Release 11i
Part Number A96138-01
 Contents |
 Index |
| Oracle Financial Analyzer User's Guide Release 11i Part Number A96138-01 |
|
This chapter describes reports and how to create, edit and maintain them.
You need to know the information in this chapter if you are an administrator, Budget workstation, or Analyst workstation user who is responsible for creating, editing, or maintaining reports.
This chapter includes the following topics:
A report is an interactive tool that enables you to view financial data from different perspectives and prepare effective presentations based on your analyses.
Financial Analyzer allows you to design your own reports. In addition, you can create two special types of reports:
Reports enable you to view and format financial data based on the financial data items, dimensions, and dimension values that are defined in your personal database. Before you can create a report, your personal database must contain the required database objects. Administrators typically define database objects and distribute them to users.
The report window contains elements that enable you to manipulate a report's layout and format. The following illustration shows a typical report and its elements.
The following table describes the elements of the report window.
|
Element |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Dimension tiles |
Enable you to rearrange the layout of a report and access the Selector dialog box, where you can choose a different set of values for the dimension. There are three types of dimension tiles:
|
|
Edit bar |
Enables you to edit text, such as titles, footnotes, and dimension labels. Select the text or data value you want to edit to make it appear in the edit bar. |
|
Edit bar buttons |
The Formula Tools button opens the Formula Tools dialog box, which you can use to edit formulas.
The Cancel button clears text or formulas from the edit bar.
The Enter button moves text or formulas from the edit bar to the currently selected area.
|
|
Page controls |
Enables you to move between pages in a multiple-page document. |
|
Title, subtitle, and footnote panes |
Enables you to specify a title, subtitle, and footnote for the report. |
|
Row and column labels |
Identifies currently selected dimension values. |
|
Highlighter buttons |
Enables you to select data cells for formatting. You can select a single row or column, a series of rows or columns, or the entire body of a document. |
|
Redisplay button |
Enables you to refresh a document manually after making format or selection changes. |
When you create a new report or open an existing report, the Report menu becomes available on the menu bar.
The following table describes the items on the Report menu.
When you create a report, current financial data from your personal database is automatically included in the report cells. You can base a report on the default report template or on an open report or graph.
Follow these general steps to create a report.
The menu bar displays the Report menu. The document window displays a default report.
You use selection tools to specify the slices of data that you want the report to include. In the context of a report, a data slice is defined by a financial data item and a set of dimension values.
For example, if you wanted to create a report that compares Actuals data with Budget data, you would select:
If the financial data items are dimensioned by Time, Line Item, and Organization, you would select a set of time periods, line items, and organizations for each financial data item.
For more information on the tools and techniques that are available for selecting data, see Chapter 7.
Once you have created a report and selected the data that you want to work with, you can arrange the dimensions according to how you want to view the data.
You rearrange dimensions in a report by changing the positions of the dimension tiles in the report window. You can move dimension tiles to unoccupied locations, except when the combination of tiles would result in more than 5,000 dimension values along one edge of the report. You can also drop labeled tiles onto other labeled tiles to have the dimensions rotate positions.
For more information about creating reports, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
An asymmetric report is a report format that combines the values of two dimensions, or the values of a dimension and a financial data item. An asymmetric combination gives you access to all of the values of both dimensions and provides a great deal of flexibility for positioning the values along the rows, columns, or pages of the report.
Follow these general steps to create an asymmetric report.
The Asymmetric Combination dialog box appears.
The New Tile Name dialog box appears.
The Asymmetric Layout dialog box appears.
The report in this example includes data for the Actuals financial data item for three months in 1999 and 2000. The asymmetric combination reformats the values so that the data is easier to compare by month.
In the standard version of the report, the values are displayed chronologically, as shown in the following illustration.
When an asymmetric combination is applied to the report, the data is displayed as shown in the following illustration. You can now easily compare Actuals for each month of the quarter.
If you open a previously saved asymmetric report that uses a financial data item that you have deleted since the report was saved, you will receive the following error message:
An error occurred setting up data for the report. Consider changing the definition to access a different selection.
You can fix this error and still use the report by following the procedure described in the following Help topic: "Using Asymmetric Reports From Which Financial Data Items Have Been Deleted."
You can remove the asymmetric formatting from a report at any time.
When you separate the asymmetric combination into its component dimensions, the values in status for those dimensions remain the same as for the asymmetric combination. If you want to change the status, you must access the Selector and select the items you want to include in each dimension. Also note that when you remove the formatting, you may need to reposition the dimension tiles to set up the report as you want it.
For more information about asymmetric reports, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
Ranking and Exception reports apply ranking criteria, exception criteria, or both ranking and exception criteria to a dimension. The criteria is applied to each page of data.
There are four types of ranking and exception reports:
Follow these general steps to create a Ranking/Exception report.
Note: The Ranking/Exception menu item is not available if the report that you create or open has more than one dimension in the down position, or if the dimension in the down position is the FinData dimension.
The Layout area of the Ranking and Exception dialog box enables you to position the dimensions on the page so as to determine the focus of a Ranking and Exception report.
The following list describes the effect of the down, page, and across positions in Ranking and Exception reports:
The following illustration shows the Ranking and Exception Setup dialog box. In this example, Exception then Ranking is selected as the report type. The selections will create a report that displays products for which Actuals exceeded $1 million in the year 2000 for specified organizations. The report will also rank the five top products.
Ranking numbers appear in a ranking report and in an exception-then-ranking report next to the values for the down dimension. Ranking numbers are not displayed in a ranking-then-exception report.
For more information about ranking and exception reports, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
When you are working with a Financial Analyzer report, you can define ad hoc formulas to calculate figures such as sums, counts, and averages without having to define a model or a solve definition. These formulas, called report calculations, operate only on the data that is currently included in the report.
If you require a temporary formula that you do not need to use in other documents, you can use a report calculation. If, however, you require the same formula frequently or in multiple documents, you should consider using one of the following methods to perform calculations:
In order to define a report calculation, you must insert a new row or column in the report and then define a formula for that row or column. When you finish defining the formula, the system populates the appropriate report cells with data calculated using the formula. You can move or delete the column or row as you can any inserted column or row.
If you insert a new report calculation and it conflicts with an existing calculation (for example, if you create a column calculation when a row calculation has already been defined), the most recently inserted report calculation takes precedence.
Inserted rows or columns, and their associated formulas, exist only in the context of the current report. You cannot link inserted rows or columns between reports or gain access to them via the Selector.
You can associate a formula with:
You cannot associate a formula with multiple randomly selected cells in a row or column. You must select either just one cell or all cells in a column or row related to a financial data item.
Inserted rows and columns and their associated formulas can be linked to the dimension to which they are added or to a position in the report. If a row or column is inserted in relation to a particular dimension value, that dimension value becomes the "owner" of the insert. For example, if you insert a row before the dimension value Widgets, Widgets becomes the insert's owner. If you insert a row or column by specifying a position (for example, "after the 2nth FinData"), the inserted row or column stays in the same relative position, even if other dimension values change status, because it is not associated with a particular dimension value.
You can move dimension values in reports either by swapping tiles or selecting Move Insert from the Edit menu. The following table describes methods of moving dimension values and the effect that each method has on inserted calculations.
You can create formulas by:
Report formulas are always constructed as follows:
result = expression
where:
Note that if you create a formula using Formula Tools, after you exit the Formula Tools dialog box, the newly created formula appears in the edit box, but is not reflected in the report until you select the Enter button.
You can include dimension values in report formulas. In report formulas, dimension values:
You cannot use the same dimension-value pair in both the result and expression side of a formula.
You can use qualified data references, known as QDRs, to describe specific cells that are referenced by one or more dimensions. For example, you can use a QDR to reference the cell that represents the Total Assets line item for the year 2000 for the East organization.
QDRs have many uses in report formulas. For example, in the expression side, you can use a QDR to specify that you want to use data contained in a specific cell in a formula. In the results side, you can use a QDR to choose a specific cell into which a formula can be inserted. A useful application for this would be to insert an NA value at the intersection of an inserted row that contains a formula and a column that contains a formula, when neither inserted formula produces an appropriate result.
You use the Qualify tab in the Formula Tools dialog box to create qualified data references (QDRs) to the data in specific cells in the current report.
The report in this example has two inserted columns and one inserted row for calculated data. For this report:
'Time:Year to Go'='Time:Nov 00'+'Time:Dec 00'
where:
'Time:Year to Go % Year'= 'Time:Year to Go'/'Time:Year 00'*100
'Line:Operating Income % Revenue'=
`Line:Operating Income'/'Line:Total Revenue'*100
After inserting the formulas in the specified cells, the report appears as follows:
In the previous example, the number 82% (located at the intersection of the two inserted formulas) is meaningless. To ensure that this value is not misinterpreted, we can replace the incorrect value with an NA value.
For this report, the formula to do this would be as follows:
'Line:Operating Income % Revenue;Time:Year to Go % Year '=NAN()
where:
To avoid typing mistakes in the long QDR, the results side of the expression was created using the Qualify tab in the Formula Tools dialog box.
After inserting the above formula in the specified cell, the report appears as follows:
Note that in this example, the NA value appears as a dash (-) because that is how NA Spell is specified in report options.
If you enter a formula incorrectly, you will receive an error in the cell into which you were attempting to insert a formula. The following table describes these errors and their meanings.
For more information about using calculations in reports, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
You can use a variety of formatting tools to make a report attractive and easy to read.
The following table describes tasks and related Help topics for using Report Options to change the look of your report.
The following table describes tasks and related Help topics for changing the look of rows and columns.
The following table describes tasks and related Help topics for other formatting options.
As an alternative to manually editing labels for a series of dimension values, you can choose from a set of labels that are already defined for those values. To do this, choose Dimension Labels from the Report menu, then select a label type.
You can use the Highlight Special feature to apply formatting characteristics to all dimension values associated with a dimension in a report. Formatting characteristics applied using Highlight Special:
You choose Report Options from the Report menu to access the Report Options dialog box, which enables you to show or hide elements in the report window, and add or remove components of the report itself. For example, you can show or hide the report title.
For more information about formatting reports, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
After you create a report, you can save it for use in future work sessions.
When you save a report, only its shell, or form, is saved to disk. The next time you open the report, current data is incorporated into the report's data cells.
When you save a new report, you assign it a unique name and, optionally, one or more keywords that can be used to access the document at a later time.
When you save a report under a new name, the system gives you the option of saving it as your default report. This enables you to use the saved report as a starting point the next time you create a new report.
When you save changes to an existing report, you can overwrite the original report (if it belongs to your personal library), or you can save the modified report under a new name and preserve the original.
You choose Save to overwrite the original report and Save As to save your changes as a new report with a unique name.
For more information about saving reports, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
You can print an entire report, the current page, or a set of pages that you specify. You can also print multiple reports.
Choose Print from the File menu to print individual reports or Print Multiple to print multiple reports. If you choose to do so, you can sequentially number all the pages across all the reports that you print together.
Both Financial Analyzer and Microsoft Windows® provide a wide range of printing options that let you adjust margins, create headers and footers, preview a document before printing, and so on.
You can organize reports within folders so that users can locate them quickly and easily.
Choose Maintain Folders from the Tools menu to add a report to a folder. This opens the Maintain Folders dialog box, where you can select a folder and choose one or more reports to add.
You can delete reports from your personal database.
Choose Delete from the File menu to delete a report. This opens the Delete dialog box, where you can select a report to delete.
As an administrator, you can also delete a report from the shared database so that users no longer have access to it. You delete the report from your personal database, and then distribute the structure with a Delete from System action, which deletes the structure from the shared database and from the personal databases of all of your users, including any administrators immediately below you in the reporting hierarchy.
You can modify a report by making new selections for financial data items and dimension values. You can also add or remove formulas, change the report layout, and modify the formatting.
You can save a modified report under its current name, or under a new name.
You can export data from a report to a file that can be used in other applications. You can select from three export formats (.csv, .xls, and .txt), and choose the pages or values to export. If you choose to export to the .xls file format, you can specify whether the data will be displayed in a single worksheet or in multiple worksheets.
Note: The .xls export uses the most recently installed version of Excel. See the Release Notes for a list of supported versions.
To export data from a report, follow these steps.
Result: The Export to File dialog box opens.
If you are exporting to the .xls file format and the size of the file that you are exporting exceeds the maximum size for your version of Excel, a warning message will appear.
The following illustration shows the Export to File dialog box.
For more information about managing reports, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:
If you need to create a series of reports that are related in some way, you can link the reports so that the selections and label formatting changes that you make in one document are propagated to all the linked reports.
For example, suppose that you need to prepare a series of reports based on the same set of line items. By creating a series of new reports and linking their Line Item dimensions, you need to select the set of line items only once; the choices you make are automatically applied to all the linked reports. As long as the dimensions are linked, any time you add or remove a line item or change a label associated with a line item, your changes are applied to all the linked reports.
When linking reports, the following rules apply:
Links that you create in a report are preserved until you overtly remove them. That is, you can create a link and save and close the document. When you reopen the report, the link remains intact.
For more information about linking reports, search for the following topic in the Financial Analyzer Help system: "Linking Dimensions in Reports."
The drill feature enables you to view report data at different levels of detail. You can use the drill feature on any dimension that uses a hierarchy to structure dimension values.
In order to use the drill feature, you select a hierarchy and place its corresponding dimension in the down position of the report. Note that you can only use the drill feature when there is no more than one dimension in the down position.
In the report shown in this example, the plus symbol beside each line item indicates that drilling is activated, and that the items have descendants.
When you click on the plus symbol for an item, the dimension value list expands. For example, Cost of Sales and Services has four children: Cost of Sales, Cost of Services-Support, Cost of Services-Consulting, Cost of Services-Training.
For more information about drilling, search for the following topic in the Financial Analyzer Help system: "Drilling Through Levels of Report Data."
|
 Copyright © 1996, 2002 Oracle Corporation. All Rights Reserved. |
|
