1. How RSB is Making it Easy for Unit Staff to Find and Refresh BO Internal Control Reports+ HYPERLINKS TO HAPPINESS Deb Lennington May 20, 2013

2.  Unit Sub-Certification and RSB  How RSB made a Positive Difference for our Staff – Internal Controls and Reporting Access Point  The shared foundation for hyperlinked reports AGENDA

3.  FY 2012 was the first year for sub-unit certification.  Approximately 35 units completed Gap Analyses, reviewed all Internal Control reports, and then certified to the Dean. These units reviewed activity within approximately 80 DeptIDs.  Significant time was invested by all involved parties in numerous Internal Controls and Certification-related training and other activities.  The overall RSB goals were to not only have units successfully complete their sub-certifications, but also to have them integrate new IC processes and a regular review of IC reports into their ongoing operations. UNIT SUB-CERTIFICATION AT ROSS

4.  There are great MReports – which refresh to users’ default DeptIDs (or to users’ updated DeptID criteria)  There are also great Business Objects Reports which can be accessed through MReports via hyperlink – which refresh to the DeptIDs being working with.  …and then there are those great Business Objects Reports which you have to go find…and then answer (or not?) lots of prompts for. FIRST, A WORD OR TWO ABOUT AVAILABLE CERTIFICATION REPORTS

5.  Access – We wanted to allow flexibility for managers to assign report running tasks for their units as they wished, without granting everyone “IC Other” access.  Solution – Establish that unit reports are to be run directly through Business Objects  Locating Necessary Reports – We recognized reports were spread throughout the UM Maintained Folder structure, and that they were mixed in with numerous other-purpose reports. (Finding the reports when needed was already driving Finance Office staff crazy)  Solution – RSB compiled all necessary reports within our Interim-Unit Maintained Folders ISSUES OF CONCERN – BEFORE WE STARTED

6.  Prompt confusion:  Optional prompts – really…which ones should be used or not?  Is something different needed if the prompts refer to an Appointing DeptID, or a Deposit Reporting ID, or a Funding DeptID, etc?  Why are there so many different ways to set time periods between reports? What do YOU want us to use?  Time it took for value lists to refresh  Since everyone knows their own DeptIDs already, why is there a need to wait for the whole list to refresh before you can specify the DeptID(s) you want? Staff who run these reports are usually only casual Business Objects users (at best), and have lots of other tasks to complete as well! There was a fair amount of real unhappiness about all the new reports that had to be run, and the time it took to run them. It was clear that people would only run these, as they were, when “forced” to do so. ISSUES OF CONCERN – WHAT “THEY” SAID

7.  Develop a single gateway (and roadmap) to all reports.  Provide “Once and Done” DeptID prompting – no matter how many/which reports are run.  Eliminate date prompting – users can just choose to run a report version for Certification (Prior FY) or one for Ongoing Review (Current FY)  Ensure reports can be easily and quickly run – with little real effort. Staff can then use the time saved to actually review the reports and take action based on them!  Staff will run many of the reports at least three times a year – twice during budget variance exercises, and once for Certification. IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS: THEIRS AND OURS

8.  One Prompt Shopping! HOW RSB MADE ITS STAFF MEMBERS’ LIVES EASIER – INTERNAL CONTROLS AND REPORTING ACCESS POINT

10. THE ACCESS POINT ITSELF – THE MAGIC IS IN THE WIZARD-DRIVEN FORMULAS =" FY YTD " Browsing used to choose document to be linked to. Refresh on Open ensured linked-to file would automatically refresh when opened, using the values passed per the Document Prompt. “Default” opens linked-to document into BO. There are other options to play with. Just checked this & answered “Yes” to the msg box pop-up question. For my purposes, I chose “Build formula” from drop- down menu, and “built” the formula! There are other options available though. Usually best to choose New Window, unless you want linked-to-file to replace the one the hyperlink is contained in..

11.  The report IDs used in the hyperlink formulas are generated numbers specific to the report name and the folder the report is found in. The Access Point report can be moved anywhere, but if the underlying report(s)are moved or renamed then the link(s) won’t work.  While the hyperlinks do work in both WebI and InfoView; creating hyperlinks needs to be done in InfoView.  The Access Point hyperlinks are actually very simple all things considered, users can create much more complicated (i.e. useful for other purposes) links. THE FINE PRINT

12. All reports accessed by hyperlinks were revised to work in a common manner:  New, and separate, data providers were established in each report to establish start and end points (dates, fiscal years, etc), and to establish the DeptIDs of interest.  The values from each of these new data providers were fed into all subsequent data providers needing these values, through query on query.  Certification/Prior Year reports set time frames using Previous Fiscal Year object in query criteria, while Current Year reports used Current Fiscal Year object in query criteria. This approach makes it easier to maintain and/or reset reports since there is only one place to have to change criteria/prompts for each key element. THE SHARED FOUNDATION FOR HYPERLINKED REPORTS

13.  The RSB Internal Controls and Reporting – Access Point can be found under: Public Folders/Interim Unit-Maintained/Ross School of Business  Once a report is opened through one of the hyperlinks, it can be saved to a personal folder (albeit you won’t be able to be hyperlink to it again through the Access Point).  Detailed documentation on the RSB Access Point and all our Internal Control reports modifications can be found at: https://umich.box.com/rsbaccesspoint WANT TO PLAY?