Creating Custom Reports in Workforce Analytics

Through custom reports, WFA report designers can present a wealth of human resources data and build engaging reports that deconstruct metrics, organization units, occupational groups, and other analysis options.

You may need to manage report access, delete old reports, organize reports, and change report ownership.

You can manage custom reports via the Report Center. Report Center provides centralized access and management of all reports, not just custom reports on WFA data.

The Report Center provides all report management in a single, unified interface. Each item is categorized by a report type. Reports that can utilize WFA data are called Canvas report type.

Navigation to Report Center is covered in the basic navigation section earlier in this course.

You can search for a report by report or the author name. The search field uses an auto-complete feature.

Report Center users can filter the list of reports by Author, Modification Date, Labels, or Type. This filter setting remains the same value across login or logout sessions until it's changed or cleared. The filter icon indicates how many filter options are currently applied. You can sort results by Report Name, Author, Modification Date, or Type.

If you're a Report administrator, you have a view in Report Center referred to as. Administrators often have access to many reports, and this view limits the reports displayed so they can focus on essential reports. Administrators can use search and filter features on All Reports when locating additional reports.

Report Administrator views contain:

• My Reports: All your authored reports and reports shared with you.
• All Reports: All reports that you have access to.

These views appear in the Report Center navigation when the user is an administrator of any report type.

You can use Report Center to add or remove favorite reports that are available on the home page.

To use Favorite Reports:

• Select or clear the star icon that precedes the report name to add it or remove it from the list of favorite reports. For example, select the star before Goal Status in Report Center.
• On the latest home page, choose the Favorite Reports quick action to view your list of favorite reports, arranged by the report types. For example, Goal Status is listed under Dashboards. The quick action allows you to search and remove reports from your favorites list.

Labels can now be classified as public or private.

• Are visible to report administrators
• Are visible to report consumers when they have access (shared with them, author of the report) to a report assigned the public label
• Can be created by report administrators only
• Can be assigned to reports by report administrators only

• Are only visible to the user that created the private label
• Can be created by any reporting user
• Can be assigned to reports that the user can access

All reporting users can manage their own private labels. Only reporting administrators can manage public labels. See the following figures of the Manage Labels screen for two separate administrators and a reporting user.

Administrator A sets up public and private labels.

Administrator B can manage all public labels, but cannot see or manage Administrator A's private labels.

Report creators and consumers can't manage public labels.

You can create labels though either the dropdown next to the labels tab or though the action area of a report. Report administrators can create public and private labels. Other reporting users can only create private labels.

By default, when creating a new label, the label is set to private.

When working with a label name, consider the following:

• Labels are NOT case-sensitive. Retail and retail are considered as one label.
• You CAN create ONE public and private label with the same name.
• Label names of the same type (public, private) must be unique. For example, you cannot create a private label named FAVORITES and another private label named favorites.
• Private labels with the same name can be created by different users. For example, Sally can create a private label named Favorites, and Sam can create a private label named Favorites.

Report administrators can create public or private labels.

Other reporting users can create private labels only.

To create a label, complete the following steps:

1. Open Manage Labels and undertake one of the following actions:
   • Choose Create from the dropdown next to the Labels tab.
   • In the Label As action, choose Create New.
2. Enter a name in Label Name.
3. To set the label type as public, select Public.
4. To nest the label inside another, select Nested label in, and select its parent label from the dropdown list.
5. Select a color for the public label.
6. Choose Create.
7. Choose Done.

1. In Report Center, undertake one of the following actions:
   • Select the Label As button.
   • Select the action menu, and then point to Label As.
2. Select one or more labels.
3. Choose Apply.

You can also manage labels, such as deleting labels, editing the label color, marking as public or private, and grouping/nesting labels.

To manage labels in the Report Center, complete the following steps:

1. Choose Manage from the dropdown next to the Labels tab.
2. From Manage Labels, you can:
   • Search for existing labels.
   • Create a new label by choosing Create New.
   • Delete a label with the delete button.
   • Edit an existing label with the pencil (edit) button.
   Note

   With the Edit function, you can do the following:

   • Rename an existing label.
   • Mark public/private.
   • Change the color.
   • Nest it in another label.
3. When this task is complete, choose Done.

When you are using Report Center, you can view your reports in two views: Reports and Labels.

• The Reports tab allows you to view reports in a list format.
• The Labels tab allows you to view labels in a list format where the reports are grouped under labels. The reports that are not associated with any labels are grouped under Unlabeled.

Reports display labels under the report name.

You can select the view in Report Center. In the Report view, the labels appear underneath the corresponding report titles in the flat report list. Selecting a label filters for that label.

The label view shows public and private labels that can be expanded and collapsed.

When you enable the Labels view, Report Center displays public labels and the reporting user's private labels. Labels without reports that the user can access don't appear. Reports without labels appear in Unlabeled Reports.

To create a new report in Report Center, complete the following steps.

1. Navigate to the Report Center.
2. Choose New.
3. Select the report template, Canvas, and choose Select.
4. Provide a name for the report and choose Create.

   You can include translated report names with Add Localization.

5. The Page Designer will load to create a new page.

You can return to Report Center by selecting Report Center from the breadcrumb menu (Home→Report Center→Report name) in the top-left corner.

When you create a new canvas report with Report Center, a report with a single blank page is generated. The content of the canvas report page is built using Page Designer. Page Designer builds pages based upon components.

You can add a report component by dragging and dropping the appropriate icon onto the canvas or by right clicking the canvas page. The Page Designer will insert a generic placeholder for the component.

When you create a new canvas report with Report Center, a report with a single blank page is generated. The content of canvas report pages is built using Page Designer. Page Designer builds pages based upon components. Details on adding components is in the next section.

Page Designer also allows you to manage the pages within a report, which includes:

• Adding Pages (new pages or pages that exist in another report)
• Renaming Pages
• Reordering Pages
• Deleting Pages (orphaned pages or pages from the current report)

To add a new page in Page Designer:

1. In Report Center, edit the report to create a new page.

2. Using the Page menu, select one of the following:

   • New Page to add a new, blank page with an auto-generated name to the report.

   • Add Existing Page to select to add either a page from another report or an orphaned page that is not assigned to any report.

     Note

     You can delete existing orphaned pages from the Add Existing Page dialog box.

   The new or selected page loads in Page Designer.

1. In Page Designer, select the Pencil icon.

2. Type in the name of the new page.

3. Choose OK.

1. In Page Designer, select the Reorder icon.

2. Use the up and down arrows to update the page order.

3. Choose OK.

1. In the Page menu, select Delete.
2. Confirm the deletion by choosing OK.

When creating or editing a page, the page properties panel becomes available. You can use the panel to access several options:

• Edit page properties allows you to:

  • Name the page

  • Set the page orientation

  • Configure the page margins

  • Configure the page (canvas) size

• Edit designer properties allows you to:

  • Configure a background grid to assist with the layout of components

  • Manage overlapping components

• Validate Page checks the pages for errors.
• Grid Options allows you to quickly configure some of the same grid options that were available in Edit designer properties.

Pages are designed using components. There are a number of different components, each with its own purpose, that can be used in canvas report pages.

Use the fly out menu or right click the blank page to select a chart type.

To add a WFA query from Query Workspace or Investigate, use the Chart view based on published data.

To add a chart that includes benchmarking data, use the Chart view showing benchmark lines.

Use the fly out menu or right click the blank page to select a gauge type.

Use the fly out or right click the blank page to select a table type.

To add a WFA query from Query Workspace or Investigate, use the Table view based on published data.

To add a single table utilizing multiple queries for comparison, use the Composite table view based on published data.

Use the fly out menu or right click the blank page to select the following text types:

• Simple Text: link to reports and measures.

• Rich Text: multi-line text.

• Explain Text: insert standard measure formulas and descriptions.

• Workforce Planning Explain Text: insert standard WFP explanations.

Use the fly out menu or right click the blank page to add an image:

• Company Logo: add the preconfigure company logo used in the WFA portal.

• Upload Image: select a saved image to upload to the report.

Use the fly out menu or right click the blank page to add miscellaneous items. Examples of items that can be added are:

• Small Text with Hover.

• Navigating Selectable Items.

• Transition Diagram.

• Transition Table.

• Measure Index.

Add a chart based upon a query or pivot from a variety of data sources.

When you select an existing component on the page, you can use the quick options panel to set the most commonly used component settings. You can right click the component to access the ‘full editor’ that often has more settings than are available in the quick options panel. Each component will have different configurable settings.

To share a table or canvas report, you need to have Edit access to the report.

To share Story reports, you must be the owner of the report, or the report must be shared with you with the full access permission.

To share tile-based dashboards, you must be a dashboard and tile administrator.

To share with users, find and select individual users to share your report.

You're able to schedule reports for offline execution so that you can download the reports later or generate the reports at a regular cadence. Report scheduling is especially recommended for data intensive reports that can take a long time to generate. With scheduling, you can send reports to Secured File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) sites to offload processing for reports with large data volumes.

The user must have permission to schedule reports.

To schedule a report, complete the following steps:

1. Go to New Schedule from the Action menu.
2. Fill the required details on the Job Definition tab.
   1. Enter the Job Name.
   2. Select the Report Format.
   3. Enter the e-mail addresses you want to send notifications. These e-mail addresses do not receive the resulting scheduled report. You can choose to send notifications on Job Start or Job Completion.
3. For Canvas and Story reports, go to Destination to set the report output.
4. On the Destination tab, select either Offline to download the report later from the View Schedules section or schedule a report to be sent to Secured File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).
   Note

   For Story reports, only the CSV file format is available and can only have a destination method of Offline.

   Note

   For Canvas reports, the MS Excel and CSV file formats are available only when the report has only the List Report type of table components. If the report has table components based on views (pivots), the CSV file format isn't supported. If a Canvas report has images or charts, the MS Excel and CSV file formats aren't available.

Complete the following steps:

1. Enter the Host Address, SFTP Login, and SFTP password.
2. Enter the File Path where the export file is located.
3. Enter the File Name with extension. An example is New_Report.xlsx
4. Select the date format for table reports.

On the Job Occurrence tab, select how often the report runs and the first scheduled occurrence of the report. The job runs at the specified time for each occurrence.

The tabs on the View Schedules page are:

• My Schedules: This lists all the schedules set up by you.
• My Jobs: This lists all the job based on the job occurrence set by you when creating a schedule. From the Action menu, you can see the Job Details or download the report.
• All Schedules: This lists all schedules in your instance. This option is available only if you have the permission, View all Schedules.

The following columns appear in the scheduling tabs:

• Title: The name of the schedule that is created
• Author: The name of the admin who created the schedule
• Last Modified: The latest date when the schedule was edited. Note: The column isn't available in My Jobs tab.
• Occurrence: The type of occurrence that has been selected while creating a schedule. You can select the occurrence only once, daily, weekly, or monthly.
• Destination: Shows whether the report scheduled is for offline or SFTP
• Start Date: Shows the date and time when the job was scheduled
  Note

  The column is only available in the My Jobs tab.
• Cells: Displays the total number of cells that the report returns. The total number of cells returned in your report is defined as the product of the number of rows and the number of columns in your report. For example, if you have N number of rows and M number of columns in your report, the total number of cells returned = N * M. Note: Data in this column populates only after an instance of the job runs (at least, once).
• Impact of Guardrail: Indicates the impact that guardrail has on your reports. Guardrail check is enabled for online reports, and this column is populated based on the check result. This column is blank when the number of cells in the report remains within the permissible limit for online generation. The value shown in this column is:
  • Offline: Indicates that the number of cells in the report exceeds the limit for normal online execution. You can schedule reports that exceed the limit.
  • Blocked: Indicates that the number of cells in the multidomain Table report without a BIRT template exceeds the limit for execution. Reduce the number of cells by applying filter or editing the report definition.
• Status: Shows the status of the scheduled job, whether it has completed, failed, or recovered. To cancel a job that is in the In Progress status or running for more than 24 hours, click the ellipsis icon under the Action column and then select Cancel. Note that the column is available in the My Jobs tab only.
• Action: Select the ellipsis icon to perform various operations like running, deleting, canceling, viewing, or editing the scheduled job.

You can perform the following actions from the Action menu.

• Run the schedule.
• Delete the schedule.
• Cancel the jobs you no longer want to run.
• View jobs for an individual schedule
• Edit the schedule.

You can cancel scheduled jobs that aren't completed and are stuck in the same status for a long time. This job cancellation improves the performance of the report scheduler in Report Center.

You can cancel a job if the status of the scheduled job for the Canvas report is in the Waiting or Started status and, for Table report, it's in the In Progress status.

Scheduled reports sometimes take a longer time to start running because they go into a queue.

The report scheduler framework runs 10 jobs at a time from each job server. When the jobs exceed this number, the scheduler runs from the emergency queue where there are six job nodes to pick the jobs.

If some jobs are still running, and it's taking longer to finish the job execution, the scheduler delays picking up the next job. Only when all jobs have finished executing will the scheduler take up the new jobs. This delay causes a scheduled report to start running offline late.

You can access and download the output files of scheduled reports from the My Jobs page in Report Center.

The output files of the scheduled Story, Table, and Canvas reports are available for download on the My Jobs page. Also, Calibration, Succession, and Compensation and Variable Pay use some legacy reports that are triggered from the respective products. The generated reports are available for download on the My Jobs page.

All reports are available for download for 14 days from job completion. To download a report after 14 days, you must reschedule the report generation through a new job.

To download or delete reports in My Jobs, complete the following steps:

1. Go to the Report Center→View Schedules→My Jobs tab.
2. Select the Action menu for the report you want to download or delete.
3. Select Download or Delete.

Report distributor is a legacy tool to help automate report distribution. With the release of Report Center, access to report distributor has been provided while functionality is migrated to report center scheduling.

With the report distributor, reports can be delivered by SFTP, run offline, or sent by email. The report distributor can output data to PDF, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint formats. Tables and reports are collected into bundles, and then the bundles can be scheduled to run at a set time, or be run manually.

The report distributor provides many benefits, including:

• Simplify integrations using SFTP.
• Burst Reports to Managers inboxes as file attachments.
• Users are able to continue using the application while a report is running offline by scheduling the report offline.

First, you need to create bundles containing the necessary reports. Then, you can select the output format, the items to distribute, the destination, the recipients, and the schedule.

To launch Report Distributor, complete the following steps.

1. Log in to SAP SuccessFactors.
2. Navigate to Home→Reporting→Report Center.
3. Select View Schedules.
4. Select Switch to the legacy Report Distributor Tool.
5. The Report Distributor screen opens.

As an administrator, you will create a new bundle when you wish to distribute one or more reports to users on a regular basis. When you create a new bundle, you must specify several criteria:

• Bundle name
• Page size
• Export format
• Report/tables to include in the bundle
• Destination (e-mail, SFTP, run offline)
• Users to receive the report (if destination is e-mail)
• Schedule to run the bundle (Optional)

You can add a maximum of 10 reports to a report bundle when scheduling reports with the report distributor tool. This limit is set to optimize system performance and prevent overloading. If you need to include more than 10 reports in a single distribution, you can create additional bundles as needed.

To create and schedule a bundle to be sent via email:

1. Go to the Menu box and click New Bundle.
2. Create a Bundle Name and click OK.
3. Select the bundle name.
4. From the Items tab, click Add Item. Then, click Add Report or Excel Table.
5. Once the report or table is added you will see it listed in the Items tab.
6. To email the data from the selected report bundle from the Destination tab, select the e-mail radio button, and click Edit Recipients to set up specific users to receive the report bundle.
7. Click Add Recipients.
8. Select the users and click Add. All email addresses added must be associated with a user in the system. You CANNOT add freeform email addresses. Click close when finished. To have the report sent at a specific time, click Schedule→Add.
9. Enter the required information in the Scheduler box and click OK.