Report Writer Basics

Report Type (cannot be edited once report is created)

Payroll Employee Summary Report/Payroll Check Detail Report:  This type of report has a single row of data for each employee.  Runs *as of* a particular payroll run.

Date Range Report:  This type of report has multiple rows of data for each employee (one row of data per payroll run, within the date range, for each employee).  

Date Range Employee Summary Report:  Returns 1 row of data per employee with accumulations for the date range.  At least one payroll accumulation column must be included for the report to return any data.  

HR Reports:  This type of report is designed to pull in data from HR tables where there can be multiple rows per employee.   Reports are also available in Date Range Reports. 

• Assets: Date Assigned
• Awards: Date Awarded
• Certifications: Effective Date
• Disciplinary Actions: Offense Date
• Education: Completion Date
• Employee Benefits Report: Start Date
• Employee Contacts Report:
• Employee Garnishments Report:
• Employee I9 Report:I9 Completed Date
• Employee Misc Data Set Report:
• Employee Notes Report: Effective Date
• Employment Category Report: Effective Date
• Employment Status History Report:Effective Date
• Job History Report: Effective Date
• OSHA: Incident Date
• Prior Employment: Start Date
• Salary History Report: Effective Date
• Skills: Date Attained
• Training: Start Date

Labor Allocation Report:  Pulls in data from the employee labor history. 

Labor Expense Report:  Pulls in data from the employee labor check details history.  All labor items, from employee labor check details, are included by default.   Items that are not part of labor check detail are company level and include Third Party Payments; Invoice; Workers Comp Payment; OBC Account ACH Adjustment; Tax Filing ACH Adjustment; Tax Credit; and Leave Accrual. 

Totals Only Summary Report

Only total rows are displayed for each field that has the ‘Group By’ check box selected (this is on the Edit Columns tab). 

Date Range reports produce a row of data for every payroll run for each employee.  If only one row per employee is required, you would need to ‘Group By’ an employee field (i.e. Employee Number, Employee Name, etc.)

Number of Columns

Excel: Maximum of 256 columns

PDF: Dependent on page orientation, column size, and font size.  Will be displayed in sequence order.

Default Value: will return a default if the value is 'null'.  If the field is left black, the report will have a blank column.  50 characters max.

Sort/Group:  No sorts are required, but Group By and Page Break are only available if sorting is enabled.  Grouping data allows for the use of sub-totals for the group.  The Aggregate function drop-down is used to define what the column totals represent.

Calculated Columns

Numeric:  used to perform calculations using fields that contain numeric data (i.e. hours, dollars, etc.). 

Text:  used to create concatenated fields (use for Dates).

To create the calculated field, do the following:

• Step 1: Click on ‘Column’ and the list will be populated with the numeric fields included on this report.  This includes Hidden fields and previously added calculated column (numeric).
• Step 2: Double-click on a field to select.  It will be moved to the top box.
• Step 3: Click on Operator and the list will populate with the operators of +, -, *, and /. Double-click on an operator to select.  It will be moved to the top box. 
• Repeat steps 1-3 as needed.
• Data can be keyed in the expression box as long as the correct syntax is used.
• To remove data from the expression in the top box, highlight and use the keyboard delete key.

For text calculations:

• If you need to create a field that has a space or dash between the employee number and name, you will need to manually update the calculation:
  • Space:  To create a field that has a space between the fields, put parenthesis around the expression and put the field separator in double quotes.  Example:  ({Employee Number}&" "&{Employee Name}) will produce ‘110 John Doe’.
  • Dash: To create a field that has a dash between the fields, put parenthesis around the expression and put the field separator in double quotes.  Example:  ({Employee Number}&"-"&{Employee Name}) will produce ‘110-John Doe’.

Report Filters are used to include/excluded employees from a report.  All filters are connected with 'AND'  (all filters must be met).

Variable Value

This drop-down contains selections based on the Report Type and the Column selected.  This allows for the selection of a field that changes.

All Report Types:

NULL - for non-date fields

For example, Home Phone = NULL will only display employees that are missing a home phone number. Home Phone != NULL will display employees that have a home phone value.

Payroll Reports: 

Period Begin Date

Period End Date

Pay Date

CreateDate 

For example, if the filter is “Hire Date > Period Begin Date AND Hire Date < Period End Date” when the report is generated with a payroll, the report will only include employees with a hire date in the current pay period.

Date Range Report:

To Date

From Date

Create Date