Overview
KPI reports are a style of report which assists you to measure actual performance against targets. A KPI is usually made of:
- A metric
- A filter
- A date restriction or period
By using KPI metrics, you can track actual performance and compare it to a goal and you can detect trends. These metrics are most commonly used in organisations as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor critical business areas. KPI reports are designed to be used on a KPI Dashboard Tab, not as stand alone reports.
See KPI Tabs for more information.
Difference between KPI & Standard Reports
A KPI report differs from a standard report in a number of ways - these include:
- It is run periodically to detect trends and changes in data (or uses a date field)
- It uses Conditional Formatting functionality to classify the current status of the metric
- It can be added to a KPI dashboard tab to easily monitor critical business areas.
Note: KPI reports do not support the use of cross tabs - you can only choose the column or row formats for your report.
See KPI Tab Tutorial for more information.
Types of KPI Report
There are three different types of KPI Report available in Yellowfin:
Basic KPI Report that allows you to set up a KPI without displaying any additional information, other than the value itself. |
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KPI Report that splits what's displayed on the tab into categories when viewed as a report. This allows you to display break up the value into categories for further examination. |
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KPI Report that allows you to show a trend according to time series data, rather than real-time trends. It also allows you to show more detail in the report (like a Categorical KPI). |
Creating a KPI Spot Report
1. Click on the Create link and select Report to begin building your report.
2. You should now be on the Initialise Report page. Select the Drag and Drop Builder as the build tool.
3. Select Ski Team as the View.
4. Now click the 
button to proceed.
5. To start with, set the Report Type to KPI by selecting it in the Report Options section on the right. This will ensure that the KPI options are available in later steps.
6. Now you need to add metrics to your report. Drag in the 
Invoiced Amount metric into the Column Fields area, and 
Invoiced Date dimension into the Filters section.
Note: Yellowfin always takes the max date when calculating the final KPI value.
7. Click on at the top of the page to move to the next step.
8. Set the filter logic to Between.
9. Click on the Change link.
10. Set the dates to 01/01/2010 and 01/01/2011.
11. Click Submit link to continue.
Note: You have added this filter to ensure that the Ski Team data is available. This filter should not be necessary for your real reports.
12. You should now have filters set up, as shown here.
13. Click on step three.
14. You should now be on the Report Preview page. At the moment your report should look the one pictured.
Note: The invoiced amount may differ depending on the current date and filters applied above.
15. Now you can set Alerts using Conditional Formatting. Click on the Columns link at the top of the page.
16. Select the Sum Invoiced Amount column.
17. Click on the Conditional Menu.
18. Click Add Rule
19. Set the Display Style to Icon, the Format to Traffic Lights and the Type to Value.
20. As you will see, a set of three green circles and a set of fields has appeared.
21. Set the top Style to Red, the Rule to Less than, and the Value to 2500000. (Again, only use numeric values).
22. Set the middle Style to Orange, the Rule to Between, and the Values to 2500000 and 3000000.
23. Set the lower Style to Green, the Rule to Greater than and the Value to 3000000.
24. Click Save.
25. Your report should now look like this, with an alert for the current Sum Invoiced Amount value.
26. The Conditional Format Alerts are listed at the bottom of the page for reference
27. To set up the report click on the KPI Menu and set the KPI Metric to Sum Invoiced Amount. This will bring up options for you to set the trend details.
28. Set the Desired Trend to Up and the Target Value to Manually with a value of 30000000 (do not include any non-numeric characters as the report will not work).
29. Set the KPI Type to Spot.
30. Click Save.
Note: You will notice that there is an error message referencing the lack of refresh schedule, this will be addressed in the next step.
31. Now you need to set how often this report will be automatically refreshed. Click on the Refresh Menu and set the Frequency to Daily.
32. This will determine how the trend of the KPI report will be built, how often data will be collected.
33. It is now time to save your report. Go back to the Report tab, click on the Report Menu and select Save.
34. Set the Name to KPI Spot Report Tutorial.
35. Type This report was created as part of the KPI Report tutorial into the Description box.
36. Select Advanced Reporting for the Sub Category.
37. Click Activate.
Creating a Categorical KPI Report
1. Click on the Create link and select Report to begin building your report.
2. You should now be on the Initialise Report page. Select the Drag and Drop Builder as the build tool.
3. Select Ski Team as the View.
4. Now click the button to proceed.
5. Set the Report Type to KPI by selecting it in the Report Options section on the right.
6. Now you need to add metrics to your report. Drag in the Athlete Region dimension, and the Invoiced Amount metric twice into the Column Fields area, and Invoiced Date dimension into the Filters section.
7. Now click the button to proceed.
8. Set the filter logic to Between.
9. Click on the Change link.
10. Set the dates to 01/01/2010 and 01/01/2011.
11. Click the Submit button to continue.
Note: We have again added this filter due to the nature of the Ski Team sample data.
12. You should now have filters set up, as shown here.
13. Click on step three.
14. You should now be on the Report Preview page. At the moment your report should look the one pictured.
15. Set Alerts using Conditional Formatting. Click on the Columns link at the top of the page.
16. Select the second Sum Invoiced Amount column.
17. Change the Display Name of the column to Invoiced Amount KPI.
18. Click on the Conditional Menu.
19. Click Add Rule
20. Set the Display Style to Icon, the Format to Traffic Lights and the Type to Value.
21. Set the top Style to Red, the Rule to Less than, and the Value to 1000000. (Again, only use numeric values).
22. Set the middle Style to Orange, the Rule to Between, and the Values to 1000000 and 1500000.
23. Set the lower Style to Green, the Rule to Greater than and the Value to 1500000.
24. Click Save.
25. Your report should now look like this, with an alert for the current Invoiced Amount KPI value.
26. The Conditional Format Alerts are listed at the bottom of the page for reference
27. To set up the report click on the KPI Menu and set the KPI Metric to Invoiced Amount KPI. This will bring up options for you to set the trend details.
28. Set the Desired Trend to Up and the Target Value to Manually with a value of 1500000 (do not include any non-numeric characters as the report will not work).
29. Set the KPI Type to Categorical.
30. Set the category to be Keyed On Athlete Region.
31. Click Save.
32. Now you need to set how often this report will be automatically refreshed. Click on the Refresh Menu and set the Frequency to Daily.
33. This will determine how the trend of the KPI report will be built, how often data will be collected.
34. It is now time to save your report. Go back to the Report tab, click on the Report Menu and select Save.
35. Set the Name to Categorical KPI Tutorial.
36. Type This report was created using the KPI Report tutorial into the Description box.
37. Select Advanced Reporting for the Sub Category.
38. Click Activate
Creating a KPI Time Report
1. Click on the Create link and select Report to begin building your report.
2. You should now be on the Initialise Report page. Select the Drag and Drop Builder as the build tool.
3. Select Ski Team as the View.
4. Now click the button to proceed.
5. To start with, set the Report Type to KPI by selecting it in the Report Options section on the right.
6. Now you need to add metrics to your report. Drag in the Year dimension into the Column Fields area.
7. You now need to create a calculated field for the metric. Set up a calculation COUNT(Athlete ID) called Athletes and add it to the Column Fields area.
8. Click the button to proceed.
9. You should now be on the Report Preview page. At the moment your report should look the one pictured.
10. Set Alerts using Conditional Formatting. Click on the Columns link at the top of the page.
11. Select the second Athletes column.
12. Click on the Conditional Menu.
13. Click Add Rule
14. Set the Display Style to Icon, the Format to Traffic Lights and the Type to Value.
15. Set the top Style to Red, the Rule to Less than or equal to, and the Value to 250.
16. Set the middle Style to Orange, the Rule to Between, and the Values to 250 and 500.
17. Set the lower Style to Green, the Rule to Greater than or equal to and the Value to 500.
18. Click Save.
19. Your report should now look like this, with an alert for the current Athletes value.
20. To set up the report click on the KPI Menu and set the KPI Metric to Athletes. This will bring up options for you to set the trend details.
21. Set the Desired Trend to Up and the Target Value to Manually with a value of 500.
22. Set the KPI Type to Time.
23. Set the category to be Keyed On Year.
24. Click Save.
25. It is now time to save your report. Go back to the Report tab, click on the Report Menu and select Save.
26. Set the Name to KPI Time Tutorial.
27. Type This report was created as part of the KPI Report tutorial into the Description box.
28. Select Advanced Reporting for the Sub Category.
29. Click Activate.
