How to ... Exception Reporting

Exceptions in BW reports are used to highlight specific data in your query that exceeds or falls short of a defined limit. This is displayed to the user in the form of traffic light colours. Additionally, Exceptions are also used as the basis for defining Alerts.

Use:

An example for the application of an exception is a query that analyses the absence days of employees over a 12 month period. In the example, all employees must be marked as critical (displayed as red) that have an absence rate of 30 days or more.

Those employees marked as normal (displayed as yellow) have an absence rate between 11 and 29 days. The employees with good attendance records (displayed as green) have an absence rate of less than 11 days.

How to:

• Click on the Exceptions button in the Query Designer and select the function New Exception. See Figure 1
  
• The Defining Exceptions window will appear. Enter some descriptive text in the Description and ensure the Active flag is set. See Figure 2
  
• Select the key figure you want to evaluate for the exception. See Figure 2
  
• On the Exception Values tab, click the New button and specify the threshold value and Alert Level. Use the entry fields at the bottom of the window to enter the definition for each alert level and click the Transfer button to append the definition into the Exception Values list. You must make these settings for all three alert levels. See Figure 2
  
• On the Cell Restriction tab, select the setting ‘All (Recommended with Relative Numbers). See Figure 3
  
• Complete the Exception definition by clicking the OK button. See Figure 3

After the definition and query are saved, run the report. You will see that each employee Absence Days key figure is coloured according to the exceptions defined. See Figure 4

In the query header you will see the Absence Exception you have just created is Active. To turn off the exception and return the key figures to their original colour, double click the Active text.