News and Blog
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Have you ever had someone ask you for a report, and then another person asks you for that same report and then another, just like that old Breck commercial? But, then they all want their own version? Yeah, every day. Ain’t that the truth! You (or your system manager) can create a distribution group in the software that contains the people who are always asking you for these reports. Then, when you specify the distribution group at run time, Escape Online will automatically run the report for you plus everyone in the group. |
The best part is that the software will apply their user-based permissions (like accounts!) to the report, and deliver it to their My Reports activity. So you run the report one time, and let the software do all the work! To keep you in the loop, Escape Online will send a report to your My Reports activity, letting you know that each of the reports were delivered.
Report Distribution groups are easy to create. It is simply a list of users!
No joke! So, if you run a report for principals, you don’t have to run it over and over again. All you have to do is run it once with the Principals group specified and their location permissions will automatically filter the report for them.
Distribution Group selection is available from every report.
If you select a group, all reports will be individualized, delivered to each group member’s My Reports.
Custom reports with no effort. Now that’s something to tell a friend about.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Most of you are now on our latest release with the new Adobe Acrobat report viewer. One of the best features of this new viewer is the Go/Excel button. This button converts several steps into one easy button.
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Here is how it works. Escape has several reports that are setup for export to Microsoft Excel, including Budget History (Budget02), Resource Cash Daily Balances (Fiscal24), SACS Extract (Fiscal51), Account Extract (Fiscal52), JE Fund/Object Detail (Ledger05), Expiring Credentials (Cred92), Monthly EDD (Employee06), Vendor Detail (Pay17), and Position Assignments (Pos03).*
All you have to do is enter your report criteria and click Go/Excel. No more running the report (Go) and then exporting. Using the Go Excel button, Escape Online automatically launches Microsoft Excel and imports the report data. It is soooooo fast. Go Excel!!
* Note that the reports listed here are designed for export to Excel. While all reports in Escape Online can be exported to Excel using the Go/Excel button, the report data is not designed to fit perfectly into the spreadsheet and will require manipulation on your part.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Our customers are fun, and every once in a while I get to step out from behind the documentation and really get to know one. In our occasional series, called Your Turn, I interview customers, asking them about their use of Escape Online in their everyday business. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jon Rudolph of Sacramento City Unified School District. Jon is practically one of the family. Many of the Escape employees have worked with him at one time or another over the years. Jon is a system manager, supporting HR and Finance for their site users. He and other district staff field questions from their users, acting as a liaison to Escape Customer Care if an HR or finance question needs to be escalated. |
 Jon Rudolph, Sacramento City USD |
LESLIE: How long have you been using Escape Technology Software?
JON: I joined the district as an Applications Specialist in April of 1994. At that time, we were using Escape Classic for Finance applications, but our mainframe for payroll processes. |
LESLIE: So you started with Escape Classic. When did you transition to Escape Online 5?
JON: We officially cut over in the first week of March, 2009.
LESLIE: Now that you are live, what is your favorite feature?
JON: I do like quick links, but I love the data grids! With grids, I can quickly shape and pass along information upon request. It's great for quick analysis and refinement before a final report. And about reporting - so much faster than Escape Classic. Supersonic. I also really like the help screens. I've used the 'how to' many times, launched from the screen I'm having a question about. Most times, the help screen can answer my question.
LESLIE: How was the transition from Escape Classic to Escape Online?
JON: Our phones rang off of the hook for weeks. Remember the scene in It's a Wonderful Life where the bank had to deal with a room full of agitated people, worried about their money, and Jimmy Stewart had to plead with them to be reasonable so as not to ruin the bank by withdrawing all the funds... and then they counted down the minutes until they could legally close the doors.. Remember that? That's what most days were like for quite a while.
In time, things settled down. It was amazing how fast reports ran. The first payrolls went thru - checks were being processed in AP, requisitions were being created and approved. W2, 1099, and Year End processing were very labor intensive the first times thru, but we got them done. Our support, mostly Robin and Julie worked a million hours for us, and created as many incidents and CR's.
LESLIE: What was the reaction from your users?
JON: We were always told not to think of Escape Online in the same way as Escape Classic - to think of doing things in a different way - a new approach - and I think most of our processes changed at least a little, mostly to comply with new screens and with how the software works.
When we went into this, our customers wanted Escape Online to 'do everything Classic did, only better'. It wasn't like that - our customers wanted their old processes back, and did not really like doing all that testing and validation work, on top of their regular work on a new system.
I can say that the sites and departments ability to submit and approve absences online was a pretty significant change in process. It took a while for everyone to get used to it, but it's commonplace now and working pretty smoothly.
LESLIE: What about you? As a system manager, how did the transition affect your job?
JON: Something that I had not really considered until it happened was that I felt kind of helpless and lost. I was used to knowing how to support people; I was comfortable with menu groups and reports and could run Escape Classic utilities like FIXACCTS and SCANJE, I could work with data in DOS, and so on - suddenly, everything had to be done thru escape support staff. We were just learning SQL too, so even ad hoc reporting was slower and foreign to us.
LESLIE: And, how about now for you? How is the work going in Escape Online 5?
JON: I spend a good deal of my Escape time doing SysMngr work, with user setup (location / account / approval) and working SQL queries for HR.
Also, looking at event logs as needed. Support here is a lot of time for payrolls, or AP checks and transmissions, and fielding calls/questions from our sites / schools. We also try to filter calls to Robin and Julie, acting as first level support - at least to gather information - look at the problem reported. Sometimes, we can fix them.
LESLIE: How is it working with Escape Customer Care?
JON: I have to include support staff as a favorite feature. I have not forgotten the time, (and it was a while back!), that Terri drove down a mountain road, from a campground or lodge or something like that, to a pay phone on a Sunday morning to check on me as I was installing updates in Escape Classic. It still feels like that today - always available, always willing, and always knowledgeable. And greatly appreciated - Julie and Robin keep us up and running - thank you both!
Thanks to Jon for his time and commitment!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Many business gurus divide the world into two types of people: the big picture people and the detail oriented people. You can really see these tendencies in an organization's budget. There are those who only want the summary information for budgeting purposes. They are not interested in the details; they figure they will work themselves out in due course. Of course, there is always the other side: organizations that must list every detail: they want to know where each dollar is going to or coming from. |
When you create an original budget, regardless of your tendencies, you need the detail, but when it comes to revised or interim budgets, you have a choice. To detail or not to detail, that is the question.
In Escape Online, the answer is a double yes. We provide the ability to create your budget revision with detail lines or at the summary level. Both of these options are available from the Perform Task menu in the revised budget model.
Lump sum method – Copy from accounts (revised). This does not create detailed line items. It compares the budget account amounts to the revised budget amounts and creates a journal entry for the difference. To see the detail for the accounts, you would need to review the accounts.
Detail line method – Copy from the adopted budget and load budget revisions. This option provides detailed line items. It shows the detail in budget detail reports and in the accounts from the Budget Entry activity.
Both of these methods are valid. It is simply a matter of process and procedures. Your SACS Extract report will be correct, regardless of the method you choose. So, to thine ownself be true. Choose the method that works best for your organization. Escape Online has got you covered.
If you want more information about creating an interim budget in Escape Online, sign up for Terri’s Interim Budget webinar on October 21, 9am-11:30, $250.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Escape Online 5 is great for managing your data and creating reports, but sometimes you need to manipulate the data in a way that only Microsoft Excel can do. There are several ways to export your data from Escape Online to Excel. Today I am going to focus on doing this from the grid. The grid allows you to pick and choose the columns of data from the master record. You simply define your search criteria, load the list and then press Ctrl+G to display the grid in your workspace. Once on the grid, you can add or delete columns from the grid, laying out just the data you are interested in. |
Just right-mouse click on a column heading to define which columns you want to export.
Once you have the perfect data, you are ready to export. The Export button exports the entire grid, including column headings, filtering, grouping line items and total line items. The best way to “prep” your grid is to leave all of the grouping and filtering for Excel: just export the raw data so you have all of the options available in your spreadsheet.
Now you have all of the power of Excel with all of the data of Escape Online.
Now you can use this spreadsheet for a mail merge to employees, a detailed analysis for budgeting, or an export to a third-party system. Amazing!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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I know, I know. I went on and on about how great grids were in August, but after a month’s reprieve, I simply must start up again! This time I want to pay tribute to the custom report ability, especially since we have gotten such great customer feedback. Using a combination of search criteria and grid technology, lots of users are creating custom reports single-handedly. Let’s take a look at an example! |
We all know that grids can filter, but it is really more efficient to begin the filtering process on the search page. So, let’s start with a search for inventoried fixed assets that are part of the computer group that are still active. This is a pretty generic, but ever so important, list. Here is a snapshot of the search criteria.
Now, I have a list of only those fixed assets in that group that are active. As soon as the list is displayed, I go to the grid and start defining my report. I pick my fields by right-mouse clicking on any column heading. Then I group by vendor name, dragging that column up to the header. (And, here’s a tip: After grouping, I remove that column from the list because I don’t want to see it twice – once in the heading and once on the list. I like very clean reports.) This is really starting to look like a professional report, but I want the columns in a different order, so I move them around by dragging the column to its new location, like making the cost the last column.
All of this takes me about two minutes. Yeah, I know what you are saying: I am not a new user, so I did it pretty quickly. I can tell you, though, I feel confident that even someone new to grids could do this in just a few minutes. Here is a peek at my grid definition.
And, of course, I save this (using the Layouts menu) because I know I am going to want to run this report regularly. Now, I am ready to “make” my report. I select Make Report from the Reports task and voilà! I can print it or save it to my hard drive. Check out how lovely this is.
And, remember I could have selected ANY columns of data. This is really powerful stuff.
So, let’s take a quick review of my steps.
We are talking about six steps and just a few minutes of your time for a custom report, just for you. Amazing!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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