Exercise 1 - Financials

Exercise 1: Log in and generate a report

In this exercise, you will:

  • Log in to Cal Answers
  • Select a dashboard and a report
  • Select a prompt and run a report
  • Create a Favorite for the report

Exercise

1. In your browser, go to https://calanswers.berkeley.edu/.

2. Select the link to Log in to Cal Answers.

 Cal Answers home page with log in highlighted

3. To expand the Financial Dashboards section, you can select the Finance link or the + symbol.

Home page with Finance subject area highlighted 

4. Select the General Ledger Reporting link.

5. Review the list of reports on the page. Note that the same report names are shown in the tabs at the top of the page. The Overview tab for every dashboard is presented in this same manner. Select the Finance wiki link just below the Cal Answers General Ledger Reporting Dashboard.

General Ledger Reporting dashboard Overview tab with Finance wiki highlighted

6. From the Finance page, select the link for the General Ledger Reporting dashboard.

7. Select the Finance Dashboard Comparison link in the Articles section and review the differences between the dashboards. What are two things found in General Ledger and Multi Year Reporting that aren’t available in Financial Management Reporting? You can close this tab when you are finished reading.

8. Return to the Cal Answers BI Interactive Dashboard tab and select the link to go to the General Ledger Summary report.

9. Use the drop-down to select your Org Level3. Notice the selections for the three required prompts: Fiscal Yr, Accounting Period(s), and Account Tree.

GLR Summary filters with Org 3 and 4 highlighted

10. Open the drop-down for Org Level4 and notice that only the Departments in your Division are listed.

11. Select the Apply button in the bottom right corner of the Dashboard Prompts section. You may need to scroll to the right to see it.

12. You decide to further limit the rows in the report to include only General Funds. Unfortunately you cannot remember the fund number so you need to search for it. Open the drop-down list for Fund – Desc and select More/Search . . . at the bottom to open the Select Values dialog box.

  •  Ensure that Contains is selected in the Name drop-down list
  • Type general in the text box
  • Ensure that the Match Case box is unchecked
  • Select Search

Search dialog box with Name contains and Match Case unchecked 

13. Select 19900 – GENERAL FUNDS.

  • Select > to move it to the Selected Pane
  • Select OK

14. Select the Apply button in the bottom right corner of the Dashboard Prompts section to apply filters and regenerate the report.

15. This is a report you’ll likely be using again and again. To make it easy to get to this report, select the Favorites menu at the top right corner of the window and select Add to Favorites.

Favorites menu with Add to Favorites highlighted 

16. Review the report and notice that the Fund column only has entries for 19900 – GENERAL FUNDS.

17. Now we’ll explore the General Ledger Detail report.  Select the General Ledger Detail link at the top of the window.

18. Review the Dashboard Prompts. Notice that the Org Level3 and Fund – Desc selections you made are present. The Fiscal Yr, Accounting Period and Business Unit also carry over.

19. Imagine that you are looking for a transaction that occurred in the last month. In the General Ledger Detail Prompts section, select Is Greater Than from the Document Date comparison drop-down list. Then enter the date that was one month ago in the text box.

General Ledger Detail prompts 

20. Select Apply in the bottom right of the General Ledger Detail Prompts section.

21. Review the report.


Display Reports