What's New in IFP 3.1?

New and Improved Features

IFP 3.1 includes the following new and improved features:

Analysis by Multiple Classification Variables

IFP now allows reports to be created using concatenated values of any combination of classification variables. For example, analyses may now be created to summarise values for all combinations of cost centre and FRS account or brand and SAP account.  

New Enterprise Edition

IFP is now available in two editions, Standard and Enterprise. Standard Edition has all of the features seen in IFP 3.0.7 and earlier. The new Enterprise Edition is suited to larger organisations with multiple databases and countries in the same installation. Read more about IFP Enterprise Edition.

New Report Calculations

Added new calculations to Analysis vs Time reports to support Variance, Percent Variance and Forecast Accuracy.

Revised File Security Settings

Security settings on all IFP files have been revised. This affects Packages, Report Definitions, Crosstabulation Definitions, Data/Item Favourites, Projects etc. In IFP Standard Edition, public files are viewable by all users; they can only be edited by members of the Administrators Role. In IFP Enterprise Edition, this is controlled by several Group Policy Rules.

New Project Output and Security

When you build an IFP Project, a single file is created rather than a series of files and folders in earlier versions. This simplifies sending Project output by email as well as allowing for the Project to be password-protected. 

Improved Database Restore

Added complete IFP Database settings to full database backup, including local ID, environment and currency settings. These can be used to create a new database when extracting (if database doesn't exist), or to update environment settings for an existing one. 

Import and Export IFP Files

IFP files such as Report Definitions and Item Favourites can now be imported and exported rather than having to find them in the file system. You can find this feature on the Tools menu e.g. for Report Definition Manager.

New IFP Help Centre

IFP 3.1 links directly to the new IFP Help Centre. This contains considerably more help articles, extensive searchable knowledgebase of common IFP issues, secure areas for individual customers with information and downloads specific to their installations, a ticket-based support system and feature requests.

Bug Fixes and Minor Changes

All of the following issues have been addressed in this release:

• Forecast Editor: Amend ASP, enter value did not produce correct saved results (was OK on screen)
• External Variable Values Editor: Formatting of decimal values data
• Forecast Editor: Graphical comparison graphs did not work correctly when editing multiple files
• Forecast Editor: The Apply Roll Forward Average Percentage calculation produced incorrect results
• Forecast Editor: ASP calculations were incorrect when using scale by 1000 or converted units
• Item Codes Maintenance: Fixed several issues with cell editing / lists. Re-enabled column sorting
• Reports Wizard: Some reporting level selections displayed an incorrect error message in P&L databases
• Reporting: Report Headings were not correctly refreshed on use of Restart Wizard (e.g. currency change). Added "Use Custom Headings"; When checked, headings are not automatically updated (custom settings remain).
• Reporting: Factor was not applied in Reports using a Code Conversion Table
• Reporting: Improved warning messages when running Report Definition-based reports using External Variables
• Crosstab Reporting: Outputting values to a specified column number did not work as expected
• Graphing: Creating a graph from a Report Definition-based report with Simple Text Lines did not work
• Statistical Forecasting: Exponential Trend Model results were incorrect under certain circumstances
• Statistical Forecasting: Could not load certain Graph Favourites
• Data Import: Improved flexibility of data importing to fix "Specified cast is not valid" error
• Data Import: Improved validation of field mappings. If any columns are not found or have invalid complex expressions, they are reset. This should only happen if using a saved import mapping against a data source that doesn't contain exactly the same column names. It avoids the "no value given for one or more required parameters" error.
• Security: Allowed for longer passwords
• Printing: Printing reports and graphs was only possible to the default printer.
• Currencies: Deleting a currency displayed an obscure warning message and did not delete the currency
• IFP Home: You can now turn off menu hints via the Help and Support menu. These could get in the way in Citrix environments
• IFP Bug Reporting Tool: Made it even easier to report bugs (if and when they happen!)

Version Number

The version number for this release is 3.1.0.35789.