Getting Started

Getting Started

In this chapter, we'll review the basic steps to generate and modify a Cal Answers report. This procedure works for all Cal Answers dashboards and reports regardless of subject area. 

The following chapters take a deep dive into selecting prompts, modifying report structure and contents as well as viewing, printing, and exporting reports.

Although Finance and Student data dashboard are used for examples, the content in this Cal Answers Basic Navigation self-study training is applicable to all Cal Answers dashboards and reports. To learn about the specifics of each dashboard, go to calanswers.berkeley.edu/training and select a subject area. You’ll find a variety of media to learn about the dashboards and reports in the subject area including:


Media Description
Job aid Written materials with text and graphics that explain how to do a task or understand dashboards and the report data they generate
Dashboard walkthrough Live and recorded sessions that cover navigation basics and dashboard specific content
Wiki documentation Report documentation has written descriptions of the dashboards and report tabs they contain, data sources, questions that can be answered, and caveats. Data Dictionary defines each column or prompt available in reports along with the corresponding column name from BAIRS and CalPlanning. Some subjects have additional information to help you decide which dashboard to use.

Overview: How to Generate a Cal Answers Report

  1. Log in to Cal Answers
  2. Open a dashboard
  3. Open a report
  4. Select Dashboard Prompts to filter the rows returned in the report
  5. Modify report columns as desired
  6. Share your report with colleagues, export it for further analysis, or print a formatted report

1. Log in to Cal Answers

From calanswers.berkeley.edu, click Log in to Cal Answers and enter your CalNet ID and Passphrase

2. Open a Dashboard

A dashboard is a collection of reports that use the same set of data. Each report presents the data from a different perspective. There are a few different ways to open a dashboard:

  • From the center of the Cal Answers home page, expand the topic and click a hyperlink or
  • From the Cal Answers menu at the top right, click Dashboards and select the dashboard you want

3. Open a Report

There are two ways to open a report from a dashboard:

  • From the Overview tab, click the hyperlink with the name of the report
  • Click any of the Report tabs at the top of the dashboard