Common EPMA Rolling Forecast Generation Errors

One of the most common errors when configuring Hyperion’s Rolling Forecasts in 11.1.2.3 is: “Invalid input parameters were supplied to generate Rolling Forecast” This error message can be triggered due to a number of situations. Understanding how Hyperion builds rolling forecast data forms will help explain the methods for overcoming common EPMA rolling forecast generation errors like the above. Let’s look at the following rolling forecast setup screen:

• Prefix: Used to setup the starting characters of the rolling forecast substitution variables.
  • 12MonRolling
• An existing rolling forecast can be reused by checking the ‘Reuse existing substitution variables’ checkbox
  • Creating a new rolling forecast in this example
• Start Year: Indicates the starting year for the rolling forecast
  • ForecastYear
• Number of Periods: Used to set the number of months to roll forecasting over
  • 12 months

While the setup may appear valid at first glance, attempting to generate the rolling forecast based on this configuration will throw the invalid input parameters error above. The issue in this case is the use of a substitution variable in the Start Year parameter. The Rolling Forecast generation process operates by configuring a set of substitution variables, one year and one period each per the number of forecasting periods selected. The tool relies on member names being used so that new substitution variables can be created, and does not allow for substitution variables to be used in the configuration process. Inserting a member of the year dimension as the start year allows the rolling forecast to generate. The screen below shows a successful rolling forecast generation setup:

Successful Rolling Forecast Setup

Having trouble with any other rolling forecast errors? Let us know in the comments!