OneStream’s Task Manager (UTM) is one of the most popular Market Place solutions. Why is this solution so popular? And how does it help you to get more out of your OneStream XF software? Our experienced EPM consultant Marc Roest takes a closer look at several OneStream solutions. This time he dives into UTM. Is it worth it to install this solution?

According to the official documentation, this solution is described as: “The Task Manager (UTM) Solution is a way to organize workflows inside and outside of OneStream XF. It provides one stop for Administrators to manage and ensure the success of their processes.” That’s quite a promise. Let’s dive into UTM’s details, and what it actually does for the processes.

The Task Manager realises the following:

• Assigns Tasks based on close or process start dates.
• References workflows to be completed or reassigned.
• Allows for communication around Tasks through email and comments.
• Provides at-a-glance charts to see Task status across individual Preparers, Approvers, and Task Groups.”

Task Manager offers a dashboard and default scripts to set-up, execute and monitor your periodic processes, both inside OneStream and elsewhere. If your accounting department is still working with a decentralized activity list for their monthly close process, OneStream’s Task Manager can be very interesting.

The Task Manager solution can make your life much easier when you work with Extensible Documents. This will follow later in this blog.

So, how does the solution perform? Marc Roest summarized the following pro’s and con’s that he experienced:

Pros:

• One central overview of all tasks, with drill-through to the details.
• Assign tasks to both users and groups. This can be done for approval as well.
• Possible to check out documents, like Word or Excel, to make changes directly and save as linked document.
• Can also be used for tasks outside of OneStream. For example, your GL close.

Cons:

• Holiday schedules apply to tasks and not users/ regions.
• Extracting and importing need some manual steps, such as creating named ranges, which could scare users.

One of the pleasant parts of the Task Manager is that it’s easy to install. Within minutes the solution from the Market Place can be downloaded and installed into OneStream.

The configuration is also not complex. The documentation shows easily how to set up the configuration and no scripting is required for an advanced setup. Marc Roest: “I classify this solution as level 2: Admin Configurable.” To read more about the classifications, see the the other blog ‘OneStream XF Market Place in real ’ Please see the earlier post ‘OneStream XF Market Place in real life’ to read more about the classifications.

In the Task Manager Solution there is an XF Doc Add-Ins solution included. This option even enables the user to use OneStream for the Disclosure Management.

OneStream offers the functionality of Extensible Documents. This means that the user can include values, tables and other data from OneStream in an office document and update it automatically from the system. This can be used for the periodical management letter, board presentations and even your external report. On the other hand, the standard, specific way of working with these documents is made easy within the Task Manager Solution.

Currently this solution only works with documents inside the Task Manager solution and not for other Extensible Documents.

Is the claim that UPM can manage and even ensure the success of the processes true? That really depends on the quality of the processes as well, so that’s a little hard to proof! Marc Roest: “I can certainly understand the popularity of this solution. It’s quite extensive and a fair competitor against other financial close management systems. The look and feel are nice, it’s easy to work with and a lot can be configured without coding.”

Want to know more about the OneStream Market Place? In a series of blogs, Marc Roest dives into the details of the Market Place and the solutions available. In the blog ‘The OneStream Market place in Real Life’ you’ll find more details about the basics of the Market Place. And in the blog ‘How to install Task Manager (UTM) in OneStream XF’, we discussed the most important settings and tips for the configuration of UTM.

Any questions or suggestions for a Market Place solution you would like to read about? Don’t hesitate to contact us by using button below.