ArticleOracle EPMMonthly UpdatePublished October 6, 2026fmepm.com/26.10
Oracle EPM 26.10. What Matters in the October Update
By Fred Mamadjanov, Oracle ACE Pro. Independent EPM Solution Architect.Read: the brief 1 min · Act now and dates 7 min · everything 33 min
October is a platform month. Account Reconciliation gets the biggest change, the Integration Agent changes how it protects its credentials, two FCC assistants arrive for AI Agent Studio, and every application gets the Redwood home page. Five things need an admin before October 16 or soon after; the rest is worth a look when the close is done.
Same format as every month: what changed, why it matters, what to do. Short sentences, no filler. If you have two minutes, read the list below and the calendar at the bottom. The rest can wait for a quiet afternoon.
In 30 seconds
The Integration Agent moves to stronger encryption for its stored credentials, with six months to encrypt the old ones again, and its EPM Automate password file is regenerated once the agent is on 26.10. I would do this first. In this AI era, security comes first.
Two new FCC assistants for Fusion AI Agent Studio: one runs the consolidation and the integrations, one works the journals. Those require setup. I'm personally very interested in those. Many AI features are coming to FCC which makes sense, as this is where you would see tangible benefit from AI.
Every application gets the Redwood home page and a new global header on October 16. Just give a heads up to your users.
Balance Loads replace Data Loads in Account Reconciliation on October 16. Invalid Mappings become Missing Profiles, and the whole balance load process moves to one card.
Dates: 26.10 in production October 16; both the accountName.userName login and the original PCM agent go in 26.11 (November 20); old EPM Automate clients stop in 26.12 (December 18); Generative AI needs 26.08 or later by January 31, 2027.
If you lead financeNothing should impact the close calendar for October. One rename in Account Reconciliation your team will see on October 16, and a date for Generative AI: environments must be on 26.08 or later by the end of January 2027.
Test environmentsFri, Oct 222:00 UTC. 14:00 UTC in OC4 and OC19
ProductionFri, Oct 16Applied unless skipped with skipUpdate
EPM Automate client26.10 UpgradeJava 21 on Linux and Unix, listUsers, SFTP keys
Integration Agent26.10 UpgradeNew credential encryption; regenerate the .epw after the update
Smart ViewNot in this updateSeparate release cycle
Oracle's documentWhat's New 26.10 ↗38 features listed, all 38 on this page. Checked Sept 25 against revision 01 (Sept 24).
One release, one page. Feature summary and the deadline calendar for 26.10.
Coming up
26.10Balance Loads renames in Account Reconciliation; Integration Agent credentials and password file
26.11accountName.userName login stops; original PCM agent removed; TM_AUDIT_TRAIL changes
26.12Old EPM Automate password files and old clients stop
Action required. These changes can break something, or already did.
EPM Integration Agent: stronger encryption for its stored credentials, and the password file to regenerate
Integrations26.10AdminDevDeadline: 26.10, Oct 16Oracle's page ↗
What changed
The 26.10 agent encrypts newly created direct credentials (cloud passwords, database credentials, OAuth 2.0 tokens) with AES-GCM and a local key the agent manages. It rejects unknown or unsafe formats and no longer falls back to older algorithms. Credentials encrypted the old way keep working for six months, with warnings. Separately, Oracle's note from September stands: keep the agent on an EPM Automate password file (.epw) made with the 26.08 encrypt command until the agent is on 26.10, then generate a new one.
Why it matters
The agent runs unattended. If a credential it holds stops being readable at the end of the six months, the integration that depends on it stops with it, usually the one that loads the ledger at month end. Nothing breaks on October 16; the deadline is the end of the migration window.
What to do
After the agent update, encrypt the direct credentials again with encrypt password, refresh any OAuth tokens, and run each affected integration once in test. Regenerate the agent's .epw with EPM Automate 26.09 or later. Put the end of the six month window in the calendar.
My take
Do it in October while it is a planned task, not in April when a warning you stopped reading becomes an error.
Account Reconciliation: Data Loads become Balance Loads, with one card for the whole process
Account Reconciliation26.10AdminUserDeadline: 26.10, Oct 16Oracle's page ↗
What changed
Two names change on October 16. Data Loads are now Balance Loads, and Invalid Mappings are now Missing Profiles. The Data Loads tab under configuration becomes Balance Load Templates. Around the names, Oracle adds a Balance Loads card under Application with three tabs: Balance Loads (runs, results and open exceptions such as unmapped accounts, missing profiles and missing currency rates), Mapping Exceptions (fix mappings, create missing profiles by hand or by rule, recalculate the affected balances) and Profile Creation Rules (rules that create a profile when a loaded balance has nowhere to go). The templates screen moves to Redwood and gets a History tab that shows who changed what and when. A new Job Notifications category can email the load owner when a balance import fails.
Why it matters
Every runbook, training deck and checklist that says Data Load or Invalid Mapping is out of date on October 16. The card itself is good news: the monthly load, the exceptions and the fixes were spread over several screens, and now they sit in one place. Profile creation rules remove a manual step every time a new account shows up in the ledger.
What to do
Update your runbooks and user guides with the new names before the production update. Then open the Balance Loads card in test after October 2, run one load, and walk through Mapping Exceptions with the person who does this every month. If new accounts arrive often, set up one Profile Creation Rule and see what it creates. Turn on the Job Notifications preference for the load owner.
My take
The renames are small, the card is not. If your close starts with balance loads, this is the one 26.10 change to test properly in October.
Data Integration pipelines run as the logged in user only
Integrations26.10AdminDeadline: 26.10, Oct 16Oracle's page ↗
What changed
On the Pipeline Details page, the Proxy User field now shows the logged in user and cannot be changed. Before, you could type any user name there and the pipeline asked for that user's password.
Why it matters
If a pipeline was set up to run under a service account entered by hand, that setup is gone. The pipeline now runs with the rights of whoever starts it, so a non administrator who runs a pipeline needs the rights the pipeline needs.
What to do
List the pipelines that used a proxy user other than the person running them. For each one, decide who runs it from now on and give that user the rights, or schedule it under a service account that logs in itself. Oracle's page on allowing non administrators to run pipelines has the details.
My take
One of those changes nobody notices until the first scheduled run after October 16 fails. Check it in test.
Member and alias names: trailing spaces are trimmed, reserved words and duplicates fail the import
Metadata validation and integrations now trim trailing Unicode whitespace (a non breaking space at the end of a member name, for example) from member and alias names. If two siblings become identical after trimming, you get a clear error. Snapshot import fails when the metadata holds member or alias names that are Essbase reserved words, such as COUNT, or names that are not unique among siblings after trimming.
Why it matters
Those invisible spaces used to pass validation and then fail silently in the cube refresh, leaving the application and Essbase out of step. Now the error is loud and early. The flip side: an old snapshot or an archived metadata file that relied on a trailing space for uniqueness, or that carries a reserved word, stops importing until you fix the name.
What to do
Export your dimensions and search for names that end in a space or match an Essbase reserved word. Fix the names in the source, not in the file. If an import fails after October 16, the error message names the member; rename it and run again. Open a service request if you cannot find the cause.
My take
Most environments will see nothing. The ones that will are the ones with ten years of metadata loaded from spreadsheets.
Generative AI features need 26.08 or later by the end of January 2027
Oracle has set a date. Any environment not on 26.08 or later by the end of January 2027 loses access to the Generative AI features. The rule applies to every application.
Why it matters
This only touches environments that skipped updates or sit on a one off patch. If you use the AI assistants, narrative summaries or the agents, and your environment is parked, the features switch off on a date you can see coming.
What to do
Check the version of every environment, including the ones you rarely log in to. Anything below 26.08 goes on the update plan for this quarter, before the year end freeze. If an environment is on a patch, ask Oracle when it merges back.
My take
Oracle said in the spring that AI needs 26.04. Now it is 26.08 with a date. Expect the floor to keep moving; staying within two updates of current is the simple answer.
Worth a look
23 items
Review for your environment. Useful if you run the module.
Redwood home page and global header, in every application
The home page moves to Redwood styling in every application. Announcements sit in a drawer that expands; when there are none, the layout closes the gap. The page resizes properly on small screens and at browser zoom. The global header gains drawers for Recent items, Favorites and, for administrators, Notifications, which also keeps the banner messages you already dismissed. Hovering over the user name now shows the name with Settings and Actions. Oracle lists it under the platform, Account Reconciliation, FCC, Narrative Reporting and Tax Reporting; the details differ a little by application.
Why it matters
This is the change your users will notice first on October 16, and the one they will ask about. Nothing moves in the navigation, but the first screen looks different. The Notifications drawer is useful for admins: a banner you dismissed is no longer gone.
What to do
Log in to test after October 2, take a screenshot of the new home page and send it to your users with two lines before October 16. That is the whole task.
My take
A quiet month for most modules, so the look change will get more attention than it deserves. One screenshot ahead of time saves twenty questions.
EPM Assistants: a Consolidation Process Assistant for Fusion AI Agent Studio
Oracle adds a downloadable agent template for Financial Consolidation and Close. Through Fusion AI Agent Studio it can run data integrations, run consolidations, read and update the POV, run intercompany matching and work with report definitions, from a chat.
Why it matters
This is the first FCC assistant that does things rather than answering questions. For a close team that already lives in Fusion, running the consolidation from the same chat window is a real shortcut. It needs setup, so nobody sees it until an admin imports the template.
Steps to enable
Use the steps in How to Use EPM Assistants with AI Agent Studio in Getting Started Guide for Administrators. In addition, you must enable a new Consolidation Setting called “Data Retrieval Diagnosis” for the agent to analyze data retrieval performance. See EPM Assistants in Financial Consolidation and Close in Administering Financial Consolidation and Close.
What to do
If you have Fusion AI Agent Studio, follow Oracle's steps in the Getting Started guide to import the template, and turn on the new Consolidation setting Data Retrieval Diagnosis, which the agent needs. Try it in test with one consolidation run. If you do not have Agent Studio, nothing to do.
My take
Powerful and new. I would give it to one person on the close team first, not the whole team.
EPM Assistants: a Consolidation Journals Assistant
A second new FCC agent template for AI Agent Studio. It manages journal periods, lists journals and their details, and moves journals through the workflow: submit, approve, post and the rest.
Why it matters
Journal workflow is where the close team spends its clicks. An assistant that lists what is waiting and posts what is approved, from a chat, is the kind of thing people adopt without training.
Steps to enable
Use the steps in How to Use EPM Assistants with AI Agent Studio in Getting Started Guide for Administrators. In addition, you must enable a new Consolidation Setting called “Data Retrieval Diagnosis” for the agent to analyze data retrieval performance. See EPM Assistants in Financial Consolidation and Close in Administering Financial Consolidation and Close.
What to do
Same setup as the process assistant: import the template through AI Agent Studio and turn on Data Retrieval Diagnosis in the Consolidation settings. Start with listing and details; let the workflow actions wait until the team trusts it.
Reporting Agent: ask a report which members drive a number
In HTML Preview of a report, select a supported grid and ask the Reporting Agent for the top or bottom contributors to a value, positive or negative. It builds a separate ranked grid next to the original, takes follow up questions, and you can save the report with the analysis or undo the last step.
Why it matters
The question behind most report reviews is what is driving this number. Today someone drills, exports and sorts. This does it inside the report and keeps the original grid, so the two sit side by side.
What to do
Open a monthly variance report in test, pick the grid, and ask for the top contributors to one line. If the answer matches what the analyst would have found by hand, show it to the FP&A lead.
Enhanced PCM Agent takes over calculation performance analysis; the original agent goes in 26.11
The Enhanced PCM Agent now does what the Performance Assistant did: analyze a finished calculation job, show run statistics and execution details, find long running rules and bottlenecks, summarize rule timing, and suggest what to tune, with follow up questions. Oracle confirms the date: from the November update (26.11), the original PCM Agent and the original Performance Assistant are no longer available.
Why it matters
One agent instead of two, and the clock on the old one is now explicit. Anyone still using the original agent has until November 20.
What to do
Switch to the Enhanced PCM Agent now if you have not. Run it on last month's allocation job and compare its findings with what you knew. Remove any instructions that point users to the original agent.
My take
The performance analysis is the useful half of this agent. If allocations run long at month end, this is where I would start.
IPM Insights: period movement variance, for tax accounts and KPIs
A new insight type watches a measure across periods and raises an insight when the change against a benchmark passes a threshold you set, in percent or in absolute numbers. Benchmarks: year on year, the previous period, a custom period, or the historical average. Oracle's example: taxable income moving 10 percent or more against the previous month. Configured in IPM Configurator like the other insight types. Oracle's notes: it needs an EPM Enterprise subscription with Hybrid mode, and it looks backward only.
Why it matters
This is the first insight type aimed at the tax team's own numbers. A threshold alert on taxable income or the effective rate is cheaper than a monthly review that looks at everything.
What to do
Pick two measures the tax team already watches, set a threshold that would have fired twice last year, and run it against history before trusting it going forward.
Jobs scheduler, redesigned, with a tab per job type and date ranges
The Jobs page gets a new interface with tabs: All Jobs, Pending, Model Operations (Enterprise PCM only), Import, Export, App Maintenance and Integration. You submit and schedule a job from the tab where it lives. Schedules now take a start date and an end date.
Why it matters
Admins live on this page. The tabs make the list readable when hundreds of jobs run a day, and an end date on a schedule means a quarter end job can stop itself.
What to do
Open Jobs in test and find your scheduled jobs under the new tabs. Check that every schedule is still there and still has the right owner. Nothing to migrate.
Application Diagnostics: ASO formula checks, shorter reports, and a run after the daily backup
Four changes. BSO formula findings are reported for the plan type that owns the formula, not every BSO plan type. ASO cube outlines are validated and the Essbase formula messages appear on a new Formula sheet (to see them, disable Set Query Tracking and clear All Aggregations for the cube in Calc Manager). When a validation rule produces more than 500 results for one cube and dimension, the detail rows collapse into one summary row and the summary sheet says the counts are approximate. A new application setting, Run Application Diagnostics after daily backup, is off by default.
Why it matters
The report was long and partly noisy; now it is shorter and it covers ASO. Running it after the backup gives you a daily health check nobody has to remember to run.
What to do
Turn on Run Application Diagnostics after daily backup in test for a week and read the Formula sheet. If it finds something in an ASO cube, that is a formula you did not know was wrong.
My take
Turn it on. A diagnostics report nobody runs is worth nothing; one that runs every night is worth a look every Monday.
listUsers: every user, every role, every group, in one JSON report
A new EPM Automate command, listUsers, and the matching REST API produce a JSON report of users with their application roles and granular role assignments. Optionally it includes the roles inherited through IDCS and EPM group membership.
Why it matters
Access audits usually mean three exports and a spreadsheet. One file that shows who can do what, including inherited rights, answers the auditor's question directly.
What to do
Run listUsers in test, open the JSON, and compare it with your last access review. If it is complete, make it the quarterly audit export.
EPM Automate on Linux and Unix moves to Java 21; Java 17 ends with 27.01
EPM Automate26.10AdminDevDeadline: 27.01, January 2027Oracle's page ↗
What changed
From 26.10, EPM Automate on Linux and Unix uses JDK 21 when JAVA_HOME points to it. JDK 17 still works for now, but Oracle deprecates it in the January 2027 update (27.01). By then every Linux or Unix machine that runs EPM Automate needs JDK 21.
Why it matters
Scheduler boxes get forgotten. A JDK upgrade on a server that runs the nightly loads is a change ticket, a test and a maintenance window, so January is closer than it looks.
What to do
List the Linux and Unix machines that run EPM Automate, check their JDK, and plan the move to 21 before year end. Windows is not mentioned in this change.
copyToSFTP and copyFromSFTP accept an uploaded private key from Groovy
When a Groovy script calls the copyToSFTP or copyFromSFTP EPM Automate commands, it can now pass the optional privateKey parameter, using a key file uploaded to the environment, instead of a password.
Why it matters
Key based SFTP is what most security teams ask for, and until now the Groovy route could not do it. Scripts that move files to a bank or a payroll provider can drop the stored password.
What to do
If a Groovy rule pushes files to SFTP with a password, upload the private key and switch the call. Test the transfer in test first; the receiving side has to know the key.
Data Management connects to NetSuite with OAuth 2.0
Data Management can now connect to NetSuite through OAuth 2.0 with the authorization code flow. You register an integration in NetSuite, enter the consumer key and secret in Data Management, generate the token through NetSuite and test the connection.
Why it matters
Token based access replaces a stored user password for the NetSuite source. If your NetSuite admin has been asking you to drop basic authentication, this is the route.
What to do
Set up the OAuth connection in test next to the existing one, run one load through it, then switch production at a quiet time.
My take
I work in both NetSuite and Oracle EPM. This is the connection I would use from now on.
Oracle documents the setup for EPM Cloud to call Fusion Applications REST APIs with OAuth 2.0: generate a certificate and a private key, create and activate an EPM Trusted Client Application, and configure the Fusion ERP connection in EPM Connections.
Why it matters
Server to server integration between Planning and Fusion ERP without a stored user password, with the user identity preserved. Security teams will prefer it, and integrations that pull Fusion data into Planning get a cleaner setup.
What to do
Follow Oracle's documented procedure in test if you integrate with Fusion. If your connection uses basic authentication today, plan the switch.
A bursting definition can include up to ten report artifacts and distribute their outputs in one run. Prompts can be set per artifact, and text functions personalize file names, folders, email subjects and messages.
Why it matters
A month end pack of three reports to the same list of cost centre owners was three bursting jobs. Now it is one.
What to do
Combine the reports that go to the same people into one definition in test and check the file names and the email subjects.
FCC journal REST APIs: more actions, bulk processing, comments and attachments
The FCC journal APIs gain more journal actions, auto reversal details, cube selection, comments, aliases for POV members, richer retrieval and detail responses, and bulk journal action APIs that process many journals in one request, including comments and Planning Inbox attachments.
Why it matters
Journal automation from outside EPM, from a close tool or a script, no longer has to post journals one at a time.
What to do
If a script posts or approves journals, read Oracle's API pages and move the loop to the bulk call.
Copy Ownership: copy only what changed, without unlocking every entity
Copying ownership from the last period of one year to the first period of the next no longer needs every ownership and approval unit unlocked. You can copy only the ownership data that changed since the last copy.
Why it matters
Unlocking everything at year end was the step everyone feared. Removing it makes the roll forward safer.
What to do
Use the selective copy at year end. If your consolidation has many entities, try it in October on a copy of the application.
Status Anomaly Utility for hybrid applications that were migrated
A new utility scans selected intersections or the whole application and clears obsolete view related flags left behind when a non hybrid application was migrated to hybrid. Left in place, those flags can make the application treat calculated views wrongly.
Why it matters
If your FCC application was migrated to hybrid and a calculated view ever looked wrong without a clear reason, this is a likely cause.
What to do
Run it in test on the full application once and compare a few consolidated views before and after. Then run it in production during a quiet window.
On demand rules in insertion points, the places where you add your own logic to the consolidation sequence, now accept attribute functions such as @ATTRIBUTEVAL and @ATTRIBUTESVAL.
Why it matters
Logic that depended on an attribute, an entity's region or a reporting flag, needed a workaround. Now it can be written directly.
What to do
Nothing unless you have a workaround in an insertion point rule. If you do, rewrite it with the attribute function in test.
Account Reconciliation: predict several attributes in one REST call
The Predict Predicted Attribute REST API takes several target attributes in one request; the training wheel processes them and returns one job ID per wheel group. Single attribute calls work as before.
Why it matters
Fewer calls and less overhead when the profile creation flow predicts more than one attribute.
What to do
If you automate profile creation through REST, combine the predictions into one call.
Enterprise PCM: create POVs through the Execute a Job REST API
The Allocation Precision setting, the decimal precision of calculated allocation results, now ranges from plus 12 to minus 12.
Why it matters
Rules that spread a small source amount over many destinations leave tiny remainders that flow into later rules. More precision reduces or removes them.
What to do
If you see small remainders after rule execution, raise the precision in test and rerun the model.
Tax Reporting: a REST API for translation diagnostics
A new setting, Purge information about balance loads, deletes balance load jobs, their logs and their unmapped accounts after a number of days you choose. It keeps the application lean.
Transaction Matching shows the total of the transactions on screen
The Transactions tab shows the total amount of the transactions in the current search, or of the ones you select. For multi currency searches the total shows when the selected transactions share a currency.
Reconciliation attributes in the Details Balances views
Conditional Replace Text in Reports accepts text functions such as CellValue, so the replacement text can carry values from other cells. Display only; the data does not change.
Group export in Access Control covers every group type
Export to CSV under Manage Groups now includes every group type, EPM, IDCS and predefined, with name, description and type. Before, it exported EPM groups only.
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When
What changes
What to do
26.10 (October)Production Fri, Oct 16
Account Reconciliation renames Data Loads to Balance Loads and Invalid Mappings to Missing Profiles; EPM Integration Agent updated for the new password file format and the new credential encryption; Data Integration pipelines run as the logged in user; trailing spaces trimmed from member names
Update runbooks and training, regenerate the agent's password file after the agent update, reassign pipelines that ran under another user, scan member names
26.11Production Fri, Nov 20
accountName.userName login format stops working for EPM Automate and the REST APIs; the original PCM agent and its Performance Assistant are no longer available; Transaction Matching audit table moves to numeric codes
Switch scripts to the plain user name, move anyone still on the original PCM agent to the enhanced agent, update custom SQL reports that read TM_AUDIT_TRAIL
November 2026
EPM Skills for Oracle Digital Assistant are de-supported
Move to AI Agent Studio if you used them
26.12Production Fri, Dec 18
Only the new password file format works; EPM Automate clients older than 26.09 stop working
Client upgraded and password files regenerated before year end close
Q4 2026
Legacy Workforce and Strategic Workforce Planning rules deprecated
Repoint action menus in pre December 2024 applications to the 2.0 rules
January 2027By Sun, Jan 31
Generative AI features need 26.08 or later; JDK 17 for EPM Automate on Linux and Unix is deprecated with 27.01
Bring parked environments to 26.08 or later; move those machines to JDK 21
The 26.10 checklist
Click an item to mark it done. Progress saves in your browser.
Test the Balance Loads cardby Oct 16
Regenerate the Integration Agent's EPM Automate password file with 26.09 or later once the agent is on 26.10after Oct 16
Encrypt the Integration Agent's direct credentials again and refresh OAuth tokenswithin 6 months
Find pipelines that ran with a proxy user other than the logged in user and reassign thembefore Oct 16
Scan member and alias names for trailing spaces, reserved words and duplicatesbefore Oct 16
Send users a screenshot of the Redwood home pagebefore Oct 16
Check every environment is on 26.08 or later; plan the update for parked onesby Jan 31
Switch to the Enhanced PCM Agent; the original goes in 26.11by Nov 20
Plan JDK 21 on the Linux and Unix machines that run EPM Automatebefore 27.01
Turn on Run Application Diagnostics after daily backup in testthis month
Sources
Everything on this page comes from Oracle's release documents. Read them for the full detail. This is my own reading of them, written independently of Oracle; Oracle's documentation is the official source.
Oracle EPM 26.10 reaches test environments on October 2, 2026 and production on October 16. The EPM Integration Agent encrypts its stored credentials with AES-GCM, with six months to encrypt the old ones again. Financial Consolidation and Close gains two AI Agent Studio assistants, one for the consolidation process and one for journals. Every application gets the Redwood home page and a new global header. Oracle also sets a date for Generative AI: environments must be on 26.08 or later by the end of January 2027. A lot of updates are in Account Reconciliation: Data Loads become Balance Loads, Invalid Mappings become Missing Profiles, and a new Balance Loads card brings loads, exceptions and profile creation rules together. The document lists 38 features; this page covers all of them.
When is the next Oracle EPM update?
26.11 reaches test environments on Friday, November 6, 2026 and production on Friday, November 20, 2026. The review lands here on Tuesday, November 10.
Reading every release against client environments is part of my managed services work. Which of these will you use first? Tell me on LinkedIn. I read every comment.
On LinkedIn
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Fred Mamadjanov is an Oracle ACE Pro and EPM Solution Architect based in Toronto. He runs FMEPM, a consulting practice for Oracle EPM, NetSuite Planning and Budgeting, and Vena Solutions.
