Explaining Canvas Reports 

Canvas Reports allow you to visualize data in a formatted, presentation-ready report. Canvas Reports utilize Page Designer, a self-service tool that can be used to drag & drop components onto a report page easily. These components can include Tables, Charts, Images, or Text.

Canvas Reports can include data from multiple data sources, including:

• Live Data source
• Replicated Data Source, which pulls data from SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central (EC) and other modules
• SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics data source

Some data sources may not be available for your instance, depending on your current configuration and contract.

Report Center is a centralized reporting tool for building and managing your reports.

Canvas Reports created within the Page Designer tool can be formatted into a presentation-ready list, table, and chart styles, and users can also pivot data.

Canvas Reports can be exported as PowerPoints, PDFs, Word documents, or tables as Excel spreadsheets. Users can also use the Report Distributor and Scheduled Reports tools to schedule and email PDFs of reports or run reports offline.

Users can implement customizations, such as relabeling fields, creating custom calculations and concatenated fields, using If/Then/Else statements, hiding duplicates, and aggregating data.

There are permissions available to manage access to Canvas Reports. These are assigned with Role-Based Permissions:

• Canvas Designer Admin: can create, edit, and delete canvas reports in the Report Center.
• Canvas Designer: can create, edit, and delete reports created by the user only.

Users with access to the Report Center can view reports shared with them.

Page Designer is a report layout tool used to design the report pages of a Canvas Report.

Pages are designed using components. Several different components, each with its own use, can be used in Canvas Report pages.

Components typically used are:

• Images: Add page graphics to enhance visualization.
• Text: Include titles, descriptive text, and navigational menus with your pages.
• List report: A detailed view into the numbers behind employees, forms, and performance factors.
• Pivot table: Reorganize selected columns or rows of data (slices data) to view it from different perspectives.
• Pivot chart: A graphical representation of the data in a pivot table.

Filters allow you to limit the data you view in a report or query. There are two types of filters:

• Static Filter: Filters rows based on a value of a specified field. Once added, it is permanently applied to a report.
• Runtime Filter: Filters rows based on the field, allowing end users to choose the filtered value.

Reports with runtime (user prompted) filters, people scope, and/or date options will prompt the user to make filter selections before displaying results. The user will see a pop-up at the top of the report page with filter criteria before seeing the results.

The Cross-Domain reporting feature allows you to add columns from different modules, and the query will auto-link the data. After setting up the query, you can also use the Pivot Query Designer to aggregate fields across different modules. With actionable analytics, when end users run a report online, they can take action right from the report on employment records.

This enables users to make immediate changes if they see anything that needs adjustment while reviewing a report. Depending on the type of data users are viewing, the options available will vary.

The Report Distributor and Scheduler tools allow users to schedule and distribute reports via email, send reports to an FTP server, or run reports offline.

The Report Distributor combines reports into bundles, and then the bundles are configured to be sent. Most organizations send one or more reports in a bundle by email to recipients who need the report.

The Report Scheduler allows simplified scheduling, configuration, and independent FTP target servers.

SAP SuccessFactors provides standard pre-built Canvas Report templates for Employee Central and Talent Management reporting. They are available in the SAP Help Portal and can be uploaded to the organization's instance. They can be found in the Using Template Canvas Reports document.

Customers are then able to customize these reports per business requirements. The data is easily exportable for use in other tools or applications such as Microsoft Excel.

Templates are available for all data sources:

• Live data source for templates related to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Profile and Talent Management modules.
• Replicated data source for templates related to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central.
• Workforce Analytics data source for templates related to SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics.