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Burst Legacy Scheduled Ad Hoc Reports via Email

Bursting a scheduled ad hoc report in Chrome River's legacy ANALYTICS using email distribution means that you are creating an ad hoc report schedule that will consider each person associated with records on the report (Expense/Transaction Owner, Invoice Requester, Assigned Approver or an Assigned Group or Role) and sending an email with only the relevant data from the report to that person, their delegates, and/or the group or role to which they belong.

You will need to take the following steps to ensure that this file is sent correctly, with accurate data:

  1. Add the appropriate ID or Entity fields to your report as the first dimension in the By section of the Query Pane. This will tell the schedule which key to burst from. Save your report with the changes when you are done.

  2. Update the distribution file, which is a list of possible recipients, so that the schedule knows to whom the emails should be sent. If you do not have it already, you'll need to obtain the location and name of the distribution file from the Chrome River ANALYTICS support team for use when creating the schedule.

  3. Set up an ad hoc email schedule so that the report will be sent to specific users at a specific time. Be sure to check the schedule logs to ensure that the file was sent to the appropriate email addresses after you manually run the schedule the first time. Subsequent schedules will run automatically.

  4. Check your email or have another user check their email to ensure that the report was received.

Each of these steps is explained in detail below.

Change to Structured Mode

First, right click the name of your report and select EDIT. Change the view to Structured mode.

Preparing Your Report for Burst Distribution

Any report that you wish to burst to individual users needs to have at least one key or field added as the first dimension or field in the report. You can hide these from printing on the report later by right-clicking on the field(s) and selecting VISIBILITY > HIDE.

Here are several sample distribution objectives and the associated key(s)or field(s) you will need to add to your report. Once you have added the correct ID(s) or key(s) to accomplish your objective, skip to the Update Distribution section.

You will want to expand all the segments listed below but collapse all other segments or categories in between as you go scroll down through the data pane.

  • Report sent to expense or transaction owners only OR to expense or transaction owners and their managers OR to expense or transaction owner’s delegates with data belonging to the owners:

  • Transaction (Segment) or Header (Segment) > Owner (Segment) > PERSONID (Field)

  • Report sent to only the managers of expense or transaction owners with data belonging to their subordinates:

  • Transaction (Segment) or Header (Segment) > Owner (Segment) > REPORTSTOPERSONID (Field)

The following objectives and fields are only for use if you created an ad hoc report using the Expense Analysis (Approval/Routing) reporting object and the other objectives do not match your distribution goals.

  • Report sent to assigned approvers of expense reports OR to assigned approvers and their managers OR to the delegates of assigned approvers, with data belonging to expense reports awaiting approval from assigned approvers:

  • Header (Segment) > LineItem (Segment) > LineItem Step (Segment) > Approver (Segment) > PERSONID (Field)

  • Report sent to only the managers of assigned approvers, with data belonging to expense reports awaiting approval from their subordinates:

  • Header (Segment) > LineItem (Segment) > LineItem Step (Segment) > Approver (Segment) > REPORTSTOPERSONID (Field)

  • Report sent to all users with assigned roles/groups for expense reports assigned to those roles/groups. The following need to be added as the first three fields in the By section of the Query Pane, in this order:

  • Header (Segment) > LineItem (Segment) > LineItem Step > Role Name (Field)

  • Header (Segment) > LineItem (Segment) > LineItem Step (Segment) > Entity Type Code (Field)

  • Header (Segment) > LineItem (Segment) > LineItem Step (Segment) > Entity Code (Field)

The following objectives and fields are only if you used one of the Invoice Ad Hoc reporting objects to create your ad hoc report.

  • Report sent to invoice request owners OR invoice request owners and their managers OR the delegates of invoice request owners with data belonging to the owners:

  • Invoice Header (Segment) > Invoice Requester (Segment) > PERSONID (Field)

  • Report sent to assigned approvers of invoices OR to assigned approvers and their managers OR to the delegates of assigned approvers with data belonging to invoices awaiting approval from assigned approvers:

  • Invoice Header (Segment) > Invoice Routing (Segment) > Assigned Person > PERSONID (Field)

  • Report sent to only the managers of assigned approvers, with data belonging to invoices awaiting approval from their subordinates:

  • Invoice Header (Segment) > Invoice Routing (Segment) > Assigned Person (Segment) > REPORTSTOPERSONID (Field)

  • Report sent to all users of assigned roles/groups for invoices assigned for approval by those users in those roles. The following need to be added as the first three fields in the By section of the Query Pane, in this order:

  • Invoice Header (Segment) > Invoice Routing (Segment) > Role Name (Field)

  • Invoice Header (Segment) > Invoice Routing (Segment) > Entity Type Code (Field)

  • Invoice Header (Segment) > Invoice Routing (Segment) > Entity Code (Field)

Update Distribution Files via Drivers

A distribution file is a list of users belonging to one of the following four groups: Delegates, Group Routing, Owners and Owners + Reports To (Manager).

In order to update a distribution file with the latest user information, you need to run its corresponding distribution driver. Be sure to run the driver regularly so that it will be updated with the current users in the system. The following four drivers correspond to the four distribution file choices:

  • Delegates: Updates the list of delegates.

  • Group Routing: Updates the list of approval group members.

  • Owners: Updates the list of expense owners, assigned users or invoice requesters. (For use with reports that need to be sent only to expense owners, managers, invoice requesters or assigned approvers.)

  • Owners + Reports To (Manager): Updates the list that includes expense owners and their direct managers (i.e., "Reports To"). (For use with reports that need to be sent to owners/requestors/assigned approvers and to their managers.

Follow these steps to run the driver corresponding to the distribution file you wish to update.

  1. Go to the Analytics Dashboard > AD HOC REPORTS tab.

  2. Select WORKSPACES > STANDARD REPORTS > DRIVERS.

  3. Depending on distribution file you wish to update, right-click UPDATE DISTRIBUTION FILE – OWNERS, UPDATE DISTRIBUTION FILE – GROUP ROUTING, UPDATE DISTRIBUTION FILE – DELEGATES, or UPDATE DISTRIBUTION FILE – OWNERS + REPORTS TO (MANAGER).

  4. Select RUN.

  5. Make sure you see the message "Successfully created distribution list!"

 

If desired, you can run a driver file automatically by attaching a schedule and saving it in the My Content folder. The suggested recurrence is "Daily," and the suggested recipient is no-reply@chromeriver.com, since driver file results do not need to be sent to a user.

Run the Email Report

To trigger an email, you must schedule the report. Before beginning, you will need to submit a request via the Chrome River Help Desk to get your company's distribution file name for Step 4, below.

  1. Go to the Analytics Dashboard> AD HOC REPORTS tab.

  2. Select WORKSPACES > [Your Company Name] > MY CONTENT.

  3. Right-click on the name of your report and select SCHEDULE > EMAIL.

  1. Click on the DISTRIBUTION tab and select or enter the following information.

  2. Type: Select "Distribution File." A distribution file is created for your company by Chrome River to allow you to schedule a particular report to be distributed to all Chrome River users in your company.

  3. To: Enter the name of the distribution file. (e.g., /var/reporting/distribution/A948_www.tcc.com.txt). This is unique to your organization.

  4. If you do not already have the name, submit a request via the Chrome River Help Desk.

  5. Be sure to specify which distribution file name you need: Delegates, Group Routing, Owners or Owners + Reports To.

  6. CC: Leave this blank unless you want a particular user to be emailed every partitioned report that gets sent out to each user at your company.

  7. From: Choose the display name. Example: "Expense Management Department"

  8. Reply Address: We recommend no-reply@chromeriver.com

  9. Subject: Describe the contents of the report for recipients. Example: "Your Returned Expense Reports."

  10. Email Information: You could send your report as an attachment, but we will select “Send the report as inline message” so people will read it!

  1. Click the TASK tab.

  2. Check the BURST REPORT check box. This will send each line of the report to the appropriate person. Otherwise, everyone in the distribution list will get every line of the report.

  3. If it is not already selected, check OVERRIDE THE FORMAT SPECIFIED and choose "HTML - Web Page."

  1. Click on the RECURRENCE tab.

  2. Choose the appropriate radio button in the Settings section to designate how often the schedule should run.

  3. Choose a Time Zone.

  4. Set the time that the schedule should start running based on the recurrence that you chose in the Settings section. Leave the End section as it is.

  5. Click SAVE & CLOSE, then save the schedule to My Content.

  1. Now you need to manually run the schedule to check it. Find the schedule in the My Content folder, right-click it, and select RUN.

  2. Make sure you see the message "The schedule has been submitted for execution... ."

Check the Log

1. On the Schedule Explorer tab, select WORKSPACES > [Your Company Name] > MY CONTENT.

2. Double-click on the report schedule that you saved.

3. Click on the LOG REPORTS tab. Double-click on an entry to see the detailed log report. This is a great tool for troubleshooting.

View the Email to Test

After you have manually run the report for the first time, find the corresponding email notification in your email to verify that it is formatted properly. You may wish to create a filter on your report so that it only generates a single email whenever you manually run it. You can then test the results without emailing to the entire organization.

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