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‘Standard’ Finance Cognos Reports Guidance Notes Management Accounts Last updated March 2017
‘Standard’ Finance Cognos Reports
Guidance Notes
Management Accounts Last updated March 2017
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Contents
1. Introduction to Cognos _______________________________ 3
2. Accessing Cognos Finance Reports _____________________ 3
3. Running Cognos Finance Reports ______________________ 5
4. Common Prompts for Standard Finance Reports __________ 7
5. Budget Monitoring Reports ____________________________ 8
5.1 Summary Budget Monitor by Cost Centre by Expenditure _____________ 9
5.2 Summary Budget Monitor by Cost Centre by MA Group ______________ 9
5.3 Budget Monitor by MA Group __________________________________ 10
5.4 Budget Monitor by MA Category _______________________________ 10
5.5 Budget Monitor by Nominal ___________________________________ 11
6. Transaction List ____________________________________ 12
7. e5 Budget Transaction List ___________________________ 14
8. GL Commitment Details ______________________________ 15
9. Research Grant Budget Statement _____________________ 16
10. Other useful Reports ________________________________ 18
10.1 Cost Centre Details – individual cost centre ___________________ 18
10.2 Cost Centre Details by Faculty/Directorate – Current Year _______ 18
10.3 List of Nominals ________________________________________ 18
10.4 Nominals Linked to a Cost Centre __________________________ 18
10.5 Mileage Claim Details: ___________________________________ 18
10.6 Prior Approval Details: ___________________________________ 18
10.7 VAT Recoverability by Cost Centre _________________________ 19
11. Converting Report Output into PDF or Excel & Printing ____ 20
11.1 Converting to PDF ______________________________________ 20
11.2 Converting Report Output to EXCEL ________________________ 20
11.3 Printing Report Output ___________________________________ 21
12. Appendix 1 – Initial Set up for new Cognos Finance Users _ 22
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1. Introduction to Cognos
Cognos is a web based end user reporting tool and as such does not require any software to be installed on the user PC. Access to Cognos is available as a menu option within e5 or through any web browser, such as Internet Explorer. Our current environment is Cognos 10.3 which is compatible with Internet Explorer 11 in compatibility mode. This document is intended to provide examples of how to select a report to run, supply values at the prompts, convert the output into other formats eg PDF & Excel and print the output. Finance report users will have been granted access based on their role/security within e5 and will only be granted access to data for ‘approved’ areas ie access is normally only granted to a subset of University cost centres.
2. Accessing Cognos Finance Reports
Click on the Cognos Logon menu option within e5 ‘Other Modules’ or enter the following URL to open the application: https://bi.ulster.ac.uk If not accessing from within e5 it is advisable to add this web page as a Favourite.
Log in using your e code (including the ‘e’) and current network password, i.e. the password you use to first log on to your PC in the morning – NOT your e5 password.
You will be directed to your Cognos homepage. Pages appear as tabs just below the black menu bar. Depending on your role within the University, you may have access to more than one ‘page’ . Set the most frequently used one as your home page. Clicking on any tab will take you that page.
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If the Finance Homepage ‘tab’ does not appear when you log in and this is your first time accessing the Finance Reports, please refer to the guidance in appendix 1 before contacting your Finance Business Partner. If you do not have access to Cognos Finance Reports and think you should have, please contact your Finance Business Partner in the first instance. The lowest level access is granted for is ‘school/section’ level and access must be authorised by the relevant Head of School/Head of Section. Reports will either be listed individually as in the screen shot below or contained within appropriate folders indicated by the traditional yellow folder icon. To access reports, within a folder, just click on the folder name.
Click on the report you wish to run and the prompt page will automatically appear (or in some cases the report may just run if no prompts are required to be completed).
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3. Running Cognos Finance Reports
Supply values for each prompt by following the instructions on the prompt page. This may involve typing in values, selecting from a list provided or checking/unchecking tick boxes. It is worth noting that if multiselect is indicated as being allowed, users may select non-adjacent values in a list by pressing the CTRL key and clicking on the required selections.
If a prompt is preceded with an asterisk, this means that a value is mandatory. Optional prompts are provided in many reports to filter data further; a blank selection on such prompts includes all.
Click Run Report to run the report. This button will NOT be enabled if values have not been supplied for all mandatory prompts.
Prompt again
Click here to see other pages
Mandatory prompt
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The output of the report is initially in HTML format and simply displayed in the browser window
To scroll through the report data, use the page up/page down links at the bottom left of the screen.
Generally output is converted into PDF format for printing and distribution, as detailed in the next section and the report can be scrolled through using the scroll bar/mouse wheel when in PDF.
To run the report again, with different prompt values, click the prompt icon.
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4. Common Prompts for Standard Finance Reports
Many of the prompts are common across the standard finance reports and are fairly self-explanatory: Financial Period
the financial year runs from 1st August to 31st July. Therefore, for example, financial year 1st August 2016 to 31st July 2017 is ‘1617’. Each financial year is divided into 12 financial periods representing the 12 calendar months of the financial year, August being period ‘01’, etc. Therefore, the financial period prompt for August 2016 will be 161701, etc. Some prompts allow a start period and end period to be selected. Funding Types
university funded, self financing, external research etc Organisation Structure
Faculty/ Dept/ School/ Sub-school/ Cost Centre Cost Centre
Input the numbers only e.g. 75000 – i.e. do not include the funding letter Income & Expenditure Type
Income, recurrent expenditure, payroll expenditure and overheads either at summary level or category level Nominal
The detailed ‘chart of accounts’ code that a transaction has been coded to. Nominals starting with 1 indicate income, 2 operational expenditure and 3 Payroll expenditure. Some prompts will contain default selections – these can be overridden with a selection of your choice. Some prompts have to be input (as indicated on prompt page), others can be selected from a drop down menu (by clicking on the arrow and selecting), and others selected by tick box (one or more as required).
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5. Budget Monitoring Reports
There are budget reports available providing varying level of detail. The prompts completed to run the reports allow you to ‘filter’ by organisation structure (faculty, school, department, cost centre); by funding view (university funded, self-financing, external research, etc.); and by transaction type (income, recurrent expenditure, payroll expenditure, capital, etc.). The report headings are explained as follows: Annual budget: as allocated for the financial year
YTD budget: reports the budget relating to the financial period selected.
Annual budgets can be profiled across the 12 months of the financial year, however most budgets are profiled evenly, hence, at period two the YTD budget will be 2/12ths of the annual budget.
Income, Recurrent, Overheads, Payroll & YTD Actuals: the actual
income / expenditure processed year to date. Note that income is reported ‘in brackets’, however, this is not a ‘negative’ figure but reflects the accounting ‘credit’ entries
YTD Commitments: relates to outstanding purchase orders and GRNs.
When the related invoice is processed and matched against the purchase order, the commitment is cleared and the invoice payment is reflected in YTD actuals
Budget Balance: Calculated as ‘Annual Budget’ less ‘YTD Actuals’
(income & expenditure) / less YTD Commitments. : A Budget Balance ‘positive’ figure signifies underspend
against budget, but a ‘negative’ figure (i.e. in brackets) signifies overspend against budget.
Budget reports are updated real-time, hence, a budget report for the current financial period will reflect the most up to date information. Further detail on the most useful budget reports is as follows:
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5.1 Summary Budget Monitor by Cost Centre by Expenditure
This report is useful for overview, by cost centre, especially of university-funded activity. For each cost centre it provides detail of annual budget, income, expenditure & commitments for each transaction type as selected (i.e. income, recurrent expenditure and payroll expenditure).
5.2 Summary Budget Monitor by Cost Centre by MA Group
This report is useful for overview, by cost centre, especially of self-financing activity, external research and educational partnerships & contracts. For each cost centre it provides detail of annual budget, income, recurrent expenditure, overheads, payroll expenditure & commitments. Project budgets spanning more than one year will not appear.
Summary Budget Monitor by Cost Centre by Expenditure
Cost CentreCC Funding
Letter
75000 U
75001 U
75051 U
75100 U 5,000 51,000
Total Recurrent 75,000 (1,000) 22,550 53,450 5,000 48,450
Cost Centre name 75,000 (1,000) 20,000 56,000
- (500)
Cost Centre name - - 50 (50) - (50)
Cost Centre name - - 500 (500)
4023 - School x
Recurrent
Cost Centre name - - 2,000 (2,000) - (2,000)
Funding Subtype : UF01
Cost Centre DescriptionAnnual
BudgetIncome Expenditure
Budget
Balance
before
Commits
Commitments
Budget
Balance after
Commits
Date : 25 Sep 2014
Financial Period : 141502 Faculty/Directorate : xxxxxxxxx Funding Type : UF - University Funded
Summary Budget Monitor by Cost Centre by MA Group
Cost
Centre
CC
Funding
Letter
75500 S
75501 C
75502 S
75503 S
Payroll
Date : 25 Sep 2014
Financial Period : 141502 Faculty/Directorate : xxxxxxx Funding Type : SF - Self Financing
0 - 0
Cost Centre
Description
Annual
BudgetIncome Recurrent Overheads
Budget
Balance
before
Commits
Commitments
Budget
Balance
after
Committs
4026 - School x
Cost Centre Name - (0) - - -
18,900 - 18,900
Cost Centre Name - (3,000) 250 - - 2,750 - 2,750
Cost Centre Name - (23,400) 1,500 1,000 2,000
- 22,450
Cost Centre Name - (800) - - 800 - 800
School Level Totals - (27,200) 1,750 1,000 2,000 22,450
-
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5.3 Budget Monitor by MA Group
This report is similar to the above reports in terms of the level of detail provided i.e. for each cost centre, transactions are summarised by income, recurrent expenditure, payroll expenditure and overheads. Cost centres are summarised by funding view and all funding views can be reviewed on the one report (by selecting from menu as required).
5.4 Budget Monitor by MA Category
This report provides more detail on the transaction categories. For each cost centre, income and expenditure transactions are reported by ‘category’ (see below), and sub-totalled by income, recurrent expenditure, payroll expenditure and overheads. As for above Budget Monitor by MA Group, cost centres are summarised by funding view and all funding views can be reviewed on the one report (by selecting from menu as required).
Budget Monitor by MA Group
Cost
Centre
CC
Funding
Letter
Cost Centre Name
75915 S
Date : 25 Sep 2014
Financial Period : 141502
Cost Centre Description MA GroupAnnual
Budget
YTD
Budget
YTD
Actuals
YTD
Committments
Budget
Balance
3004 - Faculty xxxxxxx
4028 - School x
ER - External Research
Recurrent - - 4,500 1,700 (6,200)
75860 R Cost Centre Name Income - - (80,000) - 80,000
(117,000) - 117,000
Payroll - - 2,866 - (2,866)
75911 R Income - -
Recurrent - - 3,826 - (3,826)
Cost Centre Name
SF - Self Financing
Payroll - - 3,199 - (3,199)
75900 S Cost Centre Name Income - - 15,718 - (15,718)
1,341Cost Centre Name Income - - (1,341) -
Recurrent 12,000 2,000 2,294 - (2,294)
UF - University Funded
75851 U Cost Centre Name Payroll - - 105,437 - (105,437)
180,100 - (180,100)
Recurrent 24,000 4,000 (2,736) 79 2,657
75901 U Payroll - -
Budget Monitor by MA Category
MA Category
B10
B15
B25
B30
B40
B60
F05
Budget
Balance
- 1,559.41
Date : 25 Sep 2014
Financial Period : 141502
MA Category DescriptionAnnual
Budget
YTD
BudgetYTD Actuals
YTD
Committments
17.23 -
3004 - Faculty xxxxxx
4028 - School x
UF - University Funded
76666U - Cost Centre name
Travel / Subs & Conferences - - (1,559.41)
(17.23)
Printing & Stationery - - 432.70 - (432.70)
Telephone & Postage - -
1,713.98
Legal Prof & Advertising - - - 750.00
- - 719.95 -
(750.00)
Student & Academic Related - - (1,713.98) -
115,068.86 -
(719.95)
Recurrent - - (2,103.51) 750.00 1,353.51
Equipment Not Capitalised
(115,068.86)
Payroll - - 115,068.86 - (115,068.86)
Academic - -
(113,715.35)Total for 76666U - - 112,965.35 750.00
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5.5 Budget Monitor by Nominal
This report provides transaction detail at nominal code level, for each cost centre. Again, sub-totalled by income, recurrent expenditure, payroll expenditure and overheads. As for above budget reports, cost centres are summarised by funding view and all funding views can be reviewed on the one report (by selecting from menu as required).
Budget Monitor by Nominal
Nominal
20300
20400
20500
20800
21000
21300
21800
22000
22600
30101
Date : 25 Sep 2014
Financial Period : 141502
Nominal DescriptionAnnual
Budget
YTD
BudgetYTD Actuals
YTD
Committments
Budget
Balance
3004 - Faculty xxxxxxx
4028 - School x
UF - University Funded
76666U - Cost Centre name
Printing & Stationery - - 432.70 - (432.70)
Travel & Subs Outside EU - - (241.24) - 241.24
Travel & Subs within EU - - (1,588.17) - 1,588.17
External Examiners - - (1,713.98) - 1,713.98
Courses & Conference Fees - - 270.00 - (270.00)
Legal & Professional - - - 750.00 (750.00)
Telephone - - 2.26 - (2.26)
Equipment & Furniture - - 719.95 - (719.95)
Postage - - 14.97 - (14.97)
Academic Normal - - 115,068.86 - (115,068.86)
Recurrent - - (2,103.51) 750.00 1,353.51
Total for 76666U - - 112,965.35 750.00 (113,715.35)
- 112,965.35 750.00 (113,715.35)
Payroll - - 115,068.86 - (115,068.86)
Report Total -
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6. Transaction List
The Transaction List provides more detail of the ‘YTD Actual’ as shown in the Budget Reports at section 8 above. This report can only be run at cost centre level. It is usually used where you have a query following review of the budget reports which necessitates further investigation of the actual income/expenditure. For each income and expenditure nominal code it will show all of the individual transactions processed. The transactions are sub-totalled by nominal code (i.e. as detailed in the Budget Monitor by Nominal). The Transaction List is updated real-time and will reflect the most up to date information. Most of the headings are self-explanatory, however, it may be useful to note that the JV Type/Subtype along with System Ref & Ulster Ref would be useful if needing to source ‘original documentation’ to verify income / expenditure. The following cognos reports (sourced from the same menu) may be useful for interpreting information in the Transaction List: List of Journal Batch Types: input the ‘JV Type’ from the Transaction
List and it will provide the full description. List of Nominals: the prompt is automatically populated with ‘Income
and Expenditure’ – run the report and it will provide a description for all income and expenditure nominal codes.
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Financial Period from151601 to 151602
Srce JV Type JV Subtype Period
M CRDF 151601
M CRDF 151601
G PTRX INV 151602
G PTRX INV 151602
E PRNT 151602
E PRNT 151602
E GJNL 151601
E GJNL 151601
E MLGE 151601
E MLGE 151601
E TCOM 151602
E PHON 151602
E POST 151602
E MPAY 151601
E MPAY 151602
E MPAY 151602
E MPAY 151601
E MPAY 151602
Reconciliation Amount
0000006461 - Key Travel Ltd
e5 Transaction List Date : 22-Sep-2015
Nominal Analysis System Ref Input Date Ulster Ref Description PO Number/Input User Supp/Cust /Authoriser
DEL (85.00)
51962 11-Aug-15 CR Mr AN Other Mr AN Other (85.00)
3,600.00
Cost Centre : 75000U - Cost Centre Name School/Department : 4055 - School x
10000 51943 11-Aug-15 CR Grant misc
658.49
20200 246409 15-Sep-15 PL Manuals PO-027413 0000002235 - Chartered Institute xxxxx
246427 14-Sep-15 PL Books PO-027179 0000003517 - No Alibis Bookstore
Total for 20200 4,258.49
Total for 10000 (170.00)
Total for Income (170.00)
20200 20200
7.80
Simon Morgan 5.10
148 536588 14-Sep-15 AUG 15 Printing recharges Aug 2015 Simon Morgan
20300 147 536588 14-Sep-15 AUG 15 Printing recharges Aug 2015
524362 11-Aug-15 CT63 Cost of flights & accom for ex examiners Claire Smith 1,652.02
Total for 20300 12.90
20400 524099 11-Aug-15 CT60 Cost of fights AN Other PAxxxxx Claire Smith 187.96
21.00
000024 15115500 -BROWN,D - E5 System Batch User 14.85
530163 25-Aug-15 000024 265545 -SMITH,A - E5 System Batch User
Total for 20400 1,839.98
20600 530163 25-Aug-15
35.85Total for 20600
0.24
534170 08-Sep-15 AUG-15 Call Recharges August 2015 Simon Morgan 33.07
21300 534151 08-Sep-15 AUG-15 SMS Recharges August 2015 Simon Morgan
Total for 21300 33.31
22000 532310 01-Sep-15 SS0109 August 2015 Franked Mail All campuses Anne Irwin 49.65
99,865.42
539246 22-Sep-15 00005Q M SEPTEMBER E5 System Batch User 97,789.59
Total for 22000 49.65
Total for Recurrent 6,230.18
30101 530164 25-Aug-15 00005P M AUGUST E5 System Batch User
Total for 30101 197,655.01
30115 539246 22-Sep-15 00005Q M SEPTEMBER E5 System Batch User 994.09
5,430.73
539246 22-Sep-15 00005Q M SEPTEMBER E5 System Batch User 5,430.73
Total for 30115 994.09
30501 530164 25-Aug-15 00005P M AUGUST E5 System Batch User
Report Total 215,570.74
Total for 30501 10,861.46
Total for Payroll 209,510.56
Overall Total for Cost Centre xxxxxU 215,570.74
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7. e5 Budget Transaction List
Current year budgets are uploaded to e5 using budget upload templates where budgets can be profiled over the 12 months of the financial year. The budget transaction list provides detail of the dates of the budget postings, the input user and a narrative relating to the posting. If there are many lines on a budget upload that impact the same cost centre and nominal combination, the narrative can sometimes appear misleading against the amount. The prompt selection here is for financial year, not period and will sum together all entries across the 12 available monthly profiles. Remember – a figure in brackets means the budget has been reduced and a positive figure means the budget has been increased.
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8. GL Commitment Details
The GL Commitment Details Report provides more detail of the ‘Ytd Commitments’ as shown in the above Budget Reports. For each Purchase Order it will show all of the activity as it moves through the stages from Purchase Requisition to approved Purchase Order and Goods Received Note and finally matching to invoice payment. The report is sub-totalled by Purchase Order, nominal code & Cost Centre (i.e. as detailed in the Budget Reports). This report should be monitored regularly and any ‘old’ purchase orders remaining should be investigated to ensure they are still valid commitments or if they require force completion. This is especially important at year end as the value of all GRNs – ie balance class GR will automatically accrue and become a YTD actual against budget and form part of the University’s statutory accounts. (This automatic accrual reverses in the following financial year and so can impact 2 financial years if incorrect). The ‘Balance Class’ prompt refers to the specific status of a commitment and allows you to select Purchase Requisitions (PR), Purchase Orders (PO) or Goods Receipts not invoiced (GR). To select all three just leave prompt at ‘Balance Class’. The GL Commitment Report is updated real-time, hence, will reflect the most up to date information. Interpreting the Information in the GL Commitment Report Most of the headings are self-explanatory, however, it may be useful to note the following: Balance Class & Journal Batch Types are as follows:
: PR & PREQ – Purchase Requisition. : PO & PORD – Purchase Order (created when Purchase Requisition is approved by authorised signatory). : GR & PGRN – Goods Receipts (processed to confirm receipt of goods).
Input User Name & Document Reference would be useful if needing to query any details.
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9. Research Grant Budget Statement
The Research Grant Budget Statement is specifically applicable to Research Contracts (R&K), Consultancy Projects (A) and Self-financing ‘contracted’ (i.e. ‘C’) cost centres. Research and Self-financing contracts are agreed with the funder for a specified period of time, which can include more than one financial year. Hence, this report will show the total project budget and the cumulative actual income & expenditure received / incurred on the project from the beginning of the contract to date, regardless of which financial year that income & expenditure was received / incurred. This report provides information at nominal code level, with sub-totals for Income, Recurrent expenditure and Payroll expenditure. Interpreting the Information in the Research Grant Budget Statement The report headings are explained below: Total budget: planned income / expenditure as agreed with the funder
for the total ‘life’ of the project. Actuals: the actual income / expenditure processed from the beginning
of the contract to date. Note that income is reported ‘in brackets’, however, this is not a ‘negative’ figure but reflects the accounting ‘credit’ entries.
YTD Commitments: relates to outstanding purchase orders and GRNs. When the related invoice is processed and matched against the purchase order, the commitment is cleared and the invoice payment is reflected in ‘actuals’.
GL Commitment Details
CC
Funding
Letter
Balance
Class
Journal
BatchType
Journal
Batch
NumberPO PORD 536469
PO PORD 536471
GR PGRN 539514
GR PGRN 539518
PR PREQ 536014
PO PORD 393381
PO PORD 395114
PO PORD 407697
PO PORD 538096
PO PORD 538098
PO PORD 492932
PO PORD 492934
Document
ReferenceAmount
20300 23-Sep-15 A Brown
Date : 23-Sep-15
Cost
CentreNominal Input Date
Input User
NameDescription
Total for PO 7,659.00
Total for PO-028131 7,659.00
Total for 20200 7,659.00
Training support PO-028131 5,494.50
14-Sep-15 A Brown Training support PO-028131 2,164.50
23-Sep-15 A Brown Registration & Exams PO-028052 3,630.00
XXXXX U 20200 14-Sep-15 A Brown
Registration & Exams PO-028051 1,650.00
Total for GR 1,650.00
Total for PO-028051 1,650.00
Total for GR 3,630.00
Total for PO-028052 3,630.00
A Smith
11-Sep-15 A Brown Online material access R-028153 4,374.00
(31.92)
12-Nov-14 GRN-00048743 PO-020295 (80.88)
20700 08-Oct-14 A Smith Consumable Supplies PO-020295 600.00
13-Oct-14 A Smith GRN-00047038 PO-020295
Total for PR 4,374.00
Total for R-028153 4,374.00
Total for 20300 9,654.00
PO-028269 450.00
1,792.50
Total for PO-028269 1,792.50
Total for PO 487.20
Total for PO-020295 487.20
18-Sep-15 A Brown Catering - Symposium
Total for PO 1,102.78
Total for PO-025767 1,102.78
18-Sep-15 A Brown Catering - Symposium PO-028269 1,342.50
Total for PO
A Brown Surface Pro 3 Tablet PO-025767 1,060.79
10-Jun-15 A Brown Surface Pro 3 Tablet PO-025767 41.99
Overall Total 20,309.56
Total for 20700 1,893.78
22600 10-Jun-15
Total for 22600 1,102.78
Total for Cost Centre XXXXX 20,309.56
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Budget Balance (for all income & expenditure nominals): Calculated as ‘Total Budget’ less ‘Actuals’ / less YTD Commitments.
: A Budget Balance ‘positive’ figure signifies underspend against budget, but a ‘negative’ figure (i.e. in brackets) signifies overspend against budget. There is an additional version of this report which provides the following additional information for External Research cost centres if required: End date of project. Principal Investigator as currently held in the Research Grants & Contracts database maintained by the Research & Impact Department. Any issues with this data should be addressed to your Research Grant contact.
Total for 70000R - (3,502.10) - 3,502.10
Total Direct Costs 12,937.00 9,434.90 - 3,502.10
30103 Academic Part Time Hours 1,296.00 - - 1,296.00
Total Payroll 1,296.00 - - 1,296.00
(4,607.87)
29900 Miscellaneous Expenses 2,987.00 1,216.94 - 1,770.06
Total Recurrent 11,641.00 9,434.90 - 2,206.10
23100 Academic Support - 4,607.87 -
22000 Postage - 301.46 - (301.46)
20600 Reimbursed Expenses - 15.20 - (15.20)
20500 Travel & Subs Outside EU - 1,051.57 - (1,051.57)
20400 Travel & Subs within EU 4,850.00 1,576.51 - 3,273.49
20300 Printing & Stationery - 130.36 - (130.36)
20100 Consumables & Laboratory (Gen) 3,804.00 534.99 - 3,269.01
Total Income (12,937.00) (12,937.00) - -
(12,937.00) (12,937.00) - -
11600 Research Grants & Cont Income (12,937.00) (12,937.00) - -
Research Grant Budget Statement Date : 24 Sep 2015
70000R - Project Name XXXXX As at Financial Period : 151602
Nominal Nominal Description Total Budget ActualsYTD
Committments
Budget
Balance
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10. Other useful Reports
10.1 Cost Centre Details – individual cost centre
This report shows all structure codings for a particular cost centre eg what subschool/school/faculty etc it is owned by and the funding view it is currently assigned to. This can be useful when completing a new cost centre request form if you wish to check an existing one first.
10.2 Cost Centre Details by Faculty/Directorate – Current Year
This report lists all cost centres for a selected faculty/school and funding type combination and details various structure codings eg HEFCE cost centre and VAT recoverability etc.
10.3 List of Nominals
This report provides a list of nominal codes and their description. This is useful when interpreting information from the Transaction List (see above), and when having to specify cost centre & ‘nominal code’ on source documentation for processing e.g. expense claims, invoices, etc. The prompt is automatically populated with ‘Income and Expenditure’ – run the report and it will provide a description for all income and expenditure nominal codes.
10.4 Nominals Linked to a Cost Centre
This report will provide a list of nominal codes linked to a particular cost centre. This is particularly useful for ‘Research’ & ‘Self-financing’ cost centres, as only nominal codes related to agreed funding are linked to the cost centre. This would be useful when having to specify cost centre & ‘nominal code’ on source documentation for processing e.g. expense claims, invoices, etc., to avoid transaction being rejected. Should additional nominal links be required, for ‘R’, ‘A’ & ‘C’ cost centres contact your Faculty Research Office adviser and for ‘U’,‘Q’ & ‘S’ cost centres contact your Finance Business Partner.
10.5 Mileage Claim Details:
This report provides details of mileage claims and the report prompts are very flexible allowing you to select from the following criteria:
o Cost Centre o Employee’s name or number o Date ranges relating to journey or claim o Financial Period o Claim number o Approver’s name or number o Status e.g. awaiting approval, approved, etc. o
10.6 Prior Approval Details:
This report provides details of prior approvals and the report prompts are very flexible allowing you to select from the following criteria:
o Cost Centre o Employee’s name or number o Date ranges relating to travel
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o Claim number o Approver’s name or number o Status e.g. awaiting approval, approved, etc.
10.7 VAT Recoverability by Cost Centre
This is a simple report detailing the current VAT recoverability status of the cost centre. Most teaching and research cost centres are non recoverable, meaning the full 20% VAT detailed on an invoice is payble by the University and charged to the cost centre.
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11. Converting Report Output into PDF or Excel & Printing
11.1 Converting to PDF
To convert the output into PDF, click the conversion icon and select the ‘View in PDF Format’ option. Depending on the size and format of the output the conversion to PDF may take a few moments. Once the PDF is displayed users may print as normal as detailed in the next section.
11.2 Converting Report Output to EXCEL
To export the report to Excel, click the conversion icon and select the ‘View in Excel Options’.
Select the View in Excel 2007 Format irrespective of which version of Excel is being used.
Select Open or Save, depending on whether you wish to save the file on your computer or to view it in Excel. You can open a file first and then save it.
If the screen below does not appear, there may be a problem with your internet options preventing downloads. Please seek assistance from your IT technical support if this issue arises.
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If Open is selected, Excel should appear with a formatted version of the report. This can now be used with normal excel functionality and no longer has any link back to Cognos/e5 and can be saved like any other excel file. The format/layout of the report in excel (eg merged cells etc) depends on the original report design. What displays properly on screen may look distorted when viewed in excel. If you have difficulty with the format of a report you commonly convert to excel, please contact your Finance Business Partner with details.
11.3 Printing Report Output
In order to print a report, users are advised to convert the output into the desired format, for example a PDF file as covered in the previous sections. Once the report output has been generated, in PDF for example, Adobe will open another window and the output will be displayed in PDF.
Click on the print icon. The output will be printed to your default printer.
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12. Appendix 1 – Initial Set up for new Cognos Finance Users
Once an account has been set up users must follow the steps below to correctly configure their environment before any attempt is made to run reports. 1. The Cognos Logon screen is available as a menu option on all e5
menus. Alternatively, open a browser session eg Internet Explorer and enter the following URL to open the application: https://bi.ulster.ac.uk
2. Logon with your ecode (including the ‘e’) and network password (ie your
PC log on password NOT your e5 password). 3. If the My Content page is displayed. Remove the tick in the check box
entitled ‘Show this page in future’. 4. Click on the My Home icon. If the Finance Home Page tab is visible,
skip to step14. Otherwise: click on the Add Tabs icon (top left of screen)
5. Click on Public Folders
6. Click on Ulster Root
7. Click on Ulster Application Areas
8. Click on Finance
9. Click on Admin
10. Click on UU Pages
11. Click the check box for Finance Home Page
12. Click on the green arrow centre screen (this will move a copy of the
Finance Home Page over to the right hand side ‘selected entries’ panel) 13. Click OK. The Finance Homepage should now be visible.
14. Click on the Finance Home page, a series of folders/reports will be
displayed
15. Click on the Home icon located top right of the screen and select ‘Set View as Home’ ONLY do this if you wish the Finance Home Page to be your home page – if you have access to other pages eg Student Records Home Page you may wish to keep it as your home page and the Finance Home page would just appear as a tab which you can select at any time by clicking on its title.
You should now be able to run finance reports.
