Monthly Update

Oracle EPM Cloud April 2026

Release 26.04 — The Comeback Release. First update after a 5-month pause due to Essbase 21c issues.

Fred Mamadjanov · Oracle ACE · Published April 2026

Should I Care?

Act Now — action required Review — evaluate for your environment FYI — awareness only
FeatureAdminDevUserPriority
Essbase 21c Testing (Planning, FCCS, PCM, FreeForm, Tax)🔴 Act Now
Groovy Engine Update (Mandatory in 26.05)🔴 Act Now
HTTPS Required in Groovy Rules🔴 Act Now
EPM Automate Installation Path Changes🔴 Act Now
PCM Allocation Testing on Essbase 21c🔴 Act Now
Agentic AI REST APIs (Get App Summary, Export Data, Export Form)🟡 Review
AI Transaction Matching Assistance (ARCS)🟡 Review
AI Account Assignment Assistance (ARCS)🟡 Review
Break Glass — BYOK + Oracle Managed Access🟡 Review
New Migration REST APIs (10+ new)🟡 Review
Export/Import User Variable Values🟡 Review
Essbase Near-Zero Value Detection🟡 Review
EDM: Azure Blob Storage Connections🟡 Review
Tor IP Blocking (Automatic)⚪ FYI
Granular Role Renaming (was Application Roles)⚪ FYI
Gen AI Available in All OC1 Regions⚪ FYI
Smart View: Ad Hoc on Imported Reports⚪ FYI
EDM: Chart Visualization of Hierarchies⚪ FYI
Audit Timestamps Now Include Seconds⚪ FYI

The Essbase 21c Saga

October 2025
Essbase 21c rollout begins with 25.10. Many customers upgraded successfully in test + prod.
November 2025
25.11 applied to remaining test environments. A few customers report calculation accuracy and performance issues.
Nov 20, 2025
Oracle halts 25.11 production deployment. Test environments stay on 25.11, prod frozen on 25.10.
Nov 25, 2025
Oracle skips 25.12 and 26.01 entirely. Year-end protection for all customers.
January 24, 2026
Pause extended further. Originally planned Feb restart pushed to April (26.04).
March 6, 2026
Patch 25.11.160 deployed to customers who reported issues or volunteered for testing.
March 13, 2026
Patch 25.11.160 applied to ALL test environments. Production remains opt-in only (file SR).
April 2026
26.04 — Fleet-wide update resumes. Test: automatic. Prod: automatic (skip via SR only).

Key Highlights

Act Now

Essbase 21c Testing

Test consolidation rules, on-demand rules, ad hoc grids, data exports. Compare results against previous version. PCM: run all allocations and reconcile.

Act Now

Groovy Engine Update (26.05)

Mandatory new Groovy engine with stricter validation in May 2026. Run the Groovy Script Validator now. HTTPS also now required in server-side rules.

Review

Agentic AI REST APIs

Three new APIs enabling AI agents to interact with EPM: Get Application Summary, Export Data, and Export Form Data. Oracle is building the future of AI-powered EPM.

Review

AI Transaction Matching

Predictive AI in Account Reconciliation learns from your historical matches and suggests new ones with confidence scores. Enable via "Enable Predictive AI" setting.

Review

Break Glass Security

New subscription: Oracle Managed Access (your approval required for Oracle operators) + Bring Your Own Key encryption. For regulated industries.

Review

10+ Migration REST APIs

Artifact categories, incremental exports, modification history, snapshot details, import options. Massive upgrade for lifecycle automation.

Act Now

EPM Automate Changes

New installation path (Program Files\Oracle\EPM Automate), SFTP key-based auth, changed retry logic (no more retries on 403/404). Update your scripts.

FYI

Smart View Enhancements

Ad hoc analysis on imported Reports (Mac/Browser). Updated EPM Books extension. New training videos on Design Time Formatting and Standard Mode.

Action Checklist

Click items to mark them complete. Progress saves in your browser.

Before 26.04 Hits Production

Run Groovy Script Validator (Home → Application → Overview → Actions)
Fix all scripts listed in GroovyValidationReport.html
Test consolidation/translation rules on Essbase 21c
Compare ad hoc grid results: 21c vs previous (should = 0 difference)
Test on-demand rules — especially @CALCMODE and @EQUAL in Hybrid Mode
Run PCM allocations and reconcile results against previous version
Test data integration exports (All Data mode and Replace mode)
Update Groovy rules using http://localhost to https://
Update EPM Automate scripts for new installation paths
Decide: take 26.04 or skip? (If skipping, file SR)

After 26.04 Is Applied

Verify Essbase version in Activity Report
Update docs referencing "Application Roles" to "Granular Roles"
Download updated EPM Books extension for Smart View
Evaluate Break Glass subscription if in regulated industry
Explore Agentic AI REST APIs
Review Near-Zero Value % in Essbase Block Analysis Report
Evaluate AI Transaction Matching in ARCS

Key Links