Sage 300 ERP 2012

Report Designer

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Table of Contents Report Designer .............................................................................................................................. 4

Introducing the Reports Designer ........................................................................................... 5

Launching the Report Designer .............................................................................................. 5

Loading an Existing Layout ..................................................................................................... 6

Edit ......................................................................................................................................... 6

Copy ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Delete ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Generate ................................................................................................................................ 7

Layout Designer Interface Explained ...................................................................................... 8

Report Filter & Reporting Tree ................................................................................................ 8

Text Columns ......................................................................................................................... 9

Columns ................................................................................................................................10

Auto Selection .......................................................................................................................11

Quarters Selection .................................................................................................................12

Calculated Fields ...................................................................................................................13

Rows .....................................................................................................................................14

Switch....................................................................................................................................15

Calculated Fields ...................................................................................................................16

Understanding RETINC on Balance Sheets ..........................................................................18

Formula Builder .....................................................................................................................18

Using the BI Tools Tab ..........................................................................................................21

Mapping Tool: Standard Report Designer Mapping .................................................................... 24 Customizing Reporting Groups ..............................................................................................27

Reporting Trees ............................................................................................................................. 33

Distribution ................................................................................................................................... 44 Introducing Distribution ..........................................................................................................45

Distribution Settings ...............................................................................................................46

Manage Instructions ..............................................................................................................47

Accessing Distribution Instructions ........................................................................................47

Select Instructions .................................................................................................................58

Send Now ..............................................................................................................................62

Enabling the BI Tools Tab ............................................................................................................ 63

Sage 300 ERP 2012

Report Designer This guide will provide you with an understanding of the Reports Designer and how it is used in Sage 300 ERP Intelligence.

In this lesson, you will learn:

The benefits of the Reports Designer

How to utilize the Reports Designer

Sage 300 ERP 2012

Introducing the Reports Designer

The Reports Designer in Sage 300 ERP Intelligence provides a graphical interface which allows you to simply drag and drop columns and pre-defined calculations you want to see on your financial report. In addition, the What If Analyzer allows you to use a sliding scale to dynamically change amounts on the report to assist in forecasting/budgeting or creating projections.

The Reports Designer is launched by running the Reports Designer report, the same way other Sage 300 ERP Intelligence Reports are run.

Once the Notes tab appears in Excel (shown above), various layouts are available for immediate generation, using a set of tools available on the BI Tools tab of the ribbon. In addition, these tools provide functionality to launch, refresh, edit and generate reports.

Launching the Report Designer

The BI Tools tab is available when the Reports Designer report is run in Microsoft Excel. Various functions are available, as shown below:

“Launch” is the first icon, and opens the Report Designer itself, which provides access to the pre-designed layouts, or the ability to create a new layout.

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Loading an Existing Layout

There are several standard layouts available in the Report Designer, including a Balance Sheet, Income Statement and a Trial Balance. When the option to Load Layout is selected on the initial Report Designer window, the following appears:

From here, the desired layout can be Edited, Copied, Deleted or Generated.

Edit

Editing an existing layout displays the following window to provide the interface to modify the financial report. This interface is discussed in more detail later.

Copy

Selecting the Copy option for an existing layout displays a new window to provide a name for the new layout.

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After entering a New Layout Name, the layout is displayed in the Report Designer and can be

edited as needed using the drag and drop interface.

Delete Selecting the Delete option for an existing layout displays a new window to confirm the action:

Select Yes to continue with the deletion, or No to return to the previous window.

Generate Selecting the Generate option delivers the selected report layout into Microsoft Excel.

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Layout Designer Interface Explained This interface allows you to create layouts from scratch or edit existing report layouts. Each of

the sections is discussed below.

Main Menu – this option takes you to the Report Designer Launch window, to select New

Layout, Load Layout or Exit, as discussed previously.

Back – this option returns you to the Load Layout window to select Edit, Copy, Delete or

Generate, as discussed previously.

Report Filter & Reporting Tree

The Report Filter, found at the top of the Layout Designer Interface, allows a filter to be

available on a report. For example, to allow a user to select the department for a report layout.

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After the report is generated, default all values are selected by default; however, a drop-down

list is available within the report, which allows the user to select a single value.

NOTE: Multiple values cannot be selected at this time for Report Filters

The Reporting Tree option allows you to select a Reporting Tree to use on the specific layout

you have open in the Layout Interface. The Reporting Tree allows you to model a very

sophisticated reporting structure and view your organization in many different ways with the

click of a button using Account Filter Rules set up in your ERP or accounting application.

NOTE: See section on Reporting Trees for more information on setting up

a Reporting Tree.

Text Columns Text Columns are the columns that appear on a financial statement to the left of the amounts.

The account number and account description are typical text columns on many financial

statements.

Question: What level of detail do you want to view in your layout?

Select fields in the Text Columns area that you want to see at the most detailed level on your

report, for example AccountNo, AccountName. To add fields to the Text Columns area select

the field in the Text Columns Tab.

To remove a field from the Text Columns area, right click on the field in the Text Columns area.

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Columns The Columns area in the Reports Designer is where amount columns are defined. On an

Income Statement, this could include a column for Actual amounts, a column for Budget

amounts and a column for a Variance.

Question: What information do you want across the top of your layout?

You can add fields by selecting the Columns Tab and clicking on the required fields. For

Example, Actual Period1, Actual Period 2, Actual Period 3. Or you can add standard calculated

fields, such as Actual Q1, Actual Q2, etc.

You can add further groupings in the Column section if required. For example Company Name,

Segments, Branch, Department. There is one level of grouping available across the top of the

report.

The Add Spacer button simply adds a space between fields in the column area. Spacers can

be dragged and moved to modify your report layout. The Clear all button clears all the Column

fields from the column area.

Another option for adding fields to the Column area is to use the Auto or Quarters buttons,

discussed next.

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Auto Selection

The Auto selection button allows you to quickly create a layout, without having to drag individual

fields into the column area.

Each button automatically adds 12 columns to the column area.

To group two or more fields together, select the check box next to the fields and then click on

the name of a field. For example, select the boxes next to Actual and Prior:

Then click on the name “Actual” or “Prior” and this places the two fields together for each month,

with a spacer between the sets of columns.

Layout in the Report Designer Layout Designer

Layout in the Microsoft Excel Workbook

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Quarters Selection

The Quarter Selection allows you to add quarters and half year amounts automatically.

For example if you want to see the second half of a year, comparing actual to budget, simply

click the 2nd Half button on Actual to add each month’s columns, then click the 2nd Half button

Budget to add each month’s columns.

Layout in the Report Designer Layout Designer

Layout in the Microsoft Excel Workbook

Unlike the addition of columns in the Autos section discussed above, spacers are added

manually when columns are added using the Quarters Selection.

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Calculated Fields

Many calculated fields are available as standard with the Report Designer, as noted above;

however, additional calculations can be added, and existing ones can be edited or deleted.

To view a calculation’s formula, click on the field and choose Edit Formula.

The Formula Builder appears:

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The Formula Builder is discussed later in this lesson.

Several acronyms are used in standard row calculations, and are listed below:

Q1 Quarter 1

Var AB Variance between Actual and Budget

Var AB % Variance between Actual and Budget, as a percentage

Var AP Variance between Actual and Prior

Var AP % Variance between Actual and Prior, as a percentage

YTD Year to Date

Rows The Rows represent how values are displayed on the rows of the financial statement. For

example, if all Revenue accounts, Cost of Sales accounts and Expense accounts are grouped

together, then this is done by selecting a Group by and then the various groupings, as

discussed below.

Question: What information do you want to see down the left hand side of the layout?

Before you can add rows into the Row area you need to select a Primary Row to Group by. The

Primary Row Grouping is mandatory. An example of a primary row grouping is

GL_Category_Description.

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You can add 2 additional levels of grouping to the row area if required. In total there are 3

levels of grouping available in the row area.

You can now add your fields from the Rows Tab into the Rows area. For example: Operating

Revenue, Cost of Goods Sold, and Expenses. Or you can add, edit or delete calculated fields.

The Add Spacer button simply adds a space between fields in the row area. Spacers can be

dragged and moved to modify your report layout when delivered in Microsoft Excel.

Clear All buttons clears all the Row fields from the Row area.

Switch When using the Group By for a row called PrimaryGrouping, several fields appear with the word

“SWITCH” below the title (see Revenue as an example below).

Right click on the field to select the option to Toggle Switch Sign, which changes the sign of the

amounts in that group.

This is important for accounts with credit values in Sage 300 ERP Accounting (such as liability

and income accounts). Without this option, these accounts would appear as negative amounts;

whereas, most financial statements show revenue, for example, as positive amounts. See the

example below.

Before switching the sign on Revenue:

After switching the sign on Revenue:

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NOTE: When using groupings of rows (besides PrimaryGrouping), the Toggle Switch

Sign is still available to change the sign of accounts; however, the SWITCH label is

just not shown under the title of the field.

Calculated Fields

When using the Group By for a row called PrimaryGrouping, several calculated fields appear, as

shown above; however, calculations can be added when using other Group By values as well.

In addition, calculations can be edited, deleted and added as required.

To view a calculation’s formula, click on the field and choose Edit Formula.

The Formula Builder appears:

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The Formula Builder is discussed later in this lesson.

Several acronyms are used in standard row calculations, and are listed below:

GP Gross Profit

TI Total Income

NPBIT Net Profit/Loss Before Interest and Tax

NPBT Net Profit/Loss Before Tax

NPAT Net Profit/Loss After Tax

NP Net Profit/Loss

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Understanding RETINC on Balance Sheets A specific row on Balance Sheets called RETINC is used to accumulate the monthly profit or

loss for a business. This is required because the Retained Earnings account is not updated

until the year-end process is performed in Sage 300 ERP Accounting; therefore, the amount in

this field represents the monthly net income or loss, as shown below:

Formula Builder If you need to edit, add or delete calculated fields, you need to open the Formula Builder.

Clear All – clears all fields from the My Formula area

Standard Items – these are standard items that can be used in formulas. When creating a

formula for a column, the columns appear here, such as Account_ID and Account _Description.

When creating a formula for a row, the values corresponding to the Group By appear here. For

example, if Account_ID is selected as the Group by, then Account numbers appear as standard

items; whereas if GL_Category_Description is selected as the Group by, then Categories (such

as Current Asset, Operating Revenue and Expenses) appear as standard items.

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Scroll bar – the bar with arrows, between the Standard Items and Function Items, provides a

way to switch between Standard Items and Calculated Items.

Calculated Items – these are the calculated fields which are already created which can be

used in formulas.

Function Items – includes your addition, subtraction, multiply, divide and other functions.

Add Value button – allows you to add a value in the formula you create. For example, when

calculating GP%, you may want to include a value to build this formula: (GP/Sales)*100.

Save – saves the formula you create. A window appears to name the formula:

After the name is entered, click OK to save the formula. It then appears as a button in the

calculated field’s area of the Report Designer Layout Interface.

Is Percentage – displays the results of the formula as a %, rather than an amount.

Is Variance – changes the sign of variances amounts as per standard accounting practices,

based on the type of account. Consider the following example:

Actual Budget Variance

Sales 100 50 50

Cost of Sales 100 50 50

In the above scenario, the variance for Sales is a good variance – actual sales are higher than

budgeted sales; however, the variance for Cost of Sales is a bad variance – actual cost of sales

are higher than budgeted cost of sales.

When selected, the IS Variance, in this scenario, would show the Sales variance as a positive

amount, and the Cost of Sales variance as a negative amount, as shown below.

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Actual Budget Variance

Sales 100 50 50

Cost of Sales 100 50 -50

Cancel - closes the Formula Builder.

Search

The Search function allows you to search the rows and columns area for specific fields. For

example if you search for actual only the fields containing the actual amounts appear in the

columns tab, as shown below:

Generating your Layout

Once you have designed your new layout for your specific requirements, select Generate

Layout in the bottom right of the Report Designer window to produce the report into Microsoft

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Using the BI Tools Tab The BI Tools tab provides access to various tools helpful in using Reports Designer. (If the tab

does not show in Microsoft Excel, see the next section “Enabling the BI Tools Tab.”)

Launch – opens the Sage 300 ERP Intelligence Report Designer Launch window

Refresh Data – refreshes the data in your layout. This is especially useful when new accounts

are added in Sage 300 ERP Accounting, and you have created and linked a layout. By

selecting Refresh Data, the new accounts are added, or deleted accounts are removed, in the

layout currently selected, if you have created and linked the template. Selecting Refresh Data is

not required for newly-generated layouts, as this already includes the latest information from

Sage 300 ERP Accounting.

NOTE: The Refresh Data button does not retrieve data from Sage 300 ERP

Accounting; instead, it retrieves data from the raw data sheet and places it into the

appropriate place in the selected layout.

Change month – allows you to change the month and bring through the data for the specified

months. The report pulls through 2 years of financial data so you are able to utilize 2 years of

information.

What If Analyzer – opens the What If Analyzer window which allows you to dynamically change

amounts in your spreadsheet, to assist in forecasting/budgeting or creating projections.

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Simply slide the bar for an entire row (under Revenue, for example) or for a specific period for a

specific row (Jan 12 Actual for Revenue). By using the What If Analyzer, all formulas are

automatically updated, providing easy analysis of changing financial conditions.

Mapping Tool – opens a window to facilitate the mapping of system and report categories. The

system categories are defined programmatically by Sage 300 ERP Accounting and mapped in

the container for Sage 300 ERP Intelligence. (See the section on Mapping Tool for further

information on how to Customize your Mapping and create your own Row Reporting Groups.)

Reporting Trees - Although you can create financial reports without the aid of a reporting tree,

the reporting tree allows you to model a very sophisticated reporting structure and view your

organization in many different ways with the click of a button. Some companies may have very

complex corporate hierarchies that require hundreds of tree units, as well as other hierarchies

that require much fewer tree units. (See section on Reporting Trees for more information on

setting up Reporting Trees using Account Filtering)

Quick Generate – this is a drop down menu of all the report layouts previously saved. Instead

of opening up the Report Designer to run your layouts, you can simply run them from the Quick

Generate menu.

Quick Edit - this allows you to quickly edit a Report layout without having to launch the Report

Designer from the main menu.

Distribution

Report distribution is a powerful feature that saves time and effort by allowing you to send reports to a file, ftp site, or email in a number of standard formats. Report Distribution is available on all Sage Intelligence Reports. See Report Distribution for more information on setting up Distribution Instructions.

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Simply set up which reports you would like to distribute, whether you would like them in Microsoft Excel, MHMTL or PDF and whom it should be sent to. You can even create custom criteria for sending out reports.

Features include the ability to customize each email format, use your existing outlook profile and address book, or specify a SMTP or Exchange server. The same report can be set up to be distributed to different destinations.

Distribution is ideal for sending reports out to line managers or providing corporate management

with tailored reports

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Mapping Tool: Standard Report Designer Mapping

The Current Financial Report Designer ships with pre-defined Row Reporting Groups. These Reporting Groups are defined as per your ERP or Accounting software Financial Categories. The default or standard Report Designer layouts within the Report require these pre-defined Mappings to be setup, as they are specific to the General Ledger. The below screen illustrates an example of some pre-defined Row Reporting Groups.

Location:

Run Report Designer Report

Select ‘Mapping Tool’ from BI Tools ribbon tab after running out a

Report Designer Report

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Custom Report Designer Mapping

The Report Designer’s mapping tool has been enhanced to include the ability for users to

natively add and delete Row Reporting Groups from within the Mapping Tool’s interface. The

Mappings and Groupings performed here are saved within a grouping field in Sheet 1 of your

Excel Workbook called Primary Grouping.

The ability to Add and Delete Row Reporting Groups give users more control of the Row Reporting Groups that the Report Designer uses to group GL accounts on a layout, users can now take full control of their reporting layouts by adding their own new Reporting Groups and deleting existing Reporting Groups.

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‘Group from’ and ‘Group into’ Fields Now Visible The Mapping Tool now shows very clearly that it has been configured to use

predetermined fields from within your Report Designer report to perform

mappings. The objective of showing the Group from and Group into fields is to

ensure users understand that the ‘Available Categories’ field list can be sourced

from different fields within your report, like Account Number for example (allowing

you to map account numbers to Row Reporting Groups instead of mapping

standard grouping categories to Row Reporting Groups).

Improved Performance The Mapping Tool now maps categories to Row Reporting Groups faster than

ever, as we opened up the ability for users to add their own Row Reporting

Groups we also made sure the Mapping Tool’s internal logic was reviewed to

handle larger amounts of Row Reporting Groups even quicker.

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Customizing Reporting Groups

Preparing the Mapping

The standard Financial Report Designer uses TypeGroupName as the Primary Grouping in

Sage 300 ERP Intelligence. To check what Primary Grouping is being utilized on the standard

Financial Report Designer:

1. Select the Financial Report Designer Report in the Report Manager

2. Check the Show Advanced Options

3. Select the ellipsis on the Run Add-ins option and Select the Add-In function

ExcelGenieAlchemexAddin.CustomMap

4. This will open the Properties of the Add-In function which will display the field that

is currently being used for the Mapping and Primary Grouping.

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5. To apply the new Mapping you need to change the “A column in Sheet 1 to

Group from”. Before you change the field ensure that the field exists as field in

the Columns Tab of the Report.

6. For Example to change the Mapping to SEGCODEDESC01 change the field

from TYPEGROUPNANE to SEGCODEDESC01

7. Select ok once you have made the changes.

8. The Add-In Function has now been changed. Apply these changes to the Report

by selecting the Apply button.

Running the Report

1. Now that you have changed the Mapping.

2. Run the Report Designer with the New Mapping.

3. Add required Parameters

4. The Mapping Tool will automatically open picking up the UnMapped Categories.

5. The Categories are now UnMapped as the Mapping changed.

6. The UnMapped Categories will be the SEGCODEDESC01

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Adding your own Row Reporting Groupings

1. Now that you have New Mappings level you may want to add your own

Row Reporting Groups.

2. Select the Add button on the right hand side of the Mapping Tool, you will

be able to Name and add your own Row Reporting Groups.

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3. Add all your new Row Reporting Groups. Once you have set up all the

customized Row Reporting Groups, you can now allocate/add the

UnMapped Categories to the appropriate Row Reporting Group.

4. To do this, select the Row Reporting Group you want to add the

UnMapped Category to. Then select the UnMapped Category and select

the Add button with an arrow.

5. Select OK once you have completed the Mapping. The Report will

Generate into Excel.

6. Go to the BI Tools Tab, Select Launch and Load Layout.

7. On the Load Layout Screen select one the standard Layout and make a

Copy.

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8. The New Layout will now open.

9. Clear all the fields from the Row area.

10. Select the Rows Tab, note the new “Row Groups” you set up in the

Mapping Tool are now available. For Revenue Groups you will need to

right click on the button and select Toggle Switch to ensure the value is

correctly displayed in Excel.

11. Generate the Layout to view the Report Layout in Microsoft Excel. Your

New Mapping and Row Grouping will be displayed.

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12. Create & Link the Template to Save your Mapping & Row Reporting

Groups.

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Reporting Trees This guide will provide you with an understanding of Reporting Trees and how it is used in Sage Intelligence Report Designer.

In this lesson, you will learn:

The benefits of using Reporting Trees

How to utilize Reporting Trees

Introducing Reporting Trees

Although you can create financial reports without the aid of a reporting tree, the reporting tree allows you to model a very sophisticated reporting structure and view your organization in many different ways with the click of a button. Some companies may have very complex corporate hierarchies that require hundreds of tree units, as well as other hierarchies that require much fewer tree units.

Most organizations have a hierarchical structure in which departments (or other business units) report to one or more higher-level units. In a traditional organizational chart, the lower units on the chart typically report to increasingly higher units.

Sage Intelligence uses the term reporting unit for each box in an organizational chart. A reporting unit can be an individual department from the general ledger, or it can be a higher-level, summary unit that combines information from other reporting units. For a Report Designer layout that includes a reporting tree, one report is generated for each reporting unit and at the summary level. All of these reports use the text columns, row and column layouts that are specified in the Report Designer.

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Each reporting tree contains a group of reporting units. Sage Intelligence allows you to easily add or change reporting units without requiring a change to your financial data.

Reporting Unit Structures

Sage Intelligence uses the following kinds of reporting units:

A detail unit draws information directly from the financial data or from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file.

A summary unit summarizes data from lower-level units.

A reporting tree consists of parent reporting units and child reporting units:

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A parent reporting unit is a summary unit that pulls summarized information from a detail unit. A summary unit can be both a detail unit and a summary unit; that is, a summary unit can draw information from a lower unit, the financial data, or an Excel spreadsheet. Thus, a parent unit can, in turn, be the child unit of a higher parent unit.

A child reporting unit can be either a detail unit that pulls information directly from the financial data or a spreadsheet, or it can be an intermediate summary unit (that is, the parent unit to a lower unit, but also the child unit to a higher-level summary unit).

The following diagram shows the parent and child reporting units, and their hierarchical relationship, for the organization Worldwide Enterprises Inc.

The lowest-level detail reporting units (Retail Sales, Wholesale Sales, Lab and Studio) represent departments in the financial data.

The higher-level summary units simply summarize information from the detail units.

In Sage Intelligence, you can create an unlimited number of reporting trees to view your organization in different ways. Each reporting tree can contain any combination of departments and summary units.

By rearranging the structure among the reporting units, you can create different reporting trees. You can then use the same Report Designer Layout with each reporting tree, enabling you to create different financial report layouts very quickly.

For example, the diagram below shows a reporting tree that is essentially the same as the reporting tree that is shown above. The difference is that the reporting structure displays an organizational structure that is divided by business function instead of by location. These two reporting trees demonstrate different perspectives on entity operations.

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If you create several different reporting trees, you can print a series of financial statements each month that analyze and present your entity's operations in various ways.

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Parent Child Relationships

The most common type of reporting tree is composed of parent units that pull summarized information from the detail units and child units that contain detail units of account information. However, many detail/summary hierarchy combinations can be created. A child unit can be both a child to the higher unit as well as a parent to a lower unit.

You can create this parent/child hierarchy structure by moving individual reporting units or an entire branch (parent unit and all child units) to higher or lower levels on the graphical tree. This is called promoting and demoting units. Promoting a unit moves it to a higher level in the tree. Demoting a unit moves a unit to a lower level. When you build a reporting tree, you can promote and demote reporting units using a drag-and-drop operation.

Account Filters

Most organizations use an account structure that separates business entities into different categories. A fully qualified account contains a value for the natural segment e.g. Cash or Sales, as well as values for additional segments, e.g. Location, Division and Department. The following figure demonstrates how the natural segment and the identifying segments combine to form a fully qualified account number.

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The distinction between the natural and identifying segment is critical to the successful use of the Report Designer. Typically users specify the natural segment in a row definition and the identifying segment in a reporting tree definition. When reports are generated, these values combine to pull specific financial records from the source.

Reporting Trees support the use of special characters as a way to identify multiple segment values without specifically naming each one.

Character Function

? Question Mark

A placeholder for a single character in a segment. In the above example, the value "1100-2???-100” will return all data with a segment range between "1100-2000-100” to "1100-2999-100" which will be all retail sales cash transactions from all branches with codes between 2000 and 2999.

* Asterisk A placeholder for one or more characters. In the above example, the value "1100-2000-*" will return all data with a segment range between "1100-2000-0" to "1100-2000-999" which will be all cash transactions from all departments in New York.

OR Used to describe multiple segments. In the above example, the value "1100-2000-100 OR 1100-2000-200" will return all data with a segment of either 1100-2000-100 or a segment range of 1100-2000-200 which will be all retail sales cash transactions from New York branch or wholesale sales cash transactions from New York (if 200 represented wholesale sales)

TO Used to describe a range of segments. In the above example, the value "1100-1???-100? TO 1100-8???-100" will return all data with a segment range from 1100-2000-100 to 1100-8999-100 which will be all cash retail sales from all branches whose branch segments range from 1000 to 8999.

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Account Filter Examples

Depending on the size of the organization, fully qualified account number segments can have different representations for different companies.

Example below:

In the above example to include all cash transactions, an account filter rule of 1100-????-??? would be used.

An extra digit may even be added to further identify a segment:

In this example to include all cash transactions, an account filter rule of 1100-????-???? would be used.

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Managing Reporting Trees

To manage Reporting Trees, do the following:

1. Run a Report Designer enabled report from the Sage Intelligence Report Manager.

2. In Microsoft Excel, select the BI Tools tab.

3. In the Report Designer group, click Reporting Trees.

4. From the Manage Reporting Trees window, you can now Add, Edit, Delete, Rename or Duplicate your trees.

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Creating a New Reporting Tree

Before you build any reporting trees, you will first need to determine the various reporting structures your company will require. The best approach is to draw an organizational chart of your company. Use your current general ledger departments as the lowest detail level. Add to these as many boxes as you need to show higher-level divisions or regions. Remember that each box represents a potential reporting unit in any of your reporting trees.

To create a new reporting tree, do the following:

1. From the Manage Reporting Trees window, click Add.

2. Enter a name for your Reporting Tree and click OK.

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3. In the right pane, each reporting unit will need to be added in a separate row with its relevant account filter rule.

4. The graphical tree on the left pane of the Reporting Tree Manager allows you to visualize the relationship of parent/child unit hierarchy while the right pane displays each reporting unit in a separate row with its relevant account filter. The Preview Pane will change dynamically to display the results of the account filter for each reporting unit. Example below:

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5. An optional Company filter may be applied. This will further filter the reporting unit to apply only to a specified company.

6. An optional distribution instruction may be added to each reporting unit. The distribution instruction entered here will automatically be linked to the generated worksheet. This prevents instructions from having to be selected and linked to each individual report. This will be covered in more detail in the Advanced Report Writing course.

7. Using drag and drop functionality, you can arrange reporting units into parent/child hierarchies.

8. Click Apply to save and continue. Click OK to save and exit.

Editing Reporting Trees

1. From the Manage Reporting Trees window, select the Reporting Tree you wish to edit and click the Edit button.

2. Make the necessary changes. Click Apply to save and continue. Click OK to save and exit.

3. Using the same method as above but selecting the other buttons, you can also delete, rename or duplicate your reporting trees.

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Distribution This guide will provide you with an understanding of how to distribute your reports once they are run.

In this lesson, you will learn how to:

Specify Distribution Settings

Manage Distribution Instructions

Select Distribution Instructions to use

Send Distribution Instructions

Sage 300 ERP 2012

Introducing Distribution

Report distribution is a powerful feature that saves time and effort by allowing you to send reports to a file, ftp site, or email in a number of standard formats. Report Distribution is available on all Sage Intelligence Reports.

Simply set up which reports you would like to distribute, whether you would like them in Microsoft Excel, MHMTL or PDF and whom it should be sent to. You can even create custom criteria for sending out reports.

Features include the ability to customize each email format, use your existing outlook profile and address book, or specify a SMTP or Exchange server. The same report can be set up to be distributed to different destinations.

Distribution is ideal for sending reports out to line managers or providing corporate management with tailored reports.

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Distribution Settings

Email is the most popular distribution channel. By default, your Microsoft Outlook profile settings will be used by Sage Intelligence to send emailed reports automatically, however, if this is not preferable, or you do not have Microsoft Outlook installed, an Exchange or SMTP Server may be specified. These details will have to be obtained by your network administrator.

The SMTP / Exchange Server option is recommended for an unattended distribution, as the Use My Outlook Profile option requires Outlook to be open at the time of distribution.

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Manage Instructions

Accessing Distribution Instructions

Distribution Instructions save time by sending reports, along with pertinent information, automatically to the right person/people using the chosen electronic method. Use the Manage Distribution Instructions to set up different instructions for each report that requires a unique distribution method, i.e. distributed to different people or via different methods e.g., Email, FTP, or Saved to a folder.

Complete the following steps to Manage Distribution Instructions.

1. Run a report from the Sage Intelligence Report Manager to Microsoft Excel.

2. Click the BI Tools Tab.

3. Click Manage Instructions.

4. From the Manage Distribution Instructions window, you can now Add, Edit, Delete, or Rename your Instructions.

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Add Distribution Instructions

Complete the following steps to add a Distribution Instruction.

1. From the Manage Distribution Instructions window, select Add.

2. Enter a Distribution Instruction Name.

3. You will be presented with a window that has three distribution methods, namely Email, File Publish and FTP.

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4. By default, the methods are disabled. You may enable one or multiple options by selecting the Enable box/es.

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Add Email Distribution Instruction

When the Enable Email box is selected, you will be able to fill in the email details.

To Add Email Distribution Instructions, do the following:

1. Enter the recipients' e-mail addresses or names in the To, Cc, or Bcc box. Always separate multiple recipients with a semicolon. To select from your outlook address book, select the To, Cc or Bcc buttons and select the name/names. If you do not have Microsoft Outlook installed, you will need to enter the recipients full email address.

To... A message is sent to the recipients in the To box.

Cc... A copy of the message is also sent to recipients in the Cc box.

Bcc.. A copy of the message is also sent to recipients in the Bcc box; however, it is a blind carbon copy so the names of the recipients in the Bcc box are not visible to other recipients.

2. In the Subject box, type the subject of the message.

3. In the message body, you can type in the required text to accompany your report. You may also use cell references to reference any data in your report. This is covered later in this lesson. All of the standard formatting commands are also available from the menu bar.

4. You will need to specify a file name for your report in the File Name box.

5. In the format box, select the format you would like the report to be emailed in.

6. You also have the option to distribute each worksheet as separate documents or leave this option disabled to send worksheets in one workbook.

7. Click OK.

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Adding Cell References to the Body of an Email Message

A cell reference refers to a particular cell or range of cells in your worksheet. Cell references are used to identify data for use in formulas to calculate results based on your data. From your Email Distribution form, you can add cell references to the body or headers of your email message. For example, you could reference the gross profit for the month.

To Manage Distribution Instructions, do the following:

1. Whilst in the Email Distribution Instruction, at the point where you would like to reference the Excel cell reference click on the fx button.

2. The Select a Cell window will appear in Microsoft Excel.

3. Type the cell reference/s, or click on the cell/s you would like to add and you will notice that its reference is automatically inserted into the window.

4. Click on the Expand Dialog box.

5. You will be returned to your email distribution instruction and you will notice that the cell reference has been added to your message text.

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6. If you click on the Preview Cell References box, you will be able to see the text that would be inserted for the report that is currently open in Microsoft Excel from cell F45 for this example.

7. Note: You cannot edit the window whilst in Preview Cell References mode. To exit, select the Preview Cell References box again.

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Adding Cell References to Email Headers

Cell References can also be added to the headers of your email message. For example, you could email a particular person if a condition was true. E.g. in Microsoft Excel you could specify that if the Sales Revenue was above a certain amount, then the sales manager would receive a congratulatory email with the financial report.

Complete the following steps to add cell references to email headers.

1. In your Excel Report, add an IF formula in a blank cell, for this example we will add it into cell N2,

=IF(B12>1000000,"jones@worldwide.xyz", ";")

where Cell B12 represents your Sales Revenue and jones@worldwide.xyz represents the email address of the sales manager.

2. In the Manage Instructions, email message header, right-click in the To... box, select Insert, Cell Reference.

3. In Microsoft Excel, select cell N2.

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4. Select the Expand Dialog box.

5. In your Distribution Instruction, you will notice the cell reference has been inserted into the To... box.

6. If you now select the Preview Cell References box, you will be able to see the value that will be inserted if your Sales Revenue exceeds $1,000,000

7. If your sales revenue does not exceed $1,000,000 the email will not be sent to the sales manager as your Preview Cell References To... Box will show you that the sales manager's email will not be inserted.

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Add File Publish Instruction

In order to save a report to a specified location, the file publish option can be enabled.

Complete the following steps to add a File Publish Distribution Instructions.

1. Click the File Publish tab.

2. Select the Enable File Publish box.

3. Click the Browse button to locate the folder where you would like the reports saved to and click OK.

4. Type in the file name you would like to save your report to, and select the format you would like the report to be in.

5. For the Excel and MHMTL format, you will have the option to save each worksheet as separate documents. Select the box to apply the option.

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Add FTP Instruction

In order to FTP a report to a specified location, the FTP option can be enabled.

Complete the following steps to add an FTP Distribution Instruction.

1. Select the FTP tab

2. Select the Enable FTP box.

3. The server information can be obtained from your IT administrator as well as the logon information.

4. Specify a file name you would like the report to be saved to.

5. Specify the format you would like the report to be saved in.

6. For the Excel and MHMTL format, you will have the option to save each worksheet as separate documents. Select the box to apply the option.

7. Click OK.

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Edit Distribution Instructions

To Edit Distribution Instructions, do the following:

1. In Microsoft Excel, click the BI Tools Tab.

2. Click Manage Instructions.

3. Select the Distribution Instruction you would like to edit.

4. Click Edit.

5. Make the necessary changes and click OK.

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Select Instructions

Once the distribution instructions have been set up, the instructions need to be linked to the report, and the worksheets which the instructions must apply to, need to be selected.

To Select Distribution Instructions, do the following:

1. Run the relevant report from Sage Intelligence Report Manager.

2. In Microsoft Excel, click the BI Tools tab.

3. Click Select Instructions.

4. In the left pane, you will see all the instructions you have previously set up. In the right pane is all the worksheets available in the current excel report you have run out from the Sage Intelligence Report Manager.

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5. Select the Instruction from the left that you would like to apply, and click the right arrow button.

6. Select the worksheets you would like to include in your distribution instruction.

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7. If you would like to include an additional instruction, repeat from step 4.

8. If you would like any selected distribution instruction(s) to be executed when a report is automatically scheduled via a scheduler command, refer to the next section.

9. Click OK.

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NOTE: If you would like the distribution instruction to be permanently linked to the report, you will need to Create and Link the report in Sage Intelligence Report Manager.

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Automated Distribution

In order to use automated distribution it is recommended that you use the SMTP / Exchange Server option in your Distribution Settings as the Use My Outlook Profile option requires Microsoft Outlook to be open at the time of distribution.

For Automated Distribution Instructions, do the following:

1. From your Select Distribution Instruction window, if you would like the distribution instruction to be executed when scheduling the report, select the check box at the bottom of the screen:

2. You will then need the distribution instruction to be permanently linked to the report, so you will need to Create and Link the report.

3. You can then schedule the report as per the normal procedure covered in the previous lesson.

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Send Now

Once the distribution instructions have been selected for a report, you can execute the instructions immediately by selecting the Send Now button.

To Execute Distribution Instructions, do the following:

1. Click the BI Tools Tab.

2. Click Send Now.

3. The distribution instructions will then be validated. If there are any errors, these will be displayed; thereafter the distribution instructions will be executed.

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Enabling the BI Tools Tab If the BI Tools tab is missing in Microsoft Excel it could be due to the following:

BI Generator could be inactive

BI Generator could be disabled

BI Generator Installer files may need to be run

Activating & Enabling the BI Generator:

1. Open the Add-ins Manager in Microsoft Excel Options

2. In Microsoft Excel go to Excel Options. (In Excel 2010, select File, Options.)

3. Select Add-Ins.

4. Locate the BI Generator Add-in.

5. If it is listed in Inactive Application Add-ins, then it must be enabled. At the bottom of the window, select Manage COM Add-ins, then select Go.

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6. If it is listed in Disabled Application Add-ins, then it must be enabled. At the bottom of the window, select Disabled Items, then select Go.

7. If Inactive, select the BI Generator Add-in and click OK.

8. If Disabled, select the BI Generator Add-in and click Enable.

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9. Typically, the BI Tools tab immediately appears. If it does not, close down all instances of Microsoft Excel that you have open, and re-do these steps.

To ensure all instances of Microsoft Excel are closed, complete the

following steps:

1. Open Task Manager. (Right-click on your Task bar and select Start Task Manager)

2. Select the Processes Tab and locate any EXCEL.EXE items and (for each one) right-click on the item and select End Process.

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BI Generator Installer files may need to be run:

1. Run the VSTORInstaller.exe

2. This is usually located in the BIGenerator Folder:

Program files/Common files/BIGenerator/Installers

3. Repeat the Process as detailed previously for activating and enabling the BI Generator using the Excel Options. The BI Tools should be available in Excel.