Please search our FAQs below for help with any queries.
Q. How do I run financial reports?
Currently you can run reports directly from the University Financial System, or using Cognos or Discoverer. UFS reports are prewritten and can be downloaded in Excel with some manipulation, however some information, especially regarding organisational structure is not held in CUFS, therefore many user friendly reports have been written in Cognos, some users with appropriate Cognos access can also manipulate and interrrogate data and generate their own reports. Discoverer is a way of manipulating the reported data from UFS and is generally only available to finance managers.
Q. I had a Raven password but forgot it?
The Reporting team are not responsible for maintaining user passwords. If you need to have your password reset please read the instructions on the Computing Service website.
Q. I can’t login, Cognos says I do not have the right credentials
If you have had your Raven password for a while (before 1st Jan 2015) you may need to change it. You should only need to do this once.
Q. My report isn’t returning any data
Have you got access to the right data? It is possible in some cases to run a report that appears to run normally but your security prevents you from seeing any data. Please remember that Cognos refreshes overnight, so if the data was not in CUFS or other database yesterday it will not be visible in Cognos today.
Q. How do I get access to the Cognos report building tools?
Most users can only view reports. If you believe your job role requires you to build reports in Cognos, you should in the first instance discuss this with your Admin Reporting Contact, (see below).
Q. How do I request a change to an existing report?
If you want a change to be made to an existing report you should contact the FIN_Reporting_Helpdesk@admin.cam.ac.uk with details of which report you would like changed and what changes you require. It may be that another report can provide the information you need, or some of this, if this is the case please also include details.
Q. How do I get a new report built?
You should contact the FIN_Reporting_Helpdesk@admin.cam.ac.uk with details of which report you would like, if you already have something in Excel or Word please include this as an example . It may be that another report can provide some of the data you require, if this is the case please also include details.
Q. Why can some Cognos users view more reports and folders than others?
Some users can see more reports than others because they have a different user profile. The user profile is defined by the Admin Reporting Key Contact based on the job content and school/depatment of the access requester. If you feel you should have access to other reports, you should in the first instance speak to your Key Contact.
Q. What reports are available?
An Excel list of reports is available from the reports page.
Q. Why does the report sent to me not open correctly in Excel?
The Admin Reporting team may email you with reports attached in Microsoft Excel format. Most University users will find they encounter no problems when opening these reports, however if you find they open but have formatting errors and you're working on a Windows PC, the attached document might help. Fix: Opening .mht files in Excel
Q. My report isn’t showing all the data
Check that you have all rows selected or if there is a scroll down/next page button
Q. Why can I not print my report in PDF format?
Some older versions of Adobe Reader need to be set to print as image before Cognos reports print. If you find you can not print your Cognos PDF report, try following the notes attached below.
Q. What are the supported software environments of Cognos?
This link will take you to the latest available list of supported software. Software environments supported by Cognos
Q. Cognos Query Studio: How do I add a chart to my query?
Adding charts to a query can make it easier for the reader to understand trends and differences in the information they are viewing. Adding charts to your query
Q. Cognos Query Studio: How can I apply a conditional style to highlight exceptional data in my query?
To make it easier for the reader to spot exceptional results, conditional styles can be applied to data in your query, Applying conditional styles to highlight exceptional data
Q. Cognos Query Studio: How do I amend the summaries in my query?
Query Studio automatically summarises the quantifiable data in your query. Use these notes to help you amend or remove these summaries.
Q. When I run a Cognos report I get an error message (QE-DEF-0157) telling me "The model or package ..does not exist or you are not allowed to used it because of security settings." What does this mean?
The most common reason a user will see this message is because their security settings will not allow the report they are running to retrieve the data from the data source. If you get this message, in the first instance, contact the report "Owner" to find out if there is a reason you are not able to run the report. To find out who the "Owner" of the report is, go to the "Properties" of the report (icon under "Actions" in Cognos Connection.)
Q. I can not open the report I get sent via an email link. When I click on the link and passed the Raven login screen, a message box is displayed telling me "This window is trying to close" with options of either yes or no. Whichever option I choose results in the window closing without seeing the report.
This is most probably due to setting in your browser. If using IE open your internet options and ensure http://www.internal.admin.cam.ac.uk/ is listed as a trusted site. Then check you have downloads set as enabled.