Lab 4.3 Drill: Financial Report

Overview

For this drill example you will use the PL Trend  that was previously reviewed in the Financial Report - Walkthrough . This time you will be drilling to a separate workbook instead of drilling to another worksheet in the same workbook. This can be very useful when there is a common report, such as one that shows general ledger detail, that can be used as a drill from several different reports and workbooks. You will be viewing that same example with the JE (Journal Entry) Query drill report.

Click one of the links below to  go directly to any section of this walk-through.

Unfreezing the Report

Step 1 : For this example you will be using a modified PL trend report , which can be download here Demo_Interject_PLTrend.xlsx . This report has been prepared specifically for this exercise.


Step 2:   To unfreeze the panels, go to the View  tab, find the Freeze Pane  option, and select Unfreeze Panes .


Step 3:  For this example, type in 7002  for the location in M21. And type 2002-05  for the month in cell M22.


Building The Drill

Continue setting up the drill formula.

Step 1:  In cell G17, type = ReportDrill() . Column G is fairly narrow, but it will simply overlap the cells to the right. Then click the fx  button as illustrated below to bring up the Function Wizard.


Step 2: In previous drill exercises you have used the ReportCellToRun argument. That is only for drilling within the same workbook. In this example you are drilling to a separate workbook. Type Interject_JEQuery  into the ReportCodeToRun argument as seen below. The Drill Code Interject_JEQuery  was setup previously by adding the code to a Report Library report. You will learn how to setup a Drill Code in the page  L10 Updating the Report Library later.


Step 3:  Next you will use the  TransferPairs argument to note which cell values in the source worksheet will be transferred to the target worksheet during the drill operation. To do this, use special functions to pair the source cells to the target cells. Type PairGroup(Pair())  in the TransferPairs argument to get it started. You will return to add more to this argument.


Step 4:  In the Formula Bar, click within the word Pair()  inside the text PairGroup(Pair()) . See the illustration below. Once this is done, the Function Wizard will automatically change to help with the Pair() function. Type L12:N12  in the From argument. This is the row that will indicate which month the user was on when the drill was activated and it will pass it to the target worksheet .


Step 5:  Now, type DateBegin  in the Target argument to establish the target cell that will receive the month. DateBegin  is a Named Range in the target sheet. Named Ranges are used in MS Excel to assign a name to a specific cell, such as G15. You use Named Ranges in your drill in case rows or columns are changed in the target worksheet where the address of the target cell changes. By using Named Ranges, the drill will continue to find the correct cell to place the month into.


Step 6:  Now, type True  in the RequireValue argument because the From value must exist to trigger the drill. There would be no point in drilling to the target report without filtering for a specific month. The True  value is not required since, if left blank, True  is assumed. Since this drill exercise will have other Pairs() that are not required, it is good practice to specify it explicitly in this case.

Note the next argument, ScopeRange, is not used. It is an outdated argument.


Step 7: Now that you understand how to define a Pair, you have many more to create. The target report has several filters that make use easier when employed separately and in drilling to the report. You need to add a few more values to pass to the new report and clear the remaining filters that are not used in this drill. This is a key concept for INTERJECT drills. A report can be used by itself for its own purpose, but it can also be used as a drill from other reports.

Now let's use the Function Wizard to edit the PairGroup() function by clicking on it in the Formula Bar as seen below. This will make it easier to create more Pairs() that will clear out the other filters in the target report.


Step 8:  You have two more values to pass, the Location and the Account. Type Pair(M21,"Segment2",TRUE)  into Pair2, which will pass the Location into the next report, and type Pair(F26:F125,"Segment1",TRUE)  into Pair3, which will pass the Account or Account Group into the next report.


Step 9: You need to make sure the other filters in the target report do not interfere with the drill, so you will set this next group of Pair() functions to bring over blank values. In the Pair() functions you are going to set the From arguments to blank (""), and you will make the RequireValue argument FALSE . Both steps 9 and 10 are adding Pair functions that clear out the unused filters. This is best practice, but steps 9 and 10 can be skipped since it will not impact the limited scope of this exercise.

Enter the following pairs as shown below:
Pair("","DateEnd",FALSE)  into Pair4

Pair("","Segment3",FALSE)  into Pair5

Pair("","Segment4",FALSE)  into Pair 6

Pair("","AccountDesc",FALSE)  Into Pair7

Pair("","TypeDesc",FALSE)  Into Pair8


Step 10:  There are still more filters to blank out for the target report. Continuing typing the following.

Pair("All","Posting",FALSE)  into Pair9

Pair("","VendorCode",FALSE) into Pair10

Pair("","AmountFrom",FALSE)  into Pair11

Pair("","AmountTo",FALSE)  into Pair12

Pair("","Organization",FALSE)  into Pair13


There are two more pairs to enter. Scroll down and type:

Pair("","Company",FALSE)  into Pair 14

Pair("","FullAccount",FALSE))  into Pair 15.

After these, you are through adding the Pair() functions.


Step 11: You need to name the drill so it is clear for the users. Click on G17 and select the fx  to bring up the Function Wizard. Input Drill To JEQuery - Account  into the DrillName and select OK to finish creating the drill.


When you click away from TransferPairs, it shows a red #NAME ? to the right of the input area. That looks like an error, but it is simply a small bug in Microsoft Excel, which will hopefully be addressed.


Step 12: You successfully created a Drill to the Journal Entry Query report from the financial report. Test it out.

Executing the Drill

Step 1: Use Pull Data to pull the report. You can leave the panes open for the moment. They will not affect the drill feature.


Step 2: Scroll down to the Revenue - Sales  row on line 32 and click the plus sign so it expands to show the accounts. There should be several accounts listed as shown below.


Step 3:  Click the amount $20,900 which is for account 32000 in May 2005. You can then use the keystroke Ctrl Shift K  or use the Drill on Data  menu item to bring up the drill options.


Notice that if you close the drill window and try to drill on column O, there will not be any drill options. The work you did above helped set the scope so the drill only works on the appropriate cells.


Step 3: The animated GIF below shows the drill completed. The panes are frozen again. The drill selects the amount for account 33000 for March 2002, then does the drill on amount 44,474. The JE Query report provides the detail to support the same amount.


Related Links:

L1.3 Modify: Financial Report

L3.3 Financial Variable

L4.2 Drill: Inventory Report

INTERJECT Ribbon Menu Items