Crystal Reports Payroll Exercise

Crystal Reports Payroll Exercise Objective This document provides step-by-step instructions on how to build a basic report on Crystal Reports XI on the MUNIS System supported by MAISD. The exercise will cover logging on, selecting data, section expert, field objects, text objects, field formatting, sorting, grouping, selection criteria, parameters, inserting totals and adding additional data sources to your report. Prerequisites Before you can successfully retrieve data in this report, you must ensure that the necessary permissions are set up in the Crystal Admin program. If these permissions are not set up, or not set up correctly, you will need to contact your district s Security Officer to have them updated or added into the MUNIS system. Using this Document This document is designed to be a hands-on tutorial as well as a reference for future use. Numbered instructions (1., 2., 3., etc.) are to be followed in the order given to achieve the expected results. Instructions that are preceded by lower case letters (a., b., c., etc.) are detailed instructions for specific functions.. Those instructions preceded by Roman numerals (i., ii., iii., ) are for reference and do not need to be performed as part of the exercise and, in some instances, will change the outcome of the report if performed. Crystal Reports Page 1 of 20

Procedure Logging On and Data Selection 1. Open Crystal Reports XI using the Crystals Reports XI icon in Remote Terminal Services. 2. Click Blank Report under the heading New Reports. 3. On the Database Expert screen, click the plus sign next to Create New Connection. The following window should be displayed Crystal Reports Page 2 of 20

4. Double-click ODBC (RDO). (It may be necessary to scroll down.) 5. From the ODBC (RDO) window, doubleclick the appropriate server (MAISDDB99) where 99 is replaced by the server number of the MAISD MUNIS server used by your district. If the server number is unknown, contact the MAISD Technology Services Department. 6. When prompted, enter your MUNIS User ID and password in the appropriate areas. Select the desired database, if necessary. Click Finish or press Enter. Crystal Reports Page 3 of 20

7. 8. The Database Expert screen is displayed next. Click the + to the right of the database that will be used, i.e., mu_live_maisd. Next, click the + to the left of dbo and then the + next to Views. NOTE: If you do not see a list similar to the one below, contact the MAISD Technology Services Department. 9. This is a list of all of the tables available in the MUNIS database. For this example, scroll down the list of database views and double-click on the database view named pr_employee_mast. All views that have been selected to be used in the report will appear on the right side of the screen under Selected Tables. Once all of the views to be used in the report have been selected, click OK. Crystal Reports Page 4 of 20

The Design Tab Sections Field Explorer 10. To make it easier to set some options in your report, set the following toolbar options. This only needs to be done once. a. Click View on the menu bar. Set checkmarks, if necessary, next to the Design and Preview options under Ruler. Set a checkmark, if necessary, next to the Design option under Guideline. b. Set a checkmark, if necessary, next to the Design option under Grid. Crystal Reports Page 5 of 20

Sections On the Design screen, the different sections of the report are displayed. Report Header Page Header Group Header Detail Group Footer Report Footer Page Footer Any information placed in this section appears only on the first page of the report. Any information in this section appears at the top of each page of the report. This information appears at the beginning of each group defined in the report. Group Headers are displayed in ascending order when more than one header is defined. The detail section is in the middle of the report and is where the fields are placed when they are dragged onto the report. This is the main body of the report. This information also appears for each group defined in the report, but will appear after the detail information. Group Footers are displayed in descending order when more than one group is defined. This is information that is to appear on the last page of the report. This is information that appears at the bottom of every page. This will appear below the report footer on the last page of the report. Section Expert The Section Expert is used to set the characteristics of each section. Each section may have different characteristics to choose from. To display the Section Expert: I. Click Report on the Menu bar. II. Click Section Expert. -or- I. Click the Section Expert icon. Crystal Reports Page 6 of 20

Field Objects The Field Explorer screen should be displayed on the design screen. If not, a. Select View on the menu toolbar. b. Select Field Explorer. To see a list of the fields in the tables defined for the report: 10. Double-click on Database Fields. 11. Double-click on pr_employee_mast. If the field names are not listed in alphabetical order, a. Select File. b. Select Options. c. Select the Database tab. d. Click Sort Table Alphabetically. e. Click Sort Fields Alphabetically. f. Click OK. 12. To add fields to the report, click and drag the fields to the detail section. For the example, drag the following three fields into the detail section of the report: a_employee_number, a_name_first and a_name_last. Each field will appear with a corresponding column heading in the page header section. If not, click the Undo button and try again. Guideline A guideline will connect the field in the Detail Section to its corresponding column heading. The guideline is used to drag the fields from side to side. If you do not see a guideline I. Click View. II. Click Guidelines. III. Click Design. Crystal Reports Page 7 of 20

11. Click the Print Preview button or the Refresh button to view the report with data. 12. To move a field and its corresponding heading: a. Select the field in the Details area. b. Click and drag the field to the desired position. 13. If the width of the field needs to be adjusted (i.e., employee name), a. Select the field. b. Position the cursor overtop the box in the center of the edge of the field. c. Click and drag to the left or right as appropriate to change the width. NOTE: This can be done in either design or report preview mode. 14. The column headings can be updated to be more understandable. Double-click each column heading and over-key the field name with a more appropriate title. Select Distinct Records Depending on the information included in the report, there may be times that duplicate records will appear. To eliminate duplicate records on the report a. Select File. b. Select Report Options. c. Select Select Distinct Records. d. Click OK. Text Objects Text objects are used to print specific text, i.e., report headings, comments, etc., on a report. Insert a text object for the title of the report: 15. Click the Design tab to return to the Design view. 16. Click Insert. 17. Click Text Object. 18. Click and drag in the Report Header to create the text object on the report. 19. Type an appropriate heading for the report. NOTE: You can also click the Insert Text Object button. 20. Click outside the text box. Crystal Reports Page 8 of 20

To format a text object: I. Select the text object. II. Select Format. III. Select Format Text. NOTE: You may also use the buttons on the formatting toolbar. 21. Press Print Preview or Refresh to see the changes on the report. Text boxes can also be used to combine database fields: 22. Click the Design tab to return to the Design view. 23. Click Insert. 24. Click Text Object. 25. Click and drag to in the Details section to create a text object on the report. 26. Click and drag the database field a_name_last to the text box. 27. Type a comma followed by a space inside the text box. 28. Click and drag the database field a_name_first to the text box. 29. Press Print Preview or Refresh to see the changes on the report. Crystal Reports Page 9 of 20

Field Formatting Fields on the report can be individually formatted by right-clicking on the field and choosing Format field or by selecting the field (this must be a field from the table and not a text object) and selecting Format Field from the Format menu. From this dialog box, duplicate records can be suppressed, fonts and point size changed, border added and date fields and numbers formatted. Fields can also be formatted by using the buttons on the formatting toolbar. Sorting To sort the data in the report: 25. Select Report from the menu bar. 26. Select Record Sort Expert. NOTE: You can also click the Record Sort Expert button. 27. Double-click the field you wish to sort by. In this example, doubleclick a_employee_number. 28. Select the sequence of the sort: ascending or descending. 29. Click OK. 30. Click Refresh to see the sorted report. Query data can be sorted by multiple fields. Select the fields in the order of highest or most major sort to the least sort i.e., last name then first name would put the names in alphabetical order by last name. Crystal Reports Page 10 of 20

Groups To group the report by the class code: 31. Click the Design tab to return to the design view of the report. 32. Click Insert from the Menu bar. 33. Select Group. 34. Select a_location_primary from the dropdown list on the Common tab. 35. Select the desired sequence. 36. Click OK. A Group Header and Group Footer section will be added above and below the Detail section of the report. Click Print Preview or Refresh to view the report with the information grouped by location. Click OK to refresh the data for the query. For future reference, to delete a group: I. In design mode, position the cursor on the Group Header description on the left of the screen for the group to be deleted. II. Right-click. III. Select Delete Group. Selection Criteria Selection criteria is used to restrict the query results to those records that meet the defined specifications. To limit the report in our example to only those employees that are active: 37. Select Report from the menu bar. 38. Select Select Expert. NOTE: You can also click the Select Expert button. 39. Select e_activity_status from the list of fields below pr_employee_mast. 40. Click OK. Crystal Reports Page 11 of 20

41. Select is equal to from the dropdown list. 42. Select A from the second dropdown list. 43. If other selection criteria needed to be specified, the New button would be clicked and another field could be designated. For this example, click OK to end. 44. Click Print Preview or Refresh to view the report. Click OK to refresh the data for the query. 45. Remove the selection criteria to print all of the employees: a. Launch the Select Expert (Report Select Expert or ). b. Click the Delete button. c. Click OK. Selection Parameters Selection parameters can be established so the user is prompted for selection criteria values each time the report is run. This gives the flexibility of running the same report for different criteria without having to make changes to the report specifications. To create a parameter: 46. Select Parameter Fields in the Field Explorer window. (It is located after all of the fields, near the bottom of the window. 47. Right-click. 48. Select New. Crystal Reports Page 12 of 20

To allow the person running the report to specify the locations to be included each time the report is run: 49. Enter Location(s) in the Name field. 50. Select a_location_primary from the Value Field drop down list. 51. Click Append all database values from the Actions dropdown list. 52. The information entered when creating the parameter field will determine how the prompt works later. In the Value Options list, set the following values to True: Allow custom values, Allow multiple values, Allow discrete values, Allow range values. This will increase the number of ways the report can be run. 53. Click OK. 54. Launch the Select Expert (Report Select Expert or ). 55. Double-click a_location_primary from the pr_employee_mast. 56. Select Is equal to from the dropdown list. 57. Select {?Location(s)} from the second dropdown list. 58. Click OK. Crystal Reports Page 13 of 20

IMPORTANT NOTE: All selection criteria are saved and can be seen in the Selected Values: area. To remove a specification, select the value in the Selected Values: are and click the Remove button. To remove all of the parameters, click the Remove All button. Locations can be selected by ranges, based on the values in the a_location_primary field, or keyed by the user: I. To see employees in all locations: i. Check No lower value in the Start of Range: field. ii. Select the last value in the dropdown list of the End of Range field. iii. Click the Add Range button. II. To the employees in specific locations: i. Select the first location in the Enter a Value field of the Start of Range: area ii. Select the last location in the Enter a Value: field of the End of Range field. iii. Click the Add Range button. III. To select specific locations: i. Click a location in the Available Values field. ii. Click the right arrow between Available Values: and Selected Values NOTE: The double arrow will move all values to Selected Values. iii. Repeat steps a and b to select multiple locations. IV. To enter a specific location: i. Either select the location in the Enter a Value field. ii. Click the right arrow just to the right of the field. 59. When all desired values have been selected and appear in the Selected Values area, click OK. NOTE: Clicking the Refresh button and clicking the Prompt for new parameter values field will allow you to re-specify the selection criteria and look at the report to ensure that you are getting the desired results. The report will now include only those employees located in the locations selected. Crystal Reports Page 14 of 20

Totals and Counts To create totals or record counts on the report, rightclick on the field to be totaled or counted in the details section and insert the type of total desired. In this example, to add a total of the number of employees in each location: 60. Right-click on the a_employee_number field in the Details section of the Design view. 61. Select Insert. 62. Select Summary. 63. Select Count from the Calculate this summary: field. 64. Click OK. 65. Click Refresh and scroll to the last page to see the total field. To add a subtotal for each group 66. Repeat steps 60 63 above. 67. Click Add to all group levels to add the subtotal to the group. 68. Click OK. 69. Scroll through the report to see that totals are printed at the end of each group. Crystal Reports Page 15 of 20

Saving the Report Specifications Report specifications can be saved, making it easy to re-run the report in the future. As with any computer document or file, it is a good idea to save the file periodically during the creation process to minimize the amount of lost work if there is a computer or software failure. In Crystal Reports, there is an option to save the data as well as the report specifications. When this feature is turned on, the report will be shown with the last data retrieved when the report is opened. To set this feature: 70. Click File on the menu bar. 71. Click Save Data with Report if no checkmark appears to the left. Save the document: 72. Click File. 73. Click Save: 74. Key an appropriate name for the report in the File name: box. 75. Press Enter or click Save. NOTE: You can also click the Save button to save the report. Crystal Reports Page 16 of 20

Adding a New Data Source This report was created using one data source: pr_employee_mast. To add another data source to an existing report, 76. Click Database from the menu bar. 77. Select Database Expert. For this example, we will add the data source pr_job_pay to include job pay data to the report. 78. Select Database from the menu bar. 79. Select Database Expert. 80. Double-click Current Connections in the area on the left of the window. 81. Double-click the database in use i.e., mu_live_maisd. 82. Double-click dbo. 83. Double-click Views. 84. Double-click pr_job_pay. Crystal Reports Page 17 of 20

85. Click OK. Crystal Reports should automatically link the data sources by a common field and this is shown by the line between the data sources. If this line does not appear: a. Verify that By Name under Auto-Link is selected. b. Click the Link button. 86. Click OK. 87. Click OK. 88. Click the Design tab to switch to the design view. 89. Double-click pr_job_pay from the Field Explorer window to see the available fields. 90. Click and drag a_bargain_unit and a_job_class_code to the detail section of the report. 91. Use the formatting tools to format the headings and desired. Crystal Reports Page 18 of 20

92. Click Preview to see the changes to the report. Printing the Report To print the report: 93. Click File on the menu bar. 94. Click Print. NOTE: You may also click the Print button on the toolbar to print. 95. Save the report. 96. Close Crystal Reports. To export the data from the report to Excel 97. Click File on the menu bar. 98. Click Export. 99. Click Export Report. 100. Select Microsoft Excel 97-2000 data only (XLS) from the Format dropdown list. 101. Select Application from the Destination dropdown list. 102. Click OK. 103. Click Custom. 104. Click OK. Crystal Reports Page 19 of 20

Opening a Saved Report. To open a report that has been saved: 105. Click File. 106. Click Open. 107. Locate the saved report. NOTE: You may also click the Open button. Crystal Reports Page 20 of 20