Crystal Abra Secure Query Report

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Generating Reports Quickly and Easily with Abra Secure Query

Abra Secure Query:
An ad hoc reporting tool within Abra Suite that is wizard-like and easy to use.

Basic Elements of a Report

  1. What information about each employee do I need on the report?
  2. Do I need the report grouped in a particular way?
  3. Do I need a count of the records or totals and subtotals on my report?
  4. How do I want the data sorted?
  5. Who do I want on the report?
  6. Where do I want my report results to go?

Starting Point:

Lay out your report in draft form using the above steps. This will help you visualize the report and map out what it needs to include and what you want it to look like.

Maybe your report layout could look like this . . .

Name DOH Gender Dept Ann Sal Active

Creating an ad hoc Report:

1. From the Activity Center, Abra Secure Query is accessible by going to any of the Abra base products (HR, Payroll, Attendance, Train, Recruiting Solution). To access, highlight a product and go to the second tier of the menu and select "Query".

2. To create a report select the New button and give your report a Title. You also have the option of selecting whether this report will be available to all Abra users (Public), or accessible only by you (Private).

3. The next step is to designate the panels that contain information you want to appear on your report. Note that the 4 areas of Abra that appear on this Window represent the first 4 panels of an employee's record - Demographics, HR Status, Current Job and Current Pay.

The boxes you check here will determine the fields you are able to select for your report. (You must have basic knowledge of where the fields reside in Abra. Refer to the online Help on the top menu bar and go to Contents/Reference Material/Data Dictionary for details.)

For our example, we will check all 4 boxes and click OK.

4. The Select Fields to Show in Query window opens with a pick list on the left. Select the following fields. Note that you do not have to select them in the order you want them to appear on your report. We can take care of that after we make our selection.

5. Next we will move the fields up and down by dragging them into the order we want to see them across the page. See the sample report.

6. Grouping reports is a way to organize the data. We will group the data by Department. Click on the Group Records tab, and select Department Description from the drop down menu.

7. Click on the box to Count the number of Records in the Group. This will show us how many employees are in each Department.

8. Click on the Sort Records tab and select the field(s) you want your report sorted by.

*** Your first field to sort by MUST be the same field as your first Group By field. In other words, your first sort in our example must be Department Description.

In our example, sort by Department and then by Employee within the Department.

9. The Set Record Filter tab is where you tell Abra who to put on your report. Abra Secure Query walks you through the steps making it easy to define your criteria for the system.

There are 3 elements to a filter:

. . . and these go together to make up a sentence.

Employee Status Code Exactly Matches "A"
Abra Field Operator Value

In our example, we only want Active employees. Therefore, on the Pick a Field tab, highlight Employee Status Code from the list and click Next. The Pick an Operator tab opens. Click on the radio button, Exactly Matches and then click Next. Notice that the drop down list contains all the selections for Employee Status Code. Select "A" for Active and click OK.

You could add additional criteria here by clicking Add. For our example, click Done.

10. Lastly, click on the Output Results tab, and select Portrait for our printed report.

Click on Run Query to view your results!!

Some things to remember about Abra Secure Query:

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