Creating Reports

About creating reports

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.

Process for creating a report

Follow these general steps to create a report.

1. From the File menu, choose New and then choose Report.

   The menu bar displays the Report menu. The document window displays a default report.

2. Select the data that you want to include in the report. For more information, see "Selecting data to include in a report".

3. Adjust the layout of the report to arrange the dimensions according to how you want to view the data. For more information, see "Changing the layout of a report".

4. You can include calculations in the report. For more information, see "Using Report Calculations".

5. You can apply asymmetric formatting to the report. For more information, see "Creating Asymmetric Reports".

6. You can apply ranking/exception criteria to the report data. For more information, see "Creating Ranking and Exception Reports".

7. You can apply formatting to the report. For more information, see "Formatting Reports".

Selecting data to include in a 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:

• Both the Actuals and Budget financial data items

• A set of dimension values for each item

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.

Changing the layout of a report

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.

Related information

For more information about creating reports, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:

"Opening Reports"

"Closing Reports"

"Creating Reports"

"Selecting Data"