Using Expression Builder To Refine Sage Abra Reports

When printing Sage Abra Suite reports, many users find they would like to filter the data in ways not available in the standard reports. It is relatively simple to change the data that prints using the Expression Builder in Visual FoxPro. Here we provide some common examples.

Expanding Criterion On Reports

Sometimes you may need to include more specific information than is available on a standard report. For example, you may want to print a report only for employees with activity within a specified date range, or you may want to include employees on Leave of Absence (LOA). Using Custom Criteria, you can select active employees by a specific date or date range on most standard reports.

To create a custom filter, after you select the report you want, navigate to:

1. Standard Criteria, Custom Criteria
2. Select Visual FoxPro Expression Builder

Three Examples

Here are just three examples of how you can modify the report results to include the information you desire. Note: Be sure to type the expression exactly as shown with all the parentheses, changing dates as appropriate.

1. All active employees as of: The following expression will produce a report showing all Active employees as of 03/31/2010.

Pe.p_orighire<={03/31/2010}and (Pe.p_active=”A” or (Pe.p_active=”T” and Pe.p_termdate>={03/31/2010}))

2. All active employees in a date range: The following expression will produce a report showing all Active employees inside of date range 01/01/2010 to 03/31/2010.

Pe.p_orighire<={03/31/2010} and (Pe.p_active=”A” or (Pe.p_active=”T” and Pe.p_termdate>={01/01/2010}))

3. All active employees in a date range plus employees on LOA: The following expression will produce a report showing all Active employees in date range 01/01/2010 to 03/31/2010 plus LOA employees:

Pe.p_orighire<={03/31/2010} and (INLIST(Pe.p_active,”A”,”L”) or (Pe.p_active=”T” and Pe.p_termdate>={01/01/2010}))

Note: When using custom criteria on a standard report, other fields on the standard criteria tab will not be available, except for Employer. If there is a need to add other items from the standard criteria to the employee selection, add them to the custom criteria.

Removing Terminated Employees From Standard Payroll Reports

Many payroll reports include all employees, including those that have been terminated. You can easily filter out terminated employees by setting the criteria to not include employees with 0.00 earnings. You can use any one of the year-to-date, quarter-to-date, month-to-date, or current earnings fields to create the filter. This will work for the Employee Earnings register, Employee Deductions register, and Employee Tax Withholdings register. Select Custom Criteria, FoxPro Expression Builder. Enter the following expression to filter out all employees with no year-to-date earnings:

Err.ytdamount<>0.00

You can use the expression above and replace the field name with any of the following values to remove employees without quarter-to-date, month-to-date, or current earnings respectively: Err.qtdamount, Err.mtdamount, or Err.curramount.

Using Mass Update To Change Status To Inactive

If you prefer not to use custom criteria each time you print the Employee Earnings Report, you can instead perform a mass update to change the terminated employee’s Earning Code status to Inactive and then run the report for All Active Earnings. This can be accomplished using the following steps:

1. Backup your data before performing any mass update.
2. From the Activity Center, select Payroll, Processes, and Mass Update.
3. Update File: Employee Earnings Register
4. Update Field: Earning Code Status
5. Records to Update: Empno= (enter employee’s ID number)
6. New Value: “I”
7. Press OK to start the Mass Update process.

Please give us a call for assistance using the Expression Builder and Mass Update processes.