Centage Release Notes

As of the latest product release, the Centage Product Development team will have made the following updates and improvements:

 

January 8, 2025:

Progress Bars

The Job Status page now features Progress Bars for long running processes.

 

2024

 

December 17, 2024:

AI Assistant

The Centage AI Assistant has been trained to answer questions about the Centage application, guide users through multi-step processes and answer FP&A related questions.  It is available throughout the application.

Improved Notification Messages

Clearer and more informative messages have been added to multiple application processes.

 

December 13, 2024:

Spread Method Wizard

A new step-by-step walkthrough process for creating Spread Methods with contextual guidance.

 

December 2, 2024:

Spread Methods Enhancement

The Spread Method list page now has a more modern look and feel.  In addition, users can also now search and sort Spread Methods as necessary to quickly find the desired method.

 

October 17, 2024:

Version Selection Enhancement

Removed the drop-down selection functionality when there is only one version type option for a Version Dimension Member.

 

October 15, 2024:

Analytics Maestro Report Enhancement

Statistical Accounts (non-financial accounts), from Worksheets, such as units or headcount are now included in Cube Deployments. If you have entered data for statistical accounts, you can select to present this in your Analytics Maestro reports.

Users with existing reports for statistical accounts may see overinflated amounts if the statistical account was attached to data projections in more than one Worksheets module.

We recommend that you select unique statistical accounts within each Worksheets module.

 

October 10, 2024:

Variance Report Enhancement

The default width for column headers on variance reports has been increased.

 

October 3, 2024:

Optimized Process for Forgot Password?

The email that a user receives after clicking Forgot Password on the Centage login page no longer includes a temporary password to be entered prior to creating a new password. When the user clicks the link in the email, they will enter a new password and then confirm that password in order to complete the password reset process.

 

September 26, 2024:

New Feature: Enhanced Variance Reporting

Users now have more options for selections for Variance reports.

• Multi-version comparison allows you to select more than two versions to present in one report e.g. Actuals, Budget1, Budget2
• Multi-time period comparison allows you the option to select multiple years for multiple versions
• YTD allows you to create a report for current year Actuals for YTD periods compared with the same periods for a budget version

August 29, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements: The Version Locking tool is now titled Version Management.

Deleting Versions:  Centage Administrator users now have the ability to use the Version Management tool to delete Centage-based budget versions.  Users must first lock the version in order to delete. After the version is locked, the delete icon is displayed. 

Points to Consider

• All of the data projections included in the budget version will be deleted.
• If the budget version is a source for a forecast version, the forecast version will also be deleted.
• If a workflow is using the budget version, the workflow will also be deleted.
• If the budget version is selected in a cube deployment, the budget version will be removed from the cube.

After clicking the delete icon, the user will be informed if there are any Forecast versions or Workflows associated.  In these cases, if desired, the user may decide to Cancel the deletion process or continue. In order to confirm the deletion, the user must type the exact version name into a field on a popup window.

 

August 7, 2024:

Update Statistical Accounts Summary Values: The Personnel and Revenue Modules calculate averages instead of totals for quarters and years within Details panel for the following transaction rows:

Personnel: 

• Headcount (Balance)
• Headcount (Begin)
• Wages section: all transaction types excluding increase/decrease and data links
• Other Statistical Data section: Average Hourly Rate Overall

Revenue

• Unit Price section: all transaction types excluding increase/decrease and data links
• Cost Per Unit section: all transaction types excluding increase/decrease and data links
• Cost Per Unit (Net)
• Cost Per Unit (Gross)
• Other Statistical Data section: Gross Margin Per Unit

Update Automation Method Options: Recognition Schedules

Removed Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS)-related methods from drop-down list for Recognition Schedules field in Worksheets modules

UI/UX Enhancements

Submit Feedback option is listed on Support Menu

 

July 27, 2024:

New feature: Ability to report on statistical (non-financial) accounts in standard reports

Users with access to Reports List can create and edit reports to view non-financial data

• Revenue: Booking Units, Unit Price, Cost of Sales
• Personnel: Planned Hours, Wage Per Hour
• Drivers: Monetary (Input), Related Cost, Period Related Expense, Rate, Hours, Hourly Wage
• Adjustments

**No changes to Analytics at this time; however, a future release will allow for statistical accounts to be included in the data deployed to the Cube.

 

July 10, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

Updated format for Headers in Reports List, Version Locking, Job Status, and Audit Log

 

June 20, 2024:

Scheduled Plan Deployment for Enterprise Subscribers

Centage Enterprise plan users now have the ability to schedule plan deployments daily or weekly:

• Daily based on a one-hour time window
• Weekly based on a selected day and a one-hour time window

When scheduled plan deployment is enabled, Centage will display the information needed for you to select your plan deployment time window. The following information is provided:

• Latest Data Upload Time
• Average Plan Deployment Duration

Please Note: Centage recommends scheduling your deployment to start AFTER the latest data upload time shown to avoid potential conflicts

This deployment does not automatically include Base Structure updates.  If there are any Base Structure member changes, you can address these and redeploy your plan manually.

UI/UX Enhancements

• Audit Log - A dash has been added between the start date and end date boxes.
• Job Status Page -A new drop-down box has been added to the Job Status page to allow you to filter jobs to show for a specific user.

May 16, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

• Users do not have to enter email address as case-specific when initiating a Forgot Password request
• Users will see Centage blog posts in the What's New widget on the Home Page

May 1, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

Users can click the Plan Name in the Latest Plan Deployment widget to access Deploy Data page.

 

April 25, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

• New Widget on the Home Page: Latest Source Data Upload shows users the date of the most recent data upload to Centage Profile.
• New Submenu, Need Help?, for Support section on Navigation Bar allows users to create a support ticket directly from within Centage
• Icon for Columns on Worksheets changed from Filter to Search
• Users can download a file that contains details for errors encountered during Import Template process for Worksheets Modules
  • An error report file can be downloaded directly from the failed import notification message within Worksheets at the time of the activity or later from the Job Status page. 
  • This file is available for 48 hours to assist with troubleshooting and resolving issues with failed records.

April 10, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

• Users can select to receive an email notification upon completion of a cube deployment from Modeler.
• Non-administrator users will see an unlocked icon on the Version Locking page for all unlocked versions.

April 4, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

• New Layout for Reports Page
  • Reports are listed in a table alphabetically by report name, with favorite reports at the top of the list.
  • Options to:
    • Filter by All or Favorite
    • Sort by Report Name, Scope and Type columns
    • Search report names
  • Ability to Favorite, Copy or Delete a report in the action column based on user role permissions.
  • +New Report button provides the ability to create new reports based on user role permissions.

March 27, 2024:

New Tool: Version Locking

• Allows Budget versions created in Centage to be locked in order to prevent any future changes.
  • To access the tool, select Version Locking from Tools within the left-hand navigation menu.
  • Prevent ALL users from making any changes to the data within the locked version. 
  • Only Administrators have the ability to lock a version.
  • Locked versions can NOT be unlocked.  Users can use the Copy Data tool to copy the locked version to a new budget version member.
  • If a Budget version contains data projections where there are links to other versions, it cannot be locked.

UI/UX Enhancements

• Ability to right-click on a pinned Quicklink from the Homepage to open a new browser tab.
• Cube deployment jobs from Modeler will be listed on the Job Status page.

March 20, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

In the Plan Selection Widget on the Home Page, plan is automatically selected if only one plan exists.

 

March 12, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

• New Quicklinks Widget on the Homepage
  • Provides the ability for users to customize their Homepage with shortcut links.  Users can pin up to 10 Quicklink selections via the pencil icon in the top left corner of the Quicklinks Widget. Clicking on the pencil icon will open a pop-up containing a list of available Quicklinks to select from.
  • Quicklinks are user-specific, meaning any changes made to Quicklinks by an individual user will have no effect on other account users’ pinned Quicklinks.
  • The Quicklinks Widget is auto-populated with pinned Quicklinks for all existing users for the initial rollout. The default pinned Quicklink selections are based on user role and security settings. Note: Users are able to edit/change the default Quicklinks.
• Centage logo in header is now a clickable link to the Homepage from anywhere else within the application
• Individual application page names are now displayed in browser tabs
  • Quick identification of tabbed application pages when working with multiple browser tabs
  • Previously all browser tabs displayed the title “PLANNING MAESTRO”
• New user interface for login and session timeout screens

February 27, 2024:

UI/UX Enhancements

• New Consistent Home Page 
  • Serves as the first page you see upon logging into Centage. This page provides important and timely information while you are using the application. It can also be accessed from any point within the program by clicking on the Home menu icon in the left-side navigation menu or the Current Plan Link in the Header.
  • Previously users landed in the landing page of the module they were in when they exited their last session.
• What’s New Widget
  • • The What’s New widget will display information from Centage regarding products, marketing and promotions.
    • Previously the What’s New Widget was located on the Dashboard
• Plan Selection Widget
  • • • The Plan Selection widget will display the current plan. If multiple plans exist the selected can be changed within the drop-down.  Depending on the user’s security settings, the current profile may also be displayed as text.
      • Previously the current plan and the plan drop down was located on each module’s landing page.
• Current Plan Link in Header
  • • • Displayed in the Header from any page within the application as a link back to the Plan Selection Widget on the Home Page to allow users with multiple plans to quickly change the plan.
      • Previously the currently selected plan name was not displayed when the user was not on one of the module landing pages.
• Latest Plan Deployment Widget
  • • • The Latest Plan Deployment widget will display the plan name, deployment date, deployment time and status for the most recent plan deployment.
      • Previously this information was only available to users with security configured with access to the Deploy Plan page accessed via the Data Modeler landing page.
• Latest Cube Deployment Widget
  • • • The Latest Plan Deployment widget will display the plan name, deployment date, deployment time and status for the most recent cube deployment.
      • Previously this information was only available to users with security configured with access to the Deploy Cube page accessed via the Data Tools section of the Financial Intelligence Setup landing page
• New Main Menu in Left Hand Navigation Panel
  • • • The main menu in the left hand navigation is static and can be accessed from any page in the application.  The menu consists of the applications Modules and their sub-menus.  To optimize efficiency, users are able to navigate with one click from any page within the application to a sub-menu item.
      • Previously the left hand navigation menu would change depending on which module the user was currently in and sub-menu items could only be accessed by first navigating to a module’s landing page via an icon.
• Data Modeler module was renamed to Modeler and contains the following sub-menu items:
  • • • Profile(s)
      • Source Data
      • Base Structures
      • Dimensions
      • Deploy Plan
• Planning module was renamed to Worksheets and contains the following sub-menu items:
  • • • Operating Expenses
      • Revenue
      • Personnel
      • Drivers
      • Adjustments
• Financial Intelligence Setup module was renamed to Automation and contains the following sub-menu items:
  • • • Spread Methods
      • Increase / Decrease Methods
      • Allocation Methods
      • Tiered Rates
      • Default Settings
      • Payment Schedules
      • Receivable Schedules
      • Work / Pay Schedules
      • Recognition Schedules
• Tools is a new Main Menu item containing the following sub-menu items
  • • • Copy Data / What If?
      • Clear Data
      • Quick Assign
      • Quick Start
      • Deploy Cube
      • Forecast
      • Audit Log
      • Job Status
      • Workflow (if enabled)
      • Formerly Data Tools sub-menus located within the Planning and Financial Intelligence Setup modules
      • Contains Audit Log and the Job Status page formerly in the Header menu as icons
      • Contains Workflow if enabled
• Reports Main Menu item contains the following sub-menu items:
  • • • Report List
      • Charts and Graphs
• Dashboard has been renamed Charts and Graphs is a submenu item of the Reports Main Menu item
• New Setup Menu in lower portion of the left hand navigation panel contains links to functionality that was previously located within the Header menu and contains the following menu items:
  • Support
  • Settings
  • (User) Profile 
  • Logout
• Security within the Settings menu has been updated to reflect the changes to the module names and locations
• Audit Log within the Tools menu has been updated to reflect the changes to the module names
• Job Status Page has been updated to reflect the changes to the module names

February 7, 2024:

• Enhancement to display an account’s user license count on the Users Screen in the Settings menu. If there are no licenses remaining, the option to send a pre-populated email to the Account Manager requesting additional licenses, will be displayed.
• Enhancement to display an account’s Account Manager and Customer Success Manager contact information on the Account screen in the Settings Menu.
• Replaced Centage Logo and Favicon in Browser Tabs.
• Enhancement to populate the Hierarchy Top Node name with the Dimension name to make Dimension naming behavior in Reports and Planning more consistent.

January 24, 2024:

• When a user refreshes the screen in Data Maintenance, they will no longer see "Please connect to source to display information".

January 10, 2024:

• Optimization to the Process of Deploying Transactions to Cube.