FAST Class Cognos End User Reporting FAQ S

FAST Class – Cognos End User Reporting FAQ’s October 17, 2013

How did the Cognos reports evolve? Who is the CFRI group? Campus financial reporting has been available in some form since Banner go-live in 2005. It has always been the opinion that having standard reporting via a tool like Cognos would be more straightforward that having to teach the campus how to use Banner. Additionally, row level security could be much more granular in Cognos that what would be possible in Banner. Only a select few users outside of finance have access to Banner INB.

The Campus Financial Reporting Initiative or CFRI team was formed in early 2010 to address severe deficiencies in campus financial reporting. Made up of key users from around campus, this group is the advisory board for all changes that occur to the suite of end user reports.

How does security work on the reports? There are several ways that a user can be granted access to financial data: 1. All department heads, budget officers, and vice presidents (determined by the financial manager in the org hierarchy) automatically get access to their departmental data in fund 111111. These individuals receive full access to salary data. 2. All fund financial managers automatically get access to their fund data. These individuals receive full access to salary data. 3. Users can be assigned proxy access for another user, with or without salary access. 4. FAR can give specific FOAPAL level access, with or without salary access.

What is the underlying data source for these reports? What is the refresh schedule? All of the end user reports are sourced from the finance data warehouse (EDW), which contains data from Banner. It is refreshed on the following schedule:

Sunday through Friday: 5am (includes reconciliation), 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm Saturday: 5am (includes reconciliation), 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm

What are the different types of funds and what reports can you see them on?

Note: The Cognos report listed in bold is the primary report for the particular type of fund list.

Fund Description Fund Naming Related Cognos Report(s) Convention Operating 111111 Summary – Account Analysis Summary – Activity Summary – Budget Officer Summary – Location Summary – Operating Summary – Operating with Activity & Location Reserve 11xxxx (except Detail – Reserve Funds 111111) Summary – Account Analysis Summary – Activity Summary – Budget Officer Summary – Fund Balance Summary – Location Summary – Operating Summary – Operating with Activity & Location Agency Axxxxx Detail – Agency Funds Center Grants CGxxxx Summary – Activity Summary – Endowed, Designated, Restricted Contributions, Center Grants, Start Ups, and Student Loans Summary – Fund Balance Summary – Location Designated Dxxxxx Summary – Activity Summary – Endowed, Designated, Restricted Contributions, Center Grants, Start Ups, and Student Loans Summary – Fund Balance Summary – Location Endowed Restricted ERxxxx (chart R) Summary – Activity HERxxx (chart H) Summary – Endowed, Designated, Restricted Contributions, Center Grants, Start Ups, and Student Loans Summary – Fund Balance Summary – Location Grants RGxxxx (chart R) Summary – Activity HRGxxx (chart H) Summary – Grants Summary – Location Projects Pxxxxx (chart R) Summary – Activity HCPxxx (chart H) Summary – Location Summary – Projects Restricted RCxxxx (chart R) Summary – Activity Contributions HRCxxx (chart H) Summary – Endowed, Designated, Restricted Contributions, Center Grants, Start Ups, and Student Loans Summary – Fund Balance Summary – Location Start Ups SUxxxx Summary – Activity Summary – Endowed, Designated, Restricted Contributions, Center Grants, Start Ups, and Student Loans Summary – Fund Balance Summary – Location Student Loans SLxxxx Summary – Activity Summary – Endowed, Designated, Restricted Contributions, Center Grants, Start Ups, and Student Loans

Note: All detail reports will display all of the funds enumerated in the table above. The Detail – Agency Funds and Detail – Reserve Funds reports, however, will only display those specific funds as these are specialized reports.

Where can I find soft copies of the training materials and download the Excel macros? http://finance.wfu.edu/cognos