Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

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1 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

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3 While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate and complete, some typographical errors or technical inaccuracies may exist. Cognos does not accept responsibility for any kind of loss resulting from the use of information contained in this document. This page shows the publication date. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Any improvements or changes to either the product or the document will be documented in subsequent editions. This software/documentation contains proprietary information of Cognos Incorporated. All rights are reserved. Reverse engineering of this software is prohibited. No part of this software/ documentation may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, or translated into another language without the prior written consent of Cognos Incorporated. U.S. Government Restricted Rights. The software and accompanying materials are provided with Restricted Rights. Use, duplication for disclosure by the Government is subject to the restrictions in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS , or subparagraphs (c) (1) and (2) of the Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights at 48CFR , as applicable. The Contractor is Cognos Corporation, 67 South Bedford Street, Burlington, MA PowerPlay 6.5 for Excel. This edition published Copyright 1999 Cognos Incorporated. Portions Copyright Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington USA. All rights reserved. Portions Copyright Faircom Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Portions Copyright 1986 by University of Toronto. Written by Henry Spencer. Not derived from licensed software. Portions Copyright Three D Graphics, Inc. This software/documentation contains proprietary information of Cognos Incorporated. All rights are reserved. Reverse engineering of this software is prohibited. No part of this software/documentation may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, or translated into another language without the prior written consent of Cognos Incorporated. Cognos, the Cognos logo, the Cognos tag line "Better Decisions Every Day," Impromptu, PowerPlay, PowerCube, Scenario, 4Thought, DataMerchant, PowerHouse, RealObjects, COGNOSuite, NovaView, and Cognos Accelerator are trademarks of Cognos Incorporated. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

4 Table of Contents Welcome... vii Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance... 9 Report on Key Data... 9 Include Different Perspectives Compare Financial Periods Update Your Report Data Include Data from Different Cubes...11 Perform Calculations on Different Levels of Data Find the Data You Want for Your Reports Multidimensional Data...12 Drill Down...12 Add Categories Filter Enhance Your Report Work Offline Chapter 2: Essential Skills If You Know PowerPlay Reporter Load the PowerPlay for Excel Add-In Program The PowerPlay for Excel Menu and Toolbar...16 PowerPlay Menu PowerPlay Toolbar...17 Before You Create a Report...17 Rules for PowerPlay for Excel Reports Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report...18 Queries and Numbers...18 Refresh Your Data from the Cube Open a Cube...19 Open a Remote Cube...19 Open a Local Cube About the Great Outdoors Sample Cube Discovering PowerPlay for Excel iii

5 Find the Data You Want...21 Hierarchical Data Organization...22 Drill Up and Drill Down...22 Drill Down to the Lowest Level...24 Undo Navigate Actions...24 Filter Information...24 Remove Filters...26 Filter in an Alternate Path...26 Change Measures...27 Use the Dimension Viewer...28 Add Categories to Your Report...29 Delete Categories from Your Report...30 Add Nested Categories...30 Delete Nested Categories and Levels...32 Add Nested Categories to Multiple Rows...32 Delete Nested Categories from Multiple Rows...33 Hide and Show Categories...33 Swap Rows and Columns...34 Return to the Excel Sheet...34 Use the Excel Sheet for Basic Cube Navigation...35 Drill Up and Drill Down...35 Use the Filter Toolbar (Excel 97 only)...35 Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report.. 37 Before You Begin...37 Open the Cube...38 Find the Data You Want...38 Delete Years and Products...38 Add Locations...39 Add Dates...39 Return to the Excel Sheet...40 Create a More Detailed Report...41 Add the Cost Measure...41 Drill Down in Locations...42 Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report...42 Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement Before You Begin...43 Open the Cube...44 Find the Data You Want...44 Delete the Years Level...44 Add Revenue and Product Cost by Location...45 Add Fourth Quarters by Product Line...46 Return to the Excel Sheet...47 Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report...47 iv Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

6 Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Before You Begin Open the Cube Find the Data You Want Delete the Years Category...50 Swap Rows and Columns...51 Reorder Years...51 Add European Sales Representatives Delete and Hide Unnecessary Categories...53 Return to the Excel Sheet Convert Numbers to Queries Show Filter Information...54 Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report...55 Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement.. 57 Before You Begin Open the Cube Find the Data You Want Swap Rows and Columns...58 Delete Years Reorder Years...59 Add Locations as Rows and Drill Down Delete the Products Level Add Revenue and Product Cost as Nested Categories...61 Return to the Excel Sheet Indent Categories and Format Measures Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report...63 Chapter 7: Create an Annual Revenue by Product Line Report Before You Begin Open the Cube Find the Data You Want Swap Rows and Columns...66 Delete Years Add Year to Date Data...67 Drill Down in Product Lines...68 Return to the Excel Sheet Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report...69 Index Discovering PowerPlay for Excel v

8 Welcome Welcome PowerPlay for Excel is an add-in program for Microsoft Excel that allows access to multi-dimensional cubes. With PowerPlay for Excel, you get direct access to your data from your Microsoft Excel environment. You can access cube data, then use powerful Excel calculation and presentation features manipulate and format your reports. Supported Versions of Excel PowerPlay for Excel is supported on Microsoft Excel 95 Microsoft Excel 97 What Is in This Book Discovering PowerPlay for Excel shows you how to use basic PowerPlay for Excel features create a variety of reports If you are new to PowerPlay for Excel, we recommend you that take the online Quick Tour before you read this book. What You Need to Know to Use This Product Effectively To use this product effectively, you need to know Microsoft Excel. For information, refer to the documentation that comes with Excel. Other PowerPlay for Excel Documentation In addition to this book, the following documentation is provided with PowerPlay for Excel: PowerPlay Installation and Configuration Guide Online Help PowerPlay for Excel Quick Tour Your Comments Are Welcome We are interested in your comments or questions about the documentation. Please send to: bipubs@cognos.com. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel vii

1 Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance With PowerPlay for Excel, you get direct access to your PowerPlay cube data from your Microsoft Excel 95 or 97 environment.

10 1 Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance With PowerPlay for Excel, you get direct access to your PowerPlay cube data from your Microsoft Excel 95 or 97 environment. You can create reports that include key data from your cube, then use the calculation and presentation features that Excel offers to manipulate and format your reports. With PowerPlay for Excel, you can report on key data update your report data create reports that contain data from more than one cube and perform calculations on that data perform calculations on data from different levels of the same cube find the cube data you need for your reports work offline Report on Key Data With PowerPlay for Excel, you can easily include key data from cubes in your reports. Rather than being limited to row and column operations, you can perform Excel-based operations on your cube data. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 9

11 Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance Include Different Perspectives You can report on key data, such as revenue, and then look at this same information from another perspective, such as profit margin. For example, in the Great Outdoors sample cube, in 1996, revenue for Environmental Line surpassed GO Sports Line. However, profit margin percentage for the same period shows GO Sport Line to be more profitable than Environmental Line. Compare Financial Periods You can compare different financial periods. Use PowerPlay for Excel to get the data you need from your cube, and then use Excel to perform calculations on the data. For example, you can create a report showing year-to-date revenue for this year and last year. Then you can use Excel calculation features to calculate the difference and the percentage of growth. Update Your Report Data Once you find the data you want to include in your report, you can convert your numbers into queries, and copy and paste the queries into another sheet for formatting. You can refresh your report with up-to-date data from the cube manually using the Refresh command from the PowerPlay menu or automatically when you open the workbook by setting an option or property. If you want to add more data to your report later, you can create another PowerPlay sheet for the new data, convert those numbers into queries, and transfer them to your formatted report sheet. 10 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

12 Include Data from Different Cubes Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance You can include data from different cubes in one report. For example, you may have different cubes for different parts of your organization. You can open each cube in an Excel sheet, and then copy and paste the numbers you want from each cube into another sheet. Alternatively, you can use the Excel reference feature. Then, if all the cubes contain a similar measure such as revenue, you can use Excel to perform your calculations and formatting. Perform Calculations on Different Levels of Data You can perform calculations on different levels of data from the same cube. For example, a cube may have two years of sales data. You can filter to show Quarter 4 data for the past two years, and then copy and paste the Quarter 4 data from this year and the Quarter 4 data from last year into a separate formatting sheet. Then you can use Excel to perform calculations on the data and do whatever formatting you require. For an example of this type of report, see Chapter 3 on page 37. You can also open multiple connections to the same cube. For example, you may want to open one sheet that shows revenue for Europe and another sheet that shows revenue for North America. You can copy and paste data for both sales regions into a separate Excel sheet and then use Excel features to compare the data. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 11

13 Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance Find the Data You Want for Your Reports This section introduces some of the ways you can use the multidimensional capabilities of PowerPlay for Excel to focus on your bottom line. Multidimensional Data Using PowerPlay for Excel, you can create reports that show the impact that each aspect of the business has on the others and on the overall results. When data is organized into dimensions such as Years and Products in a cube, you have multidimensional reporting capabilities for your business. You can use this multidimensional view of your business information to show your key business criteria from many different angles. For example, you can create a report that shows revenue for each product type for North America or a report that shows product sales figures based on specific regions of North America, sales channels, margin ranges, or quarters. Drill Down You can drill down to lower levels to report on individual categories. While the top level numbers for Outdoor Products are good, drilling down shows which products contributed the most to 1996 revenue. For example, Tents did extremely well. 12 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

14 Add Categories Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance You can add categories to your report. For example, you can simply drag the Locations folder to your report from the dimension viewer. You can also add nested categories. For example, if you add Locations as a nested category, you can see year data by location. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 13

Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance Filter You can also filter the report to focus on particular data. For example, you can focus on the revenue for a single channel.

You can compare the revenue for all channels in the first quarter to the revenue generated by the Mass Marketer channel in the same quarter.

15 Chapter 1: PowerPlay for Excel at a Glance Filter You can also filter the report to focus on particular data. For example, you can focus on the revenue for a single channel. Selecting Mass Marketer from the Channels menu narrows the report scope to the information for a single channel. You can compare the revenue for all channels in the first quarter to the revenue generated by the Mass Marketer channel in the same quarter. All Channels Mass Marketer Channel Enhance Your Report Work Offline When you have the data you want, you can enhance your report using Excel features for formatting, calculating, ranking, sorting, and so on. For step-by-step instructions, see "Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report" on page 18. Normally, you access remote cubes that reside on a PowerPlay Enterprise Server or local cubes stored on your computer. If you have PowerPlay Personal Server installed on your computer, and the cube administrator has set up the cube appropriately, you can prepare a report containing a subset of the cube data. Then you can use this sub-cube to work with PowerPlay even though you are not connected to the original cube. This feature is useful when you want to take work home or when you are on a business trip. When you finish working offline, you can reconnect to the original cube. For information on installing PowerPlay Personal Server, see the PowerPlay Installation and Configuration Guide. 14 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

16 2 Chapter 2: Essential Skills This chapter covers the essential skills you need to use PowerPlay for Excel. You learn to use PowerPlay for Excel add-in features navigate in a cube to find the data you want for your report If You Know PowerPlay Reporter If you are familiar with PowerPlay, you will find that creating reports in PowerPlay for Excel is similar to creating reports in PowerPlay Reporter. However, you will notice these differences: You perform most PowerPlay functions using the Navigate command from the PowerPlay menu. To move columns, rows, or categories, you delete them from their current location in the Navigate dialog box and then add them in a new location as new categories. You use Excel features (not PowerPlay for Excel features) for formatting, calculating, ranking, sorting, and so on. Load the PowerPlay for Excel Add-In Program After installation, if the PowerPlay menu doesn t appear in Excel, load the PowerPlay for Excel add-in into Excel. In Excel 95 or Excel 97, click Add-Ins (Tools menu), browse for the.xla file (PPXLServer.xla) that was installed in the PowerPlay 6.5 directory, and then click OK. The PowerPlay menu will appear in Excel. Note: If you install PowerPlay for Excel in a directory other than PowerPlay 6.5, you must locate the.xla file in the root of the specified directory. For installation instructions, refer to the PowerPlay Installation and Configuration Guide. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 15

Chapter 2: Essential Skills The PowerPlay for Excel Menu and Toolbar PowerPlay Menu When you have the PowerPlay for Excel add-in loaded in Excel, two PowerPlay items appear: the menu and the toolbar.

17 Chapter 2: Essential Skills The PowerPlay for Excel Menu and Toolbar PowerPlay Menu When you have the PowerPlay for Excel add-in loaded in Excel, two PowerPlay items appear: the menu and the toolbar. If you have Microsoft Excel 97, a Filter toolbar also appears. For more information, see "Use the Filter Toolbar (Excel 97 only)" on page 35. Use the PowerPlay menu to access PowerPlay for Excel features. Use the PowerPlay commands to perform the following PowerPlay for Excel functions. Command Open Save as Sub- Cube Navigate Refresh Convert to Queries Description Opens a cube. Saves the current PowerPlay sheet filter settings as a sub-cube (.mdc file). This is useful when you want to take work home or when you are on a business trip. You must have PowerPlay Personal Server installed on your computer. Navigates in the cube so you can find the data you want for your report. Refreshes your report with up-to-date cube data. There are also PowerPlay for Excel options and sheet properties that you can set to do this automatically when you open a workbook. Converts the numbers in your report to queries, which can be copied to other reports without losing the cube connection. (For details, see "Queries and Numbers" on page 18.) 16 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

18 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Command Properties Protect Sheet Explain Options Description Sets individual properties for individual workbooks and sheets. Accesses the Excel protection feature, which prevents you from making changes such as formatting, drilling, and adding or deleting rows, columns, or cells to a PowerPlay sheet. Protect Sheet is selected by default. A checkmark indicates that this feature is selected. Shows information about the data in the selected cell. Sets PowerPlay for Excel options that apply to all workbooks and sheets. PowerPlay Toolbar Use the PowerPlay for Excel toolbar to access frequently used features. Open Cube Refresh Set Properties Explain Navigate Convert To Queries Unprotect Sheet Set Options Before You Create a Report Before you create your first PowerPlay for Excel report, you must understand the concepts and guidelines in this section. Rules for PowerPlay for Excel Reports Follow these rules when you create PowerPlay for Excel reports. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Open to open a cube. 2. From the PowerPlay menu, click Navigate to find the data you want to include in your report. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 17

19 Chapter 2: Essential Skills 3. When you return to the Excel sheet from the Navigate dialog box, follow these guidelines: Do not insert or delete rows, columns, or cells in the PowerPlay sheet. To protect your sheet, you can select the Excel protection feature from the PowerPlay menu or from Excel. Do not make any formatting changes on the PowerPlay sheet. If you return to the Navigate dialog box and make changes followed by clicking OK, you will lose all formatting changes, such as color and font changes, that you ve made on the Excel sheet. When you click OK in the Navigate dialog box, an Overwrite Worksheet warning appears. This gives you the opportunity to accept the changes you made or return to the Navigate dialog box without making the changes. Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report Queries and Numbers Once you have the data you want in your report 1. Copy and paste your numbers or queries into a second sheet. You can paste one cell only, a selection of cells, or the whole sheet. You can also paste cells from multiple sheets. 2. In the formatting sheet, use Excel features to perform calculations, format your report, create charts, and so on. PowerPlay for Excel lets you choose whether or not to generate queries when you make a report. The default is numbers instead of queries. You only need to convert your numbers to queries if you copy and paste your numbers to a formatting sheet and the original PowerPlay sheet may be deleted you want to update the data in the formatting sheet from the cube regularly You can choose to generate queries for your entire report or you can generate queries for individual cells. Generally, it is best to generate queries for only the cells that you use in your final report. For information about queries, see the PowerPlay for Excel online Help in the Excel Help menu. 18 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

20 Refresh Your Data from the Cube Chapter 2: Essential Skills You can refresh your data from the cube simply by selecting Refresh from the PowerPlay menu. If you are using your original PowerPlay sheet, you do not need to convert your numbers to queries first. If you are using a second formatting sheet, you must convert the numbers to queries in your PowerPlay sheet, then copy and paste the queries into the formatting sheet before you refresh. For information about refreshing your data, see the PowerPlay for Excel online Help in the Excel Help menu. Open a Cube Open a Remote Cube To create a PowerPlay for Excel report, you must first open a cube. You can open cubes that are stored on a remote PowerPlay Enterprise Server your computer (local) if you have PowerPlay Personal Server installed In this book, we use a sample cube called Great Outdoors. The default location is C:\Program Files\Cognos\PowerPlay 6.5\PP6.5 Samples\Cubes and Reports\Great Outdoors.mdc Your sample cube may be stored in a different location. Contact your administrator for details. Remote cubes are stored on PowerPlay Enterprise Servers. To open a remote cube, you must create a connection to the server locate the cube you want to open 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Open. 2. Click Remote access. The Choose a Remote Cube dialog box appears. 3. Click the Connections button. The Connections dialog box appears. 4. Select the server from the list of connections or specify a new server connection. If you do not know the correct server, contact your administrator. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 19

Chapter 2: Essential Skills Open a Local Cube 5. Click Save and then click Close. 6. In the Choose a Remote Cube dialog box, locate and double-click the Great Outdoors cube (.mdc).

21 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Open a Local Cube 5. Click Save and then click Close. 6. In the Choose a Remote Cube dialog box, locate and double-click the Great Outdoors cube (.mdc). The Great Outdoors cube opens in Excel. You can open cubes that are stored on your computer if you have PowerPlay Personal Server. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Open. 2. Click Local access. The Choose a Local Cube dialog box appears. 3. Locate and double-click the Great Outdoors cube (.mdc). The Great Outdoors cube opens in an Excel sheet. About the Great Outdoors Sample Cube When you open the Great Outdoors sample cube, your Excel sheet looks like this. The first two dimensions in the cube are displayed. Column labels Row labels Data Note: Your screen may look slightly different depending on the version of Excel that you are using and the options and sheet properties that you have selected in PowerPlay for Excel. 20 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

22 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Find the Data You Want In PowerPlay for Excel, you click Navigate from the PowerPlay menu to navigate in the cube. When you click OK in the Navigate dialog box and return to the Excel sheet, your changes are reflected there. Note: The tutorial instructions in the rest of this chapter assume that you start here and work your way through in sequence. If you do not have the sample Great Outdoors cube open, see "Open a Cube" on page 19 before you begin. Dimension line Dimension viewer Preview of report Actions menu Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 21

23 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Hierarchical Data Organization Cube data is organized hierarchically. For example, the Years dimension contains information about time, organized into year, quarter, and month levels. The organization of the data is the responsibility of the person who creates the cube. 1996/Jan Q1 1996/Feb Categories 1996 Q Q3 1996/Mar 1996/Apr 1996/May 1996/June /Jul 1996/Aug 1996/Sep Drill Up and Drill Down You can move from one level of the data hierarchy to another by drilling. For example, you can drill down to see revenue by product type within product line. Then you can drill down to see revenue for individual products. When you are finished, you can drill back up to the product line level. Drilling down moves you down in the hierarchy; drilling up moves you up in the hierarchy. Note: If you accidently click OK in the Navigate dialog box before you are instructed to, we recommend that you begin the tutorial again. To drill down on a column or row label: 1. Position the pointer over the 1997 row label. 22 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

Chapter 2: Essential Skills 2. Double-click the 1997 row label. Lower-level categories appear below 1997. You can drill back up by double-clicking the same row or column label.

24 Chapter 2: Essential Skills 2. Double-click the 1997 row label. Lower-level categories appear below You can drill back up by double-clicking the same row or column label. To drill up on a column or row label: 1. Position the cursor on the 1997 row label. Note the shape of the pointer. This indicates that you can drill up. 2. Double-click the 1997 column label. The drill down rows disappear. You can also drill on a value. When you drill on a value, you are drilling on both the row category and the column category that correspond to the value. To drill down and then up on a value: 1. Double-click the value that intersects in the Outdoor Products column and the 1996 row. The next lower level of categories for Outdoor Products and 1996 appear. 2. Double-click the value again to drill back up. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 23

25 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Drill Down to the Lowest Level You can drill down to the lowest level of a category without going through the interim levels. 1. Select the Years row label. 2. From the Actions menu, click Drill to Lowest Level. The lowest level in the Years dimension, months, appears. Undo Navigate Actions You can undo your Navigate dialog box actions. From the Actions menu, click Undo. The last action you performed is reversed. You can set the number of previous actions that you can undo from the Options command on the PowerPlay menu. For information about options, see the PowerPlay for Excel online Help in the Excel Help menu. Filter Information You can include information at any level in any dimension. Use the dimension line to filter the information that you want to include in your report. Each folder contains information on a different aspect of the data. For example, a report may have years as rows and products as columns. To see this information for the Americas only, you can filter out unnecessary information, such as Europe and the Far East. Only the information that you require appears in the report. The filtering process creates focused reports that show the exact level of information that you want in each dimension. If you have Microsoft Excel 97, you can also use the Filter toolbar on the Excel sheet. For more information, see "Use the Filter Toolbar (Excel 97 only)" on page Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

26 Chapter 2: Essential Skills To filter report information: 1. Position the pointer on the Locations dimension folder in the dimension line. The associated dimension menu appears. 2. Click Americas. The name of the dimension folder changes to show that you are filtering the report to include only information for the Americas. 3. Position the pointer on the Americas dimension folder in the dimension line and click United States. The name of the dimension folder changes to show that you are filtering the report to show only information for the United States. 4. Position the pointer on the United States dimension folder in the dimension line and click San Francisco. The dimension line shows that you are filtering the report to show only information for San Francisco sales representatives. Isolate a Category You can start with the big picture of how your business is doing, and then focus on a single category at the lowest level. By isolating a category, you can examine the impact of a single aspect of your business on the whole. For example, you can select a sales representative and investigate the relationship between this person and other information. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 25

Chapter 2: Essential Skills To drill down to a category at the lowest level: Position the cursor on the San Francisco dimension folder in the dimension line, and click Tony Armarillo.

27 Chapter 2: Essential Skills To drill down to a category at the lowest level: Position the cursor on the San Francisco dimension folder in the dimension line, and click Tony Armarillo. Remove Filters Note that Tony Armarillo s sales have increased significantly in The shape of the dimension folder (without a tab) indicates that Tony Armarillo is a single category at the lowest level of detail. You can remove filters by using the dimension folders. 1. Position the pointer over the Tony Amarillo folder in the dimension line. 2. Click Locations. The filter is removed. Filter in an Alternate Path You can filter an alternate path if the cube administrator has provided one. 1. Position the pointer over the Years folder in the dimension line to see the drill-down options. 2. Click Relative Time. Note that alternate filter paths appear in italics. 3. Position the pointer over the Relative Time folder. 4. Click Current Month. The data changes to current month data. Note that the 1996 row now has only zeros in it. That is because you have filtered for the current month, which does not include 1996 data. For information about suppressing rows and columns that contain only zeros, see the PowerPlay for Excel online Help in the Excel Help menu. 26 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

28 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Change Measures 5. Position the pointer over the Current Month folder and click Years to remove the filter. The final folder in the dimension line contains categories that describe the quantitative aspects of the cube. These categories typically include measurable business indicators, such as revenue, profit margin percentage, and revenue per employee. You can change the key financial data, or measures, that appears in a report. For example, you can examine your information using the revenue measure and then look at this same information from another perspective, such as profit margin percentage. 1. Position the pointer on the Revenue folder. A dimension menu appears for the folder. Note: The arrow beside Measures indicates that there are sibling categories for the current filter category. In this case, the sibling categories are other measures such as Product Cost and Profit Margin %. 2. Position the pointer on Measures. 3. Click Profit Margin %. The measure in the report is now Profit Margin %. 4. In the Profit Margin % folder, click Measures. (You may have to scroll the dimension line to see the Profit Margin % folder.) Scroll buttons The measure in the report is now Revenue because it is the first measure in the list. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 27

29 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Use the Dimension Viewer The dimension viewer contains a hierarchical organization of the dimensions and categories in the cube you are using. For more information about hierarchical data organization, see "Hierarchical Data Organization" on page In the dimension viewer, click the expand icon beside Years. The next level of categories for Years appears. 2. Click the expand icon beside The next level of categories for 1996 appears. 3. Click the expand icon beside 1996 Q1. The next level of categories for 1996 Q1 appears. 4. Click the collapse icon for Years. This button returns the hierarchical structure to the Years level. 28 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

30 Add Categories to Your Report Chapter 2: Essential Skills One way to change a report is to add a category to it. When you drag a folder from the dimension viewer into your report, you move your cursor until the directional arrow you want appears. For example, a right arrow puts the folder to the right of the cell. A down arrow puts the folder below the cell. You can choose between single arrows and double arrows: single arrows add categories to one column or row double arrows add categories to all columns or rows In this section, we show you how to add a single category. Later, we show you how to add nested categories. For an example of the difference, see "Add Categories" on page Drag the Locations folder from the dimension viewer into the body of the report. Note the symbol that appears to tell you where dropping a folder is invalid. Invalid drag and drop symbol Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 29

Chapter 2: Essential Skills 2. Drag the Locations folder into the 1996 row label until the single down arrow appears. The Locations category is added below 1996.

31 Chapter 2: Essential Skills 2. Drag the Locations folder into the 1996 row label until the single down arrow appears. The Locations category is added below Delete Categories from Your Report You can delete categories from your report. 1. Select the Locations row label. 2. From the Actions menu, click Delete Category. Add Nested Categories Nested categories are arranged in multiple levels in the rows or columns of a report. Nested categories form groups of information that add another perspective to a report. In this example, revenue by years and locations is shown for Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

32 Chapter 2: Essential Skills 1. Drag the Locations folder from the dimension viewer to the 1996 row label until the single right arrow appears. Locations is added beside Drag the Locations folder to the blank cell beside the 1997 row label until the single right arrow appears. Locations is added beside Double-click the Locations category beside 1996 to drill down. 4. Double-click the Locations category beside 1997 to drill down. When you add nested categories using the single right arrow, you can perform different functions on each category. For example, you could drill down in the 1997 Locations category, but not the 1996 Locations category. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 31

Chapter 2: Essential Skills Delete Nested Categories and Levels You can delete nested categories and levels from your report. 1. Beside the 1996 row label, select Europe. 2. From the Actions menu, click Delete Category.

Add Nested Categories to Multiple Rows You can add nested categories to multiple rows at one time.

33 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Delete Nested Categories and Levels You can delete nested categories and levels from your report. 1. Beside the 1996 row label, select Europe. 2. From the Actions menu, click Delete Category. The Europe category is deleted. 3. Beside the 1997 row label, select Locations. 4. From the Actions menu, click Delete Level. The Locations level is deleted. Add Nested Categories to Multiple Rows You can add nested categories to multiple rows at one time. In this example, Locations is added as a nested category so that you can see revenue by year and location. The advantage of this is that you can perform tasks on the whole category with one action. For example, if you drill on Locations, the action applies to all occurrences of Locations. 32 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

34 Chapter 2: Essential Skills 1. Drag the Locations dimension folder from the dimension viewer to the 1996 row label until the double right arrow appears. Location is added beside all the row labels. 2. Double-click Locations, beside the 1996 row label to drill down, You drill down in all the rows. 3. Double-click Locations, beside the 1997 row label to drill up. You drill up in all the rows. Delete Nested Categories from Multiple Rows You can delete categories from multiple rows. 1. Beside the 1996 row label, select Locations. 2. From the Actions menu, click Delete Category. When you delete one category that has been added to multiple rows, you delete them all. Hide and Show Categories You can hide or show categories. For example, you may want to see data for only Quarter 4 for Double-click 1996 and 1997 to drill down to quarters. 2. Select these row labels: 1996, 1996 Q1, 1996 Q2, and 1996 Q3. 3. From the Actions menu, click Hide/Selected Categories. Only the 1996 Q4 rows remain in the report. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 33

35 Chapter 2: Essential Skills 4. Select these row labels: 1997, 1997 Q1, 1997 Q2, and 1997 Q3. 5. From the Actions menu, click Hide/Selected Categories. Only the 1997 Q4 rows remains in the report. Now that you have only fourth quarters in your report, you can use Excel calculation features to subtract one from the other. 6. From the Actions menu, click Unhide. All the quarters for both years appear. Swap Rows and Columns You can swap the categories that currently appear in rows and columns. For example, you may want products, which appear in the row area, to appear in the column area instead. Swapping products and years lets you compare years by products, instead of products by years. 1. From the Actions menu, click Swap Rows and Columns. The columns become the rows, and vice versa. 2. Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the Navigate dialog box to see more of the year categories. Return to the Excel Sheet When your report contains the data you want, return to the Excel sheet. 1. Click OK to return to the Excel sheet. 2. Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears. Note that your changes are reflected in the Excel sheet. The Overwrite Worksheet dialog box gives you the option of not making changes that may cause you to lose report formatting. If you don t want to overwrite the report, click No. Then click Cancel from the Navigate dialog box. For more information about formatting PowerPlay for Excel reports, see "Before You Create a Report" on page Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

36 Chapter 2: Essential Skills Use the Excel Sheet for Basic Cube Navigation Although most cube navigation is done from the Navigate dialog box, PowerPlay for Excel lets you perform basic cube navigation on the Excel sheet itself. Drill Up and Drill Down You can drill up and drill down on the Excel sheet. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Protect Sheet. There should be no checkmark beside the Protect Sheet command. The Protect Sheet feature disables drilling in the Excel sheet. 2. Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears. 3. Double-click the 1996 and 1997 column labels to drill up. 4. Double-click the Years column label to drill up again. 5. Double-click the Years column label again to drill back down. You can also drill down or drill up on a value. When you drill on a value, you drill on both the row category and the column category that correspond to the value. For information about showing drill up categories in bold on the Excel sheet, see the PowerPlay for Excel online Help in the Excel Help menu. Use the Filter Toolbar (Excel 97 only) If you have Excel 97, a filter toolbar appears in Excel when the PowerPlay for Excel add-in is loaded. You can use the Filter toolbar to filter information in your report right on the Excel sheet itself. For information about filtering, see "Filter Information" on page 24. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 35

On the Filter toolbar, click Independent. The menu appears. 4. Position the pointer on Channels and click Channels in the flyout menu.

37 Chapter 2: Essential Skills 1. On the Filter toolbar, click Channels. The Channels menu appears. 2. Click Independent. Your report now shows the data for only independent channels. Note that the Filter toolbar shows Independent to reflect the data. 3. On the Filter toolbar, click Independent. The menu appears. 4. Position the pointer on Channels and click Channels in the flyout menu. Your report now shows the data for all channels again. Note that the Filter toolbar shows Channels to reflect the data. 36 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

3 Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report With a net revenue quarterly report, you can see the difference between revenue and actual profit from one quarter to the next.

38 3 Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report With a net revenue quarterly report, you can see the difference between revenue and actual profit from one quarter to the next. The upward or downward trend over time can be critical. Before You Begin In this chapter, you will use the Great Outdoors sample cube to create a net revenue quarterly report that shows the revenue and net income for the current quarter to date in 1997 and the same quarter in You will see that net revenue decreased in Europe in the last quarter. Ensure Protect Sheet is selected on the PowerPlay menu. You should be familiar with basic PowerPlay for Excel skills. For information, see Chapter 2 on page 15. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 37

39 Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report Open the Cube The first step in creating a report is to open a cube. From the PowerPlay menu, click Open and double-click the Great Outdoors sample cube. For step-by-step instructions, see Chapter 2 on page 19. Find the Data You Want For this report, you want to have locations as rows and quarters as columns. Delete Years and Products The first step is to delete years and products. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Navigate. The Navigate dialog box appears. 2. Click the Years row label 3. From the Actions menu, click Delete Level. The report preview is now empty. 4. Select the Products column label. 5. From the Actions menu, click Delete Level. 38 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

40 Add Locations The next step is to add locations. Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report 1. Drag and drop the Locations folder from the dimension viewer to the first empty cell using the double left arrow. Locations appears as a row label. 2. Double-click Locations to drill down. Add Dates Finally, add quarter 4 for 1996 and Click the expand icon beside the Years folder in the dimension viewer. 2. Click the expand icon beside the 1997 folder to display quarters. 3. Drag and drop the 1997 Q 4 folder from the dimension viewer to the empty cell beside Locations using the double up arrow. Quarter data for 1997 appears in your report preview. 4. Click the expand icon beside 1996 in the dimension viewer. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 39

41 Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report 5. Drag and drop the 1996 Q 4 folder from the dimension viewer to the 1997 Q 4 cell using the single right arrow Q 4 appears beside 1997 Q 4. Return to the Excel Sheet Now that your report contains the data you want, you return to the Excel sheet. 1. Click OK, to return to the Excel sheet. 2. Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears. Your Excel sheet should look similar to this: 40 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

Create a More Detailed Report Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report You can create a report that contains net revenue for all countries by drilling down in the PowerPlay Excel Sheet.

42 Create a More Detailed Report Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report You can create a report that contains net revenue for all countries by drilling down in the PowerPlay Excel Sheet. Add the Cost Measure You can add more detail to your report by adding the cost measures and drilling down. First, add the cost measure to your report. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Navigate. The Navigate dialog box appears. 2. Click the expand icon beside Measures in the dimension viewer. 3. Drag and drop Product Cost to the 1997 Q 4 cell using a single rightarrow. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 41

43 Chapter 3: Create a Net Revenue Quarterly Report 4. Drag and drop Product Cost to the 1996 Q 4 cell using a single rightarrow. Drill Down in Locations Double-click Europe, Far East, and Americas to drill-down. The countries appear. Now that your report contains the data you want, you return to the Excel sheet. 1. Click OK to return to the Excel sheet. 2. Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears. Your Excel sheet should look similar to this: Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report Now that you have the data you want, create a formatting sheet and use Excel formatting, calculation, charting features and so on to enhance your report. For step-by-step instructions, see "Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report" on page 18. You may also want to change your numbers to queries. For more information, see "Queries and Numbers" on page Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

4 Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement With a quarterly income statement, you can compare revenue, costs, and profit margins in the current quarter to the same quarter last year.

44 4 Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement With a quarterly income statement, you can compare revenue, costs, and profit margins in the current quarter to the same quarter last year. Before You Begin In this chapter, you will use the Great Outdoors sample cube to create a quarter to date income statement that shows that the profit margin in this quarter to date has more than doubled from the same quarter last year. Ensure Protect Sheet is selected on the PowerPlay menu. You should be familiar with basic PowerPlay for Excel skills. For information, see Chapter 2 on page 15. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 43

45 Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement Open the Cube The first step in creating a report is to open a cube. From the PowerPlay menu, click Open and double-click the Great Outdoors sample cube. For step-by-step instructions, see Chapter 2 on page 19. Find the Data You Want Delete the Years Level For this report, you want to have revenue and product cost by location as rows quarter 4 for 1996 and 1997 by product line as columns First, you want to delete the Year level. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Navigate. The Navigate dialog box appears. 2. Click the Years column label. 3. From the Actions menu, click Delete Level. 44 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

Add Revenue and Product Cost by Location Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement The second step is to add Revenue and Product cost as rows.

46 Add Revenue and Product Cost by Location Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement The second step is to add Revenue and Product cost as rows. You also include locations as nested categories. 1. Click the expand icon beside Measures in the dimension viewer. 2. Drag and drop the Revenue folder from the dimension viewer to the empty cell under the Products label using the double left arrow. Revenue appears as a row label. 3. Drag and drop the Locations folder from the dimension viewer to the Revenue cell using the double right arrow. Locations appears next to Revenue. 4. Double-click Locations to drill down. 5. Drag and drop the Product Cost folder from the dimension viewer to the cell under Revenue and beside Americas using the single down arrow. Product Cost appears under Revenue. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 45

Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement Add Fourth Quarters by Product Line Finally, you add fourth quarters for 1996 and 1997, including

Drag and drop the 1997 Q 4 folder from the dimension viewer to the Products column label using the double up arrow. Quarter data for 1997 appears. 4. Select the Products column label and, from the Actions menu, click Delete Category.

47 Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement Add Fourth Quarters by Product Line Finally, you add fourth quarters for 1996 and 1997, including Product Lines as nested categories. 1. Click the expand icon beside the Years folder in the dimension viewer. 2. Click the expand icon beside Drag and drop the 1997 Q 4 folder from the dimension viewer to the Products column label using the double up arrow. Quarter data for 1997 appears. 4. Select the Products column label and, from the Actions menu, click Delete Category. 5. Click the expand icon beside 1996 in the dimension viewer. 46 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement 6. Drag and drop the 1996 Q 4 folder from the dimension viewer to the 1997 Q 4 column label using the single right arrow.

Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears.

48 Chapter 4: Create a Quarter to Date Income Statement 6. Drag and drop the 1996 Q 4 folder from the dimension viewer to the 1997 Q 4 column label using the single right arrow. Quarter data for 1996 appears. Return to the Excel Sheet Now that your report contains the data you want, return to the Excel sheet. 1. Click OK to return to the Excel sheet. 2. Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears. Your Excel sheet should look similar to this: Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report Now that you have the data you want, create a formatting sheet and use Excel formatting, calculation, charting features and so on to enhance your report. For step-by-step instructions, see "Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report" on page 18. You may also want to change your numbers to queries. For more information, see "Queries and Numbers" on page 18. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 47

5 Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report With a sales performance report, you can compare your products, customers, sales staff, courses, or any other factor that is important to your company.

50 5 Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report With a sales performance report, you can compare your products, customers, sales staff, courses, or any other factor that is important to your company. You can compare one year to another and see who or what is moving up or down the fastest. Before You Begin In this chapter, you will use the Great Outdoors sample cube to create a sales performance report that shows you how the top ten sales representatives in Europe performed in 1997 compared to Ensure Protect Sheet is selected on the PowerPlay menu. You should be familiar with basic PowerPlay for Excel skills. For information, see Chapter 2 on page 15. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 49

51 Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Open the Cube The first step in creating a report is to open a cube. From the PowerPlay menu, click Open and double-click the Great Outdoors sample cube. For step-by-step instructions, see Chapter 2 on page 19. Find the Data You Want For this report, you want to have European sales representatives as rows 1996 and 1997 as columns Delete the Years Category First, delete the Years category because you want your report to include only 1996 and From the PowerPlay menu, click Navigate. The Navigate dialog box appears. 2. Click Years. 3. From the Actions menu, click Delete Category. 50 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

Swap Rows and Columns Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Next, swap the rows and columns so that products appear as rows and years appear as columns.

First you delete it and then you add it again in the correct location. 1. Click the 1996 category, and from the Actions menu, click Delete Category. The 1996 row disappears. 2.

52 Swap Rows and Columns Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Next, swap the rows and columns so that products appear as rows and years appear as columns. From the Actions menu, click Swap Rows and Columns. The Years appear in the column area and the Products appear in the row area. Reorder Years Next, move 1996 so that it appears as the second column. First you delete it and then you add it again in the correct location. 1. Click the 1996 category, and from the Actions menu, click Delete Category. The 1996 row disappears. 2. Click the expand icon beside Years in the dimension viewer. 3. Drag and drop the 1996 folder from the dimension viewer to the 1997 column label using the single right arrow. The 1996 column appears to the right of the 1997 column. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 51

53 Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Add European Sales Representatives Now add Locations and drill down to sales representatives. 1. Click the expand icon beside the Locations folder in the dimension viewer. 2. Drag and drop the Europe folder from the dimension viewer to the Products row label using the double left arrow. The Europe category appears beside Products. 3. Select the Products row label and, from the Actions menu, click Delete Level. The Products column row along with its drill-down categories disappears. 4. Click the Europe category. 5. From the Actions menu, click Drill to Lowest Level. All the levels in the Europe category appear. 52 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

Delete and Hide Unnecessary Categories Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Finally, you delete the Europe category and hide the Rome category, leaving only sales representatives in your

54 Delete and Hide Unnecessary Categories Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Finally, you delete the Europe category and hide the Rome category, leaving only sales representatives in your report. 1. Click the Europe category. 2. From the Actions menu, click Delete Category. 3. Click the Rome category. 4. From the Actions menu, click Suppress Zeros/Rows Only. Your data should now look like this: Return to the Excel Sheet Now that your report contains the data you want, return to the Excel sheet. 1. Click OK to return to the Excel sheet. 2. When the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears prompting you to overwrite existing data, click Yes. Your Excel sheet should look similar to this: Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 53

55 Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Convert Numbers to Queries Now you are going to convert your numbers to queries to keep the cube connection when you copy and paste the report into another Excel sheet for formatting and calculations. For more information on queries, see "Queries and Numbers" on page Select all the cells that contain numbers. 2. From the PowerPlay menu, click Convert to Queries. When you click on a cell that contains a query, the query information appears in the formula bar instead of the number. 3. Save the report. Note: Because you converted your numbers to queries, if you were using real data instead of the Outdoor Sales sample data, you could refresh your report with up-to-date cube data next month. After you copy and paste the queries into another sheet for formatting, click Refresh from the PowerPlay menu. Show Filter Information You can set an option that lets you show filter information on your Excel sheet. You can display filter information on the sheet using the Notes feature in Excel 95 Comments feature in Excel From the PowerPlay menu, click Properties. 2. Select Show Filter Information on Worksheet and click OK. 3. Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears. Note the small red mark in the upper right-hand corner of Cell A1. 4. Position the plus sign pointer on Cell A1. Filter criteria appears. 54 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

56 Chapter 5: Create a Sales Performance Report Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report Now that you have the data you want, create a formatting sheet and use Excel formatting, calculation, charting features and so on to enhance your report. For step-by-step instructions, see "Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report" on page 18. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 55

6 Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement With a regional operating statement, you can look at the big picture and the relevant details.

58 6 Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement With a regional operating statement, you can look at the big picture and the relevant details. By combining both in the same report, you can spot anomalies and react quickly. Before You Begin Open the Cube In this chapter, you will use the Great Outdoors sample cube to create a regional operating statement that shows that the positive net change from 1996 to 1997 that resulted from the work of a single person, Lyn Jacobs. Ensure Protect Sheet is selected on the PowerPlay menu. You should be familiar with basic PowerPlay for Excel skills. For information, see Chapter 2 on page 15. The first step in creating a report is to open a cube. From the PowerPlay menu, click Open and double-click the Great Outdoors sample cube. For step-by-step instructions, see Chapter 2 on page 19. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 57

59 Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement Find the Data You Want For this report, you want to have London, United Kingdom sales representatives as rows Years by Revenue and Product Cost as columns Swap Rows and Columns The first step is to swap rows and columns so that Products appears as rows and Years appear as columns. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Navigate. The Navigate dialog box appears. 2. From the Actions menu, click Swap Rows and Columns. The Years appear in the column area and the Products appear in the row area. 58 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

60 Delete Years Reorder Years Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement Next, delete the Years category because you want only 1996 and 1997 to appear in your report. Click the Years column label and, from the Actions menu, click Delete Category. Next, move 1996 so that it appears as the second column. First delete it and then add it again in the correct location. 1. Click the 1996 category and, from the Actions menu, click Delete Category. The 1996 row disappears. 2. Click the expand icon beside the Years folder in the dimension viewer. 3. Drag and drop the 1996 folder from the dimension viewer to the 1997 column label using the single right arrow. The 1996 column appears to the right of the 1997 column. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 59

61 Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement Add Locations as Rows and Drill Down Next, add the United Kingdom as a row and drill down to the London sales representative level. 1. Click the expand icon beside the Locations folder in the dimension viewer. 2. Click the expand icon beside the Europe folder. 3. Drag and drop the United Kingdom folder from the dimension viewer to the Products row label using the double left arrow. The United Kingdom category appears beside Products. 4. Double-click United Kingdom to drill down. 5. Double-click London and Manchester to drill down again. Delete the Products Level Now, delete the Products level, because you don t want it to appear in your report. Click the Products row label and, from the Actions menu, click Delete Level. The Products column disappears. 60 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement Add Revenue and Product Cost as Nested Categories Now, add Revenue and Product Cost as nested categories

Drag and drop the Revenue folder from the dimension line to the 1997 column label using the double down arrow.

62 Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement Add Revenue and Product Cost as Nested Categories Now, add Revenue and Product Cost as nested categories under Years. 1. Click the expand icon beside the Measures folder in the dimension viewer. 2. Drag and drop the Revenue folder from the dimension line to the 1997 column label using the double down arrow. The Revenue category appears under 1997 and Drag and drop the Product Cost folder from the dimension viewer to the Revenue category using the single right arrow. The Product Cost category appears beside Revenue 1997 and Revenue Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 61

Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement Return to the Excel Sheet Now that your report contains the data you want, return to the Excel sheet. 1.

Your Excel sheet should look similar to this: Indent Categories and Format Measures Now you are going to use PowerPlay sheet properties to indent your categories and format your measures

63 Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement Return to the Excel Sheet Now that your report contains the data you want, return to the Excel sheet. 1. Click OK to return to the Excel sheet. 2. When the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears prompting you to overwrite existing data, click Yes. Your Excel sheet should look similar to this: Indent Categories and Format Measures Now you are going to use PowerPlay sheet properties to indent your categories and format your measures from the cube. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Properties. 2. Select Format Measures and Indent Categories and click OK. 3. Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears. Your Excel sheet should look similar to this: 62 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

64 Chapter 6: Create a Regional Operating Statement Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report Now that you have the data you want, create a formatting sheet and use Excel formatting, calculation, charting features and so on to enhance your report. For step-by-step instructions, see "Use Excel Features to Enhance Your Report" on page 18. You may also want to change your numbers to queries. For more information, see "Queries and Numbers" on page 18. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 63

7 Chapter 7: Create an Annual Revenue by Product Line Report With an annual revenue report, you can compare growth of product lines year over year.

66 7 Chapter 7: Create an Annual Revenue by Product Line Report With an annual revenue report, you can compare growth of product lines year over year. Before You Begin In this chapter, you will use the Great Outdoors sample cube to create an annual revenue by product line report that shows you which products performed better or worse compared to last year. Ensure Protect Sheet is selected on the PowerPlay menu. You should be familiar with basic PowerPlay for Excel skills. For information, see Chapter 2 on page 15. Open the Cube The first step in creating a report is to open a cube. From the PowerPlay menu, click Open and double-click the Great Outdoors sample cube. For step-by-step instructions, see Chapter 2 on page 19. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 65

Chapter 7: Create an Annual Revenue by Product Line Report Find the Data You Want For this report, you want to have products as rows, and year to date, prior year to date, and year to date change and

67 Chapter 7: Create an Annual Revenue by Product Line Report Find the Data You Want For this report, you want to have products as rows, and year to date, prior year to date, and year to date change and growth as columns. Swap Rows and Columns First, swap the rows and columns so that products appear as rows and years appear as columns. 1. From the PowerPlay menu, click Navigate. The Navigate dialog box appears. 2. From the Actions menu, click Swap Rows and Columns. The Years appear in the column area and the Products appear in the row area. 66 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

68 Delete Years Chapter 7: Create an Annual Revenue by Product Line Report Next, delete the Years level. 1. Click the Years row label. 2. From the Actions menu, click Delete Level. 3. The Years level, and its children categories 1996 and 1997, are deleted. Add Year to Date Data Next, add Year to Date, Prior Year to Date, Year to Date Change, and Year To Date Growth as columns. 1. Click the expand icon beside Years in the dimension viewer. 2. Click the expand icon beside Relative Time in the dimension viewer. Relative time is an alternate path in the Years dimension. 3. Click the expand icon beside YTD Grouped (Year to Date Grouped). 4. Drag and drop the YTD folder (under YTD Grouped) from the dimension viewer to the empty cell beside products using the double up arrow. YTD appears as a column. 5. Drag and drop the Prior YTD folder from the dimension viewer to the YTD column label using the single right arrow. Prior YTD appears as a column. Discovering PowerPlay for Excel 67

69 Chapter 7: Create an Annual Revenue by Product Line Report 6. Drag and drop the YTD Change folder (under YTD Grouped) from the dimension viewer to the Prior YTD column label using the single right arrow. YTD Change appears as a column. 7. Drag and drop the YTD Growth folder from the dimension line to the YTD Change folder using a single right arrow. YTD Growth appears as a column. Drill Down in Product Lines Your final step is to drill down in the Product Lines to show products. Double-click Outdoor Products, Environmental Line, and GO Sport Line. Return to the Excel Sheet Now that your report contains the data you want, return to the Excel sheet. 1. Click OK to return to the Excel sheet. 2. Click Yes when the Overwrite Worksheet dialog box appears. Your Excel sheet should look similar to this: 68 Discovering PowerPlay for Excel

Cognos Connection User Guide USER GUIDE. Cognos (R) 8 COGNOS CONNECTION USER GUIDE

Cognos Connection User Guide USER GUIDE Cognos (R) 8 COGNOS CONNECTION USER GUIDE Product Information This document applies to Cognos (R) 8 Version 8.2 and may also apply to subsequent releases. To check