Oracle Fusion HCM OTBI - Chapter 17: Best Practices for Building Effective OTBI Reports
📖 Content
Why Best Practices Matter in OTBI Reporting
Building effective OTBI reports requires not only understanding the data but also applying design principles that ensure reports are clear, efficient, and insightful. Following best practices helps avoid common pitfalls, improves report performance, and ensures users can make data-driven decisions.
🛠️ Top Best Practices for Building OTBI Reports
✅ 1. Start with Clear Requirements
Before you start building a report, define the purpose of the report and understand the business requirements. This ensures that your report provides value and doesn't include unnecessary data.
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Ask questions like:
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What is the goal of this report?
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Who is the audience (e.g., HR managers, executives)?
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What data is needed for decision-making?
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✅ 2. Use the Right Subject Area
Always choose the correct subject area based on the type of data you want to report. Different subject areas in OTBI contain data from various Oracle Cloud applications, so using the right one is critical.
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For employee data, use the Fusion HCM subject areas.
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For payroll or benefits data, select the Payroll Real Time or Benefits Real Time subject areas.
Tip: If you're unsure, explore subject areas using the Subject Area Catalog within OTBI to understand which one best fits your needs.
✅ 3. Optimize Report Performance
Performance is key when working with large datasets. Use filters, aggregations, and groupings effectively to reduce the load time and increase the efficiency of your report.
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Apply Filters Early: Filter data at the earliest stage to prevent pulling unnecessary records.
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Use Aggregation Functions: Instead of fetching raw data, use SUM(), COUNT(), and other aggregation functions to provide summaries.
✅ 4. Keep Reports Simple and Focused
Avoid cluttering your report with too many columns or unnecessary details. Keep it focused on the most important data, and consider breaking complex reports into multiple smaller reports if needed.
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Best Practice: Focus on key metrics that align with the business goals. For example, employee turnover, training hours, and salary expenditure are often key metrics.
🔄 5. Design for Clarity
Effective reports are easy to understand and actionable. Use the following design principles:
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Simple Layout: Use a clean layout with consistent font sizes and styles. Avoid clutter.
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Readable Charts: When using charts, make sure they are easy to read and interpret. Label axes clearly and ensure that the chart type matches the data you're presenting.
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Data Labels: Always add data labels to charts or tables for clarity, so the audience doesn't have to interpret raw values.
✅ 6. Leverage Visualizations
Visualization is a powerful tool in OTBI. Use charts, graphs, and pivot tables to help users quickly identify patterns and trends in the data.
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Bar/Column Charts: Use them for comparisons across categories.
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Line Charts: Perfect for showing trends over time.
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Pie Charts: Best for showing proportions of a whole.
✅ 7. Use Conditional Formatting
Conditional formatting can help highlight key data points, such as high performers, underperformers, or outliers in salary or performance metrics.
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Example: Apply conditional formatting to show employees with performance ratings lower than "Good" in red, making them stand out.
💡 Best Practices for Report Maintenance
✅ 8. Set Up Scheduled Reports
If your reports need to be run on a regular basis, set up schedules to run the reports automatically. You can define timeframes, such as daily, weekly, or monthly, and have reports delivered directly to users.
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Use email distribution to send reports to managers or executives without manual intervention.
✅ 9. Provide Drill-Downs for Detailed Insights
OTBI allows you to create drill-downs in reports so that users can click on a data point and view more detailed information. This feature is particularly useful in performance and payroll reports.
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For instance, clicking on department-wise salary expenditure might take you to a detailed list of individual employees within that department.
🔑 10. Review and Iterate Regularly
Reports should be iterative. After initial creation, gather feedback from users, review the data, and make improvements. This ensures that the report remains relevant, accurate, and easy to use.
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Tip: Hold periodic reviews to assess the value of reports. If certain data is no longer relevant, remove it to keep the report clean and efficient.
🧑💻 Real-Time Scenario Example:
An HR Manager needs a monthly report on employee attendance, but the report is too long and hard to read.
Step 1: Narrow down the report by adding filters for attendance type and employee department.
Step 2: Create a bar chart showing attendance per department, with colors indicating departments with the highest absence rates.
Step 3: Use conditional formatting to highlight departments where the absence rate exceeds a certain threshold.
💡 OTBI Report Design Checklist
| Step | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Define the report’s goal | Keeps the report focused on actionable insights. |
| Select the correct subject area | Ensures you are using the right data for your report. |
| Keep the design clean and simple | Improves report clarity and user experience. |
| Apply performance optimization techniques | Enhances report load times and efficiency. |
| Use charts and graphs for easy visualization | Helps users quickly interpret data. |
| Review and get feedback | Continuous improvement ensures the report remains useful. |
⚡ Bonus Tip: OTBI and Custom Calculations
Sometimes, you might need to create custom calculations to represent business logic. Use calculated columns in OTBI to implement custom formulas that meet your specific reporting requirements.
For instance:
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Employee’s Total Compensation = Base Salary + Bonuses + Benefits
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Attendance Score = (Days Worked / Total Working Days) * 100
These custom calculations can be added using OTBI’s Calculated Fields feature to provide tailored insights.
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