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Humboldt State University Sponsored Programs Foundation

Using SPF Web Reports

  1. From the main Humboldt State University web page (www.humboldt.edu), choose “F” in the A-Z Index
  2. In the index, choose “Foundation, HSU Sponsored Programs”.
  3. On the left side of the page, choose “Web Based Reports”.
  4. Choose “Access” to view account information.
  5. Next, you will be faced with the Log On page. You will be given a Login ID that will normally correspond with your HSU email (the part of your email before the “@”), and a password, which will initially be set to be the same as the Login ID. The first time you use the web reports, you will be asked to change your password right after clicking “Log On”. You may change your password to anything that you will remember, with the only restriction being that it must be a minimum of 3 characters.
  6. You will be presented with the Cognos Web interface.
    1. On the left side of the screen is an index to the contents in the web application. You can go directly to an area in the application by opening a branch on the tree by clicking on the “+”, and choosing the place you want to go to.
    2. On the right side of the page are the contents in the area of the application you are currently in. When you first log on, you will be placed in the NewsIndex area.
    3. On the top right side of the Cognos page, will be some hyperlinks to allow you to perform some tasks:
      1. Home: takes you back to the opening Cognos page (NewsIndex)
      2. Personalize: This allows you to make changes to the appearance of the Cognos Web interface. The User tab has the features that are of the most use as this is where you can change your log on password, and pre-set or change the User class for the current log on session.
      3. Log off: logs you off Cognos Web.
      4. Help: Access to Cognos Web User’s Guide
  7. From the NewsIndex area, you can find a link to the “HSU Principal Investigator Project Reporting”. Choose this link to get to the reports. From this area, you will see one or both of the top level reports, depending on the types of projects you have access to:
    1. Project Expenditure Summary by PI for Campus Programs-Trusts.
    2. Project Expenditure Summary by PI for Grants & Contracts.
  8. Choose one to start the report.
  9. If you have access to more than one Principle Investigator, you will be asked to choose which user class to use to run the report. Make sure that it is the right one for the report that you chose to run. Check the “Make this the default user class for this session” box; this will ensure that you are not continuously asked this every time you drill down to another report. If you do this, to change the user class, you will need to go to the Personalize link. (see 6c. above)
  10. You will be prompted to choose a Calendar Year and Calendar Month. This will display data in the report for that time period. Click “Finish”
  11. You will next see the “Report Running” screen. While the report is executing, you have the option to:
    1. "Save the report as a new entry": this will allow you to save a copy of the report in your personal NewsBox;
    2. “Cancel and return to source”: this will stop the report from executing and take you back to the page from where you started this report.
  12. The report will be displayed as a PDF file, opening Adobe Reader within a web page.
    1.  The top part of the page will contain the standard web page controls: back and forward arrows, stop, refresh, home, etc.
  13. Just below the address line will be where Impromptu Web Reports begins, and Adobe Reader with the report displayed is the majority of the rest of the page.
  14. At the top of the Adobe Reader section, you will have the standard functions associated with Adobe Reader: Save a copy, print, find, etc. You can save a copy of this PDF for viewing and printing later.
  15. Just above the bottom of the page (below the page number), Impromptu Web Reports picks up again with some additional symbols:
    1. imageof icon to view pdf. View PDF, if you are not currently looking at a PDF version of the report.
    2. imageof icon to view excel spreadsheet. View as Excel. You will be asked to either save the file or open it. Opening it will start Excel within the web page. Saving it will allow you to use the spreadsheet in Excel at a later date.
    3. imageof icon to run report. Run this report; re-executes the report.
    4. imageof icon to get help. Help
    5. imageof icon to save. Save as, same as choosing “Save the report as a new entry”  before the report displays
    6. imageof icon to go to previous report. Go to the previous report
    7. imageof icon to return to source page. Return to the source page; this takes you to the NewsBox where the first report was chosen.
  16. Information displayed on the report that is in blue, underlined and boxed is links to a drill-down report. Clicking on one of these items will use the value chosen as the basis of data to be shown on a detail report. You can continue to drill down to detail from one report to another as long as there are links on the page, and data in the links. To go back, do not use the Back button on the top of the web page. Use the “Go To Previous Report” buttonimageof icon to go to previous report. to cycle back up the chain of reports.

HSU Sponsored Programs Foundation • 1 Harpst St. Arcata, CA 95521 • Contact Us