Understanding Report Sets

Overview

Report Sets are reusable building blocks designed to streamline the creation of dynamic reports by providing consistent and standardized structures. Once created, a Report Set can be applied to multiple reports, offering flexibility and promoting uniformity across reports that use the same structure. They can be used interchangeably on the rows or columns of a report, depending on your needs.

Report Sets consist of line types that link to specific dimension members in a hierarchy, allowing for tailored configurations. For instance, Reference Account line types should be linked to the appropriate dimensions and follow consistent naming conventions to ensure clarity and accuracy. You can also associate multiple dimensions within Report Set lines based on your reporting requirements.

When used in dynamic reports, Report Sets applied to rows are called Row Sets, while those applied to columns are referred to as Column Sets. Examples of Report Sets include Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements on an Account dimension or yearly, quarterly, and monthly timeframes on a Time dimension. By leveraging Report Sets, you can create adaptable and well-structured reports while maintaining consistency across your reporting framework.

Note:

Existing users can contact Planful Support to enable the Dynamic Reports Headers functionality in their Production environment. For new users, this functionality is enabled by default.

Report Set Types

There are two types of report sets in the Planful application:

Static Report Set - Static Report Sets are created by defining each Report Set line item individually. These report sets are further classified into the following:

• Classic

• Modern

Default formatting and column precedence are applied after enabling Modern Features on a Classic Report Set for absolute rows. All details can be modified and saved. The audit log is updated upon editing and saving.

Note:

When Modern Features are enabled on a Classic Report Set with Borders, Apply On, or Precedence formatting, it is required to manually adjust Dynamic Reports within the Report Set.

Dynamic Report Set - Dynamic Report Sets are created using Rules, which fetch members directly from the dimensional hierarchies.

When a Static or Dynamic Report Set is used on the row axis of a Dynamic Report, its primary dimension appears as the column header. This also applies when a Dynamic Report Set is combined with other Report Sets and dimensions.

Static vs Dynamic Report Sets

Static Report Sets offer better features, formatting, and functionality compared to Dynamic Report Sets. The key difference is the types of rule expressions that Static Report Sets support. These include:

• Member Value Expressions - Parent, lead, lag, first child, last child, current member, previous member, next member, ancestor, first sibling, last sibling, etc.

• Numeric Functions - Aggregate, sum, average, count, etc.

• Time Series Functions -  Parallel period, opening period, closing period, periods to date, etc.

• String Manipulations - MEMBERTOSTR, STRTOMEMBER

• Tuples - Multi-dimensional rules

Note:

The rules generate a single element or member as the output for the above-listed Static Report Set expressions.

One limitation with Static Report Sets is that they don't support Set Value Expressions where the rules results in a set of elements or members. This is where you can use Dynamic Report Sets, using Set Value Expressions such as Hierarchies, Descendants/Ancestors/Children of a member, Filter, TopCount, Order, Except, etc.

The key differences between the Modern and Classic Report Sets are displayed in the table below.

How to Add a Report Set?

To create a Report Set, do the following:

1. Click Reports.

2. Click the + icon and select Report Set. The Add Report Set window appears.

3. From the Type drop-down list, select one of the following:

   • Static

   • Dynamic

4. Enter a unique code for Report Set in the Code field.

5. Enter a unique Report Set name in the Name field.

6. Select one of the following from the Reporting Area drop-down list:

   • Financial

   • Workforce

7. Select the required dimension from the Dimension drop-down list.

8. Select the required location where you want to save the Report Set.

9. Click Save to add the new Report Set to the selected location.

Report Sets and Measure

Only one measure can be used in a Report Set. For instance, creating a Report Set with both a Workforce Attribute and the value of each compensation item will prevent saving the Report Set. This limitation arises because Workforce Attributes are treated as measures in the Workforce Planning Cube.