Create Reports

• What is a Report?
• How do I ask a new Report?
• Report Editor 101
• How do I add numerical data to the Report?
• How do I organize the data in a Report?
• How do I filter the data in a Report?
• Crosstabs - How do I show a How category across columns?
• How do I display subtotals?
• How do I display Percentage of Total values?
• How do I save a Report?
• How do I sort the data in a Report?
• What do the buttons above the grid do?
• Chart View

Click here to watch a short video on how to create a Report

What is a Report?

Reports are how we get information from a Data Mart. You create a Report against your Data Mart and Indicee will return the answer in the form of a table or graph. Once you have the information that you want, you can save your Report and share it to a group.

Before you can create a Report, you need to have access to a Data Mart.  You can create your own Data Mart using the Data Mart Designer or a QuickStart or have one shared to you by another Indicee user.

How do I launch a new Report?

To launch the Report Editor, click on the New Report button. There is one on the Overview page.  You can also find the New Report button the Reports page and on lots of other pages throughout Indicee.

Clicking on the New Report button will launch the Report Editor. If you have access to more than one Data Mart, you will be prompted to choose which Data Mart you want to use. 

Report Editor 101

The left hand side of the screen, under the green bar, is where you define the numbers and organization of your Report. The results are displayed on the right under the blue bar. To create a Report, Indicee uses menus that contain simple English terms specific to your Data Mart.  These menus are found under What, How and Filters labels.

To bring up a menu of the available items:

• Under What Click on [measure] to see your numerical data
• Under How click on [grouping] to see your data categories or dimensions
• Under Filters click on [limit] to filter your data based on a specific time period or a value of a How item

TIP:
If you used the Data Mart Editor, you will notice that Indicee uses the headings from the ‚Preview Data Mart‚ step to populate the menus. 

How do I add numerical data to the Report?

To add numerical data, you need to click on [measure] in the What section. Indicee will present a list of all the data items available in your Data Mart. Choose one and Indicee will display the result in the grid and add another [measure] so that you can add a second column of numerical data to the grid.

Repeat the process to add more columns. The order of the columns on the grid is determined by the order that the What items were added.

To delete a What column, click on the name of the item you wish to delete. Indicee will present the list of data items with the current one struck through, in this case qty sold. Click on it and Indicee will remove this column from the grid. You can also replace a data column by clicking on a different item.

How do I organize the data in a Report?

The How section of the Report Editor lets you organize your data by grouping it by category. Click on [grouping] and Indicee will present a list of the available groupings from your Data Mart.  The list will contain both time and non-time items.  Choose one and Indicee will display your chosen numerical data broken down by all the values in that category. If you select department, Indicee displays total sales broken down for each department.  Select Month and Indicee will display total sales broken down by each month.

You can also add a second grouping by clicking on [grouping] and selecting a category.  The example below shows sales for each department organized or grouped by store.  The order of the groupings determines how Indicee organizes the grid.  The first grouping is always closest to the data column.  To swap department and store, delete department and add it back below store.  Indicee updates the grid each time a change in made.

How do I filter the data in a Report?

Filters are used to limit a Report to a specific subset of the data.  They are commonly used to show data for a specific time period.  You can also apply a filter based on any other How category. 

To start, click on [limit] and Indicee will present a list of the filter options available.  The menu shows 3 types of filters, relative dates, specific dates and How values.  To choose one, simply click on it.

Relative dates
Last month, this year and yesterday are relative dates.  When Indicee returns the result of a Report limited to this month, it determines the actual date for this month and applies this to the data.  This means that your answer will be very different if you create your Report on May 31 versus June 1.  These are the easiest filters to apply.

Specific dates
If you want to limit your Report to a specific period of time, or several different periods, you need to click on Choose Date. Indicee will then launch the date chooser, which lets you navigate through all the dates in your Data Mart and choose from a group of years to a single day.  In the example here, the Data Mart has data from January to June 2009.  I have chosen to create a filter that will only return data from February and March 2009.

How filters
How filters let you filter on a set of values in a specific category.  In this example I only want to see the sales for bikes.  To do this I click on [set filter] beside department and then Indicee returns a list of all the different values for department.  To choose more than one item use shift-click or ctrl-click.

Once you choose your filters, they are displayed in the filter section of the Report and can be easily changed.  If you apply more than one filter, the results will be additive, which means the data in the Report must meet the conditions of all the filters. 

The Report shows sales of bikes for February and March 2009.

Crosstabs - how do I show a How category across columns?

 
Everything on rows
When looking at data, it is much easier to see a pattern when scanning left to right across columns than up and down along rows.  In our bike shop example, I would like to compare the sales for each department between the different stores. This is difficult to do since I have to skip a bunch of rows to compare the bike sales at each store.  To make it easier to read, we group the stores across the columns rather than the rows.

With Crosstab
To format as a crosstab, click on rows by and select columns by.  Indicee will then reformat the grid with the chosen category displayed along the columns.

How do I display subtotals?

To add subtotals to the grid, click on the subtotal button located above the grid.  Indicee will add a subtotal for each value in the category.  In this example, the subtotals provide the total sales for each store.

How do I display Percentage of Total values?

To add Percentage of Total values to the grid, you must first click on the subtotal button located above the grid, and then the percentage of total value button.  Indicee will add a Percentage of Total value for each total in the category.  In this example, the Percentage of Total values provide the relative sales for each store.

How do I save a Report?

To save a Report, click on Untitled Report (click to name), type a descriptive name in the box and then click the Save button. Once you save your Report the Save button will be grayed out.  If you make another change to the Report, the Save button will become enabled. 

Here is a quick list of what the other buttons do:

• Save As lets you save your Report with a new name without changing your original Report
• New clears the Report Editor, letting you create a new Reports
• Snapshot save an exact copy the grid. If new data is added to the Data Mart it will never change a saved snapshot
• Reset restores the Report to the last saved version
• Share allows you to choose a group to share your Report.  Sharing is how you collaborate within Indicee

How to I sort the data in a Report?

You can sort the grid by any data column. 

To sort, click on the blue circle beside the name of the What item.  Click once to sort in ascending order, click again to sort in descending order and click a third time to return to the original state.

What do the buttons above the grid do?

With your answer displayed in the grid, you can use the button bar to customize the grid and interact with the data. Below is a brief description of what the buttons do:

Display or hide the complete drill down structure

Fill in the labels for all rows in the grid

Show the properties of each element

Suppress or don’t show rows with value of zero or null

Turn drill down on or off. Used if you share a Report and don’t want people to drill down  

Export to PDF or Excel

Chart View

Clicking on the chart view tab on the top of the pivot table automatically displays a graph of your data. You can switch back and forth between the pivot table and the chart view and any changes to the table are immediately reflected in the chart. 

You can also change the chart format and add a title or a legend by clicking on Show Options.

The next step is to share your Report. Find out how.