Generate financial reports

This article provides information about generating a financial report.

To generate a report, open the report definition and on the toolbar, select Generate. The Report queue status page opens and indicates the location of your report in the queue.

As the report generation progresses, the following report queue status indicators may be visible on the Report queue status page.

By default, the generated report will open in the Web Viewer. The following options are available for generating reports:

• Set up a schedule to generate a report or group of reports automatically
• Check for missing accounts or data in a report, and validate the accuracy of a report

When you generate a report, the options that you've specified on the Report definition tabs are used.

Generate a financial report

To generate a financial report, go to General ledger > Inquiries and reports > Financial reports.

• Select a report to generate and select Generate.
• Fill in the Report date field and select OK.

After the report has been generated, the report will be available to view in the Reports section.

You can select to View or Delete the report.

To generate a report using Report designer, open the report definition and then select the Generate button on the toolbar. The Report queue status page will open and indicate the location of your report in the queue. By default, the generated report will open in the Web Viewer.

What to expect once report generation request is submitted?

• Once customer submitted a report generation request, the report should appear in the Report queue status page under Report queue list.
• If multiple report generation requests are submitted at the same time, up to three reports can be processed concurrently at the same time on an Financial report process service instance and up to five reports can be processed concurrently in an environment.
• The report generation queue is a FIFO queue.
• Report generation can be cancelled before it enters final state by selecting the report and click Remove. Once the report is cancelled successfully, the report will be Canceled.

Report groups

Report groups are an efficient way to generate several reports at the same time. For example, suppose you know that at month-end your users generate eight reports every month. Create a Report group and rather than selecting Generate for each of the eight reports in the group, you can select Generate for the report group and the eight reports will be generated in one step. When the reports in the selected report group have been generated, you can go to Financial reports (General ledger > Inquires and reports > Financial reports) to view the individual reports. Complete the following steps to set up a report group.

1. In Report designer, select Report groups.
2. Select the existing report definitions to include in your report group.
3. Select override company, detail, and date settings from each of the reports that will be included in the group. We recommend setting the Company, Period, Year, and Detail level for each report.
4. Save the report group.

Schedule report generation

Many companies have a core set of reports that are run at scheduled intervals to align with their business processes. You can schedule a report to be generated regularly, such as daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. This can be a single report or a group of reports that includes multiple companies. You must enter your credentials for each of the companies that are specified, such as those in a reporting tree definition. If the credentials aren't valid, the report will display only the information that you've permission to access, such as the company that you are logged on to at the time. Output information is read first from the report group, and then from the individual reports.

As report schedules are created and saved, they're displayed in the navigation pane under Report schedules. You can create folders to organize the reports. If a single report in a schedule does not run, all other reports will continue to run.

Create a report schedule

1. In Report designer, on the File menu, select New, and then select Report schedule. The New report schedule dialog box opens.

2. Under Settings, select an individual report or a report group to schedule. Only reports or report groups for the company or building block selection that you are currently logged on to are available.

3. Select the Active check box to turn on the report schedule. Only the creator of the report or an administrator can activate or inactivate a report schedule.

4. Select the Permissions button to enter company credentials. By default, your logon information is used for the company that you are logged on to. If other companies are included, such as in reporting tree definitions, select Use separate credentials, and then enter the credentials for any other company that is included in the report schedule. You can select Windows authentication or type a user name and password for each company. Select the Save credentials check box to save the credentials for these companies, and then select OK to close the dialog box.

5. Under Frequency, in the Start recurrence field, select the date when the schedule is to start. By default, the current system date of the client computer is selected.

6. In the Run report at field, select the time when the report should run. If you enter a time that is before the current system time, the report runs on the next scheduled date.

7. In the Recurrence pattern area, specify how often the report is run. By default, Daily is selected with an Interval (days) value of 1. Other options include Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly.

8. In the Range of recurrence area, select when the report should stop being generated.

   • No end date – The report schedule runs indefinitely.
   • Set number of occurrences – The report schedule runs for the specified number of times, and then is inactivated.
   • End by – The report schedule ends on the specified date.

9. Select Save. In the Save as dialog box, enter a unique name and description for the report schedule.

To copy a report schedule, you must have the role of designer or administrator. Even if an administrator modifies the report schedule, the report maintains the credentials of the user who created the report.

Copy a report schedule

1. In Report designer, select Report schedules in the navigation pane, and open a report schedule to copy.
2. On the File menu, select Save as, and then enter a new name and description for the schedule in the Save as dialog box. Select OK, and the new schedule is displayed in the navigation pane.
3. In the new schedule, modify the fields and information as needed, and then select Save on the toolbar, or select Save on the File menu.

To delete a report schedule, you must be the owner of the report schedule or have a role of administrator.

Delete a report schedule

1. In Report designer, select Report schedules in the navigation pane.
2. Select the report schedule to delete, and then select Delete or press the Delete key.
3. In the deletion verification dialog box, select Yes to permanently delete the report schedule. If you do not have permission to delete the schedule, a message is displayed and the report isn't deleted.

Credentials and report schedules

If you don't enter credentials that are required for all companies included in the reports, you receive the following message when you save the report schedule: "You must enter your credentials for the companies that are contained in this report schedule. Select the Permissions button to enter in your credentials."

For example, a user logs on to Company A using a logon and password. The user creates a schedule for a report that uses a reporting tree definition to collect data from multiple companies. When this report schedule is saved, the user is prompted to enter the credentials for the other companies that are specified in the reporting tree definition. When your credentials expire, the affected reports in the report schedule aren't generated until the credentials have been updated. A message is displayed in the report queue to indicate that permissions must be updated. The report schedule fails if any of the following scenarios occur (because they require credentials):

• A new company has been added to a report tree for an individual report.
• A report in a report group has been modified.
• A new report for an additional company has been added to a report group.

To continue, select the Permissions button in the Report scheduling dialog box, and then enter the appropriate credentials.

Missing account analysis feature

You can search for financial accounts and dimensions that might be missing across all row definitions, reporting tree definitions, and report definitions in a building block group. This is useful when you create or update several accounts or building blocks during a short time period, and you want to verify that all new information is included in your reports.

Missing accounts are determined by using the lowest and highest values from the row definition or reporting tree definition, and then displays a list of accounts that aren't in the row definition or reporting tree definition, but that are in the financial data. If a missing account is greater than or less than the values in the row definition, that account isn't included in the list of missing accounts.

Reports that have ranges of values are less likely to have missing accounts. When possible, use ranges in the building block to include new accounts when they're created. If any report definition is set to @ANY company, then you can log on to a specific company and run a missing account analysis for that company.

Run missing account analysis

1. In Report designer, select Tools, and then select Missing account analysis.

2. In the Company filter field, select a company to filter results on, or select All (no filter) to display results from all available companies.

3. In the Dimension filter field, select a dimension to filter results on, or select All (no filter) to view all dimension information for all available dimensions.

4. In the Group by field, select an option for sorting the results. You can sort results according to the building block that is affected, or you can sort results by dimension and value sets.

5. Review the displayed results. When you select an item in the upper pane, the lower pane displays additional information about the exception. This includes related dimensions, values, and reports.

6. To open the affected item, select the associated icon that is displayed in the list pane, or right-click the item and select Open. To select multiple items, hold down the Ctrl key while you select the items in the lower pane.

7. If any values, building blocks, or reports are returned that shouldn't be included in the analysis, right-click the item and select Exclude, or select the Exclude checkbox next to the item to remove the item from the list. Excluded items aren't included when the list is refreshed. To select multiple items, hold down the Ctrl key while you select the items in the lower pane. To view all items, including any results that you previously selected to exclude from the analysis, select the Show excluded building blocks and values checkbox, and then select Refresh.

8. Select Refresh to refresh exceptions that you've addressed. Select Yes to perform a full refresh of all of the results, or select No to perform a partial refresh of addressed items.

   Note

   The form is automatically refreshed when it opens unless the page has been opened in the last 15 minutes.

9. When the issues are resolved, select OK to close the dialog box.

Keyboard shortcuts for missing account analysis

When you run a missing account analysis, the following keyboard shortcuts are available.

Additional resources

Financial reporting

Report Designer interface