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Ariba On-Demand Solutions

Using Advanced Reporting Features


Document Version August 2012

Copyright 19962012 Ariba, Inc. All rights reserved. This documentation, as well as the Ariba software and/or services described in it, contain proprietary information. They are provided under a license or other agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are also protected by copyright, patent and/or other intellectual property laws. Except as permitted by such agreement, no part of the document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Ariba, Inc. Ariba, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the documentation. The information contained in the documentation is subject to change without notice. Ariba, the Ariba logo, AribaLIVE, SupplyWatch, Ariba.com, Ariba.com Network and Ariba Spend Management. Find it. Get it. Keep it. and PO-Flip are registered trademarks of Ariba, Inc. Ariba Procure-to-Pay, Ariba Buyer, Ariba eForms, Ariba PunchOut, Ariba Services Procurement, Ariba Travel and Expense, Ariba Procure-to-Order, Ariba Procurement Content, Ariba Sourcing, Ariba Savings and Pipeline Tracking, Ariba Category Management, Ariba Category Playbooks, Ariba StartSourcing, Ariba Spend Visibility, Ariba Analysis, Ariba Data Enrichment, Ariba Contract Management, Ariba Contract Compliance, Ariba Electronic Signatures, Ariba StartContracts, Ariba Invoice Management, Ariba Payment Management, Ariba Working Capital Management, Ariba Settlement, Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management, Ariba Supplier Information Management, Ariba Discovery, Ariba Invoice Automation, Ariba PO Automation, Ariba Express Content, Ariba Ready, and Ariba LIVE are trademarks or service marks of Ariba, Inc. All other brand or product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or organizations in the United States and/or other countries. Ariba Sourcing solutions (On Demand and software) are protected by one or more of the following patents, including without limitation: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,199,050; 6,216,114; 6,223,167; 6,230,146; 6,230,147; 6,285,989; 6,408,283; 6,499,018; 6,564,192; 6,871,191; 6,952,682; 7,010,511; 7,072,061; 7,130,815; 7,146,331; 7,152,043;7,225,152; 7,277,878; 7,249,085; 7,283,979; 7,283,980; 7,296,001; 7,346,574; 7,383,206; 7,395,238; 7,401,035; 7,407,035; 7,444,299; 7,483,852; 7,499,876; 7,536,362; 7,558,746; 7,558,752; 7,571,137; 7,599,878; 7,634,439; 7,657,461; and 7,693,747. Patents pending. Other Ariba product solutions are protected by one or more of the following patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,199,050, 6,216,114, 6,223,167, 6,230,146, 6,230,147, 6,285,989, 6,408,283, 6,499,018, 6,564,192, 6,584,451, 6,606,603, 6,714,939, 6,871,191, 6,952,682, 7,010,511, 7,047,318, 7,072,061, 7,084,998; 7,117,165; 7,225,145; 7,324,936; and 7,536,362. Patents pending. Certain Ariba products may include third party software or other intellectual property licensed from a third party. For information regarding software or other intellectual property licensed from a third party, go to http://www.ariba.com/copyrights.cfm.

Table of Contents

Modifying Display Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 About This Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 How to... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Modify a reports display options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Reference Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Formatting Field Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 About This Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 How to... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Format data in a data field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Reference Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Analyzing Time Variance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 About This Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Prerequisite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 How to... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Analyze time variance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Recommending Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 About Recommending Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Prerequisite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 How to... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Recommend a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Creating Multi-Fact Reports with Aggregation by Common Dimension . 13 About This Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 How to... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Create a multi-fact report with aggregation by common dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Reference Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Using Advanced Reporting Features

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Modifying Display Options


About This Topic on page 4 Prerequisites on page 4 How to... on page 4 Reference Information on page 5

About This Topic


Ariba reports use an Others bucket to group non-essential data and display it on a row called Others. By modifying the Others bucketing settings for a report, you can: Set the minimum and maximum number of rows displayed and group any rows over the maximum into Others Apply an 80/20 rule to show the spend items that compose most of the total spend and group the remaining items into Others Hide rows that do not make up a certain threshold percentage of the data and place them in Others You can group data using any combination of Others bucketing settings; the most restrictive setting governs the way data is grouped in the Others row. You can only set an 80/20 rule or minimum subtotal percentage if your report contains subtotals or if you are working with a data field that can be totaled in a meaningful way, such as Invoice Count, Project Count, Awarded Historic Spend, or Contract Spend. If you are working with a data field that cannot be totaled in a meaningful way, such as Status, use minimum and maximum rows to set Others bucketing. You can also show or hide individual rows and columns on the pivot table.

Prerequisites
You must have permission to edit reports in order to modify display options.

How to...
Modify a reports display options on page 4

Modify a reports display options


1 On the report pivot table, select Actions > Display Options, or click the Edit link in the Display Options area

of the pivot table.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

Modifying Display Options

2 On the Others Bucketing tab, modify your display options for others bucketing and column and row

display:

3 Click OK to apply the display options.

Result The Display Options area of pivot table shows the reports current settings.

Reference Information
The following display options are available: Option
Number of Rows

Description
Specifies the minimum and maximum number of rows of data to show on the pivot table. By default, the pivot table shows a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 8 rows. All report rows that exceed the maximum number are grouped into a row called Others. Keep in mind that the pivot table updates faster when it has fewer rows. Specifies whether the report shows all data or only a specified percentage of top data on rows. By default, the pivot table shows 100% of the items that make up the total. A ratio allows you to display a top percentage of the items that make up the total and group the remainder into a row called Others. For example, if you apply a 60/40 ratio, the report display the items that make up the top 60% of the total and groups the remaining 40% of items in Others.

80-20 Rule

Using Advanced Reporting Features

Modifying Display Options

Option
Minimum Subtotal Percentage

Description
Specifies the minimum subtotal percentage that items must meet to appear on the report. Every item with a subtotal below the minimum percentage of the total

is grouped into a row called Others; items with subtotals above the minimum percentage of the total appear on the report. For example, if you set the minimum subtotal percentage to 3%, the report groups every item that makes up less than 3% of the total in Others.
Summary Row/Columns Specifies whether or not to show summary rows and column on the pivot table. To display total and variance columns on the pivot table, Selecting Show total or variance columns on the pivot table at all times displays both total and variance columns on the pivot table. Setting any other Others bucketing options overrides this setting.

Selecting Show subtotal rows on the pivot table at all times displays both subtotal and total rows on the pivot table. Setting any other Others bucketing options overrides this setting. Depending on the report youre working with, this option may only be available if you are using the pivot grid layout.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

Formatting Field Data


About This Topic on page 7 Prerequisites on page 7 How to... on page 7 Reference Information on page 9

About This Topic


You use field settings to format the data in a data field. The field settings options available to you depend on the type of data in the field. Data fields such as spend or count are often displayed as columns in a report; when you format the field settings for a data field, that formatting applies to every place that field appears in the report. The type of data you are formatting determines formatting options. For example, if you are working with count totals such as commodity counts, you have options for formatting numbers; if you are working with currency values such as invoice spend, you have options for formatting currency; and so forth.

Prerequisites
You must have permission to edit reports in order to format data fields.

How to...
Format data in a data field on page 7

Format data in a data field


1 On the report pivot table, click the fields data field or column heading and select Edit > Field Settings. 2 On the Define Data Field page, click the Format tab. 3 Select a data field view option from the Show data as pull-down menu. See Data Field View Options on

page 9.
4 If you are not using normal formatting, select display with original value to display the original data value

with the percentage or running total in parentheses next to it in the same column,

Using Advanced Reporting Features

Formatting Field Data

5 If you are using normal formatting, select a number format for the data from the Show data in pull-down

menu. See Number Format Options on page 9.

6 Click OK to apply your format settings to the data field.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

Formatting Field Data

Reference Information
Data Field View Options Option
normal % of row % of column running total of row running total of column

Description
Shows data as numbers. Shows data as a percentage of the total in the row. Shows data as a percentage of the total in the column. Shows data in a running total along rows. Shows data in a running total along the column.

Number Format Options

Default

Shows data in its default format (as currency for amounts, numbers for supplier counts, percentages for percentages, and so forth) Shows data in number format. You have the following additional options for formatting numbers:

Number

Decimal places specifies the maximum number of decimal


places to display for numbers.

Use 1000 separator specifies to use a separator between


thousands (displaying one thousand as 1,000) to display numbers without a separator (displaying one thousand as 1000).

Negative Numbers settings specify to display negative


numbers with a negative sign or in brackets. Currency Shows data in currency format. You have the following additional options for formatting currency:

Decimal places specifies the maximum number of decimal


places to display for currency.

Symbol specifies whether to display the data with or without a


currency symbol.

Use 1000 separator specifies to use a separator between


thousands (displaying one thousand as 1,000) to display numbers without a separator (displaying one thousand as 1000).

Negative Numbers settings specify to display negative


numbers with a negative sign or in brackets. Percentage Shows data in percentage format. You have an additional Decimal places setting that specifies the maximum number of decimal places to display for percentages.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

Analyzing Time Variance


About This Topic on page 10 Prerequisite on page 10 How to... on page 10

About This Topic


Variance analysis provides at-a-glance comparison of data in two different dimensions as shown by a variance measure. For example, you can compute and display the difference in currency amount from one fiscal quarter to another. Or, you can compare counts and amounts from one month to the next, or from one month in one year to the same month in the following year. For example, suppose a buyer creates an analytical report displaying the company's spend in a certain category over the last three years. While exploring the report, the buyer notices a large increase in spending in the category in July of the current year. The buyer wants to compare the spending in this category for the last three years and then wants to view the comparison by month. In addition to comparison over time, other types of variance analysis might compare measures across different suppliers, regions, company departments, and so forth. Any measure that is displayed as a numerical total can be calculated and displayed as a variance.

Prerequisite
You must have permission to edit reports in order to analyze variance.

How to...
Analyze time variance on page 10

Analyze time variance


1 If the date field you want to use in not yet a column field in the report, make it one:

If the date field is a row in the report, click the field menu on the report pivot table and choose Show Field On: Columns. If the time hierarchy is a page field in the report, click the menu for the time field on the Page tab of the Field Browser and choose Show Field On: Columns.
2 Click Edit. 3 Refine the data for the date field you are using so that it spans the time you want to use for your variance analysis and click Done. For more information on refining report data by date range, Running Reports:

Filtering and Navigating Through Data. For example, you might want to analyze variance between two years or two quarters. When you apply the date filter, the report displays data for that time span.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

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AnalyzingTime Variance

4 Filter by levels in the date field hierarchy until the report displays data for the two time periods you want

to compare in side-by-side columns using one of the following methods: Click the time hierarchys data field menu and choose Select Level, Values: Select Others, then select two values. For example, if your report is displaying data for two years and you want to compare two months, you can select the values for those months. Click the time hierarchys data field menu and choose Select Starting Level, then choose a starting level: months, quarters, or years. For example, if your report is displaying data for two years and you want to compare data between those years, choose Select Starting Level: Year and the report will display data for each of the two years in the date range in side-by-side columns.
5 Click the Total column heading menu and choose Show Variance.

Result All total columns in the report display the variance totals over the time span you specified.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

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Recommending Reports
About Recommending Reports on page 12 Prerequisite on page 12 Limitations on page 12 How to... on page 12

About Recommending Reports


You can recommend a report to bring it to the attention of other users who are looking for information on one of the reports dimension fields. For example, you can recommend a report for the Supplier dimension if it contains a supplier field as a row, column, or page field.
Note: If you are recommending a report for others to use, be sure to save it in the Public Reports folder so

that they can see it.

Prerequisite
You must be able to save reports in order to recommend a report.

Limitations
You cannot recommend prepackaged reports, since recommending the report requires you to save it. To recommend a prepackaged report, save a copy of it to another folder.

How to...
Recommend a report on page 12

Recommend a report
1 On the report pivot table, select Actions > Display Options. 2 Click the Set as Recommended tab. 3 Select the dimensions for which you want to recommend the report. 4 Click OK. 5 Save the report with the recommendation setting.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

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Creating Multi-Fact Reports with Aggregation by Common Dimension


About This Topic on page 13 Prerequisites on page 14 Limitations on page 14 How to... on page 14 Reference Information on page 15

About This Topic


Multi-fact reports with aggregation by common dimension are useful if you want to compare common fields across facts, manipulate the cube, and drill down to examine aggregated data in different areas. For example, you can compare survey response and supplier participation for the same commodity and roll totals up under one commodity field. Multi-fact reports with aggregation by common dimension can only include fields in dimensions that all of the reports facts share in common. The following diagram shows the intersection of two facts and their dimensions.

Supplier Participation

Survey Response KPI Time

Event

Commodity Department Supplier

Survey Question

Scorecard

A multi-fact report with aggregation by common dimension can include time, commodity, department, and supplier fields, but cannot include any of the fields that belong to only one fact. Creating a multi-fact report with aggregation by common dimension is similar to creating a basic multi-fact report, but includes extra steps for mapping the fields from different facts to common report fields. The facts that are available to you for reporting depend on the Ariba Spend Management solution your company has purchased.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

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Creating Multi-Fact Reports with Aggregation by Common Dimension

Prerequisites
You must have permission to create reports in order to create a multi-fact report with aggregation by common dimension.

Limitations
See Reference Information on page 15.

How to...
Create a multi-fact report with aggregation by common dimension on page 14

Create a multi-fact report with aggregation by common dimension


1 On the command bar, select Create > Analytical Report. 2 Enter a title and optional description.

If you enter a description, it will appear below the report title in the folder where the report is saved.
3 Select Create multi-fact report with aggregation by common dimension from the Facts pull-down menu. 4 Select the facts you want to compare. As you add or remove facts, the field mappings on the lower half of

the page change to match your choices.


5 Review each facts field mappings to see if you want to map certain fields to each other.

6 When you have finished choosing and mapping facts, click Done to return to the previous page, where

your choices are displayed.


7 Finish creating the report as you would a single-fact analytical report, using data fields for all of the

reports facts. See Creating Analytical Reports for details.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

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Creating Multi-Fact Reports with Aggregation by Common Dimension

Reference Information
The following table describes the differences between the two types of available Ariba multi-fact reporting: Behavior
Maximum number of facts Fact selection

Basic Multi-fact Reporting

Multi-Fact Reporting with Aggregation by Common Dimension

You can add a maximum of three facts to You can add an unlimited number of facts to the report. the report. You can only add facts to the report if they have pre-defined relationships to each other. You can add any field from the underlying facts to the report. Each field you add to the report is an individual field that contains data only for its fact. You can add any combination of facts to the report. There is no requirement for pre-defined relationships. You can only add fields to the report if they are a dimension common to all of the underlying facts. Each field you add to the report is common to all facts, and you map individual fact fields to the common field. It shows data for all underlying facts.

Field selection

Field mapping

Data aggregation Data matching

In some cases, subtotals do not roll up to Since the fields are mapped, all subtotals roll totals. up to totals. Data options allow you to include only matching data, or all data, for different fact combinations in the report. The initial date filter is always on a date field from the main fact. This filter then determines what data in the second and third facts match the main fact. This matching second and third fact data can fall outside of the main fact date filters time period. Can run more slowly, but provide better detail-level data. The report includes all fact data within filter parameters. The initial date filter is a mapped field for date fields in all underlying facts. The report includes only data for the time period specified in the filter for all facts.

Initial date filtering

Performance

Usually the faster option if you are focusing on aggregate data, such as in many Ariba Spend Visibility reports.

Using Advanced Reporting Features

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Creating Multi-Fact Reports with Aggregation by Common Dimension

The following report is a multi-fact report aggregated by common dimension.

Contract Effective Date and Task Start Date mapped to a single Start Date field Project Owner and Task Owner mapped to a single Owner field Selection of fields you can add to the report is limited Report includes all data

Subtotals all roll up to totals

The following report is a basic multi-fact report.

Date field is from the main fact Project Owner and Task Owner are individual report fields

Subtotals do not always roll up to totals Report includes only matching data by default

You can add any field from the underlying facts to the report

Using Advanced Reporting Features

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