Report Manager
Discovering the CORE Report Manager
Introduction
Welcome to the CORE Report Manager©, the report creation facility within the CORE range of HR systems. In this document you will learn how to select reports from your systems menu, and view them on screen, print them on your printer, or send them to either Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word or to a text file for inclusion in other documents.
All CORE© systems contain the same report management facility. Each system has its own set of standard reports, and you select the required report from a list and direct where you want the report to go. You also have the facility to modify the report by specifying a particular date range, a set of conditions, or even a selection of employees.
You can also select a set of standard reports that you run on a regular basis, along with any modifications you have built, and give the batch of reports a name. You can then run the batch whenever convenient and create your report set.
In the following document, each function of the CORE Report Manager© will be explained in detail. A number of sample reports are included to show you how the report can be modified.
Selecting your report
The screen shown in Figure One is displayed whenever you select the report manager from the menu bar at the top of your system. It is the menu optiion named .
Each item on the screen gives you a level of control over the report. The first step is to select a report from the list available in your system. For example, Figure Two shows a partial list of the reports available in the CORE Work Care system. To make a selection, first click you mouse pointer on the small, down arrow at the left hand end of the Select Report heading, as shown below.
This will display the list of available reports. Click on the report you want to view, and it will be displayed in the Select Report heading. If you make a mistake, simply click on the down arrow again, and re-select the correct report.
Figure 1: The Report Manager Screen
Figure 2: Selecting a Report
Once you have selected a report, you have several options available, as shown in Figure One. These are:
| Option | Action |
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Print To:
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| Criteria: |
Selecting this option will take you to a new screen where you can specify assitional filter conditions on the report. |
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Sections: |
Selecting this option will take you to a new screen where you will control what sections of the report you want to print. |
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Load setup: |
This option allows you to re-load an existing set of selection criteria you have already established for this report. |
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Save setup: |
When you first establish a set of selection criteria, you can save the set, give it a name, and re-use the set again, when you next select the report |
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Clear setup: |
If you no longer have any use for the selection criteria you set up for this report, you can delete it, and simply run the report as supplied, or create a new selection criteria |
| Print: |
Click on this button to run the report. If you selected the screen as the destination of the report, you can still re-direct it to you printer from the screen, after first inspecting the result. If you selected the printer or a file as the destination of the report, the report will not display on screen, but will immediately print or go to a file. |
If you cannot find a report that meets your need in the supplied list of reports, you should first select a report that is the next best fit to your requirement, and try filtering out unwanted information. If this is not possible, then CORE HR Systems would be happy to discuss your requirements, and if necessary, quote you on the construction of a report that does meet your specific requirement. This report would then be added to the list of reports available in your system.
Alternatively, if you find that you have an on-going need to create new reports not available in the standard report list, then CORE HR Systems recommends that you use Crystal Reports 6.0 as a separate ad-hoc report writing facility. Crystal Report 6.0 is an industry standard report writer that enables you to create any number of reports and graphs from the CORE range of products. To find out more details, contact CORE HR Systems, and we will be happy to advise you on purchase and installation of Crystal Report 6.0. We also provide training in Crystal Report 6.0 for CORE products, and supply a complete listing of the tables, fields and relationships within the CORE databases. This latter item is required to use Crystal Reports 6.0.
Modifying your report criteria
Once you select your report, the Report Manager allows you to optionally modify the report. This enables you to narrow down the report to specific date ranges, selected employees or other selection criteria. Once you are satisfied with your selection criteria, you can save them as a file, and re-use them again the next time you want to run the report.
Figure Three shows the selection criteria screen that is displayed when you click on the button .
Figure 3: Selecting your report criteria
The table below describes the options available on the criteria selection screen, shown in Figure Three.
| Option | Action |
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Wizard: |
This button leads you through a series of screens that assist you in setting up your selection criteria. |
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Criteria description: |
As you build your selection criteria, they are displayed in this box, so that you can check that your selection is correct. |
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Clear: |
Clicking on this button clears your selection criteria. You may no longer want the set, or you may want to build a new set |
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Print criteria: |
Click on this check box if you would like your selection criteria printed out on the report. This is useful if you run a report, then clear the criteria, but want to re-build the same criteria set at another time. It is a reminder of how you built the report. |
Figure 4: Setting up your selection criteria
Once you invoke the wizard, you will be lead through several steps, to assist you in setting up the report the way you want it. The initial report selected from the report selection list (Figure Two) contains a number of fields from the database. The first step in modifying your report is to choose which fields you would like to display. Figure Five shows the fields that are initially contained in the selected report: Return to work plan. There are five fields to choose from, and you can select as many of them as you want. For this example we have selected Employee Name.
Figure 5: First step - select your fields
There are a number of different types of database fields. For example, the Claim Number is a numeric field, the Employee Name is a text field, the Incident Date is a date field etc. Each field type will have different selection criteria associated with it, as shown in Figure Six. The wizard knows that the selected field Employee Name is a text field, and that the database contains a list of employees. Therefore, it presents you with the option to select a range of employees, by selecting the starting name from the Value list, and the ending name from the To list.
If you only want one employee, then select that employee’s name in the value list only.
If you want to select all employees whose name begins with B, then un-check the box Auto expand and type in B in the Value list. This will immediately go to the first employee whose name starts with a B and print out all employees whose name starts with B.
Similarly, you can enter a letter in the To list to include all employees up to, and including all whose names begin with that letter. For example if you enter the letter H and check the Auto expand check box in the To list, your report will include all employees whose name commences with B through to H.
Note that as you build your selection criteria, the result is displayed in the Sample box at the bottom of the screen. (Figure Six)
Figure 6: Select the range of information for the selected field.
Depending on what type of field you have chosen, the wizard will next present you with a choice of comparisons. As shown in Figure Seven, you can specify whether you want all names that are less than the selected one, or greater than the selected one etc. When selecting names, it is more appropriate to use the Like comparison. If the field is a date the wizard will ignore this screen and offer a different set of date range choices as shown in Figure Eight.
Figure 7: Choosing the comparison type you want
Figure 8: Choosing the date ranges for the selected date field
Note, that if you select a date from and a date to field, the screen automatically enters the actual dates in the beginning of the screen.
This completes the steps presented by the wizard, and returns you to the screen in Figure Three. Note now, however, that the selection criteria is displayed to remind you how you modified the report. Figure Nine shows the resulting selection criteria in which two criteria have been set up. The report will contain any return to work plans for Patrick Bennett that occurred this year.
Figure 9: Display of final selection criteria
Returning to Figure One, you can now test the report by selecting print to screen, and checking to see whether the report is correct. Once you are satisfied with the report, re-run it, directing the output to either the printer or a file. If you anticipate running the same report again, with the same selection criteria, click on the button and type in the name of the file where you want to store the selection criteria.
When you run the report the next time, simply re-load the selection criteria by clicking on the button and select your saved file.
Setting up a batch of reports
Having spent considerable time modifying your reports to suit your needs, you may have a number of them that run at regular intervals. For example you may wish to run your headcount report, new employees listing, and organisation structure report at the beginning of each month. To save time selecting each report in turn and re-loading selection criteria for each, the Core Report Manager© has a second function for recording batch reports. When this option is selected from the menu, you are presented with a screen as shown in Figure Eleven.
Figure 11: Batch a set of reports
The first step is to enter the name of the batch file where you will be storing you set of reports. If you have already set up a number of batches, you can select one from the drop down list at the top of the screen.
The screen will report when the batch was last run, and who ran the reports.
To set up a batch, select the required reports from the drop down lists, and also select any selection criteria associated with the report. Note that your selection criteria should identify the report destination.
Once you are satisfied with the batch, then click on the Print button to commence printing the reports, in the sequence they were selected.
If your selection criteria contains a date range, you may have to go back and reset the date ranges before running any batch reports, to ensure they correct time frame is reported.
Conclusion
The CORE Report Manager© is a simple to use, yet powerful component of all CORE systems. Whilst it does not enable users to build ad-hoc reports for themselves, it does give you the flexibility to modify an extensive range of existing reports. Ad-hoc reporting requires another level of skills in report design that is often outside the range of normal users of the CORE systems. The CORE Report Manager© has been designed for normal, everyday use of our systems. Ad-hoc reporting is best met with a third party report writer such as Crystal Reports 6.0. We are happy to advise you on the implementation of Crystal Reports 6.0 if you wish to extend the usefulness of the CORE systems.
CORE HR Systems provides a full maintenance support function to all its registered users. We are happy to help with the design of new reports for inclusion in your system. If a user recommends a new report that is useful to all other users, we will include it as part of our upgrade strategy.