Considerations for Using BI Publisher Reports in Payroll Flows

Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Publisher delivers a number of reports that you can use directly or configure to suit your business or statutory reporting requirements.

You can access these reports from the BI Catalog folder, create a report or copy if required, and integrate them into a best practice flow to achieve end-to-end payroll processing.

For example, you may want to edit the predefined payslip report template to include legislative requirements as mandated by your country or territory. You may want to add your company logo to the template or add additional parameters to the data model.

You can also create your own report and add it to a flow.

A BI Publisher report consists of these components:

One or more .rtf layouts that determines what and how data is displayed on the report output. Each report has at least one layout template. Each report may include a style template and a sub template.
Data model for the report that defines the data source, data structure, and parameters for the report. Each report has a data model. Multiple reports can use the same data model.

BI Catalog

To create or edit reports, open BI Catalog and find your report or data model in the Folders pane. To open the BI Catalog, navigate to Tools > Reports and Analytics and click Browse Catalog. Navigate to /Shared Folders/Human Capital Management/Payroll/Regulatory and Tax Reporting to view the delivered reports. The data sets associated with the report is available in the Data Models subfolder within the same folder as the report.

BI Roles and Permissions

This table lists the BI roles and their responsibilities.

Business Intelligence Role	Description
BI Consumer Role	Runs BI reports.
BI Author Role	BI Author Role inherits BI Consumer Role and hence can create, edit, and run the reports.
BI Administrator Role	Performs administrative tasks such as creating and editing dashboards and modifying security permissions for reports, folders, and so on.
BI Publisher Data Model Developer Role	Creates and edits BI Publisher data models. BI Publisher Data Model Developer Role is inherited by the Application Developer role, which is inherited by the Application Implementation Consultant role. Therefore, users with either of these predefined job roles can manage Business Intelligence Publisher data models.

If you have the BI Administrator or BI Author privileges, the Permissions menu is enabled. Click More > Permissions for a report in the BL catalog, to verify your permissions for the report. You should have permissions to Read, Traverse, Run Publisher Report, Schedule Publisher Report, View Publisher Output Custom Permissions. If you don't have these privileges, add it manually from the Permissions dialog box.

Create or Copy a Report

You can either use MS Word which already has the BI Publisher plug-in integrated to create an RTF template or use the BI Publisher's Create Report option from the Data Model editor page.

The Create Report option uses the sample data that's saved to the data model. Drag and drop fields from the data model into the report table in a preferred sequence. If sample data isn't attached to the data model, the selected column headings display without data.

If you have chosen to build RTF template yourself in MS Word then use the Upload Spreadsheet option to upload the report layout while creating the report.

It is recommended that you create a report rather than copy a delivered report. Use the Customize function to create an exact copy of the delivered report template. It is recommended that you use the Customize function because of these advantages:

Retains the same privileges as the original report.
Creates the necessary folder structure and keeps the same name as the original report.
Ensures that the copied report is placed in the same folder structure under the 'Custom' folder and the BI Publisher automatically chooses to use this modified report.
Retains the delivery options of the original report and you don't have to add or make any changes. If you choose to copy the template, you must manually add the delivery options.

For more information on how to copy a delivered report and configure it for a specific requirement, refer the How to Configure the Payslip Report Template topic on the Help Center.

It is recommended that you save all the user-defined or configured reports in the Custom catalog folder under Shared Folders. Any reports created outside of the Custom folder isn't migrated and is lost during patching or upgrade.

Each report has a Report ID that's tied to the BI catalog path:

Custom/<Family Name>/<Product Name>/<Report File Name>.xdo.

Data Model

Each report has a data model. A data model defines the source of data for the report. It contains a set of instructions for the BI Publisher to retrieve and structure data for a report. Data models reside as separate objects in the catalog.

A simple data model can have a single data set that retrieves data from a single data source, or a complex data model can be a complex set of multiple data sets, sourcing information from multiple data sources.

Copy the data model into the Custom folder and edit the copy. Don't edit predefined data models.

A Data Set includes predefined list of view objects and parameters associated with the report.

Parameters

Typically a BI Publisher report is shipped with a data model that contains a set of parameters that you must enter when you run the report. The parameters for the report are either:

List of values dependent on an SQL query to retrieve information from the application database, or
List of view objects defaulted directly from the application

The data model includes adequate security and you can edit the data model or a parameter only if you have appropriate privileges.

The parameters in the library are in a predefined order and don't change the order in the data model. When you copy a delivered BI Publisher report and include it in a flow, the flow parameters map to the BI arguments.

Parameter Dependency

When you submit a report, the report engine executes the SQL query to retrieve the predefined list of values for the report parameters. If the SQL query references from a table that has a large volume of data, or if the report is run very frequently, or run concurrently by multiple users, the report performance can get impacted. To avoid this, the first parameter in the parameter model is used as a base or dependent parameter, such that the subsequent parameters in the list are dependent or restricted by the value of the previous parameter in the table.

For example, for all payroll reports, the first argument or parameter is the Payroll ID. The SQL query retrieves the list of payroll IDs for the LDG you have selected to submit the report.

The values for the rest of the parameters in the data model is sourced from the view objects defined in the application. Each payroll report is shipped with a library of ten predefined list of predefined view objects.

The predefined parameter model for each report includes a table that lists the view objects for the report parameters. The list of values for a parameter is restricted and filtered by the value you select for a previous parameter on which this parameter is dependent on. For example, the list of values for the Payroll Period parameter is dependent on the Payroll ID parameter. When you first select a value for the Payroll ID parameter, the list of values for the dependent Payroll Period view objects are filtered for the selected Payroll ID. This table illustrates parameter dependency.

Predefined Value Object (PVO)	Dependency	Description
`PayrollStatutoryUnitPVO`	Legislative Data Group (LDG)	The values for the PSU is filtered based on the LDG you select while running the report.
`TaxReportingUnitPVO`	Payroll Statutory Unit (PSU)	The values for the tax reporting unit is filtered based on the LDG and the PSU you select while running the report.

From this table, it's imperative that you must first select a PSU value and based on your selection, the TRU values are filtered. Hence, when you run the report, the PSU parameter must be presented to you before the TRU parameter.

When you edit the data model to configure your report, or add a new parameter to a report, consider the parameter dependency, data source, and order of the parameter.

Base Flow Parameter Name

Flow parameters supply the information required to successfully run the flow. The parameter values are either retrieved from the application database tables using a SQL query or defaulted directly if the parameters are configured correctly.

A parameter is defined in the application database using a Base Flow Parameter Name. If the report parameter name, exposed in the UI at the flow-level, matches the Base Flow Parameter Name, then the list of values are defaulted directly. The Base Flow Parameter Name isn't exposed on the UI.

This table shows how you define a parameter so that the correct value objects are available for you to select, when you run the report.

Report Parameter	Base Flow Parameter Name	Display Format	Lookup Value
Payroll Statutory Unit	PAYROLL_STATUTORY_UNIT	Smart LOV	`PayrollStatutoryUnitPVO`
Tax Reporting Unit	TAX_REPORTING_UNIT	Smart LOV	`TaxReportingUnitPVO`