Example - Create a Statement-Style Report

Use IBM® Cognos® Workspace Advanced to create reports with relational or dimensional data sources and to show data in lists, crosstabs, and charts.

In this exercise, you will learn how to create a statement-style report.

You are a report author in the finance department of the Sample Outdoors Company. You create a balance sheet that shows the assets, liabilities, and equity for the company over the last few years.

To perform this exercise, you must have the appropriate licensing and security permissions for this functionality.

Things to notice:

  • When you use Cognos Workspace Advanced, data is live. You do not have to run a report to see the data. From the View menu, you can switch between the Page Design and Page Preview views to see the live data and the design of your report.

Procedure

  1. Open IBM Cognos Connection:
    1. Start your Web browser.
    2. In the address bar, type the URL supplied by your administrator, and then press Enter. The URL looks something like this: http://servername/cognos
  2. In the IBM Cognos Welcome page, click Author business reports.
  3. Click Samples, Models, GO Data Warehouse (analysis).
  4. Click Create new, click Financial, and click OK.
  5. Insert data in the crosstab zones:
    1. In the Content pane, click Insert Members with Children Insert Members with Children icon, and click Insert Single Member.
    2. In the Source tab of the Content pane, expand Finance (analysis), Finance, Account, and Balance sheet (total). Drag Assets (total) to the Rows zone.
    3. Under Balance sheet (total), expand Liabilities & equities (total). Drag Liabilities (total) and Equity (total) to the Rows zone, under Assets (total). Tip: When you drag an object to the crosstab, you see a flashing horizontal or vertical bar to indicate where the item will be placed in the crosstab.
    4. Expand Submission. Drag 2012 Actual results in USD to the Columns zone.
    5. Drag 2011 Actual results in USD to the Columns zone, next to 2012 Actual results in USD.
    6. Expand Time, 2012, and Q4 2012. Drag December 2012 to the Columns zone, under the 2012 Actual results in USD.
    7. Under Time, expand 2011 and Q4 2011. Drag December 2011 to the Columns zone, under the 2011 Actual results in USD.
    8. Under Finance (analysis), expand Finance fact. Drag Amount (year to date) to the Measures zone.
      A screen capture of the report so far showing for 2006 and 2005, the amount (year to date) for assets, liabilities, and equity.
  6. Expand the rows to view the breakdown of assets, liabilities, and equity:
    1. In the report, right-click Assets (total) and click Expand Member to examine the members of the assets.
    2. Repeat for Liabilities (total) and Equities (total).
  7. Change the title of the report to reflect the contents of the balance sheet:
    1. Double-click the heading title, type Sample Outdoors Company, and click OK.
    2. In the Toolbox tab of the Content pane, drag the Block object to the right of the Sample Outdoors Company title. Repeat the steps to add a second block underneath the first.
    3. In the Toolbox tab of the Content pane, drag the Text Item object inside the first block object. When the Text window opens, type balance sheet as at Dec 31, 2012, and click OK.
    4. Drag the Text Item object inside the second block object. When the Text window opens, type (with prior year comparative data), and click OK.
    5. Ctrl+click both block objects and, by using the toolbar, change the font to 10 point size (10 pt).
  8. Change the currency format of the balance sheet:
    1. In your report, under the 2011 Actual results in USD, under December 2011, use Shift+click to select the whole column.
    2. Right-click the selection, click Style, and click Data Format.
    3. In the Format type list, select Currency.
    4. In the Properties pane, click the Currency property, and select $ (USD) - United States of America, dollar.
    5. Click the No. of Decimal Places property, and then select 0.
    6. Click OK.
  9. Copy the formatting to the 2012 column:
    1. To copy all the formatting that is applied to the item, click Pick up Style Pick up Style icon, click the items that you want to format, and then click Apply Style Apply Style icon.
    2. To copy only one of the formatting styles, click the down arrow next to the Pick up Style icon, and click the style that you want to copy. Then, click the item that you want to format, and click Apply Style.
    3. If you want to change a style that you copied, click the down arrow next to the Pick up Style icon, and click Edit Dropper Style. Specify basic and advanced style characteristics, and then click OK.
    A screen capture of the Sample Outdoors Company report.
  10. Change the text formatting to reflect a standard balance sheet:
    1. Right-click Amount (year to date) and click Edit Data Item Label. In the Data item label box, type Year to date (USD), and click OK.
    2. Select Year to date (USD) and, by using the toolbar, change the text to bold.
  11. From the Run menu, click Run Report - HTML.
    A screen capture of the complete Sample Outdoors Company statement-style report.

What to do next

For information about using Cognos Workspace Advanced, see the IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced User Guide.

Parent topic: IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Examples