Understanding the GL071 Financial Summary Historical Comparison Report in Cognos Analytics

The GL071 report answers the question: how were we doing this time last year?

The report shows a historical comparison of revenues and expenses over two years. The time period may span the current and prior year or the selected and prior year through the current, previous, or selected period. For example, if you select accounting period 4 (December) and fiscal year as 2010, the report summarizes the data from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 for fiscal years 2009 and 2010 in a side-by-side comparison. Financial information is at the summary level, not the transactional detail level.

Anyone with access to Cognos BI Reporting and row-level security to departments or tree nodes can find and run the report.

Step 1 Navigate to the report

Begin by logging into Cognos Analytics.

Click Team content, from the Navigation Panel.
Click Finance, Facilities, and Research Administration folder.
Click School or Central folder.
Choose and Click any of the following folders. (Note: You may not see all the folders listed as this tied to your security settings)
- Accounting Services
- Budget
- Facilities
- Sponsored Programs Management
- Supply Chain
- Voyager
- Budget/COA
- Monthly Financial
Click the report title to see the prompt page.

Step 2 Respond to prompts and run the report

Respond to prompts as needed to filter the report.
- If the selected accounting period is closed when the report is run, (Closed) appears in the report header.
- For any fiscal year you select in the prompt area, the prior fiscal year data is automatically inserted into the report. You may only compare fiscal years per report.
- If you select a period in the future, the report will pull all data for the prior fiscal year through the selected period, but the data for the current fiscal year will only include data from September 1 through whatever accounting period NU is currently using. This will result in an unequal comparison between fiscal years.
- To include all chart strings from all allowable funds, do not select any funds from the funds prompt.
- If you want to limit the funds that appear, you may only select up to 10 funds at a time from the fund prompt.
- Chart strings that use grant, agency, or plant funds (funds that start with 6, 7, or 8) are excluded from this report.
Click Finish.

Prompts	Descriptions
Business Unit (NWUNV) Fiscal Year Accounting Period Sort order* Fund (optional) Optional Columns Department Department Tree Node (optional) Project Status Project (number)	* Sort order - specifies how the information is sorted. For example, if you select Department and then Fund, chart strings are sorted first by department ID and second by fund numbers within each department ID grouping. Optional Columns select these columns to include them in the report. Columns include: Benefits Budget, Benefits Obligation, Over/Under Expense Budget, Over/Under Revenue Budget, Fringe Benefit Surplus/(Deficit), and Fund Description. * Department - the tree represents the structure of the university for financial reporting. Select the (As of Today) option for the most recent reporting structure, or select the prior fiscal year tree to use the reporting structure from the prior fiscal year.

Prompts

Descriptions

Business Unit (NWUNV)
Fiscal Year
Accounting Period
Sort order*
Fund (optional)
Optional Columns
Department
Department Tree Node (optional)
Project Status
Project (number)

* Sort order - specifies how the information is sorted. For example, if you select Department and then Fund, chart strings are sorted first by department ID and second by fund numbers within each department ID grouping.

** Optional Columns select these columns to include them in the report. Columns include: Benefits Budget, Benefits Obligation, Over/Under Expense Budget, Over/Under Revenue Budget, Fringe Benefit Surplus/(Deficit), and Fund Description.

*** Department - the tree represents the structure of the university for financial reporting. Select the (As of Today) option for the most recent reporting structure, or select the prior fiscal year tree to use the reporting structure from the prior fiscal year.

Report Results

Columns are repeated and grouped by fiscal year so that comparison is made between fiscal years.
Queried data starts at day one of the fiscal year and ends during the selected accounting period.
A negative amount is enclosed with parenthesis.

Standard Column Definitions

Column Name	Column Description	Calculations
Department	Seven-digit DeptID value; the part of the chart string that identifies the unit responsible for the activity.	No calculations performed
Department Description	A description of the specified DeptID number.	No calculations performed
Fund Code	Three-digit value; the part of the chart string that that identifies the type of funding source.	No calculations performed
Project	Unique eight-digit value; part of the chart string that links the activity to a distinct restricted or unrestricted purpose.	No calculations performed
Project Description	The description of the project number.	No calculations performed
Carryforward Expense Budget	This is the amount of actuals dollars remaining from the prior fiscal year. These are not budget dollars.	No calculations performed
Fiscal Year Expense Budget	This is the expense budget for the chart string. This includes the base budget plus any budget adjustments that have been made.	No calculations performed
Total Expense Budget	This amount is the carryforward dollars from the prior fiscal year added to the expense budget for this fiscal year, which is your total amount of spending authority.	Carryforward Expense Budget plus Fiscal Year Expense Budget
Total Actual Expenses	Total expenses posted against the chart string from fiscal year beginning through the selected accounting period.	No calculations performed
Total Encumbrances	Total encumbrances and pre-encumbrances posted against the chart string from fiscal year beginning through the selected accounting period.	No calculations performed
Total Obligation	The sum of the total actual expenses, encumbrances, and pre-encumbrances from fiscal year beginning through the selected accounting period.	Total Actual Expenses plus Total Encumbrances
Fiscal Year Revenue Budget	This is the amount budgeted for revenue for the fiscal year. This includes the base budget plus any adjustments that have been made.	No calculations performed
Recognized Revenue	This is the actual revenue that has been posted for this chart string from fiscal year beginning through the selected accounting period.	No calculations performed
Column Name	Column Description	Calculations
Fiscal Year Surplus/(Deficit)	Revenue surplus or deficit plus expense surplus or deficit, provides the net position which includes benefits and excludes any carryforward dollars from prior years.	Fiscal Year Expense Budget minus Total Obligation plus Recognized Revenue
Cumulative Surplus/(Deficit)	Revenue surplus or deficit plus expense surplus or deficit, provides the net position which includes benefits and includes carryforward dollars from prior years.	Under/(Over) Expense Budget plus Over/(Under) Revenue Budget or Fiscal Year Expense Budget minus Total Obligation plus Recognized Revenue
$ Change	The amount of difference in dollars between the most recent fiscal year in the report and the older fiscal year.	Most recent fiscal year Cumulative Surplus/(Deficit) minus older fiscal year Cumulative Surplus/(Deficit)
% Change	The percentage of change between most recent fiscal year and the older fiscal year.	$ Change divided by older fiscal year s Cumulative Surplus/(Deficit)

Optional Columns

Column Name	Column Description	Calculations
Fund Description	The description of the fund such as General Unrestricted, or Designated	No calculations performed
Benefits Budget	This is the amount of your total expense budget that is budgeted for benefits. This amount is a subset of Fiscal Year Expense Budget.	No calculations performed
Benefits Obligation	This is the amount of your total obligation that is solely benefits expense. This amount is a subset of the Total Obligation amount.	No calculations performed
Under/(Over) Expense Budget	This is the total expense budget including carryforward dollars minus all expenses, encumbrances, and pre-encumbrances.	Total Expense Budget minus Total Obligation
Over/(Under) Revenue Budget	The difference between the amount of revenue that was budgeted and actual revenue received for the chart string.	Recognized Revenue minus Fiscal Year Revenue Budget
Fringe Benefits Surplus/(Deficit)	The benefits budget minus benefits obligation which includes benefits transactions that are expense and encumbrances. The fringe benefit Surplus/(Deficit) is a subset of the Cumulative Surplus/(Deficit) amount For fund 110, General Unrestricted, a fringe benefit surplus is generally returned to the university A fringe benefit deficit is generally the responsibility of the applicable department or unit.	Benefits Budget minus Benefits Obligation

Keywords:	BI "business intelligence" era reporting cognos analytics "McFits" gl71 glo71 ffra nufin Suggest keywords	Doc ID:	82155
Owner:	Enterprise Reporting & Analytics .	Group:	Northwestern
Created:	2018-05-09 09:26 CDT	Updated:	2019-02-04 11:59 CDT
Sites:	Northwestern
Feedback:	4 0 Comment Suggest a new document