Enhancing FRx Reports by Integrating Spreadsheet Data Elisa R. Vick

Agenda Overview Combined Worksheet Link Example Using RPO (Row Period Offset) code in the link Separate Worksheet Link Example Using CPO (Column Period Offset) code in the link Q & A

Linking to External Worksheets Links established in row format 2 different methods used to define links –Combined Worksheet Link: combines external worksheet data in same link column as your general ledger account codes –Separate Worksheet Link: used to access multiple rows and columns of worksheet data and can reference various external spreadsheets for different units in your reporting tree.

Linking to External Spreadsheets General Information The default path for saving Excel spreadsheets which you will be linking to is in the IO_Data Directory which should reside under your FRx Designer Install folder. To identify a specific worksheet within an excel workbook for your link, you will put the workbook name in brackets and the worksheet name immediately after the closing bracket. Your worksheet name should always be at least 2 characters (i.e. [BUDGET.xls]Plan where BUDGET is the workbook file name and Plan is the spreadsheet within the workbook that you are linking to. You cannot reference a range of cells from your spreadsheet in your FRx link.

Linking to External Spreadsheets General Information (cont.) You cannot perform calculations within a single row’s link reference. However, various rows which specify links to external data can be made non-printing (or you can leave them to print) and then an additional calculation row can be added to the report to perform calculations on the non-printing rows. It is recommended to perform calculations within excel and then link to the calculated cell. If using various worksheets for different units within a tree, it is recommended to format the worksheets with the same data references in the same cells so you only have to create one external link column in your row format to be used by every unit in your tree.

Linking to External Spreadsheets General Information (cont.) Columns in your column layout which will accept the external data are GL type columns and WKS type columns. If you attempt to place worksheet data in the column types CALC, DESC or FILL, that data will be ignored.

Combined GL + Worksheet Link Used for placing external spreadsheet data within the same column of your report as your GL data. Could be used to bring in values not stored in the general ledger but needed for statistical calculations on reports (i.e. units sold, production hours, records of asset aquistions and sales, etc.)

Combined GL + Worksheet Link To add the appropriate link type, double click on column H in the row format.

Combined GL + Worksheet Link Click the dropdown arrow next to link type and select GL + Worksheet. In the worksheet file name, if the workbook is in your IO_Data folder, you can simply specify the worksheet name such as Cashflow.xls. If the workbook resides somewhere other than IO_Data, you will have to specify the entire path as seen above. Clicking on the dropdown arrow allows you to browse to the path. You can leave the link name at the default and the description is optional. Once all information is added, click on Save to save this link and then click on Close.

Combined GL + Worksheet Link When using the combined link type, you must always prior to specifying your cell reference. You will use column placement references to place the data in the appropriate GL or WKS type columns of your report (B=B10) would indicate that in column B of your FRx report, you are placing data from cell B10 of your excel spreadsheet. To link to spreadsheets that specify various periods where your report will pull from different columns of the spreadsheet depending on what period you are running the report for, you can use the CPO (Column Period Offset) or RPO (Row Period Offset) codes in conjunction with your link references.

Combined GL + Worksheet Link Rows 490 to 610 contain GL account codes. Rows 880 and 910 are referencing the worksheet data.

RPO Indicates that your link will read the period from the column layout and pull the correlating cell reference for that period based on the cell reference specified in your link from the row format. To pull the appropriate period’s data, the spreadsheet is read from the specified cell down the number of ROWS correlating to the period. Used when the spreadsheet you are linking to has multiple rows that represent different periods. Using the row format from the last slide, in row 880 the formula B=H4, D=I4 /RPO. In our column layout both columns B and D are GL type columns. Based on our spreadsheet, if we were running this report for April (period 4) column B of the report would count 4 rows down from cell H4 and the value (10,000) would show up in the report and column D of the report would get the value (10,000) which is 4 rows down from cell I4. Note that you always want to reference the cell one row up from the cell that holds the data for your first period.

Combined GL + Worksheet Link

Notice that with the combined link in your catalog you do not need to specify a tree. Your workbook path is specified in the row format directly on the link.

Separate Worksheet Link Used for bringing in large amounts of data not stored in the General Ledger from an excel spreadsheet. The data is placed in WKS type columns. Examples include Budget, Plan or Forecast data not stored in the G/L and data for subsidiary companies you wish to use in consolidated reports but which don’t use FRx for reporting.

To add the appropriate link type, from the row format double click at the top of column H. Separate Worksheet Link

From the GL Link type screen, click on New. This will bring up a blank link to screen. From the Link type box, click on the drop down and select External Worksheet. You will notice that once this option is selected, the Worksheet file name field is input inhibited. You will specify your path to the excel spreadsheet in your tree when using an external link. Once you have filled in the appropriate information select Save and then Close. Separate Worksheet Link

When using the separate link method, you only need to specify the excel cell reference. You don’t need to use code. You can still use column placement but the separate worksheet link will only place values into a WKS type column in the column layout. You must use a reporting tree in a report that utilizes this method. You can have a maximum of 19 GL / Worksheet / GL+WKS links in one row format, but you can link to as many Excel worksheets as you want using tree methodology. As with the combined method, with the separate method you can use CPO or RPO to easily work with multiple periods in a report linking to multiple periods in a spreadsheet. Separate Worksheet Link

Column H contains GL data only. Column I contains an external link which will link to two worksheets in a workbook. One for Denver budget data and one for San Francisco budget data. Column J is also an external link which links to a worksheet in the same workbook as the link from column I but the format of the worksheet is different than the Denver and SF format. Separate Worksheet Link

CPO Indicates that your link will read the period from the column layout and pull the correlating cell reference for that period based on the cell reference specified in your link from the row format. To pull the appropriate period’s data, the spreadsheet is read from the specified cell across the number of COLUMNS correlating to the period. Used when the spreadsheet you are linking to has multiple columns that represent different periods. Using the row format from the last slide, in row 370 the formula is A15/CPO. In our column layout, the columns alternate between GL and WKS type columns. A specific period is specified in each column, for example, column K is pulling data from the worksheet for period 5, column M for period 6, etc. Looking at the excel worksheet, cell A15 is for Total compensation. Using the CPO code, for period 5 a value of 47,000 is placed in column K of the FRx report and a value of 47,000 is placed in column M. Note that you always want to reference the cell one column to the left from the cell that holds the data for your first period.

CPO (cont.) When using CPO, if you enter a Period code of BASE in a WKS column of the column layout and you enter YTD in the Current Per/YTD field, the YTD value is calculated from your spreadsheet based upon the period you are running the report for. –Example: Report ran for month of April –Row 370 of the above example will calculate a YTD value for Total Compensation of 194,539 without having to use a calculation column in the column layout.

Separate Worksheet Link (Catalog) The separate worksheet link method requires that you specify a tree in the catalog. You also want to make sure that you check the box under the building block Row format to ‘Use row format(s) and worksheet links from reporting tree’.

Separate Worksheet Link (Tree) In column I of the tree, you will specify which row format is to be used for this particular unit of the tree. Generally, the row format will be the same for all units. If nothing is specified here, the row format from the catalog will be used. Each unit of the tree will specify the workbook/worksheet which it is pulling values from in column T of the tree. Note that in the above example the full path is not specified so the workbook must be saved in the IO_Data directory. Column W of the tree specifies which column of the row format contains the specified links to the worksheet.

Separate Worksheet Link

Summary Two separate methods for pulling data from an excel spreadsheet into FRx: –GL + Worksheet combined link which combines GL data and external data into one column of report. –Separate worksheet link to pull in larger amounts of data into separate columns of the report For ease of use, be sure to format separate spreadsheets used in one report in the same manner. Use CPO or RPO when possible for reports including multiple periods. When saving workbooks used with FRx be sure to save them to either the IO_Data directory or a shared drive so anyone who needs to run that report will have appropriate access to the workbook.

How CISTEH Can Help Report specific assistance can be provided regarding Excel Linking in FRx via web sessions in hourly or daily increments. Web sessions can also be used for training on additional FRx features and functions to assist users in creating the most useful and maintenance free reports