Crystal Reports Learning the Basics Part 1

Objectives To provide information and direction to those who are responsible for FIS, HRIS and/or SIS reporting. To provide you with the basic skills to use existing report templates To cover the theory behind the data and provide the necessary direction to make minor changes to templates already in circulation

Information SYSTEMS DATA at McGill

What is a Data Warehouse? Data warehouse is a generic term for a system for storing, retrieving and managing large amounts of any type of data. The data warehouse is a central repository of data that provides the McGill community with integrated, up-to-date data from our various administrative systems. (FIS, HRIS, SIS)

Tables and Fields There are over 500 separate tables in Banner containing information related to Finance You would need to know every field and every table relationship to create reports [

The solution: Views A view is a collection of fields from different tables to make the reporting easy Views are data fields stored in a table Views are tables that have been joined together for you

Example of a Simple View DWH.FGU_Employee_Org_View EMPL_ID FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME DEPT_ORG ORG_DESC ORG_PRED 1 Weasley Ron 00346 Accounting 90346 2 Harry Potter 00001 Principal’s Office 90001 3 Hermione Granger 4 Sirius Black 00044 ISR 90044

Inventory of data warehouse views Finance views cover a wide range of Financial data relating to Budget details, FIS Transactions, Payroll details, Endowment and Basic FOAPAL Information HRIS views provide Personal employee data, job and position information and related labor distributions SIS views are student centric and provide personal, biographic, course, schedule and grade details

Finance HR Student

Data warehouse details – Important links For more information about: FIS data , refer to http://knowledgebase.mcgill.ca/fskb/easylink/article.html?id=5098 Provides information about getting access and where to get additional help; https://home.mcgill.ca/financialservices/reporting/ Contains individual report help for each template available to you SIS data, refer to http://www.mcgill.ca/es/dwh/ Provides an overview of the data, how to get access and details about the views and the fields available to you HRIS data, refer to http://www.mcgill.ca/files/hr/data_model_hr_general_user_w_data_dictionary.xls This provide you details information of the fields available to you and where they are taken from in the Banner HR forms

Where to find existing reports There are several report templates that have been designed for Financial Administration Medicine Administration website – www.mcgill.ca/medadmin Financial Services Reporting – www.mcgill.ca/financialservices/reporting Tailored reports have been placed in each unit’s individual administration intranets…more coming soon

Using a Finance Template Access Reports folder Open report  “Monthly Fund Details” Click on Refresh icon  Connect to data warehouse 1.Log into the Banner data warehouse 2.Service: banrep 3.Enter your Banner User ID and Password 4.Click on Finish Enter the Parameter fields Fiscal Year = 10 Fiscal Period = 11 Fund Code = Your Fund Click OK

So what am I looking at? Now that you have refreshed the report with data: What am I looking at? Where is the data coming from? How can I verify what I am looking at? How can I make changes to this report? How can I change the parameters to include another field? How can I get the names of the individuals paid from the 6 accounts? Should I reconcile every single transaction? Let’s go through each of these questions, one at a time!

My report does not balance to Banner…why??? DWH is one day old Use a closed month to verify your results Budget Query vs Budget query for Fund holders FGIBDST/FRIGITD Revenue included in balance? Is your fund setup for Auto Budget for Revenue? You have documents in the pipeline not yet processed FGIBAVL/View Pending document(s) Salary distribution Timing is important when looking at Payroll transactions and the related encumbrances Salary distribution is only run on Wednesdays and the first working day of the new month

When should I use Crystal reports? Open month reporting To access and manipulate tailored reports designed by the Faculty/Central Offices To access and manipulate tailored reports you designed No relevant report exists

Minerva reports/web reports/Crystal reports /…what’s the difference? Minerva Reports (Financial Statements) Monthly statements which provide status reports and allows you to perform financial analysis for most funds. They are delivered through the Minerva Login site. All you have to do is log in and pick them up! Web Reports Canned reports, cannot be changed (WYSIWYG) Fund/Org Secure Data warehouse access is required Crystal Reports Used for manipulating reports Data warehouse access required Crystal Reports software must be installed

What’s next? Crystal Reports – Designing a report from A-Z Report Requests – send them to https://home.mcgill.ca/medadmin/reporting/request/ Additional Support – call Karen Kirouac 398-6953 or email karen.kirouac@mcgill.ca

QUESTIONS?