Concept: Differences Between OfficeConnect and Report Writer
This section describes the differences between reporting on journal line data using OfficeConnect with the financial modeled data source and using Workday Report Writer with a Workday-delivered data source.
Eliminations
OfficeConnect supports intercompany and noncontrolling interest (NCI) elimination rules. For NCI, you must first set up the NCI by Ownership feature. See:
OfficeConnect doesn't support interworktag eliminations.
OfficeConnect displays intercompany eliminations at the lowest common parent level.
Currency Translation Adjustment
OfficeConnect only uses Translation Loss account and its posting conditions for currency translation adjustment.
Current Year Retained Earnings
OfficeConnect doesn't automatically calculate the current year retained earnings. To include current year retained earnings in your worksheet, add a row that aggregates net revenue and expenses.
Filtering Data
OfficeConnect filters data differently than Report Writer. In Report Writer, data source filters, built-in prompts, and report filters all filter the data displayed in the report in an additive way, further constraining the data that ultimately is displayed.
OfficeConnect uses default values for filtering data in the report, and you can define filters at different levels. The filters you define at the different levels might conflict with each other, so OfficeConnect follows predefined precedence rules to determine what data to display.
Example: Cells override rows.
Breadth of Data
When you create a report in Report Writer, you specify a data source and data source filter to determine the data that the report displays.
When you create a report in OfficeConnect, the modeled data source contains data that comes from multiple security domains. The data you see in a report in OfficeConnect is all data you have access to in all applicable domains. As a result, the data in your OfficeConnect report is a union of data you have access to in multiple domains.
Rounding and Significant Digits with Currency Translation
Significant digits and rounding are important when performing arithmetic operations. When you report on a currency that's different than the ledger currency, the report performs currency translation.
When performing currency translation, OfficeConnect and Report Writer round numbers at different times. This difference in rounding might lead to a small, but noticeable difference in numbers when you compare reports using the same data from each tool.
- OfficeConnect retains all significant digits without rounding when performing internal calculations. OfficeConnect leaves all formatting decisions, such as rounding, to the user. Retaining the precision until the last possible moment improves performance when performing currency translation.
- Users can specify rounding for the entire workbook by accessing Workbook Properties and on theFormattab, select how to round data for OfficeConnect. Users can also leverage the Excel rounding functionality.
- Report Writer performs currency translation for each journal line and then rounds the value before performing other calculations.
If you compare the numbers in an OfficeConnect worksheet to a Workday Report Writer report with the same data, there might be a difference in numbers due to the different method of handling significant digits.
Time Period Planning
If your plan is at a higher summary level than period, OfficeConnect uses the last period for any activity on that plan and the last period's end date to match up with its translation exchange rate.
Example: If your plan is at the quarterly level for Q3 (Jul-Sep), the plan amount registers activity in September and uses the September 30 end date for the currency translation exchange rate. A similar impact would apply to a plan amount meant to cover an entire year.
In contrast, Report Writer uses the first period in the summary period but the end period for the translation rate. In the prior example, the plan amount registers activity in July, but uses the September 30 end date for the currency translation exchange rate.