Drilling to a different format report

[JohnBanks]

We've got some really simple reports set up that list the total value of transactions for each Nominal Account in a given Cost Centre and Period.

We'd now like to be able to "drill down" on one of these figures in order to see the detailed transactions that make up that value. Of course this new report will be in a different format to the one we're drilling down from.

How do we go about doing this?

Any help greatly appreciated

 

[blom0344]

Hello John

Example:

Level1: Sales rep
Level2: Customer
Level3: Product

These are the dimensions for the drilling report.

Measures:

Sales value and quantities.

Retrieve dataset with one query. In universe the aggregate property of the measures should be set to 'sum'.
Run the report, delete dimension customer and product from the table. All aggregated measures are automatically shown per sales rep.

Create hierarchie (analysis --> hierarchies)with the three dimensions. Set cursor on salesrep column and push the drill button (magnifying glass) .A new drill report is opened. If you hover over the salesrep column you will see the underlying dimension. Drill through a level by rightclicking.

Good luck!! T. Blom
Information analist
Shimano Europe
tbl@shimano-eu.com

 

[JohnBanks]

Thanks, Tom, but that's the easy bit.

What I want to do is to start with a report that lists, say

Nominal Amount
100 123.45
130 2,020.20
240 45,678.90

Then having seen that Nominal 240 seems to be very high, to click on it and go to a report for Nominal 240 that shows:

Date Journal No Description Amount
04/07/2002 PL123 Widgets 78.90
07/07/2002 GJ456 FD's Holiday Money 45,600.00

P.S. If you've seen reporting in Quicken or QuickBooks, you'll know exactly what I mean!

 

[blom0344]

Hello John,

I don't think we synchronize on the meaning of drilling. The way BO handles drilling is the way I described (step for step through dimensions). You're looking for a new BO feature; drilling from report to another report. Don't have a solution for this one.

Standard BO solution would be to create two report tabs , one for totals and one for details. If you want to examine the details for nominal 240 you skip to the report tab with detail where report is build up with section on nominal.
User can directly navigate using report manager to the 240 where he'll find all the transaction details.

Actually it's the enhancement over the old BO 4 version that you will than use to good effect (report manager ,that is!) T. Blom
Information analist
Shimano Europe
tbl@shimano-eu.com

 

[ATP]

Have you tried using the OUTLINE option?

If you Section the report by Nominal Code, have the summary data in the section header and the details below.

Select "Outline" from the View Menu and collapse the sections by using the small buttons which appear on the bottom of the Outline bar.

Clicking on the arrows on the left can then individually expand each section.

Hope this helps.
Andy P.(BCM)

 

[rodrigo987]

Hi John

I am also having this problem. The only solution that business objects can offer me is that there is an enhancement request dealing with this and it should be out shortly.


Rodrigo

 

[blom0344]

Hello Rodrigo,

This is very interesting stuff you are teling. Can you be more specific about the request in technical terms? It would be greatly appreciated by lots of BO users!!! T. Blom
Information analist
Shimano Europe
tbl@shimano-eu.com

 

[JohnBanks]

Andy

That could work, I suppose, but the first report is derived from a high-level summary table, while the second is derived from the underlying transactions database.

For some users the potential size of the query to feed the second report would be enormous, so it really does need to be queried on the fly.

John

 

[webi2002]

I had a similar request on my end, and as a developer, it is frustrating to educate the users on out of the box capabilities, however Business Objects does offer a solution that made my life simpler. I created a summary in WebI, and added hyperlinks to resulting data, and thereby if they wanted to see detail information with respects to the summary, then the user clicks on the hyperlink and the user is then taken to a detail level based on the user's criteria. As an example I created the Summary and detail, and when the user clicked on a site, then the detail report would be called with parameters so that the user can identify at a lower level. It is another way of doing drill down. I hope that it helps.. Check it out in the Business Objects website.