Expense accrual report not showing in-process coding

[ethanash91]

We use Team Content / Intelligence Standard Reports / Accrual / Expense Accrual to drive monthly expense accruals, but noted that expense codings that are partially complete (e.g. 10 items on the report - 5 have coding, 5 don't - none of them have coding in the accrual report). Is there a way to fix this? We use Intelligence so we have the ability to modify the report, but we're not sure how to.

[MelanieT]

@ethanash91 Hello!  Can you explain more what you mean by Expense Coding?  Are you referring to Account codes for Expense types?   If you do mean account codes or cost centers, the standard Expense Accrual does not have account codes or cost centers.  If that's what you want, you would need to customize the report.  Here's a video on the concurtraining site that provides information for modifying the standard Expense Accrual report:  https://www.concurtraining.com/cnqr/cognos-11-registration.

Let me know if you are referring to something else! 

Remember to tag me if you respond or feel free to mark this post as Solved if you don't have further questions or comments. To tag me on your response, you click the Reply button, first thing to type is @. This should bring up the username of the person you are replying to.

[ethanash91]

Thank you for the helpful response! Yes, the Expense Type and certain (presumably custom) fields related to how we ultimately code the transactions in our ERP. Do you happen to know the field name/type that we would need to add to a custom Intelligence report, or how we could find the field names from the user interface?

[KevinD]

@ethanash91 there are two ways you can see what the custom fields are:

1. If you have access to Forms and Fields, you can see which custom fields your company is using. Likely you don't have access to this since it requires you to have completed our Advanced Configuration training.

2. Use the Configuration report. If you have admin permissions and can access the Expense Admin Screen, you can select Configuration Report. When the Configuration Report opens, you will see several links at the top. The four areas that will feed to the data warehouse are Employee Forms, Report Header Forms, Expense Entry Forms, and Allocation Forms. If you know what the field is called in the User Interface, you can simple do a CTRL + F to search the Configuration Report for the field name. 

If you give me an example of a field you might want included on the report, I can find it in the Configuration Report and take a screenshot for you. 

I'll await your reply. 

[ethanash91]

@KevinD Thanks for the help here - we've fumbled around trying to do #2 above and struggled. Can you help us get the Configuration Report names for the following?

From the report side we would need Expense Type and Terminal.

From the profile side we would need Custom 7 – which is Policy Group.

Thanks!

[KevinD]

@ethanash91 I'm not sure exactly what you are looking for. Are you looking at adding Expense Type, Terminal and Policy Group to the Expense Accrual report? Are you not sure where to find these fields in the Reporting tool?

I'm asking because the configuration report is just a document that shows field names and labels to help you know which data items to use in Cognos reporting for your custom fields. For example, Custom 7 is the field label, but Policy Group is the field name. You won't see a data item in the data warehouse labeled Policy Group, but you will see a data item labeled Custom 7.

From your original post I think you are wanting to edit the Expense Accrual report by adding Expense Type, Terminal and Policy Group. Is that correct?

[ethanash91]

Yes - adding Expense Type, Terminal and Policy Group is exactly what we are trying to do, thanks @KevinD 

[KevinD]

@ethanash91 so Expense Type is labeled as such in the data warehouse. I mentioned Policy Group in my previous reply. Terminal is using the field Custom 06. Since you want this from the report side, this could mean from the Report Header or from the entry level. There is a Report Header and an Entry Information folder in the Data warehouse, Within these folders there should be an Additional Header Details and an Additional Entry Details. In here you'll find the Custom 06. Just depends on which level you need, Header or Entry.

I hope this helps.

[ethanash91]

@KevinD We're trying to make those edits but the default Accrual Report (even after doing a Save As) isn't allowing us to edit/add fields?

[KevinD]

@ethanash91 what folder are you opening the Expense Accruals from when trying to edit?

[ethanash91]

@KevinD We are using a user's personal folder that we created from the "Save As" dialogue. So we opened the standard report and hit "save as" to move it to the folder. Do we need to re-open it from that new folder location?

[KevinD]

@ethanash91 I usually tell people to make a copy of the report, then paste it in the folder where you want to save. However, you can open it from the new folder location. This should allow you to make edits.

[ethanash91]

@KevinD Sorry to keep bugging you, I think we're close! - getting an error:

[KevinD]

@ethanash91 I take it you were trying to add a data item to this report or something like that. The Cross Join error occurs when you try to pull a data item from an area of the data warehouse into a query where the tables of data are incompatible.

What type of change are you trying to make to this report? Have you watched the recording we have that shows an example of making a change to a standard report?