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September 09, 2009

So you have all the data. Now what?

So you have all your billing data in your cost management system, each month gathering yet another month worth of data.

Seems like you should be able to do something with all that data. Luckily, thanks to the power of reporting tools available, you now have all the data you need to report on all that history. If you're lucky enough to be using a reporting tool like Business Objects or Crystal Reports, you don't have to learn pesky things like SQL select commands or how the tables relate to each other. If you aren't using those tools, the roads a little longer but still quite manageable. MS Access or SQL plus are willing servants, even if they take a little cajoling to do your bidding. What's in a good report? There are some tricks to it that seem really obvious, but so often gets skipped over. Let's start off simply.

Have a Plan: Really, it's that simple. It helps to know what you're looking for in the beginning and have a goal in mind. Even if it turns out that the report becomes something completely different from what you had in mind at the started, having a plan will save a whole lot of time and writers block.

Write out a list of things you think will help you write a meaningful report. Don't worry about getting it perfect, you can always change it later. Having a plan in mind when you sit down at your computer means you don't have to sit there staring blankly at all the fields available.

Now that you have your plan and you're actually in to the meat of building a query: Don't fall into the trap of too much data. It's so easy to just pull in one or two more extra fields. Always think about who you're giving the report to and what kind of data is going to be meaningful to them. Is it for someone with experience that will understand the significance of Mileage Rating Points or BIPs? Or is it someone that is more interested in the breakdown of Municipal vs State taxes? If you can make the data meaningful to your audience, they'll appreciate it more, they'll use it more, and you won't have wasted all that time on a report that is just “good enough”.

Be selective about what you actually put in the report:
Tools like Business Object let you pull a great deal of data all at once, but give you the flexibility to include certain fields and will combine data where appropriate without the hassle of rebuilding the query. After you have pulled the query, check to see if you really need all the data you retrieved. Was it for one vendor? Was it for one time period? Why not pull those fields out and use them to title your report. It'll cut down on some of the clutter in your table and it looks better for presentation purposes. Does it make sense the way you've arranged the data? If you're looking at only disputes, do you really need to know what the monthly recurring charges are for that circuit? That information can be pulled into a different table if you need it, but for a dispute report all those extra numbers just confuse the picture and make the results harder to read. Just remember that not everyone that might see the report will have the same background or be as familiar with the data as you.

Now to polish it off:
How are you presenting your findings? Is it on paper or an excel spreadsheet? Maybe email with a table pasted into the body? However you're doing it remember that someone else needs to read it. An excel spreadsheet is good because you can lock the cells so that relevant information stays on the page while the rest of the table gets scrolled through. An email body might require a lot of editing with the promise of more information as it's requested. Paper is hard to put lots of information into because big tables look like city maps on paper, you really have to make sure the important information is right there and it leaps out at you. Put the big picture stuff at the top in a header to keep it clean and try to keep the scrolling to a minimum by setting related fields next to each other. Remember, data that's at opposite ends of the table or on the next page might as well not be there at all. If it's all too much, break it up into several different tables, recurring charges in one table and taxes in another, if you need both of them, take out USOCs or contract dates and put them in a different report.

Just remember some important rules and your reporting will be successful.
1) Have a Plan, it's much easier to keep your head about you when you have a destination in mind.
2) Make sure your data is the important data. Refer to your plan and keep your audience in mind.
3) Think about the Fourth person that will see the report after you deliver it. Will it make sense to someone if you haven't explained how the data is important and related?
4) Presentation Matters. Keep it simple and meaningful. Take up as little space as you can while still conveying your message.
5) Always be aware that all that extra information is still out there, you don't have to give it all up at the same time.

The short lesson is that the better your report, the more useful it is, the better your organization can make decisions and act on them. That makes everyone look better, have a better day, and increases the productivity of your office.

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