Using Distribution Lists

Created by Harry Lewis, Modified on Thu, 22 Aug at 7:24 PM by Harry Lewis

Applies to:

Velixo Classic
Velixo NX
Acumatica, Sage Intacct, MYOB Acumatica, Cegid XRP Flex, Haufe x360, Jamis Prime

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Purpose
How to use the Distribution feature
Report parameters (company, branch, division, financial period, etc.)
- Including temporary information
Refreshing the entire report
Using Pivot Tables with a Distribution List
Saving Reports to SharePoint or WebDAV
Example
Additional Info - Distribution Tools
- Validate
- Insert Folder Path

Purpose

We can use the Distribution List feature with a desktop installation of the traditional edition of MS Outlook to quickly distribute reports to a large number of users with a single click. Reports can be sent by e-mail or simply saved to a folder in a variety of formats. You have the freedom to include specific content (sheets/tabs) or use different parameters (company, branch, division, financial period, etc.) based on the recipient. Highly sensitive data can be password protected.

Example use cases:

E-mail a monthly performance dashboard in PDF format to the manager of every location of your 200-location business.
Send detailed financials to your area/group managers in Excel format.
Prepare a complete financial reporting package for your shareholders, removing Acumatica formulas and hyperlinks for people without access to your ERP system.
Archive the final version of your monthly reports to a network share with clear and consistent naming.
E-mail a PDF version of your project progress report to project managers every week.

These are just some examples of what can be achieved — Report Distribution lists are extremely versatile, powerful, yet very simple to use.

How to use the Distribution feature

For any workbook, start by creating a blank Distribution list. To do so, click on New List in the Distribution section:

What you will then see is a new spreadsheet that contains all the fields needed to set up report distribution:

Simply fill in the blanks. Here’s a description of all the different settings:

By default, the distribution list shows 10 (blank) rows, but you are free to add as many as you want. An Excel workbook can contain multiple distribution lists, so if you have different monthly/quarterly/yearly runs or simply occasional distribution requirements, feel free to add as many lists as you need and give your lists unique and memorable names.

Be sure not to change the order of the columns or introduce any additional columns anywhere except at the end of the Excel table.

Format:

Select the type of file that you want to create:

Excel file (with all functions intact)
Excel file without Velixo functions
Excel file without any functions/formulas
PDF (requires that the Excel Print Area be set)
None (when including the report within the email body)

File Name

The name of the file you want to create

Tab Selection

The names of the unprotected worksheet(s) you want to include in the file you create - if specifying more than one worksheet, the list must be separated by semicolons ;

Note:

The names are case sensitive. List the names exactly as they appear in the tabs of the workbook.

Folder Path

The location where the file is to be created. You can use the Insert Folder Path button in the Acumatica ribbon to help you specify the location

Email To

Optional. The email address to which the file is to be sent.

Email Subject

Optional. The subject line for the email

Email Body

Optional. The body of the email. This can be hand-entered text or a cell/range reference.

Using a cell reference provides the capability of including additional formatting options (such as line feeds within the email).

File Password

Optional. The created file can be password protected. To do so, place the password in this column.

Attachments

Optional. The path and name of any additional attachments for the email

Report parameters (company, branch, division, financial period, etc.)

Reports can be run with different parameters for each recipient. You can configure the parameters in the Distribution List by adding new columns to the end of the list.

The name of the column must match a named range in your spreadsheet:

note: the named cells must be scoped to the ENTIRE workbook:

(worksheet-specific regions can only be used with the Velixo Blueprint feature)

Velixo Reports will apply the parameters automatically during distribution.

Including temporary information

Occasionally it can be convenient to include a cell containing some temporary data or interim calculation but that you do not want to pass to your report as a parameter. This can be accomplished by prefixing the name of the column with an exclamation point.

In this example...

... the data in the !CompanyStores column could be used in determining the contents of the Stores column, but would not be passed to the report. Like all user-defined columns, these must be located at the end of the Excel table (leaving the standard columns undisturbed).

To start the distribution process, click Distribute All in the Velixo toolbar.

Refreshing the entire report

When passing report parameters, any cell that are dependent upon those parameters are automatically updated. If it is desired that ALL cells in the report be updated, select Yes for the Refresh Workbook setting

Using Pivot Tables with a Distribution List

When passing report parameters that can impact a pivot table, a Velixo Distribution List can be configured to automatically refresh the pivot tables as part of the Distribution process:

(Note: when distributed reports contain pivot tables where the data source depends on a Blueprint parameter, such pivot tables will always be refreshed)

Saving Reports to SharePoint or WebDAV

Note: See Using Distribution Lists with SharePoint or WebDAV

Example

Here’s a completed example:

The example above would generate 9 different copies of the current report:

The full consolidated financials will be exported to a network share in Excel and PDF formats. The PDF version will be e-mailed to the CEO at the same time. To ensure that the Excel file can be viewed by external users, the Velixo formulas will be replaced by actuals during the process and connections to Acumatica will be removed. As an additional security measure, both files are password protected.
The sales dashboard (one of the tabs of the report that is built using Velixo functions and Acumatica data) will be e-mailed to the sales manager
Region-specific P&Ls containing one tab per location will be e-mailed to each regional manager. Since the managers will have access to Acumatica, we will keep the Velixo formulas to allow the managers to drilldown to Acumatica or refresh the reports.

You may also select a few rows only and use the “Distribute Selected Rows” option:

Additional Info - Distribution Tools

The Distribution Tools button provides two additional features.

Validate

This feature:

Verifies that the worksheet conforms to the distribution template (contains the valid header fields and detail columns)
Verifies that the detail table contains rows for distribution
Ensures that all custom columns specified actually exist as named fields in the workbook
Checks the format of each value in each row (emails, paths, URLs)
Checks that any Blueprint tabs existent

Insert Folder Path

This feature opens Excel's standard file explorer dialog to allow the user to navigate to the desired output folder (rather than having to type the entire path name by hand). This helps to avoid typographical errors in the folder path name.