Dynamic Planning Report, Design

Overview

With the Design subtask you can modify an existing report or create another. Access the Design subtask by selecting the Report task and the Design subtask.

Actions Available

A description of the actions available for the Design subtask is provided below.

Report: New Report

or

With the New Report action, you can have one report based off of data from multiple reports saved on different models. For example, you have a corporate model and a model for a foreign subsidiary. Each has an Operating Expense report. To view the Operating Expense report for the corporate model and the foreign subsidiary model in one report, copy and paste each report with captured data intersections to the New Report spreadsheet.

Design Manager

Design Manager offers advanced, more granular reporting capabilities. You can specify data intersections and dimension members from one or more models. You can also select POV options.

See: Design Manager

Format Manager

Apply formatting options and lock cells. For example, display reports in various amount formats (such as thousands, millions, and billions). Select a cell or range of cells and click Format Manager to launch the Format Manager dialog page.

A description of each of the fields on the Format Manager dialog page is provided below.

Locked - Select Yes to lock a selected cell or cell range to prevent modification. For example, you want users to input only certain portions of report data.

Amount Format - Select to format numeric cells in Tens, Hundreds, Thousands, or Millions. Amount Format applies to reporting only.

Applies To - The cell range selected.

View/Select Range - Change the cell or cell range applied for the format you are changing.

Update - Apply Format Manager selections to the cell or cell range selected. Save the report and then run it to display the selected cells in the appropriate format.

Properties

Click the Properties action to save the report to a specified model, select groups that can access the report, and specify Point of View (POV) selections and filter criteria. The table below describes each of the cells on the Properties page.

Save / Save As

Save the report.

When Save As is selected from the Report Design page, all Report Properties are set to the default selections with the exception of created and modified properties. Update the Report Properties accordingly. Define group access for the new report. Created On and Created By fields are updated by the system based on the user who performed the Save As operation. Modified On and Modified By fields are blank until the report is modified.

When Save As is selected from the Report Design Properties page, all Report Properties, including Design Manager, Format Manager and Point of View (POV) settings, remain the same as those in the source report with the exception of group access and created and modified properties. Define group access for the new report. Created On and Created By fields are updated by the system based on the user who performed the Save As operation. Modified On and Modified By fields are blank until the report is modified.

In Practice: Perform a Save As for a Report in SpotlightXL with Default Selections

1. Select the Report task and the Design subtask.

2. Select Save, Save As.

3. Enter a name for the report and select Save.

   

In Practice: Perform a Save As for a Report in SpotlightXL with Source Selections

1. Select the Report task and the Design subtask.

2. Click Properties.

3. Select Save, Save As.

4. Enter a name for the report and select Save.

More

Calculation

The Calculation option provides a quick way to adjust underlying Calculations and associated Formulas to achieve desired results whether in Report/View Design or Run mode. For example, let's say you have a View where you forecast units and multiply the price to result in sales. Now, you can quickly change a Calculation and associated Formula to recalculate forecasted sales to provide another sales scenario.

Capture Data

This action captures metadata for report intersections and converts the report to an Excel Report. You can Capture Data from either Run mode or Design mode.

With this option, you can convert your existing reports into Excel Reports and there is no need to redesign the reports from scratch.

Clicking Capture Data from the Report menu converts the cells to Spotlight formulas. Clicking Capture Data from the Analyze menu converts the cells to formatted reporting cell comments.

Capture Entire Workbook

If you have existing formatted reports in a workbook with multiple worksheets, you can convert all tabs to Spotlight formulas with one action, Capture Entire Workbook.

Creating a New Report Based on an Existing Report

In Practice: In the following example, a new report is created based off an existing report.

1. Select the Report task and the Run subtask.

2. Select the existing report from the Report list box.

3. Select the Design subtask.

   

4. Edit the report as needed using Excel functionality. In the example below, the color of the spreadsheet cells have been changed and the font for the headings are enlarged.

   

5. Click Properties.

6. Next to Display, select from Code or Display Label.

7. Next to Enable Save, specify None if this is not a data entry report. Specify Calculation Model if there is only one model used in the report and you want a calculation to be run when the user clicks Save. Specify All Models if there are data cells from more than one model in the report.

8. In the Group section, use the drop-down to select a user group to provide access to the report. To specify more than one group, add rows. The default is no user groups, which means that if you do not provide a user group, only Power Users and the report creator will have access. You can only assign group access for those groups which you are a member and have access to the model.

   Note:

   there must be a blank row between the Group section and the POV section.

9. Click Save. You will remain in the Design mode. If you would like to run the report select Run from the subtask selection

See: How to work with Model, View, and Report Folder and Organization Functionality

Creating a Report Using the New Report Action

With the New Report action, you can have one report based off of data from multiple reports saved on different models. For example, you have a corporate model and a model for a foreign subsidiary. Each has an Operating Expense report. To view the Operating Expense report for the corporate model and the foreign subsidiary model in one report, copy and paste each report with captured data intersections to the New Report spreadsheet.

In Practice: In the following example, a new report is added using the New Report feature.

1. Select the Report task and the Design subtask.

2. Click New Report.

3. Copy and paste report details from captured data intersections. These are represented by the red carats in the upper right hand corner of a cell (see Capture Data or Analyze, Design Report for steps to capture data intersections).

4. Click Save.

5. Enter a name for the report in the Name field and click Save.

6. Click the Properties action.

7. Select a model to save the report to in the Save on Model cell.

8. Select the group or groups you want to have access to the report.

9. Click Save.

10. Select Report, Run to view the report.

Setting Report Properties

Click the Properties action to save the report to a specified model, select groups that can access the report, and specify Point of View (POV) selections and filter criteria.

Each of the fields on the Properties page are described below.

Description

Enter a brief description of this report.

Display

Display dimension members by label (Display Label ) or Code.

This functionality provides the flexibility to both analyze and report the data based on Code or based on Display Label for the dimensions in the Model.

Display Label Example

Display Code Example

For models sourced from Structured Planning, Consolidation, and Reporting applications, the Display Label is defaulted to the dimension member code-name. For example, if a dimension member is named Executive and the code is Exec, the Display Label would be Exec - Executive. If no name exists for dimension member, the dimension member code is displayed.

You can set the Display Label for each individual report or view.

See Also: Customizing the Display Label

Hide Gridlines

Yes - Hide gridlines from display in the report.

No - Show gridlines in the report which is the default.

Hide Headers

Yes - Hide header lines from display in the report.

No - Allow header lines to display in the report, which is the default.

Without and With Headers:

Enable Save

Save data for all models available in the report and run the calculation without saving the data.

None - This is the default option, when selected no data will be saved.

Calculation Model - This option saves the data of the model where the calculation is running. This means that when you save the report, the calculation is executed automatically as part of the save function.

All Models - This option saves the data for all models available in the report or a specific model in the report.

Click to view a drop-down that provides the possible selections.

Calculation Model

Select a model to save the report to. You can display data from multiple models on a single report, if you would like to make changes and save them back to a model, only one model can be selected.

Calculation on Save

Include a Calculation, which provides the order in which the calculations take place. The calculation will be executed when you click Save. The calculation name should be provided in the available property. This property is dependent upon the Enable Save property when creating a model. Enable Save must be set to Yes to execute this calculation.

By default, Calculations run in the foreground, and users must wait until the calculation is complete before continuing to use the report. Power Users can set an application-wide setting to run calculations in the background for all views and reports that trigger calculations. Those calculations must have been created with the option Run in Background set to Yes. After the calculation has completed its processing, an email is automatically sent to the user that triggered it.

Our recommendation is to set this option to Yes.

In Practice

1. Select Manage, Application Administration, Application Settings. Scroll down to the Calculation Property section. After making changes, click Save. Then logoff and login again to see the effect of the changes.

   

2. Select Model, Calculation to ensure that the calculation was set up with Run in Background set to Yes.

   

3. You can see a list of all calculations and their current background setting by choosing Model, Setup. Select the model, then scroll down to the Calculations section.

   

4. Verify that the calculation is set up to run when the user clicks Save from a view or report by reviewing the view or report properties.
   

5. When the user clicks Save in the view or report, they see the following message:

   

   Note:

   The view or report does not refresh the data automatically after the user clicks Save.

Refresh on POV Change

Yes - automatically update the report based on point of view changes.

No - report will not be updated when point of view changes are made.

Suppress Rows

• None - This is the default. Blank and Zero rows will appear in the report.

• Zero - Rows with zero values will be hidden in the report.

• Blank - Rows that contain no data (blank) will be hidden in the report.

• Both - Zero & Blank - Both Blank and Zero rows will be hidden in the report.

Suppress Columns

• None - This is the default. Blank and Zero columns will appear in the report.

• Zero - Columns with zero values will be hidden in the report.

• Blank - Columns that contain no data (blank) will be hidden in the report.

• Both - Zero & Blank - Both Blank and Zero columns will be hidden in the report.

Created On

The date the view was created. This cell is populated by the system.

Created By

The username of the user who created the view. This cell is populated by the system.

Modified On

The date in which the view was last modified. This cell is populated by the system.

Modified By

The username of the user who last modified the view. This cell is populated by the system.

Group

The name of the user group you want to have access to the report. You can assign more than one group access to the report. This field is optional. You do not need to specify a group for the newly created report. If no group is specified, the report can only be viewed by you.

You can add group access to only the group(s) for which you are a member. For example, if you are a member of Group “Finance” but not “Operations”, you can assign Group “Finance” and you will receive a validation error if you try to set access to “Operations”.

The list of available groups is the complete list of groups for which you have access and also have access to the model for which you are trying to save a report.

POV

Select POV to define a dimension to control the data displayed in a report. POV is a user-specific method of modifying settings to desired dimension members. POVs apply to all objects on a report (for example, grids and charts).

Filter

Select a dimension member based on the POV dimension selected.

Variable Name

The name of the substitution variable applied to the report.

Model

The name of the model the report is associated with.

Dimension

The dimension member that will be replaced with the entered/selected substitution variable.

Adding Groupings to Reports

Rows and columns can be grouped and saved for a report from SpotlightXL. Multiple groupings can be defined for a single report. When the reports defined in SpotlightXL are accessed from Spotlight (web version), the grouping defined on the report in SpotlightXL is retained. This functionality is available for all reports created for any models.

In Practice

1. Access SpotlightXL.

2. Access a report (Report > Run) that you want to add a group to.

3. Select Design (under Run).

4. Highlight the rows or columns you want to group as shown below.

   

5. Click the Data tab and select Group.

   

6. Return to the SpotlightXL tab.

7. Save the report.

8. Run the report. Notice the grouping is applied.

   

9. Login to Spotlight. When you run the same report, the grouping is applied.

   

Enabling Menu Items in Views and Reports: Save Data and Breakback

Views and Reports each have Property settings for saving data and running calculations. These settings affect whether the Save Data and Breakback buttons are provided or not on the menu ribbon.

When Enable Save is Yes, and when Calculation on Save and Calculation Model have valid values, both Save Data and Breakback are enabled on the ribbon.

Breakback is dependent on the Save Data property. If Save Data is Yes, Breakback is available.

Save Data is dependent on the Calculation on Save property in Views and the Calculation Model property in Reports. Save Data in reports is always on if Enable Save is set to All Models.

The following table shows how the Save Data and Breakback menu items are affected by the view and property settings.

Adding a Chart to a Report

In Practice

1. While designing your report, click the Insert menu tab.

   

2. In the Chart area of the menu bar, click the bar chart, then select a 2-D chart.

   Note:

   You can have up to 4 charts per report. See Chart Formatting and Types for other types of charts supported.

3. Drag and drop the chart to position it within the spreadsheet. Format the report as desired. Specify the data range, legend, and title.

   

4. Click the SpotlightXL tab and click Save. Select Data from the subtask selections to return to analyzing the data.

Understanding Design Manager

Overview of Cell Types in Reports

Description of Fields

Filtering Members

Identifying POV Dimensions

Excluding POV Dimensions in Reports

Overview of Cell Types in Reports

In this example, select the 2018 cell and then click Design Manager. It displays the name of the dimension (Time) and the member currently selected (2018).

You can select a new value for Time by clicking the member select icon. Select 2017 and click Update to replace 2018 with 2017 in the spreadsheet.

All row and column level dimensions and dimension members are considered to be "member" cells.

If you select a data intersection such as 977,500 and click Design Manager, the associated dimensions and dimension members are displayed. If the dimension is on the page level (above the rows and columns), you see POV in the Exclude POV column. See Identifying POV Dimensions for more information.

The cell is referred to as a "data" cell. Data cells represent data intersections, which are formed from the intersection of all dimensions in the model. If you select a new value for any of the dimensions, the data cell is automatically updated based on selections once you click the Update button on the Design Manager interface.

Select a blank cell and click Design Manager. Notice how the interface is updated to give you the option to create a data cell, dimension member cell, or POV cell.

You can also report off of any one model or multiple models available to you in the Model list box. For example, if you want a report with 3 data intersections from Model A, 1 data intersection from Model B, and 5 data intersections from Model C, Design Manager gives you the flexibility to do so.

Description of Fields

Data - Data Intersection

Report on the combination of two of more dimension members. Select members from a dimension intersection to populate the value within the report. You can pull data from an intersection for any model for which you have access.

When Data is selected, the Model list box is available along with the dimensions that belong to the selected model as shown below.

You can select to exclude point of view (POV) dimensions in reports. For example, if your report has a page-level member for Company (My Cycles Company) and you want to show one cell of Total Corporate (My Holding Group) as a comparison, you can add the Total Corporate cell and exclude (or override) the Company POV for that cell.

Member - Dimension Member

Display a specific member name from a dimension.This replaces the cell with the name of the selected dimension member. When Member is selected, the Model and Dimension list boxes are available. Select the model from which you want to populate the report with dimension member information. Select the dimension that belongs to the selected model to populate your report.

When using POV and substitution variables, the member names will change based on the selected context.

POV - Option to Update Report Data

Make POV (point of view) selections based on a model and dimension. A POV is a method to allow users to select a particular member from a list box and then see all data in the report updated for that member. For example, if you want the user to be able to view different accounts, then put the Account dimension on the page level of the report, and make it a POV cell. As a result, data displayed in the report is controlled to display the selected Account dimension member.

When POV is selected, the Model and Dimension list boxes are available.

Attributes

Select this checkbox to display the attributes that are available in the selected model. Uncheck this checkbox to hide the attributes from the Design Manager.

Filtering Members

Filtering member options is helpful when updating an existing report, finding specific report dimension members, and previewing members you might filter.

1. Filter Member

2. Preview Filter Member

Filter Member

To use Filter Member, open a report in design mode by selecting the Report task and the Design subtask.

Select the entire spreadsheet as shown below and click Design Manager.

Select a dimension member to filter. In this case Jan 17 is selected (show below).

Now, select Filter Member as shown below.

The result is that the Jan 17 member filtered is selected in the design manager and is also highlighted within the spreadsheet as shown below.

If you would like to make any changes to the report and you want to select only a specific member from the report design and then make the change, in this example Jan-17 this new ‘Filter Member’ option will be very helpful.

Preview Filter Member

To use Preview Filter Member, open a report in design mode by selecting the Report task and the Design subtask. Select the entire spreadsheet and click Design Manager. Select a dimension member you want to preview prior to filtering. In this case, the Temp Mountain Bikes is selected along with the Preview Filter Member option as shown below.

The result is that the cell range is displayed as shown below. This way you know exactly where the member exists within the report.

Identifying POV Dimensions

You often use the Design Manager to pinpoint what dimension intersections are being used for the data cells. Design Manager clearly shows how POV cells are being used.

In a simple report, select one or more data cells and then click Design Manager. The dimensions on the page axis (Company, Product, Project, and Measures) indicate the POV. (In the report below, Region is an attribute.)

In another version of that report, Time has been moved to the page axis as a POV. The report is showing Q4 2014, Budget and Actual.

We want the Actual column to use Exclude POV so that it always displays Actual for the whole year.

1. Select the cells in the Actual column and click Design Manager.

2. Check the Exclude POV box and check the Q4 2014 box next to the Time dimension.

3. Click the member select icon and change the dimension member to 2014 then click Select.

   

4. Click Update.

5. Save the report changes.

6. Select Run.

   Now, no matter which member the user selects for the Time POV, the Actual column reflects the whole year.

   

When the Contributor User uses the Design Manager, it becomes more clear that some cells are using the POV and some are not.

1. From Report Design, select all the data cells of interest, then click Design Manager.

2. Under the Time dimension, note that the selected cells are using both Exclude POV 2014 and a regular POV Q4 2014.

   

3. If you do not remember which cells are using which member, select one of the rows, then select Preview Filter Member from the Member Select icon.

   

   The cells are highlighted for you until you click Cancel.

   

   Similarly, if an end user is running the report and they want to see what dimensions are being used in the report, they can select Metadata Viewer from the More menu. Then use Preview Filter Member to see which cells are using 2014 and which cells are using Q4 2014.

   

   

Excluding POV Dimensions in Reports

You can select to exclude point of view (POV) dimensions in reports. For example, in a model, if price is maintained at the region level (Region dimension) versus the customer level (Customer dimension), you can exclude the Customer dimension as a POV in the report.

1. While in Report Design mode, select all the data in the report, then click Design Manager.

2. Design Manager, click the Exclude POV checkbox.

   

3. Next to Customer, click the Exclude POV checkbox.

   

4. Click Update.

5. Save the report changes.

6. Run the report. When you change the POV for Customer and Refresh the data, no change is reflected. Only your changes to the Region or Scenario dimension affect the data.

Locking and Unlocking Cells in a Report

You can lock data cells in a report to prevent modification by users. For example, you want users to input only certain portions of report data.

In Practice

1. Select the data cells, then click Format Manager from the menu ribbon.

2. Specify Yes for Locked, and then click Update.

   

3. Alternatively, you can click the cell selector icon to specify the range of cells to lock.

   

4. Select the cells, then click the icon to Set as the New Range.

   

5. In the Format Manager box, click Update.

   If Save on Model is not enabled, the report cells will unlocked to allow data input.

   Selections	Image	Results
   Enable Save = None Calculation Model = None Selected Calculation on Save = None Selected		No data is saved. No Calculation is executed.
   Enable Save = None Calculation Model = Model Selected Calculation on Save = Calculation Selected		No data is saved. Calculation is executed.
   Enable Save = Calculation Model Selected Calculation Model = Model Selected Calculation on Save = None Selected		Data saved on Calculation model. No Calculation is executed.
   Enable Save = Calculation Model Selected Calculation Model = Model Selected Calculation on Save = Calculation Selected		Data saved on Calculation model. Calculation is executed.
   Enable Save = All Models Selected Calculation Model = Model Selected Calculation on Save = Calculation Selected		Data is saved on all models. Calculation is executed.
   Enable Save = All Models Calculation Model = None Selected Calculation on Save = None Selected		Data is saved on all models. No Calculation is executed.

Applying Scale to Numbers

You can use scaling in SpotlightXL to see numeric values in the tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on. Displaying numbers in a smaller form can make a report appear cleaner and easier to understand. For example, on the Report Design page for the Annual Sales Revenue report, the Thousands scaling Amount Format is applied and then saved.

When you run the report, numbers are divided by 1000 and displayed in the worksheet. The original source data is not changed.

Shared POV Dimensions Across Models in a Report

It is possible to design a report with a single POV cell that affects the data seen for multiple models represented by the data. This feature gives you flexibility to minimize the number of dimension selections performed for creating a consolidated report. A consolidated report is a report that brings data from multiple models.

Consider two models, Sales Rep and Sales Forecast configured for an enterprise. The requirement is to create a consolidated report from both models. A few dimensions like Scenario and Region are common between the reports. Notice that, even though models contain common dimensions you select dimensions individually from each of models to create a consolidated report. Shared POVs allow you to configure one POV dimension for common dimensions in a report.

A common POV among these two reports is the Scenario.

In Practice: Setting up Scenario as a Shared POV

1. Select Report Design.

2. Select the first Scenario POV cell and click Design Manager. Design Manager tells you that the cell represents the model Sales Forecast.

3. Use the horizontal scrollbar under Share POV to locate and check the checkbox for Sales Rep.

   

4. Click Update.

5. Next, delete the row containing the second Scenario POV cell.

   

6. Save the report design, then Run it.

7. When you change the Scenario selection and click Refresh, the data for both reports is updated.

Refreshing the Report Data on a POV Change

With Refresh on POV change you can specify if you want to refresh report each time you change POV to see report data. Suppose you set Refresh on POV change toYes. When you run a report, choose a POV to view report, the report data contains refreshed data. By default this property is set to No.

While running the report you can change the POV dimension member and if this property is set to Yes then the report will automatically refreshes once you select any POV dimension member. In a sample report, if you have Time dimension as a POV dimension and you select 2015 from the Time dimension then the report will be refreshed and the data for 2015 will be displayed in the report.