Report Scheduling

Avoid running reoccurringreports during business hours:

• Business hours should be reserved for running reports real-timeand should be limited to reports requesting small amounts of datasuch as one day one week or one month of data.
• Whenever possible all other reports should be scheduled to runduring off-peak hours. Daily reports should be scheduled to run betweenthe hours of 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. U.S. Central time.
• The reporting database is only updated once per day so thereis no need to schedule reports to run more than once per day. Theexceptions are the Dock Appointment Detail and the Optimizer Savingreports. These two standard reports run against the production database.
• Weekly and monthly reports should be scheduled to run on the weekends.
• If more than 6 months of data is needed schedule the report torun on the weekend preferably Saturday.

Do not schedule multiple reports to run at the same time.Instead stagger reports to run at least 15 minutes apart. It is alsobest to pick a time at which others are less likely to schedule areport. For example if there are three reports to run daily schedulethe first one to run at 2:01 a.m. the second at 2:17 a.m. and thethird at 2:33 a.m.

When modifying an existing report schedulebe sure to select the Replace existing schedule option.

Avoid usingreoccurring schedules for reports that are viewed on-line.

• Reoccurring schedules are meant for reports that are distributedthrough email or FTP.
• If an on-line daily or weekly report is not reviewed each timeit runs do not schedule the report. Run the report real-time whenneeded.

Maintain only active report schedules. If a scheduled reportis not producing any results remove the schedule and contact SterlingTMS Customer Support. They can assist in setting up the report toreturn the correct results.

Avoid creating a new schedule fora report others in your organization may already be using:

• Work together to schedule a single instance of the report andemail the report to all users that are interested in the results.
• Toschedule the report to email to multiple users select Specificemail recipients as the Destination onthe report schedule page. Enter the email addresses of all recipientsin the To: field. Separate email addresseswith a comma.

  

Report Formats

Use the default format foreach report:

• The default format for extract reports is Microsoft Excel (DataOnly). Do not try to run extract reports in other formats.

  

• Reports that are not extracts can be viewed in Excel or in CrystalReports format. Do not save these reports in Microsoft Excel (DataOnly) format. The report results will not display correctly in Excel.

Report Parameters

Follow these tips forentering report parameters:

Wild cards

Donot enter a literal wild card character such as an asterisk (*).The system automatically appends a wildcard character to any characteror characters you enter.

You can enter one ormore alphanumeric characters as a wild card character.

For exampleif you enter MI for a state search the systemlooks for states matching MI and returns Minnesota Michigan Missouriand Mississippi.

Dates

Makesure to enter dates in the proper format which is usually mm/dd/yyincluding the slashes.

There are some date fields that differin format such as yyyy/mm/dd and yyyy-mm-dd.Follow the suggested prompts for each report.

Incremental Report Data Updates

As a bestpractice you should extract incremental changes instead of largeamounts of historical data. As an alternative first run a baselinereport on a weekend to gather baseline data. For example run a reportfor data since January 1 2012. Then set up a reoccurring report torun monthly using a date parameter of current date minus 30 days.Combine the data into a single database or spreadsheet once it hasbeen extracted from the reporting system.

Avoid running scheduledreports that contain specified fixed dates:

• If a date is specified in both the From and To dateparameter fields the report will likely return the same data everytime it runs.
• If a date is specified in the To date parameterfield the same is true. For example you run a report from the currentdate and previous 60 days to May 1 2012. The report will producethe same results or no results each time it runs.
• If a date is specified in the From dateparameter field the report will get progressively larger and sloweras time goes on. As an alternative consider running a monthly reportextract. Then combine the data into a single database or spreadsheetafter it has been extracted from the reporting system.

Routinely review scheduled reports and delete reports thatare no longer used.