October saw the 2022 Controller Customer and Partner Advisory Boards at IBM in Utrecht, Amsterdam. In this private blog we share the new features in Controller Web, as well as the Controller Classic Roadmap
New features in Controller Web
- Ability to edit investment eliminations through forms, but only for the investment line. Users cannot get access here to the underlying investment elimination template. Users can’t delete lines where existing or underlying entries on the investment elimination template already exist.
- Ability to input comments on forms, both standard and free forms.
- Multiple filter options now added and available for usage on forms.
- The usage of freeze panes within free forms is now rendered across to controller web, retaining column/row headers.
- Transaction currency is now visible in intercompany reconciliations, as driven by a filter option.
- The current netting view of intercompany balances masking accounting mismatches will shortly be changed.
- A comparative period selection within journal entry is now available for user definition, along with a new search option.
- Users can now copy journals inside the same year within Controller Web, but not over year end. Effectively a replica of copy specific journals.
- File import is now available against journals. The file size is limited to 5MB, with up to 3 files being able to be imported per journal (.docx,.xlsx,.pptx,.pdf).New security option applies for ‘public review reports’, as held under the Controller Web grouping within the Maintain group. Icon of 2 people on a report means that it is accessible to the public, only one person means that it is private to the user.
- Import journals now added as a function within Controller Web. It follows the format of Controller Web import specification, which means that it includes the option of mapping tables. Journal description replaces current usage of comments. Import always overwrites existing content. The import also defaults to Temporary journal type.
Controller Classic Roadmap
- Strategic priority to ‘webify’ Controller, and a modern facelift for Controller Classic. This is targeted for 2023, which we may seen in the rumoured main release.
- Optimisation only re-indexing tables with >30% defragmentation, resulting in faster optimisation routines.
- SOC1 certification is now due for Q1 2023 for the application. All data layers are already SOC2 certified.
- Oracle and DB2 are being discontinued for support (18 month timeline), which we suspect may go with the 10.4.x lifecycle.
- Increasing timeouts whilst Citrix is still in use. This is to help with the overlap of multiple access points between the different clients and applications run from Citrix. However, this is temporary, as the long term plan is to remove Citrix altogether.
New Excel Client
- In case you hadn’t seen, there is a new Excel client. Users will be able to run or access both the Excel add-in from Controller Classic and Excel from the new local client. Seeking to adopt or use the new Excel client does not prohibit current Excel add-in usage.
- It only runs with 64 bit Excel, 32 bit is not supported.
- Admin rights are not needed download the new Excel client. The download should be being actioned from the Home Screen of the Controller Web client
Whilst we must add a caveat that this is all subject to change, more news expected at the beginning of 2023. If you have questions about the roadmap or a suggestion you would like to put to product management, just get in touch with us.