Microstrategy Reports: A Comprehensive Guide

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Microstrategy reports are a powerful tool for businesses to make data-driven decisions. They provide a comprehensive view of an organization's performance, helping identify areas of improvement and opportunities for growth.

These reports can be customized to meet specific business needs, with Microstrategy offering a range of templates and design options. This flexibility allows users to create reports that are tailored to their unique requirements.

With Microstrategy, users can easily connect to various data sources, including databases, cloud storage, and enterprise applications. This connectivity enables them to access a wide range of data, providing a complete picture of their business operations.

By leveraging Microstrategy reports, businesses can gain valuable insights and make informed decisions, ultimately driving success and growth.

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Basic Concepts

MicroStrategy Desktop is a business intelligence environment designed to meet today's sophisticated business intelligence requirements.

It brings integrated query and reporting, powerful collaborative analytics, and investigative workflow to every desktop.

MicroStrategy Desktop enables project designers, report designers, and system administrators to design, create, and maintain an entire business intelligence system from a single interface.

This means you can manage your entire business intelligence system without needing multiple tools or interfaces.

MicroStrategy Desktop is a powerful tool for creating and managing business intelligence systems.

Creating Reports

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Creating reports in MicroStrategy can be a straightforward process. You can create a new report using the Report Builder, which guides you through the process of selecting attributes, metrics, and filters.

To start, navigate to File -> New and select Report. From the New Grid pop-up, select Report Builder. Report Builder will ask for four specific pieces of information: attributes to include, metrics to include, and filters for attributes and metrics.

To create a new report, you'll need to select the attributes and facts you want to include and move them to the right side. Click Finish to execute the report.

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Step 1

Run the report with the prompt answers that you wish to use for the subscription. This will give you a starting point to work from.

Make selections on the Page-By attributes to narrow down your report's focus. You can also make filter selections on View Filter if applicable.

Change attribute forms to tailor the report to your needs. This might involve rearranging the order of attributes/metrics or adding/removing them altogether.

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Credit: youtube.com, Creating report Step 1 and Map

To make these changes, you can use the Report Builder tool, which is accessible through the File -> New menu. Select Report Builder from the New Grid pop-up to begin the report creation process.

Here are some key things to keep in mind when selecting attributes and metrics:

  • Attributes to include on the report
  • Metrics to include on the report
  • Information to create a filter for one or more attributes; the filter is optional
  • Information to create a filter for one or more metrics; the filter is optional

Remember to select the attributes and facts you want to include and move them to the right side. Click Finish to execute the report and see the results.

Create Sample

Creating a sample report is a great way to get started with report creation. You can create a new report by taking existing objects in your MicroStrategy project and placing them on the report.

These objects represent the data in your data source, making it easy to get started with report creation. The current difficulty level for creating a sample report is medium, which means it requires some effort but is achievable with practice.

To create a sample report, you'll need to use the methods provided in the chapter on creating new reports. This will help you understand the process and get familiar with the tools and features of MicroStrategy.

Builder

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Creating reports can be a daunting task, but with the right tools and knowledge, it's a breeze. Report Builder is a quick report creation tool that makes it easy to create new reports in MicroStrategy.

Report Builder walks you through the process of creating a report, and it's a great place to start. To create a new report using Report Builder, navigate to File -> New and select Report. From there, select Report Builder from the New Grid pop-up.

You'll need to provide some basic information to Report Builder, including the attributes and metrics to include on the report. Report Builder asks for four specific pieces of information: attributes to include on the report, metrics to include on the report, a filter for one or more attributes (optional), and a filter for one or more metrics (optional).

Here's a breakdown of the information you'll need to provide:

  • Attributes to include on the report
  • Metrics to include on the report
  • Information to create a filter for one or more attributes (optional)
  • Information to create a filter for one or more metrics (optional)

Once you've selected the attributes and metrics, move them to the right side and click Finish to execute the report.

Create a Personal View

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Creating a personal view is a great way to save your report modifications for future use. It's like saving a customized version of your report that you can run again and again.

A personal view simply saves your modifications, so you're still running the original report, just with your customizations applied. This is especially useful when you're the only user who needs to run this specific version.

To create a personal view, you can follow the steps outlined in the MicroStrategy documentation. Specifically, you need to make some modifications to the report, such as rearranging the grid layout or applying certain filters.

Here are some examples of modifications you can make to create a personal view:

  • Rearrange the grid layout
  • Apply certain filters
  • Change attribute forms
  • Add or remove attributes/metrics from the report
  • Rearrange the order of attributes/metrics

By making these modifications and saving them as a personal view, you can easily run the customized report again without having to redo all the changes. This can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Report Components

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The columns of a report, on the other hand, represent financial calculations that are important to the business, like inventory, sales, or costs, which MicroStrategy refers to as "metrics." These metrics can be simple or complex, showing information such as sales trends or profit analysis.

Each individual cell on a report contains a single value produced by calculating data gathered from the organization's data source.

Renaming Headers

You can give a report's row and column headers meaningful names by renaming them. By creating an alias for an object on a report, the object can be displayed on that report with a different name, without changing its name in the MicroStrategy project.

Renaming headers is a simple way to make your reports more user-friendly. This can be done by creating an alias for an object on a report.

Creating an alias for an object on a report allows you to display it with a different name, which can be especially helpful for complex reports.

Pivoting

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Pivoting allows you to rearrange the columns and rows in a report to view data from different perspectives.

With data pivoting, you can move an object and its related data from a row to a column, or from a column to a row. This gives you more flexibility to analyze your data.

You can also change the order of objects in the rows and columns to suit your needs. This can help you identify patterns or trends in your data that might not be immediately apparent.

Data pivoting can be a powerful tool for getting a deeper understanding of your data. By rearranging the layout of your report, you can gain new insights and make more informed decisions.

Components

Rows on a report represent business concepts, such as products, employees, customers, and stores. Each row provides a context in which data is relevant.

Columns, on the other hand, represent financial calculations that are important to the business, like inventory, sales, costs, profits, and salaries. MicroStrategy calls these calculations "metrics."

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Attributes are business concepts that provide a context for data, while metrics are calculations that show the numbers you want to see. For example, in a report showing sales in the Southeast, "Southeast" is the attribute and "sales" is the metric.

Cells on a report contain a single value that's produced by calculating data from your organization's data source. This calculated data is the focus of business analysis in a reporting environment.

Each cell is like a puzzle piece, holding a specific value that contributes to the bigger picture of your business.

Derived Elements

Derived elements are a powerful way to group attribute elements on a report, providing a new view of report data for analysis and formatting purposes. They allow you to combine data for specific periods, such as the winter season, into a single element.

Derived elements are evaluated on the report dataset without requiring regeneration or re-execution of SQL. This makes them a convenient option for creating groups on-the-fly while viewing a report.

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You can use a list, filter, or calculation to combine attribute element data and create derived elements. This approach is often more straightforward than defining consolidations or custom groups.

Here are some key characteristics of derived elements:

  • They provide a new view of report data for analysis and formatting purposes.
  • They are evaluated on the report dataset without regenerating or re-executing SQL.
  • They can be created using a list, filter, or calculation.

Derived elements are defined within a report and can only be used for that report. They cannot be saved as individual objects in the project, which means they cannot be applied to other reports in the project.

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Banding

Banding is a method of organizing data values in a grid report according to certain criteria. You can band rows or columns in several ways, such as alternating color every 5 rows.

Banding can be based on the number of rows or columns, or even the row and column headers. For example, you can sort the Units Sold column in order, then apply alternating colors to sets of values.

The auto-style of a report provides the report's default banding options. However, you can define custom banding or even turn off banding for a report, regardless of its auto-style.

Banding is a useful feature that can help make your reports more visually appealing and easier to read.

Cache

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A report cache is a stored result of a report query that's already been executed, allowing the system to quickly access and display report data.

This can put a load on the system if the data is not refreshed, so it's essential to know how to manage the cache. A system administrator can delete a report's cache to ensure the data is refreshed the next time it's executed.

If the stored cache is deleted, the system is forced to submit the request through the data source again, gathering the most recent data. You can also disable caching for a report so that a cache of results is never created in the system.

To check if the results on a report have come from a MicroStrategy cache, look in the Report Details section or use SQL View.

Report Types

MicroStrategy reports offer various types to suit different needs. There are three main types: Standard, Custom, and Ad Hoc.

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Standard reports are pre-built and come with a predefined set of fields and layouts. They're perfect for quick and easy access to data.

Custom reports can be tailored to specific requirements and are highly flexible. They can be built using MicroStrategy's development tools.

Ad Hoc reports allow users to create reports on the fly without needing to know how to write SQL or other programming languages. They're great for exploratory analysis and quick data insights.

Report Services

Report Services allows you to display your business data in a user-friendly way that is suitable for presentation to management for boardroom-quality material.

Documents in Report Services can contain data from one or more MicroStrategy reports.

Documents can appear in almost as many ways as you can imagine and are generally formatted to suit your business needs, in a single display of presentation quality.

You can view, analyze, and create documents in both MicroStrategy Desktop and Web, making it easy to use Report Services in your daily work.

Documents can be created to display data from multiple reports with special formatting added, giving you a lot of flexibility in how you present your data.

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OLAP Services

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OLAP Services are a game-changer for report users. They let you slice and dice data in reports without re-executing SQL against your data source, improving performance and making data display quicker.

This means you can analyze and manipulate data more efficiently. For example, you can hide any metric column by simply dragging it off the grid report into the Report Objects pane.

To hide a metric column, follow these steps:

  • Open a grid report.
  • From the Data menu, select Report Data Options.
  • Expand the Display category.
  • In the Alias subcategory, click in the Alias column next to the metric you want to hide.
  • Enter a ‘.’ (period).
  • Click OK.
  • From the Grid menu, select Options.
  • On the Columns and Rows tab, in the Columns area, select Fixed.
  • From the Select from the list drop-down list, choose the period.
  • In the Pixels field, enter 0 (zero).
  • Click OK.

Multiple-page reports work in the same way. For example, if you're on page 4 of a multiple-page report and you want to collapse the data to the second level, you'll only be collapsing data that's displayed on the fourth page of the report.

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Refresh

Refreshing a report is a straightforward process. You can refresh data on a report to ensure it reflects the latest values in the data source.

There are several ways to refresh data on a report. One way is to use the "Refresh data on the report" feature.

You can refresh data on a report by clicking a button or link that says "Refresh" or "Update".

Report Analysis

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Reports can return large amounts of data, making it difficult to understand what the data is telling you.

Several MicroStrategy tools can help you analyze large amounts of data more quickly.

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Analyzing

Analyzing large amounts of data can be overwhelming, but several MicroStrategy tools can help you break it down more easily.

Dynamic aggregation allows you to change the level of report aggregation on-the-fly, while you are reviewing the report results. This feature is a game-changer, especially when you're working with complex data sets.

You can dynamically aggregate metric values to different levels depending on the attributes included in the report, without having to re-execute the report against the data warehouse. This saves you time and effort.

As you move attributes on and off the report layout, metric values are automatically aggregated to the new level of the report. It's a seamless process that makes it easy to explore your data from different angles.

Answering Question

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Dynamic aggregation allows you to change the level of report aggregation on-the-fly, while you are reviewing the report results.

You can change the level of report aggregation without having to re-execute the report against the data warehouse, which saves time and effort.

Any report can contain prompts, which are questions presented to the user who runs the report.

Different prompt answers usually require different data than what is stored in the report’s cache, so it's essential to refresh the latest data from the warehouse.

To refresh the latest data from the warehouse, prompts should not be saved as Static reports.

Answering prompts differently each time it is executed ensures that a report is executed against your data source and displays the most recent data.

Report Filters

Report filters are a powerful tool in MicroStrategy reports, allowing you to sift through data to bring back exactly what you need.

You can configure report details for a specific report with the Report Details Formatting option in the Report Editor, or for the entire project with the Project Configuration Editor. Settings configured at the report level override settings configured at the project level.

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Report filters will be displayed in the Report Details Tab, giving you a clear view of the data you've selected.

You can use report filters in conjunction with view filters on the same report, allowing for even more precise data selection.

Note: Report filters should not be confused with view filters, which dynamically restrict data being displayed on a report without re-executing the report against the warehouse.

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Creating a Threshold

Creating a threshold is a straightforward process that can be completed in a few steps. From the Data menu, select Thresholds.

To define a threshold, you'll need to choose a metric to apply it to. From the drop-down list in the toolbar, select the metric that you want to apply the threshold to. Click on New Threshold, and name your new threshold.

The next step is to define the condition that the value must meet to have the threshold formatting applied. Click the text Click here to start a new qualification, and select the business attribute or metric calculation that is part of your condition.

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You'll also need to define the formatting you want to be displayed for cell values that meet the condition. Select one of the following from the Format drop-down list: Format, Replace Text, or Quick Symbol.

Here are the options you can choose from for formatting:

If you selected any option except Image, click Edit the threshold formatting on the toolbar to apply formatting to the metric values, replacement text, or symbol.

You can also choose whether to apply the threshold formatting to subtotals. Click one of the following icons on the toolbar: Metric Only, Metric And Subtotals, or Subtotals Only.

Filters

Report Filters are a game-changer when it comes to data analysis.

A report filter sifts the data in your data source to bring back the information that answers exactly what you require. This is especially helpful when you need to focus on specific details.

You can configure the report details for a specific report, with the Report Details Formatting option in the Report Editor, or for the entire project, with the Project Configuration Editor. This means you can tailor your report to fit your needs.

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Settings configured at the report level override settings configured at the project level, giving you more control over your data. This is a great feature to have, especially when working on complex projects.

Report filters can be used in conjunction with view filters to further refine your data. View filters dynamically restrict the data being displayed on the report without re-executing the report against the warehouse.

Using both report and view filters can provide improved response time and decreased database load. This is a win-win for anyone working with large datasets.

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Page By

Page By is a feature that allows you to group large amounts of data into logical subsets, making it easier to handle and view.

To retain page-by display, you need to follow a specific procedure when saving the report. This involves selecting the page you want to be displayed next time you execute the report.

Click the page-by field at the top of the report and select the page you want to be displayed from the page-by drop-down list. The report will refresh, displaying the page of data you selected.

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From the Data menu, select Report Data Options to open the Report Data Options dialog box. Expand the General category and select Advanced.

To retain page-by selections when you save the report, select Yes from the drop-down list called Retain page-by selections when you save this report.

Click OK to save your change and close the Report Data Options dialog box, then save the report and reopen it. The page-by field you last selected is now the first page displayed.

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Report Display

MicroStrategy offers various ways to display data, including boardroom-quality business presentations and management reports.

You can also use HTML documents to display and analyze data, which can include text, images, hyperlinks, tables, and more.

HTML documents are a great method to create dashboards and scorecards, a group of related reports displayed together.

Displaying Multiple in a Single Presentation

Displaying Multiple Reports in a Single Presentation is a powerful feature that can help you make sense of complex data. MicroStrategy offers other ways to display data beyond traditional reports.

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In MicroStrategy Desktop or Web, you can create boardroom-quality business presentations that make a strong impression. This is especially useful for stakeholders who want to see a big picture view of your data.

HTML documents are another way to display multiple reports at the same time. You can include report results, text, images, hyperlinks, tables, and more in an HTML document.

Creating dashboards and scorecards is a great way to group related reports together. This helps you and your team quickly identify trends and patterns in your data.

To Print

To Print a Report from MicroStrategy Web, you can follow these simple steps.

Click any report to execute it.

From the Home menu, select Export, and then click PDF. The PDF Options dialog box opens.

Specify the scaling and orientation of the report in the PDF Options dialog box and click Export.

The report opens in PDF format.

On the PDF, from the File menu choose Print. The Print dialog box opens.

Use the options on the Print dialog box to scale the print size of the report, and to specify the number of copies to print.

Click OK to print the report.

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Report Interactivity

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Drilling allows you to view report data at levels other than that displayed in the report, making it easy to investigate data quickly.

You can control how other users drill on a report by setting various options that determine how drilling works.

This feature is useful for preserving your own most useful drilling paths and drilling behavior for later reuse on a given report.

Answering Prompts

Answering prompts is an essential part of report interactivity. It allows users to customize the report and view the most recent data by answering questions presented to them.

Prompts store default answers in the Report Cache, so it's a good idea to refresh the latest data from the warehouse by not saving prompted reports as static reports. This ensures that the report displays the most up-to-date information.

To answer prompts, you can execute a report and provide answers to the questions presented. This will bring back different data from the data source, depending on the answers you provide.

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A Person Holding a Business Report
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Here are the steps to follow:

  • Answer the prompts and execute the report.
  • From the File menu, select Save As to save the report with the current prompt answers.
  • Choose whether to save the report as static or prompted, and select the Set the current prompt answers to be the default prompt answers checkbox if desired.
  • Click OK to apply your selections and save the report.

By following these steps, you can save prompted reports with active prompts and choose whether to use the current prompt answers as default answers or display the default prompt answers defined in the prompt.

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Drilling

Drilling is a powerful feature that allows you to dig deeper into your report data and uncover hidden insights.

You can use drilling to view report data at levels other than what's displayed in the report, making it easier to investigate and analyze your data.

With drilling, you can automatically execute another report based on the original report to get more detailed or supplemental information.

You can set options to control how other users drill on the report when they execute it, giving you more control over the report's behavior.

These options allow you to preserve your most useful drilling paths and behavior for later reuse on a given report, saving you time and effort.

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Report Export

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To export a report in MicroStrategy Desktop, you'll need to open the report and then navigate to the Data menu, where you can select Export Options.

From the Export Options dialog box, you can make any necessary changes to the export options. Click Help for details about each setting.

You can also export a report in MicroStrategy Web by opening the report and selecting Export from the Home menu.

The Export Options page will then open, allowing you to make any necessary changes to the export settings.

In both MicroStrategy Desktop and Web, you can export data to various formats or applications, such as a spreadsheet (.xls) or a word processor (.doc).

You can export data to Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, an HTML file, a text file, email, or PDF in MicroStrategy Desktop.

Here are the supported export formats in MicroStrategy Desktop:

  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Word
  • An HTML file
  • A text file
  • Email
  • PDF

Report Management

Report Management is a crucial aspect of working with MicroStrategy reports. You can save your customizations by creating a personal view, which applies your modifications to the single version of the report.

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A personal view simply saves your modifications, allowing you to run the report with your customizations applied. This is especially useful when you're the only user who needs to run a specific version of the report.

To save a customized report via personal view, you can refer to the MicroStrategy documentation for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is MicroStrategy better than Tableau?

Tableau is generally preferred over MicroStrategy for its user-friendly interface and powerful visualization capabilities. MicroStrategy may be a better choice for organizations with complex data needs, but Tableau is ideal for quick insights and interactive data exploration.

Why is MicroStrategy falling?

MicroStrategy's stock fell due to a decline in Bitcoin's price and growing concerns over the company's valuation and fundamentals. This led to a 3.2% drop in the company's shares.

Alan Donnelly

Writer

Alan Donnelly is a seasoned writer with a unique voice and perspective. With a keen interest in finance and economics, Alan has established himself as a go-to expert in the field of derivatives, particularly in the realm of interest rate derivatives. Through his in-depth research and analysis, Alan has crafted engaging articles that break down complex financial concepts into accessible and informative content.

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