Table of contents 01 Adding a parameters sheet to the Report Designer 3 02 How to perform a check test on a database 8 03 How to automate the calculation of your data 10 04 How to schedule your reports to distribute automatically 13 05 Summarizing or grouping data in your reports using Aggregate Functions 18 06 Update your reports using the Bulk Import and Update feature 21 Additional Learning 23
Adding a parameters sheet to the Report Designer 01 If you re familiar with Sage Intelligence, you will know that the Report Manager allows you to include certain parameters on sheet two of a report. These parameters provide useful information which you can add to your layouts, for example Run Date and Report Name. By default, the Financial Report Designer doesn t include a parameters sheet. To include one, follow the steps below. In this example we ve used Sage Pastel Version 14 Intelligence Reporting, however, the following steps can be performed in any of the belowmentioned products: Sage 50-U.S. Edition 2015.1 Intelligence Reporting Sage Evolution Version 7 Intelligence Reporting Sage Pastel Version 14 Intelligence Reporting Sage 300 ERP 2014 Intelligence Reporting Upcoming releases of Sage Intelligence Reporting 1. Add a Parameters sheet to the Report Designer template: a. Make a copy of the Report Designer and run it out. b. Unhide all the hidden sheets in the workbook by right-clicking on an existing tab and selecting Unhide. 3
01 c. Add a new sheet to the workbook and move it between the first and second tabs. (We have named this sheet Parameters and this is where all the parameters for the report will to placed). d. Hide the sheets again (excluding the Home sheet) by right clicking on the sheet names and selecting Hide. Leave the workbook open and return to the Report Manager. 2. Save the template back to the Report Designer: a. In the Report Manager, select the report that you ran out. b. Click the Save Excel Template button. 4
01 c. Select the workbook you edited in the Select Workbook to Convert to Template window and click OK. d. Click the OK button in the Specify Template Name window if you have named the template appropriately. e. Once the report has been saved you will get a Completed Successfully message. Click OK to close it. 3. Shift the Output Sheet number of the Report Designer sub reports: a. In the Report Manager, select your report and click on the Union Sub Reports tab. b. Right click on the Report Designer Financial Category sub report which has Output Sheet 2 and select Properties from the menu. c. Change the Output Sheet number to 3 and click OK. 5
01 d. Repeat this for all other sub reports in the list, i.e. (excluding the first sub report) increase the Output Sheet number of each report by one. Once complete, the reports should look as follows: 4. Add the Parameters sheet to the Report Designer report: a. Click on the Properties tab. b. Tick the Parameters on Second Sheet tick box. c. Then click the Apply button in the Properties window. 6
01 Now when you run out your report, the report parameters will be placed on the sheet that you added (the second sheet) and all other sub reports will be created from sheet 3 onwards. To view the parameters, unhide the sheet that you added. You can now use this information in your report layouts. 7
How to perform a check test on a database 02 Connecting to a database can be a daunting task for any non-technical user. In fact, even the word database is quite techy. So, here s a quick tip that will help you check if your report has been successfully connected to a database. If you ve ever been faced with the errors similar to the one below, or if you are just setting up a new report, this tip is for you. When selecting a report to run out, it s important that the system knows what data you would like to use. Our system is quite intuitive, but it needs some direction. You need to point it at the right data so that it will give you the right information. In the Report Manager, select a report which you would like to check the connection for, then in the ribbon click on the Check/Test button. 8
02 If the report has been successfully connected to a database you will see the below message. If you are not successfully connected, you will need to navigate to your Connector module to check the connection details. For more information on setting up a connection, watch this video on how to use the Connector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnb0wyfndfk 9
How to automate the calculation of your data 03 Gone are the days of manual reporting and repetitive copying and pasting to set up your reports. Sage Intelligence saves you time by automating reporting at the click of a few buttons. For example, when you add formulae to a source sheet to calculate additional data fields and run out the report again, the calculations for any additional transactions or accounts are not brought through unless you extend the formulae to cater for them. You may have already been doing this manually. Did you know you can automate it? The ExtendFormulaeToUsedRows Add-In in the Report Manager automatically extends formulas to any new rows of data, every time a report is run, saving you hours. Setting up the ExtendFormulaeToUsedRows Add-In 1. Open the Report Manager and run your report. In the source sheet in Microsoft Excel, add the desired calculation(s) after the last column of source data. For example, using a Sales report, we will add a column to calculate Gross Profit which is TotalSale TotalCost. The formula only needs to be added to the first row. 2. Go back to the Report Manager and select the report that you ran. You need to apply the ExtendFormulaeToUsedRows Add-In to this report. 3. To do this, enable the Show Advanced properties of the report at the bottom of the properties tab. 4. Select the Run Add-Ins ellipses button. 5. Select the Add-In Library: Alchemex Add-In 1. 6. Select the Add-In Library Module: General Excel extensions Module. 7. Select the Add-In Function: ExtendFormulaeToUsedRows. 10
03 8. Click OK. The Specify Function Parameters window will appear. You will need to specify the parameters that relate to your particular Excel template. Take a look at the table below: 11
03 9. When you have specified the Function Parameters, select OK. You will notice that a string has been added to the Run Add-Ins field on the properties tab of your report. 10 Save the Excel Template to the Report in the Report Manager. The Add-In will now automatically run each time the report is run and your formulas will automatically be updated and extended to include all data in the source sheet. Prefer to watch a video to see how this is done? Watch it here. 12
How to schedule your reports to distribute automatically 04 If you distribute reports manually, it s time to stop it and start saving time by scheduling your reports to distribute automatically. In this tip, we ll show you how to quickly set up your automatic report distribution with your Report Manager and the Windows Task Scheduler. This process is made up of three easy steps: 1. Decide where you re going to save your report. 2. Create the Scheduler Command. 3. Set up the Windows Task Scheduler. It s important to remember that the workstation where you create the scheduled task, must be turned ON at the scheduled time. Also, when using the Task Scheduler your user name must be a valid account on the domain or your local machine, with sufficient privileges to run the reports. You must also have sufficient permissions to access all the necessary resources to run the reports. Decide where you re going to save your report 1. In the Report Manager, select the report you re going to distribute. 2. Then, in the Properties window, tick the Show Advanced box found at the bottom of the window to show the advanced properties. 3. Click the Generate Output File ellipsis button and browse to the location you want the report to be saved to when it runs out. 13
04 Create the Scheduler Command 1. From the Object window, right-click on your report, then select Generate Scheduler Command. 2. If the report expects parameters you will be asked to enter them before continuing. When you re done, a message box will show the syntax for running the report. Don t worry about trying to copy the syntax from this message, it has been simultaneously placed on the Windows clipboard, so that you can paste it when you need to. 14
04 Set up the Windows Task Scheduler 1. Next, open the Windows Task Scheduler. 2. From the Action drop down menu, select Create Task. The Create Task window will display. 3. In the Name field, give your task a meaningful name. For example, Current Period Income Statement. 4. Then click on the Triggers tab and select New. 15
04 5. You can schedule your report run on a specific day, at a specific time and you can also set it to stop running on a specific day. Go through the options and find the ones that would best suit your needs. 6. Now click on the Actions tab and select New. 7. In the Program/script field, paste the command from your clipboard and then select OK. 16
04 8. Click Yes to confirm and continue. 9. Now click on the Settings tab and set up your Task Schedule options, then click OK. The report you chose to run via the schedule will now appear as an Active Task in Task Scheduler. 17
Summarizing or grouping data in your reports using 05 Aggregate Functions Do you find that your reports are taking some time to run out into Microsoft Excel? Or that you have excess data being pulled into your Excel template? To speed up the report generation process or to have your data summarized before it goes into Excel, you can make use of Aggregate Functions and Aggregate Filters in the Report Manager. In this tip we will look at Aggregate Functions. When running a report on a dataset with a large number of transactions, an Aggregate Function can be used to group transactions that have the same attributes, for example, that have the same customer, product or period. Let s take a look at an example of adding an Aggregate Function that does just that. It will show Total Sales by Customer, Product and Period. I have created a report that includes the relevant columns called Summary Sales Report. 1. Aggregate Functions are added in the Columns tab of a report. To add one right click on the column you want to aggregate and select Apply Aggregate. 18
05 2. There are a number of functions to choose from. Since we want to add the total sale amounts of similar transactions, we will need to use the Sum function. Select Sum and click OK. The Aggregate filter will be added to the column and will look as follows: To understand the effects of the function, consider the following data which is from the report being run out without the function. I have added a red border where there is more than one transaction with the same Customer Name, Product Name and Period. These are the transactions that will be aggregated. 19
05 The following image shows the same data after the Aggregate Function has been applied. A red border has been added to the rows that are summarised rows. Remember, when using Aggregate Functions, it helps to have a report with fewer columns. This is because a report with fewer columns is likely to have a greater number of similar rows, thus making the result more compact. 20
Update your reports using the Bulk Import and Update feature 06 If you recently upgrade your Sage Intelligence software and cannot see your new or updated reports in Report Manager, don t worry, you can quickly and easily access your reports using the Bulk Import and Update feature in the Report Manager. The purpose of bulk importing is to automatically import new and updated reports that are included with your new version of Sage Intelligence into your Report Manager. The Bulk Import feature doesn t delete or modify your existing reports or change any of the settings in those reports. To execute a bulk import, follow these steps: 1. In the Report Manager, select the Home node. 2. On the Tools tab, click Bulk Import/Update. 21
06 3. Click YES in the Bulk Import/Update Reports dialog box that appears. This will begin the importing of your new Sage Intelligence reports into your Report Manager. Bulk importing can also be used to easily add additional reports to your Report Manager. To do this, follow the instructions on the Bulk Import/Update Reports dialog or view the information in your Help File. Once the import has succeeded you will be able to access your old reports and your new reports as well as any additional reports in your Report Manager. Take a look at this short video to see how to access the Bulk Import/Update feature: http://youtu.be/2df8zjqwc7m 22
Additional Learning Learnt handy tips and tricks in this e-book? This e-book is a just taste of how we can help you to maximize your investment in Sage Intelligence so you can gain meaningful insights from your data to give your company a competitive edge. Why not take your learning further with our Sage Intelligence courses, visit our Academy today at www.sageintelligenceacademy.com for more info. Use Sage Intelligence, our Microsoft Excel-based reporting tool? Make the most of it with our handy tips and tricks. Sage Intelligence is a flexible Business Intelligence (BI) reporting tool that gives you the freedom to design reports according to your business s unique requirements. And it s built in Microsoft Excel, a tool you re already familiar with. If you already use Sage Intelligence, learn tips and tricks that will help you to maximize your investment in Sage Intelligence so you can gain meaningful insights from your data to give your company a competitive edge. Sage Intelligence Tips and Tricks are published twice a month, and Sage Intelligence Tips and Tricks e-books are available for you to download at no cost. Subscribe For further information, please visit www.sageintelligence.com
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