This tutorial will quickly show you how to load data and create a simple sales report from that data. In the report you will be able to compare sales from 2009 with 2008. You will learn how to apply filters to the report and how to change the reference period from 2009 – 2008 to 2008 – 2007.
Open Excel and Vizubi and open the import wizard
Open Excel 2003 to start working. The first thing you need to do is to import some data to use in the report.
(1) Click on the Open Vizubi Editor button in the Vizubi toolbar.
(2) This will open the Import Data window.
Import a text file with the import wizard
(1) Select Delimited Text File as the Data Source Type.
(2) Use the Browse button “…” to find “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Vizubi\SampleData\FlatFile\INVOICES_FLAT.txt”. Remember to select *.txt type.
(3) The name of the file appears in the Friendly name. Rename it to Invoices.
(4) Click on Next.
Preview the data in the preview window
The preview window shows you the first 50 rows of data in accordance with the paramters you set in the previous step.
(1) Click on Next.
Renaming the time dimension
(1) Insert Order Date in the label field on the first row.
(2) Click on Next.
Import the data and Save the import parameters
(1) Click on Import to import the data.
(2) Click on Save to save the import parameters so that you can reload the data at a later time if necessary.
View your data
(1) The active table is the invoices table (notice that the name of the table is the one you inserted in the Friendly Name box when importing the data).
(2) Click on the “Order Date” tab to see the time table which was generated automatically (notice that the name of the table is the one you inserted in the label field in the time dimensions window, when
importing the data).
Save your Vizubi dataset and go back to Excel
(1) Click on the main menu (the frog) and click on Save As. Insert Getting started as the name and save the database.
(2) Click on Switch to Workbook to close the Vizubi editor and back to Excel.
Create your first report
(1) Click on the Report button in the Vizubi toolbar.
(2) Select Create new report…
Choose where to save the report.
Choose where to put the report
(1) Click on Ok in the Create report pop up. The Customize Report panel automatically opens.
Add fields to your report
(1) Select the Country field by clicking on the check box next to Country in the Fields section (fields are organized by table).
(2) Country will appear in the Row Labels pane in the Areas section.
(3) Country will also appear in the first column header of the report.
Add the TotalPrice field twice so that we can see sales for one year compared to sales for another year
(1) Select the TotalPrice field by clicking on the check box next to TotalPrice in the Fields section (this field is in the Invoices table).
(2) Drag and drop the TotalPrice field into the Values pane in the Area section (Vizubi will rename the second instance TotalPrice001).
(3) Two new columns appear in the report.
Set the time parameters for TotalPrice so that it will show data for “this year”
(1) Click on Sum of TotalPrice in the Values pane.
(2) Click on Expression Settings… in the dropdown menu.
Set the period to “this year”
(1) Click on the Define period tab
(2) Click on Order Date in the Dimension pane
(3) Click on This year in the Period pane
(4) Change the name in Custom Name to TotalPrice of this year
(5) Click on Ok to confirm.
Set the time parameters for TotalPrice001 so that it will show data for ” previous year” (this will show data for 2008 if “This year” is set to 2009 and 2007 if “This year” is set to 2008).
Set the time parameters for TotalPrice001 so that it will show data for ” previous year” (this will show data for 2008 if “This year” is set to 2009 and 2007 if “This year” is set to 2008.
(1) Click on “Sum of TotalPrice001” in the Values pane.
(2) Click on Expression Settings… in the dropdown menu.
Setting the time parameter for TotalPrice001 to “Previous year”
(1) Click on the Define period tab
(2) Click on Order Date in the Dimension box
(3) Click on Previous year in the Period box
(4) Change the name in Custom Name to “TotalPrice of Previous year”
(5) Click on Ok to confirm.
View the report
The report shows sales data by country for 2009 vs. 2008
(1) for this year
(2) for the previous year
(3) Click on the Customize button in the Vizubi toolbar to close the report editor on the right.
Change “This year” from 2009 to 2008 this will allow you to compare data from 2008 (“This year”) with data from 2007 (“Previous Year”)
To modify the period of comparison
(1) Click on the Filter Data button in the Vizubi toolbar.
(2) Click on the down arrow to the right of the date to open the calendar
(3) Set the Year to “2008″ by clicking on left arrow of the year
(4) Click on the calendar to confirm changes
(5) Click on Close.
The report now shows sales data by country for 2008 vs. 2007 sales.
Open a panel to use it to filter the data in the report
You can quickly filter your report by using panels.
To open a panel:
(1) Click the Panels button in the Vizubi toolbar.
(2) Double click on Invoices in the Select Panel window.
(3) The Invoices Panel opens on the left.
Filter sales by product category name using the Categories panel
(1) Click on the arrow button on the right of City.
(2) Select multiple cities by using CTRL+left click . This will show only the sales for the cities you select for “This year” and “Previous year”
(3) Press the red button or Esc to close the dropdown.
Clearing the filters you applied above
To clear filters:
(1) Click on the Clear button in the Vizubi toolbar. The filters you applied in the Invoices panel are removed. The data in the table is no longer filtered. The reference year for “This year” remains 2008
(2) Close the panel by clicking on the Close button in the Vizubi toolbar.
Save your report
(1) Save the report by clicking on Save As in the Vizubi toolbar.
(2) Change the name in the label box to My first report.
(3) Click OK to confirm.
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