Report Scheduler

Updated: April 3rd 2012

This project adds a new report automation configuration and “scheduler” feature so that CUs can elect to have our Operations team run a series of CU*BASE reports and/or custom Query reports automatically for them once a month so they are ready when CUs come in to work. Reports can be run directly to a designated printer or even to your HOLDxx output queue for paperless, on-screen review.

The concept was introduced at the 2010 CEO Strategies conference in November 2010, with the idea that CEOs would submit their list of monthly reports for our evaluation. The input we received from eight different clients included not only more than 40 different standard CU*BASE reports, but in some cases quite a lengthy list of custom Query reports.

There are two main goals for these new tools:

• To save credit union CEOs and other leaders time when preparing for things like monthly Board reports: to get them to the answers they need more quickly and efficiently.
• To streamline our system processing, especially on what is usually the busiest day of the month – instead of CUs coming in on the 1st and queuing up hundreds of reports, taxing system resources, the reports could be run in the wee hours of the morning* when system resources are less heavily used.

(*And not necessarily on the 1st, either, but maybe on the 2nd. Exact timing yet to be determined.)

CU*BASE Report Scheduler

This tool would allow CUs to schedule a select list of standard CU*BASE reports to run every month automatically.

The biggest challenge to automating standard menu reports is storing the parameters the CU uses to produce the report the way they want it. Since it is likely that some reports will need to be run more than once with different settings, the system we use to store the parameters will accommodate different iterations, including a CU-defined description (such as “Summary Report for the CEO” vs. “CFO detail version”).

For every report we retrofit for this process, the CU will access the report screen from CU*BASE as usual, then use a new command key to save the settings for running via the new scheduler configuration. There will also be a separate configuration screen that compiles all of the available reports so the CU can see in a group which ones they have chosen to generate and whether report settings have been saved or not.

(One great side benefit to this method is that you’ll also be able to reprint a report manually using stored settings, any time you wish!)

The only settings the CU would need to define would be selection and sort settings; the program would be able to adjust the month/year to the prior month-end data automatically (in other words, CUs only need to save their settings once, and unless they change their mind on how they want the report output, they would not need to do it again even for subsequent months).

Status: Currently on target to be included in the 12.0 release.

NOTE: This first phase of the project will not include automation for credit union-defined financial statements (balance sheets, income statements, etc.), due to the unique complexity of these special reports. But once we have a prototype in place, we will begin evaluating how to tackle these as part of a separate project.

Custom Report (Query) Scheduler

This tool would allow a CU to schedule custom CU*BASE Report Builder (Query) reports to be run automatically each month.

After using Report Builder as usual to set up the definition, CUs would access a new tool to configure which definitions should be run automatically. If desired, the CU can specify to use the month-end version of the file, and the system will automatically substitute the appropriate month-end file name every month. The system will also be able to handle definitions that create database files, either those used as part of a series of Query definitions leading to a single report output, or for any other reason.

This project also addresses a request we get from time to time to allow CUs to control who can run custom reports without having full access to change them (to avoid accidental changes and deletions of critical custom reports), by allowing these reports to be set up to run automatically without any manual intervention.

Status: Currently on target to be included in the 12.0 release.

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