Reporting Tips and Techniques

Doug Kirk

Cognos

Topics

Cognos Finance Reporting Tips

• Selected @ functions

• Boolean logic / Edit Checks

• Drill Down vs. Drill Through

• New reporting features

• Report Performance Options

&Macro and @Functions

• @AV2• @AVG• @AVL• @AVT• @CEL• @CELA• @CUM• @DCM• @FILL• @GROUP• @IN• @LIST• @MRATE• @NEG• @RATE• @SUM• @TOTAL• @TOTLIST

• @CTD• @CUB• @CWA• @DAY• @DCZ• @DFP• @DNZ• @ELB• @ELL• @ELM• @ELW• @EXTERNAL• @FDAY• @PY• @RANGE• @WTA• @XRT• @ZDC• @ZPF

• -• +• *• /• !• %• ABS• BW• IDX• IDV• INT• MAX• MIN• P• V

• >• >• =• AND• GEQ• IN• LEQ• LIKE• NEQ• NOT• OR

• &MTH• &QTR• CLASS• CT• SELFIF• WT

• &ACCT• &ATEXT• &COLOR• &DATE• &sdate• &ldate• &time• &Parent• &pgbreaktext• &RPTFULLNAME• &RPTNAME• &SCALE• &SWITCH• &PY• &CY• &NY• &[Pointer period]

CF has many specialized functions and operators to make reporting easier

@RATE and @MRATE

• @RATE - Apply a Rate. Use to create calculated data items for accounts. Applies a given rate against one or more accounts. For example, use to determine revenue for a product when the price charged for the product changes per period.

• @MRATE - Multiple Rates. Use to create calculated data items for accounts. @MRATE applies multiple rates (ratios) against a single account to determine the value of a second account.

@CEL and @CELA

• @CEL-Value in a Cell. Use to create a row or column that gets its value from a specific cell or cells by referencing row/column ranges.

• @CELA -Value in a Cell. Use to create a row or column that gets its value from a specific cell or cells by referencing row/column ranges. @CELA is the same as @CEL except it sums the multiple rows or multiple columns in the argument.

Examples

• Link to @RATE & @CEL Example

• Link to @MRATE & @CELA Example

@RATE & @CEL ExampleScreenshot

@MRATE & @CELA ExampleScreenshot

&MTH

• Used to insert the integer value of the current month into calculations. Very useful in making reports dynamic and preparing averages based on current period.

Link to &MTH Example

&MTH ExampleScreenshot

Drill Through from CF

RelationalDatabase

Another CognosFinance System

From Cognos Finance to:

ProgramWeb Page

SQL Query

Drill Down/Through

• Configured in the File Processing GL Module

• Link to Drill Through1

• Link to Drill Through2

New Reporting Features

• Dynamic Sorting (Link)

• Extended Thresholds and Operators

• Report Properties

• @Range

Dynamic SortingScreenshot

@Range

Reporting Performance

• Turn off cache pages

• Avoid page calculations

• Watch dependencies

Link to Report Example

Note – if report is too large, CF will automatically engage report paging for efficiency.

Cognos Finance, moving forward.

Q & A