Overview
There are several important selections you will need to make when creating a Crosstab Report (Crosstabulation Analysis) using the Reports Wizard, which will impact strongly on the final report you produce.
Custom File Selection
The choices you make in the Custom File Selection page of the wizard will determine the files used in the report, the period of time taken into account and the variance options that are output in the report. Making the wrong decisions here will lead to the wrong information being shown on the report.
Number of Files
Most Crosstab Definitions require a specified number of files. This is shown in the table in each Crosstab Library entry. Selecting the wrong number of files means that either that the report won't run or that information will be missing.
Period Selections
The period / period token selections are particularly important. One common mistake is selecting only January to the Current Month, which won't work for Crosstabs that include annual selections.
If variance is included in the Crosstab Definition you should always use the periods January to December as this will invariably be the time period taken into account. Where variance is not part of the definition such as in SKU Contribution Analysis, different tokens such as YTD and Current Month to Year End can be used as they do not rely on a full year's data.
Variance Options
The safest option is to start by selecting Period Totals Only when using a Crosstab. Depending upon the Crosstab Definition used, you may be able to select a Variance Option on Custom File Selection too, but it's generally better to do this in the Crosstab Definition itself.
Other Selections
All other selections should be made as in any of the other standard reports, using a Report Definition if required, any Item Selections and any relevant reporting options so that the Level of Detail, Currency and Data Inclusions are output in the report.
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