Creating Table Reports

This lesson includes many details about creating Table Reports. Here’s what you can expect to experience as you make your way through the lesson.

1. First, you will cover some key concepts on utilizing table reports.
2. Then, you’ll cover how to plan a Table Report.
3. Next, you’ll learn how to create a new Table Report.
4. After that, you’ll see how to define configurations on Table Reports.
5. Lastly, you’ll get some practice creating a table report

Keep in mind that no one expects you to memorize all the details. The intent is for you to get a lay of the land when it comes to creating Table Reports and feel comfortable to refer to this part of the course in the future as you build these reports.

Now that you’ve done some planning, you’re ready to create a new report. Creating a new report launches the Report Builder to guide the user through a series of steps. The Report Center calls this process 'creating a new table'.

You can start the Table Report Builder by completing the following steps:

1. In the Report Center, choose New.
2. Select the table and choose Select.
3. Select the Report Type.
4. Select a Reporting Domain.
5. Choose Select.
6. The rest of the steps are common to Creating an Table Report with Table Report Builder.

The Add Domain button is used to add additional reporting domains to the report.

For Cross Domain, the only domains supported through the Cross Domain functionality (based on the current domain selected in the report) will be available.

For Multi Dataset, you can select any additional domains.

Next, you’ll learn about limiting the output to certain individuals.

Some users may need to have access to data outside of their a relationship hierarchy as determined by the User Data File. These users may be administrators or analysts (or any user who requires this permission). To allow select users to see information of a predefined group of people, you must permission them to do so.

The first thing you need to consider when creating a report is whether the report is for your use only or if this is a report to be shared with others.

If the report is for you and you will never share it, select either your name or Logged In User from the Team Manager section. Both have the same impact on the report results since you are the logged in user. However, selecting your name creates an absolute or fixed starting point for the user data scope.

If you would like to share the report so that others can run and view the information as it pertains to them, select Logged In User from the Team Manager dropdown. This creates a relative starting point for the people scope.

In Team Reporting Type, select the specific scope on which to report. Team View, HR Reports, and Detailed Reporting Rights or Other Filters are the most used.

By combining Team Manager and Team Reporting Type, you determine the People whose data is displayed in the output.

Next, let's consider how to customize your Table Report with more detailed information. Selecting Columns is available for all Reporting Domains.

The Table Report Builder displays its output as a list. The list contains the columns you choose during the report setup.

Each column you create in a Table Report is a field from a selected Reporting Domain. If the Reporting Domain is Goal Management, the columns available for your selection are fields pertaining to the Goal Management module.

The most difficult aspect of selecting columns is knowing which columns in the list contain the data on which you would like to report. Each SAP SuccessFactors implementation is unique. Depending on your system's configuration, the columns you select may be tailored for the data your organization tracks.

A data map is a document that each organization should create to document how that organization stores data. For example, it could contain which field in the SuccessFactors configuration are in use, the organizations’ purpose for using the field, what type of data is stored, and where it is available in SuccessFactors reporting solution (Domain → Table → Field).

To create a data map, complete the following steps.

1. Create a Table Report that contains ALL the available fields for selection.
2. Review the results.
3. Create a document (possibly an Excel file) that lists each column name and the data it contains, if any. In addition, ensure you specify the fields that are not relevant for your organization

The Select Columns screen is organized first by All Columns then by subsets of data from the report type and data set (if applicable). In the example, these are all the available columns from the Goal module. To see all the columns, scroll down.

If you select a section on the left, the columns in the center are limited to the data found in that section. To select a column for display in your report, place a check in the box to its left. To remove a column from your report, either deselect the check box or select the trashcan icon to the right of the column in the Selected Columns area.

By default, columns are ordered in the report in the order they were selected. To change the column order, select Rearrange Columns then choose and drag up / down to position the columns in the desired order.

To avoid duplicate entries in the output of the report, select Enable Distinct. The Enable Distinct function applies only when the content of the rows, shown in the report, is the same (duplicate). If the content of the rows is different for any column or fields, the row will not be hidden.

You can sort the output of your report in the Columns area of the Table Report Builder. You can add multiple levels of sorting.

You can also group your results and create aggregate columns of data. For example, you can create a report that determines the average performance score by location.

So far in this lesson, you’ve learned how to set multiple Table Report Configurations. Great job!

Next, let’s transition to look at the field configuration, kinds of filters you can use, and relationships in the Table Report Builder.

DataType Configuration enables the report creator to define what date/time format should be utilized for datetime fields. This allows the selection of either the Date field (for example, 31/12/2015) or Timestamp field (for example, 31/12/2015 21:00:00) formats. If you select Timestamp, it also gives the option to choose whether the field is localized (shown relevant to your current time zone).

Show Value ID Configuration enables to define whether the ID or Label should be shown for Picklist fields. Showing the ID can be useful when language-independent logic must be defined based on the report output.

For example, you may have a field that a user selects values Good, Fair, or Needs Improvement as labels, However the system stores the ID values of 3, 2, 1. Normally the report will show the Label by default, translated into the report consumers preferred locale. It may be useful is some circumstances to show the ID (3,2,1) in the report so that it is the same values, regardless of preferred locale.

Filter By My Selection enables the creator of the report to select their criteria from the list of existing data in the field. This can be useful if searching on a specific value from the field.

Filter by Rule enables more flexibility in setting up your criteria. Rules can be created to find exact matches, similar matches, or numeric values greater than, less than, or equal to. This option may also be used to find blanks which can identify users without the data you are looking for.

You have the option of creating multiple rules within the Filter Group to create AND or OR statements.

Each of the of options allow the creator of the report to select User Prompted. If selected, the report viewer will be prompted to enter criteria (either by selection or by rule) at the time the report is generated. This allows the report to be flexible in its use. For example, instead of a report that searches for all employees who speak French fluently, by prompting the user for criteria, the report could be generated for different languages at the report viewer's discretion.

When using the filter options, you may create multiple filter groups. You have the option of creating multiple Rules within a Filter Group to create AND or OR statements. By adding additional filter groups, you create OR statements.

For example, if you wish to return data for people who speak Spanish AND who are located in Spain, you would create one filter group that contained the filter "Language Spoken" = "Spanish" and the filter "Location" = "Spain". For people to pass through this filter group and appear in your report, both conditions must be true.

By contrast, if you wanted to find people who either spoke Spanish OR lived in Spain, you would create two filter groups: the first filter group would contain the filter "Language Spoken" = "Spanish", while the second filter group would contain the filter "Location"= "Spain"; If EITHER one of the two filter groups has all its conditions satisfied, then the person is included in the report.

When you create a cross domain report, you must define how those domains relate. The Relationships options let you define the Joining Fields from each reporting domain and Join Type between domains.

The Joining Field will list all fields available within a domain from which you want to join.