution variables, job monitoring, migration artifacts, and practical troubleshooting. Participants learn how to design calculations for currency conversion, driver-based planning, allocations, spreading, and forecast scenarios while managing calculation performance and data quality.

Instruction combines guided demonstrations with hands-on configuration in a realistic finance planning environment. Each participant works through the administration of a multi-entity planning application, from metadata design through data integration, user forms, rules, workflow, and migration. The final deliverable is an administration runbook and configured application design pack containing a dimensional model, security matrix, form catalogue, calculation-rule inventory, integration map, and monthly planning-cycle operating checklist that can be adapted for use at work.

The course is best suited to finance systems professionals and experienced FP&A users who administer, support, enhance, or govern Oracle EPM Planning rather than simply submit planning data.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design a dimensional model with entities, accounts, scenarios, versions, periods, and custom dimensions for a finance planning application
• Configure Planning forms, dashboards, Smart View ad hoc templates, and form validation to control user data entry
• Build Calculation Manager business rules for allocations, spreading, currency conversion, driver-based calculations, and aggregations
• Develop Groovy rules that validate inputs, automate member-driven processes, and improve planning-form performance
• Create Oracle Data Integration mappings, import formats, locations, and load rules for actuals and budget data
• Administer security through application roles, access permissions, member filters, and approval-unit ownership
• Operate a planning cycle using substitution variables, task jobs, data maps, approvals, workflow monitoring, and exception handling
• Produce an Oracle EPM Planning administration runbook with an application design, control matrix, deployment, and support procedures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Oracle EPM Planning Administrators — who configure applications, manage planning cycles, and resolve user or process issues
• FP&A Systems Managers — who own budgeting platforms and need stronger design, control, and support capability
• EPM Technical Consultants — who implement or enhance Planning applications for finance clients
• Senior Financial Systems Analysts — who translate budgeting requirements into forms, calculations, integrations, and workflow
• FP&A Managers — who govern forecasts and need to assess the reliability of their Planning model
• Finance Transformation Leads — who oversee Oracle EPM Planning deployment, operating-model design, and adoption

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand budgeting, forecasting, chart-of-accounts structures, and core financial planning concepts such as actuals, scenarios, versions, entities, periods, and variances. Experience using Oracle EPM Planning as a power user, or administering another planning, consolidation, or BI application, is strongly recommended. Familiarity with Excel formulas and pivot-style analysis is assumed because Smart View exercises use Excel. Basic knowledge of relational data concepts and file-based data loads is helpful. Prior Groovy, Essbase calculation-script, SQL, or programming experience is not required; the course introduces the rule-development practices needed for Planning administration.

Training methodology

The instructor uses a configured Oracle EPM Planning tenant to demonstrate each administration task before participants perform it in guided labs. Exercises progress from dimensional design and metadata loading to forms, Calculation Manager rules, Groovy automation, Oracle Data Integration, security, approvals, and migration. Finance case studies use a multi-entity budget and rolling forecast scenario, requiring participants to make design trade-offs and diagnose deliberately introduced defects. Small-group reviews test application design decisions against business requirements. On day five, participants assemble an implementation and operating plan for their own planning environment.

Course outline

Day 1: Planning application architecture and dimensional design

• Oracle EPM Planning application types and module architecture
• Plan type design for financial, workforce, and project planning
• Dimensional modelling of Account, Entity, Scenario, Version, Period, and Years
• Custom dimensions, sparse-dense design considerations, and member properties
• Alternate hierarchies, shared members, attributes, and roll-up logic
• Metadata import templates, member maintenance, and validation rules
• Application settings, calendars, currencies, substitution variables, and feature enablement

Workshop: Build a dimensional design and load metadata for a multi-entity budget and rolling-forecast application, producing a documented dimension map.

Day 2: Forms, Smart View, workflow, and user experience

• Planning form design using rows, columns, page selectors, and segments
• Form properties, suppression options, valid intersections, and data validation
• Dynamic user variables and member-selection controls
• Dashboards, infolets, cards, and navigation flows for planning users
• Smart View ad hoc analysis, planning templates, and shared connections
• Approval units, ownership assignment, review levels, and workflow status
• Task lists, instructions, and planning-cycle user communications

Workshop: Configure a departmental expense-planning form, manager dashboard, Smart View template, and approval path, then produce a user journey map.

Day 3: Calculations and automation with Calculation Manager

• Calculation Manager rule components, rule sets, templates, and deployment
• FIX statements, member functions, cross-dimensional references, and calculation scope
• Aggregation, allocation, spreading, and driver-based planning logic
• Currency conversion and exchange-rate calculation design
• Runtime prompts, variables, and targeted rule execution from forms
• Groovy rules for validation, dynamic member processing, and process automation
• Calculation performance tuning, logging, testing, and troubleshooting

Workshop: Build and test a driver-based expense allocation rule and a Groovy validation rule, producing a calculation specification and test evidence.

Day 4: Data integration, security, and operational control

• Oracle Data Integration architecture and source-to-target planning flows
• Import formats, locations, mappings, expressions, and load-rule design
• Actuals loading, metadata loading, data validation, and error-file analysis
• Data maps, Smart Push, and cross-plan data movement
• Identity-domain roles, application roles, groups, and provisioning procedures
• Member-level security, access permissions, and segregation-of-duties controls
• Jobs console monitoring, audit considerations, and support incident triage

Workshop: Configure an actuals load with source mappings and validation checks, then create a role and member-security matrix for departmental planners.

Day 5: Deployment, governance, and administration runbook

• Lifecycle Management artifacts, snapshots, and environment migration
• Test, development, and production promotion procedures
• Application change control, release notes, and regression testing
• Planning-cycle calendars, cut-off controls, and operational checklists
• Data-quality controls, reconciliation points, and exception management
• Capacity, performance, and user-support monitoring practices
• Administration runbook structure and stakeholder governance model

Workshop: Complete a capstone administration workshop by preparing a deployment plan, planning-cycle checklist, and support runbook for the configured application.

Tools & standards covered

Oracle EPM Planning, Oracle Calculation Manager, Oracle Data Integration, Smart View for Office

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions