REPORTER
5-4
© ReadSoft
AB
Contents
What is ReadSoft
REPORTER?
About this CD
System requirements
Disclaimer
Features in REPORTER 5-4
Limitations
Known issues
Support
Credits and Copyrights
ReadSoft REPORTER,
powered by QlikView, is a powerful analytical
reporting solution for use with the ReadSoft
INVOICES, Invoice Cockpit Suite (for SAP), and INVOICEIT (for Oracle) products.
REPORTER collects data from
your INVOICES, INVOICE COCKPIT and WEB CYCLE, and INVOICEIT systems, creating
historical records that you can view with an easy-to-use, graphical interface.
Using a web browser that has access to the REPORTER server, you can monitor
invoice processing efficiency and user performance. You can find bottlenecks
and the information needed to fix those.
REPORTER quickly displays
information you need using an assortment of tables, graphs, and more. You can
use REPORTER to analyze your data from different perspectives, for example
invoice processing volume, lead time, user performance, interpretation quality,
etc. You can use multiple selections and filters such as profile, buyer,
supplier, user, time, and others.
This CD contains a full
version of REPORTER software and associated documentation. To use the software,
you must obtain a software license from ReadSoft.
Contact the ReadSoft representative in your country
to obtain a license. The ReadSoft representatives are
listed on ReadSoft's home page.
To begin installing the server software:
A note about
existing ReadSoft INVOICES installations
If you install REPORTER for an
existing INVOICES system, note that the REPORTER Plug-in for INVOICES must
be installed at every workstation where one or more INVOICES modules are
installed.
A note about
existing ReadSoft INVOICE COCKPIT and WEB CYCLE
installations
If you install REPORTER for an
existing ICS system, note that the REPORTER Data Export Program for ICS must be
deployed once on the SAP Server. At the same time it must be configured and
scheduled for execution at every SAP client that is used as a data
source for REPORTER.
The transport file
for the REPORTER Data Export Program for ICS is not available on the CD and
must be requested separately from your local ReadSoft
representative. Be sure to request the version of the transport that
corresponds to the SAP release of the system where it will be used:
·
SAP release R/3 4.7 ECC 6.0: transport version READSOFT_REPORTER_5-4_Extractor_ICS3-1_SP1_R3_4_7-6_0
·
SAP release R/3 4.6C: transport
version READSOFT_REPORTER_5-4_Extractor_ICS3-1_SP1_R3_4_6C
Detailed system requirements
for the various servers and workstations connected with this product are found
in REPORTER Installation Guide.
Modification of any file in this
software program, except through the intended use of REPORTER's configuration
tool, may negatively influence the functionality of the program. Such
modification may cause errors and other inadequacies that are not covered by
your support and maintenance agreement (if any). Any warranties may also be
reduced or become null and void.
REPORTER contains the features
described below.
Business functionality
Process
Start page
The program
interface has been reorganized including a new start reports page that provides
guidelines and information to make it easier to setup the initial scope for the
desired selection of invoices. There is also an overview of the key performance
indicators for a number of parameters concerning volume, monetary value,
performance, discount leverage (if ICS or INVOICEIT are connected in the
system), and lead times.
Report navigation pane
Since the number of reports has increased in REPORTER 5-4, all reports
are accessible in a new navigation pane to the left in the program window.
Initial scope settings
A
new section at the top of the Start page provides the user with four
steps to narrow the scope for the invoices they want to view information for:
1.
Select
a time period (such as, All, Today, Yesterday, Last week, Last month, Last
year, etc.)
2.
Select
what to base the time period on (such as, entry, invoice, or due dates among
others)
3.
Select
the location or status of the invoices (such as, the capture or ERP processes,
or invoices that have been paid, not yet posted, or have been posted but not yet
paid).
4.
Go
to a report. The user can select the report from a list or directly in the
report navigation pane.
Undo/redo selections
It
is now possible to undo/redo selections that you make by using the arrow
buttons next to the Clear selections button found in connection with the
Current selections area.
Ability to specify columns in report tables
It is now possible to
specify which data columns are available in the Invoice list, all of the invoice data tables in the reports, and
the Audit trail and Accrual reports.
New and updated reports
A number of new
reports have been developed based on feedback from users and stakeholders, and
a number of others have been updated. For existing reports, all of the
functionality that was found in REPORTER 5-3 is also available in REPORTER 5-4,
but in many cases, the reports have been separated or broken out for clarity
and ease of use.
In general, the reports have been organized
in the navigation pane based on what part of the system they are used in:
Accounts
payable
reports
Production reports
Overview
reports
There are separate
overview reports for both Accounts
payable, Production, and their
sub-parts (see more information below in the separate sections for each). Multiple
key indicators help you quickly understand the status of your system by looking
at trends rather than details. You can drill down in these reports and/or base
them on other selection criteria. However, the indicators will then show the
trends for those criteria instead. You can always go to the detailed report
where an indicator originates (found under the overview headings in the report
navigation pane) to find more information. For example, if you are looking at
the Overview of production data report,
and you need/want more information about the numbers displayed in the Invoices backlog section, you would
select the Backlog report in the
navigation pane to the left.
What is displayed in
the various reports depends on which products are connected in the system
(INVOICES, ICS, INVOICEIT).
Accounts
payable reports
These reports display
information for invoices in the accounts payable process. They are only
available if either ICS or INVOICEIT are connected in the system.
v Accounts
payable overview report - provides a snapshot of the current situation in the system concerning
cash flow and discount-collection statistics based on specific key performance
indicators (KPIs).
Ψ Cashflow overview report - provides an overview of cash flow information on invoices that are
coming due, were either paid within terms or late, and those that are overdue.
Information is provided for both the number of invoices in each category and
their monetary value.
§
Invoices coming due report shows how many invoices are coming due (that is, unpaid but not overdue) within the next week or so. It is possible to drill down to these
invoices from this report.
§
Overdue
invoices report - shows the number of invoices that are currently
overdue and how many days overdue they are.
§
Paid
invoices report - shows trends over time for invoices that were paid
within terms and those that were paid late.
§
Payment
accuracy report - provides information on how close to the due date invoices were paid including
both those invoices that were paid early as well as those that were paid late.
Ψ
Discount
overview report provides an overview of both the number of and monetary value of
invoices that still have discounts remaining that can be claimed. The report
also displays separate graphs for discounts gained and lost over time.
§
Discount
coming due report provides detailed information on the invoices that still have
discount remaining.
§
Gained
discount report provides detailed information on the gained discount trends over
time.
§
Lost
discount report same as gained discount report except it is for lost discount.
Ψ
Accrual report - provides information needed on unpaid invoices for accruals accounting
tasks at the end of critical accounting periods.
Production
reports
These reports display
information on invoices in the production process. What is available here
depends on what is connected in the system.
v
Production
overview report - provides AP managers and managers that are responsible
for the overall process with a top level view of key performance indicators for
the system backlog, lead time, and interpretation rates.
Ψ
Backlog report Workload trends over time are displayed in the graph for invoices that
match the selection criteria. If the trend is rising, for example, it may
indicate that there are not enough resources to handle the processing load.
Ψ
Current
overview report - provides an overview of information on invoices
(depending on the criteria selected) that are currently in the system and where
they are found.
§
By status report
provides detailed information concerning invoices that are
currently in the system displayed by status.
§
By buyer report
provides detailed information concerning invoices that are
currently in the system displayed by buyer.
§
By supplier report
provides detailed information concerning invoices that are
currently in the system displayed by supplier.
§
By error
type report (ICS only) - provides detailed information
concerning invoices that are currently in the system displayed by error type.
Ψ Volume statistics overview report in general the
volume statistics reports display information on invoices that have been
processed. This report provides an overview of key performance indicators for the
number of invoices that were received, posted, paid, or deleted, whether the
invoices were posted manually or automatically (ICS or INVOICEIT), and for
invoices with specific errors.
§ Volume statistics details report -
contains aggregated information about invoices that were entered, completed,
deleted, processed, and paid during a given period of time.
§
Action
details report provides statistics on all actions that have taken
place for the invoices included in the selection criteria, and they are listed
separately for each module in the system.
§ PO matching report
(INVOICEIT only) displays volume statistics based
on whether the invoices were matched to the purchase order (PO) manually or
automatically in INVOICEIT.
§
Posting
method report (ICS only) - displays volume
statistics based on whether the invoices were posted manually or automatically
in ICS.
§ Error types report - a new report that displays trends over time concerning invoices with
specific errors, such as, duplicate invoice numbers, incorrect vendor, matching
hold reason, and PO mismatch.
Ψ
Lead time
overview report displays information on key performance indicators
concerning lead time for invoices in the system showing both the total time as
well as the time spent in each module or payment cycle.
The report also shows how many invoices entered the
system late (that is, after the invoice date) and by how much, as well as, the
number of days invoices are entered late sorted by supplier.
§ Capture report - shows trends over time for the total lead time and the lead time for
each module in the capture process.
§
AP process report - this report shows trends over time for the lead time for the various
production events in the AP process. Note that AP lead time is expressed in
days, and it only includes weekdays and not weekends.
§
Workflow report (ICS
only) this report displays details on lead time for invoices in the
workflows.
§
Entry date report - a new report that compares the date of entry of invoices in the system
with the invoice date. This provides the user with information on which
invoices are entered late and by how much.
Ψ Performance overview report
(INVOICES only) - displays a speedometer like graph
to show the general interpretation rate achieved in the system and tables of
general performance rates by profile, buyer, and supplier.
§
By profile report
functionality is identical to REPORTER 5-3.
§
By supplier report
functionality is identical to REPORTER 5-3.
§
By buyer report
functionality is identical to REPORTER 5-3.
Ψ Rerouted overview report (INVOICES only) displays an overview of the number of events when the profile, buyer, or
supplier was changed for invoices. This helps identify profiles, suppliers, and
buyers that are changed most by Verify operator so that the INVOICES setup can
potentially be improved.
§
By profile report
functionality is identical to REPORTER 5-3.
§
By supplier report
functionality is identical to REPORTER 5-3.
§
By buyer report
functionality is identical to REPORTER 5-3.
Ψ Resources overview report displays separate graphs for the number of invoices and their monetary
value according to the assigned user. Trends over time are also displayed for
INVOICES users (if connected in the system) and AP users (if connected in the
system).
§ Inbox report - a new report that indicates how many invoices are assigned to individual
users and provides information on which invoices they are. It also provides
information on the median number of days since the last action was performed
and the median number of days since the last action was done by the assigned
user.
§
Capture report
(INVOICES only) - provides information on how many
times users perform actions in the capture part of the process.
§
AP process report (ICS
or INVOICEIT only) - provides information
on how many times users perform actions in the ERP part of the process.
§
Workflow report
(ICS-WEB CYCLE only) - shows statistics on
how many times users performed actions in the Workflow (WEB CYCLE), including
the median lead time that it took users to act.
v Invoices search function
a new feature to filter or find invoices.
v
Print report feature
same as REPORTER 5-3.
Invoice list and Audit trail reports
These two reports are the same as they were in REPORTER 5-3, however, they
are found in separate tabs at the top of the window rather than in the report
navigation pane.
ABC analysis is a powerful way to select buyers and / or suppliers
according to their importance in three invoice-parameter areas: number of
invoices, their monetary value, or lead time.
Reorganization of Selections and AP Selections
tabs
If there are a large
number of buyers and/or suppliers, for example, users can now use a search
function to more easily find those of interest.
Improved ABC selection functionality
The functionality to
select invoices for the most/least important buyers/suppliers has been improved
and now includes the ability to use this functionality to find users and
profiles as well. In addition to number of invoices and monetary value, this
analysis can now also be used to measure degrees of importance based on lead
time and gained/lost/potential discounts.
Support for Oracle/INVOICEIT added
Data
can now be imported from INVOICEIT.
Improved performance when importing INVOICES
data
In
large systems where there are large amounts of data to import, it is now
possible (in the configuration tool) to enable the use of intermediary files to
speed up the import process. If this is used, the the
import agent also needs to be turned on. This would not be necessary in smaller
systems that dont have performance issues, and where the reports are updated
manually, and you dont want to run the extra agent.
Configurable columns in data tables
To display only the
information of interest in the program, it is now possible to specify which
data columns are visible in the invoice list, the audit trail tab, the accrual
report, and the invoice data tables in the various reports using the
configuration tool.
Updated QlikView version
REPORTER 5-4 uses QlikView version 9.0. This provides these benefits:
·
Embedded QlikView Publisher= simpler
installation, configuration (some manual steps have been removed), and daily
operation.
·
Improved memory management
·
Improved performance
·
Improved use experience
·
New search functionality
Context sensitive help in all reports
A link to the topic specific
to the current window is provided in the upper right corner of each report
Installation and
upgrade
REPORTER is supplied on a separate
release CD. The Autorun program helps users install
various components of the system and easily view documentation. (See To begin installing..., above.)
The installation program performs
all required deployment actions after which the configuration tool is launched
automatically.
The REPORTER Plug-in for
INVOICES, a client utility, must be installed at every workstation or
server where an INVOICES module is installed. This plug-in establishes the
connection to the Message Store database and collects data about the INVOICES
processes performed on the INVOICES workstations. This is a robust component
that tolerates disconnection from the Message Store database and other system
problems. When there is no connection to the database, messages are saved
locally and then sent to the database when the connection is reestablished.
REPORTER Data Export program
for ICS is not included on the REPORTER CD and is distributed on request as a
separate transport file. This must be imported into the same SAP system where
Invoice Cockpit Suite is currently installed and configured per client. The
REPORTER Data Export program for ICS will become a part of the ReadSoft Invoice Cockpit Suite package, starting with ICS
3.2
Licensing
REPORTER requires a license
key that consists of two files:
Compatibility
REPORTER supports INVOICES 5-4
and INVOICES 5-5.
REPORTER supports ICS 3.2
Service Pack 1 and later releases.
REPORTER supports SAP releases
from 4.6C to ERP 6.0.
REPORTER supports INVOICEIT
3.2 SP1 HF18.
Translations
REPORTER is currently
available in English only.
Documentation
System requirements and
general limitations are listed in REPORTER Installation Guide. These
specific limitations also apply to the current release of REPORTER 5-4:
There are a number of known
issues in the system. The development team is working to resolve them:
If you have questions or
problems, please contact your local ReadSoft
representative. Information on how to reach the local support channels is
available at http://www.readsoft.com/services/support.htm.
ReadSoft is a registered
trademark of ReadSoft AB.
Portions of the reporting
technology used by REPORTER are powered by QlikView. QlikView and QlikTech are
registered trademarks of QlikTech International AB.
Other product and company
names herein may be the registered trademarks of their respective owners.