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SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1

A Basic Guide for Banner Finance Users

After the SAS EG software is loaded to your machine, you will need to configure it for your personal use. Open Enterprise Guide 4 from your desktop. Click on Tools>Options.

Click on Security in the left pane. Uncheck Save Metadata credentials in user profile.

Click on Repository and Server. Click on New.

Name=sasbi, Description=sasbi server. Click Next>.

Type=SAS Metadata Repository, Machine=sasbi.vcu.edu, Port=8561, User=your eID@edir, password=your eID password. Click on Next for Foundation. Click Finish. Your screen will appear slightly different from this screen shot the first time you configure it, but the values are the same.

Click OK.

After first time set up, when you open Enterprise Guide 4 you will be asked for your eID@edir and your eID password.

This box will automatically pop up. You can use to open one of your recent projects or start a new project, . Otherwise, click on the red X and cancel it.

To begin a new report (project), Click on File>Open>Data.

Click on SAS Servers.

Select the ods finance repository under Look in:, if not already selected. Find the table (or first table) you want to use from the list, double click on it or click on it once and click Open.

Wait a few moments and allow SAS EG to populate the screen with values from the table you selected. This view shows all the information available on this table. SAS does this automatically, even though you won’t be using the information in this format. This view of the table also allows to look at the values that are in each field. From here you can check those columns that might have missing values.

It’s important to note that SAS EG does not automatically list field names on the tables in alphabetical order. In order to do this, click on Tools>Options>Data General>check Display columns in alphabetical order. Click OK. You will only need to do this once, your preference will be saved.

As with any report, you are going to want to add report parameters. Click on Data>Filter and Query.

The Query Builder will open. In the left pane are the values available on the table you selected. At this point you should determine whether you need to add (join) another (or two) tables to this query.

To add another table, click on Add Tables. Then double Click on SAS Servers.

Find the next table name in the list, click on the name and click Open (or double click).

The values from the second table will be added to the values from the first table in the left pane.

If you need a third table, go ahead and click on Add Tables. Double click on SAS Servers.

Find the next table in the list. Click on the table name and click Open.

The values from this table will be added to the left pane. Next, you will want to view your joins so that the report will run effectively. Click on Join.

SAS EG will want to join on the first common denominator. In this case, it has selected Chart of Accounts. This is too broad a join. Look for other common elements between the tables that are less broad. This will prevent your report from forming a loop, taking a long time to run or crashing your computer.

In this example, the Operating Ledger table and Grant Fund table have Fund in common. Click on Fund in the Operating Ledger box, right click on this field. Select Join With from the pop-up window and then select the Fund field from the second table. You can also hold down the left mouse button and move your cursor from Fund in the Operating Ledger box to Fund in the Grant Fund box. You will see a “do not do” symbol, but ignore it. With either method the result is a line pointing from Fund to Fund with two circles in the middle.

Next, we need to establish the common field between Operating Ledger and Organization Attributes. Both of these tables have Organization Code (Org Code) in common. Click on Org Code in the Operating Ledger box and hold down mouse button. Drag your cursor to Org Code in the Organization Attributes box and release mouse button (or right click on the field and use the Join With option).

Now you need to delete the lines you don’t want or the original defaults. Click on these lines and they will highlight in yellow.

Click on the Delete button along the top tool bar.

You should be left with two lines joining Operating Ledger to Grant Fund and Operating Ledger to Organization Attributes.

The type of your join (inner, outer, left, right) can also affect the performance of your query. To view the join type, right click on the double circles and click on Modify Join.

Most data tables with common matching fields will run as an inner join. Tip: If there is a possibility that one of tables you selected might be missing a value for the selected join operator (the value you joined on), you may want to choose either a left or right join, otherwise fields with missing values will not appear on your report. After viewing the join type click OK and then Close.

Now we are ready to select the data that will make up our columns on the report. Click on the Select Data tab. Click on the values in the left pane and drag them to the right pane (or you can double click on the value and they will default to the right pane).

Fields marked with a red triangle are alpha (or attribute) fields. Fields marked with a blue circle are numeric or dollar fields.

See how we’ve selected Sum Year to Date Activity as a field? If we run this report, as is, the activity will not be summed. The report results will show the activity by account (even though account is not a field). This is an important thing to remember about SAS EG. You will need to make a few extra steps in order to summarize information.

Go ahead and click on the Sum Year to Date Activity field and use the Black X to delete. We’re going to need to compute this field. Next, click on Computed Columns in the upper left corner.

A dialog box will open. Click on New.

Select Build Expression . . .

Select the field you want to sum from the RIGHT PANE. If your field does not appear, find the table in the left pane and click once on it. The values will populate the in the right pane. Click on Sum Year to Date Activity and then click on Add to Expression. The expression will appear in the Expression text box.

We’ll need to clarify the expression. Click in the Expression text box and add (SUM( to the beginning of the expression and )) to the end of the expression. This expression will sum the year to date activity and give you a summed year to date total per org. Click OK.

Give your new Computed Column a name. Click on the default name, then select Rename.

Type in your new named field. Make sure Add new computed column to query is checked and click on Close.

Your new computed field should appear in the Select Data box. If not . . . .

You’ll find it at the bottom of the left pane, under computed columns. Select and drag it to the Select Data box.

Click in the box to check Automatically select groups under Summary groups. You will need to check this selection when you are doing a sum of accounts (as in this example). It will automatically group common elements. If you are creating a detail report on transactions, you can check Select distinct rows only to avoid duplicate lines.

Now we can filter and further define our query. Click on the Filter Data tab.

Select the fields you want to filter from the left pane. Click and drag them to the Filter Data box.

A dialog box will open. You’ll need to decide the Operator (equals, greater than, between, etc.) from the drop down menu.

Tip: Be prepared to type in the Value. Using the drop down menu here may lock up your machine as it tries to retrieve too much data. Type in your value. In this report it’s FACRPOOL. Click OK.

Select another filter from the list in the left pane. A dialog box will open. Tip: in SAS EG, the operator Between includes the beginning value and the ending value. This saves you from using greater than and equal to in one expression and less than and equal to in another expression. In this example our values are in a range, we’ve selected Between.

Put in the range of values. Values are between (and includes) 500 to 581. Click OK.

For this report, we only want expenditures. Tip: Since some Banner accounts are five digit and some six, you’ll include all of them if you use accounts 50000 (5 and 4 zeros) and 799999 (7 and 5 nines). Another tip: You can also get the same results by choosing Account_Type_Level_1 is between 50 and 90(50=labor, 60=other expenditures, 90=transfers).

Tip: Don’t use your new Computed Column as a filter field. If you need to add a filter for that data, select the original field your Computed Column is based on. In this example, we want the Sum Year to Date Activity not equal to .00. This will prevent unnecessary lines with zero activity.

We have finished with our filter items. Next click on Sort Data.

In this box you can specify how you would like the data sorted. Tip: The report will automatically sort by the first field in the Select Data box. If you would like it to sort by something else, specify it here.

Basically our query is finished. Let’s look at some of the other features. If you click on Preview . .

You’ll see the underlying SAS code that is associated with this Query. This is important if you need assistance with a Query and you’re asked for the “Code”.

In the Query name box you can change the name of your query. Just click in the box and type.

We are now ready to run the report. Click on Run.

Give the report a couple of minutes to run. It will appear in the right pane. Check it over for the results you expected. If you waited over 5 minutes or so for results, your query may need further work. If you think that it might not run and you need to stop it, you can use Code>Stop or click on the small red box to stop the query.

If you need to open the query again to make adjustments, click on Query. The query symbol is the blue funnel.

To review the structure of your query (the tables involved) double click on Process Flow.

This view shows the tables used to create the Query. You can also open the query from this view by clicking on Query (look for the blue funnel symbol).

Double click on Query for Operating Ledger and you will return to the results generated by the query.

To Save your query as a SAS project, click on File>Save Project As.

Save your project to your Local Computer.

Save in a folder of your choice as an Enterprise Guide Project File (.egp) Next time you want to run the query, open the file from this folder on your pc. You can also email this file to someone else who has SAS Enterprise Guide and they can open it and save it to their computer.

Name your File and Click Save. Now you can run the report again in SAS EG.

To send your report to an Excel spreadsheet, Select File>Send To>Microsoft Excel.

If it is a large report, this may take a few minutes. The report will open in an Excel window and from here you can save it to your PC..

The next time you want to run your query (report), open SAS EG and sign in. Select File>Open>Project.

Select Local Computer.

Select the report (query name) and click Open.

Additional Tips and Tricks for Report Writing

1. For filters with date fields (ex., Transaction History table), the format for date is ‘01Jul2007:0:0:0’dt. Banner recognizes hours, minutes and seconds, so you’ll need to input the entire expression.

2. Filters for queries related to expenditures should begin with the expression Chart of Accounts=V.

3. If you’re creating a report for fund balances, keep in mind that entering one fiscal period will only return the balance for the month, not year to date. To get year to date fund balances, you need to use fiscal period is between 00(beginning balance) and the month you want it through (04, for October). You’ll also have to create a calculated field for current actual using the sum expression (like the example in this manual). The report will sum the beginning balance plus the month’s balance. Also, on funds, the highest fiscal period (through June 30) is 12, not 14.

4. Grant Users: Grant year is the not the same as fiscal year.

5. You can easily create multiple queries within one SAS project. Simply Click on Data>Filter & Query. A copy of your last query will open. Simply manipulate the values and filters to create your second query. Give the new query a new name under Query Name.

Additional Tips and Tricks for Report Writing

6. You can share your EG projects with anyone who has the software on their machine. Simply attach the .egp file in an email for help or brainstorming. When the recipient opens the file, they will need to sign in to SAS EG and save the report as their own. SAS EG won’t allow you to manipulate or run the report unless you’ve saved it first.

7. Duplicate rows of identical information can be eliminated by clicking on Select distinct rows only on the Select Data Tab of your query.

8. On the Filter Data tab, if you need to change the “and” in your filter to “or”, click on Combine Filters. You can also change the order of your filters using this option.

9. Here are some useful Banner forms that will help you with Banner Hierarchy and attribute information: FTIFNDH, FTMFATA, FTIORGH, FTIFATA, FGIBDST, FGITBAL, FGIGLAC.

10. To view the information contained on Banner Finance tables, go to: https://carlow.vcu.edu:8000/metadata/Finance_ODS_index.html (from a VCU IP address)

Creating Reports with Parameters

You can use the Parameters feature if you want to create a report that will prompt you for values each time you run the report. For instance, you have a report that you run monthly and the only change to the report is the fiscal period that you enter under Filter Data. You can set up a Parameter Code that will prompt you for the fiscal period each time you run the report. Let’s try this with the report we created earlier.

Find you SAS Project under File>Open>Project>Local Computer. Find the .egp project and open. Double click on Query to reopen your report.

Double click on Query (either in the left pane of Project Designer view) to open the report criteria.

Click on Filter Data.

Double click on Fiscal Period since this is the month in Banner.

Instead of 14, type in &MONTH (or whatever you want to call it) in the Value field. Click OK.

With Fiscal Period still highlighted in Blue, click on Parameters.

When the Parameters Dialog opens, Click on ADD.

Under Display name, type Month. Under SAS code name, type month. Click on the Data type and Values tab.

Make sure Prompt for Value is checked. Click Add and Close. Click Close again when the parameter dialog box appears.

Next time you run report, the following prompt will appear to remind you to enter a fiscal period number for the month.