Creating and Using Excel Reports
Rapporter · Steg-för-steg-guide
Modul: Rapporter
Tillvalsmodul: Ekonomimodul
För administratörer som skapar Excel-rapporter
Uppdaterad 2026-11-12 10:50
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Brief answer
Prepare a template on the Excel Templates page and use it on the Excel Reports page. The template determines the workbook and data selection, while the report page determines the period. First review the Data sheet, then the workbook's own summaries, so that you know both which data has been retrieved and how it is presented.
Fördjupning
Before You Begin
Decide what question the report should answer and which work tasks and accounts you need to follow up. For example, it may be easier to check a single known work task over a short period before creating a report for the entire organisation.
The Excel Templates page requires the Economy module. You also need the correct permissions to modify templates and groups. Access to work tasks can affect the report’s basis, so two administrators might get different results from the same template. Always check the contents of the downloaded file before sharing it.
If you already have a template that answers the question, you can proceed directly to the step Select template and period and use the existing template. Do not alter a shared template solely to test another setup without first checking who uses it.
Steg för steg
Prepare the Template
1Open or Create the TemplateGo to Reports → Report Generator → Excel Templates. Open the template you will work with, or select New and provide a clear name. #### Details - The Excel Templates page displays templates in alphabetical order. The name is also used later when someone selects the report. Therefore, choose a name that describes the purpose, not only who created the template. - The name must be unique among Excel templates and may contain up to 50 characters. If Timeplan does not accept the name, check both the length and whether a template with the same name already exists. - Changes to an existing template apply when new reports are created from it. However, a workbook already downloaded will not change. Keep a copy of the saved workbook if you need to revert to the previous presentation. - Excel templates are not the same function as regular report templates. Here, an Excel workbook and a data selection are connected. Verify which report page you are working on before attempting to use instructions for another type of template.
2Choose Detail LevelSelect Detail Level according to how the user will specify the report period: Year, Quarter, Month, Week, or Day overview. #### Details - Year suits reports that include entire calendar years. Quarter, Month, and Week provide corresponding from- and to-selection on the report page. This choice determines the time division, not which accounts the report retrieves. - Day overview provides From and To date fields allowing the user to select a custom interval. It is also the default option when creating a new template. - The year selection remains on the report page for all detail levels, including Day overview. Therefore, check both the date interval and the year markings when testing the template. The report should only contain dates within the interval and belonging to the marked years. - If the report will later be used with another time division, you need to check the template’s detail level. Changing the dates on the report page does not switch the template’s fundamental period type.
3Choose the BasisSelect the companies and work tasks as well as the accounts or groups that the report will use. > [!WARNING] > Do not mix partial values and group totals into one overall total without control. > The same basis may appear both on its own row and in one or more groups. Adding all such rows may therefore count the same value multiple times. #### Details - Companies and work tasks specify which part of the organisation the basis comes from. Accounts specify which values you want to follow up. Review both parts; a well-chosen company selection does not help if the accounts you need are missing. - You can select individual accounts and use saved account groups. The Accounts page manages the accounts themselves, while the Groups for Excel Reports page collects accounts or work tasks to be used together. - A group collects either accounts or work tasks. If you need to create a group, choose the correct type before selecting New, provide a unique name within that type, and mark at least one member. The group type cannot be changed later. - A new group also needs to be selected in the Excel template to be used there. If the same group is used in multiple templates, changing its members affects upcoming reports from all those templates. Check usage carefully before modifying the group. - Be especially cautious if you remove a member from a group that overlaps other groups. The current group management has a limitation that can affect membership in other groups as well. Have an authorised administrator follow up affected groups and templates; do not use a shared group to test different selections. - When an entire company has been selected, the template uses the company’s current active work tasks. A new work task can therefore be included in a later report without opening or changing the template. Check company selection when comparing older and newer files. - Individual accounts and account groups provide separate summaries on the same sheet. The same applies to individual work tasks and work task groups. If a value of ten hours appears both in a selected account and in two selected account groups, it may show as ten hours in each of the three summaries. Adding them does not give ten unique hours. - Group selection alone is not a reliable alternative to individual choices in the current function. Empty lists for individual accounts or work tasks can cause the report to fail. If such a selection fails, the template needs review; do not change group members to try to fix the error. - When work task groups and account groups are combined with the department feature, there is a limitation that can cause data to be missing or linked to the wrong department in the report. Therefore, it is not enough just to check that a file has been created. Compare the departments and some known values with the basis before using the report, and review the template if the grouping does not match. - Timeplan can save an Excel template even if it lacks selected accounts or work tasks. A successful save does therefore not guarantee the report has a useful basis. Check the selection and produce a test report before passing the template on. - Access to work tasks can affect the basis, so two administrators may get different results from the same template. Do not assume the template’s selection or access always limits the file correctly. A known limitation can in some situations cause balances without work tasks or amounts relating to companies with a future end date to fall outside or be incorrectly linked in the intended organisation selection. Therefore check which companies and work tasks are actually in the file and compare some known values before using or sharing it. If the data is not part of the selection, wait and have support follow up the template.
4Prepare the WorkbookSelect a valid .xlsx file if you want to use your own workbook. Put presentation, own calculations and notes on sheets other than Data. > [!WARNING] > The Data sheet is replaced in the new report. > Do not place data there that needs to be preserved when the report is generated. Save a personal copy of the workbook before changing or replacing it. #### Details - Timeplan writes the report data on the Data sheet. If the sheet exists, it is replaced in the generated report; otherwise, it is added. Your other sheets can use the data for summaries or presentation. - You do not need to upload the file again if you only change the template’s data selection. Saving without choosing a new file retains the previous workbook and its filename. - A new valid upload replaces both the workbook and the saved filename. Therefore, check you have selected the correct local file before saving, especially if you have multiple test versions on your computer. - Uploading a file is not mandatory for saving a template. The Excel file link lets you download the saved workbook. If no workbook has been stored, the link instead provides a workbook with a sheet you can use as a starting point. - If an uploaded workbook is missing, you can still create a report if the template has a functioning data selection. Then a workbook with the Data sheet is created. This is not the same file you get through the template’s download link: without a saved workbook, that link provides a blank workbook with Sheet1. - Timeplan does not recalculate your own formulas or update pivot tables automatically when generating the report. New files containing fresh data on Data therefore does not guarantee all summaries show them. Check references and results separately in Excel. - The Data sheet is recreated, so your own formulas, formatting and other objects placed there are not preserved as template content. Also, formulas on other sheets referring to Data need verification in a new report. Do not rely solely on the workbook opening. - Use a standard .xlsx workbook in this workflow. Do not expect macros or a macro-enabled workbook to be included and work when the report is created. If Timeplan rejects the file, you need to check it is a valid workbook in the correct format; simply being able to open it in Excel is not sufficient.
Steg för steg
Generate and Review the Report
1Select Template and PeriodChoose Save on the template page if you have changed the template. Then open the Excel Reports page. Select the correct Excel template and specify the period you want to examine. > [!WARNING] > Check the year selection in Day overview. > The report should only include dates within the From–To interval and that belong to the years you have marked. Therefore, check both the date fields and the year markings before selecting Show report. #### Details - Timeplan remembers the template you last selected on the report page. Therefore, check the template’s name and the information Excel file, even if a selection is already made when you open the page. - With the detail level Year, the entire marked calendar years are included. With Quarter or Month, you choose the first and last quarter or month; the entire selected part is included for each marked year. - With Week, you choose the first and last week. The report uses entire calendar weeks in the marked week years. Be aware of weeks around a year change when comparing to a filter based on calendar dates. - You can mark multiple years and add the immediately preceding or following year to the year selection. Review all markings before a new extraction, so that a year from a previous comparison is not accidentally included. - With Day overview, you specify From and To. If the dates are reversed, Timeplan arranges them chronologically. Still verify which period you actually requested; automatic ordering cannot determine which period you meant to follow up. - With Day overview, the date interval is used together with the year markings. Only dates within From–To that explicitly belong to marked years should be included. If you compare years that do not follow consecutively, an unmarked intermediate year should not be included. - If no templates exist, the report page shows a link to template management. A template listed there may still have an incomplete data selection. Return to the template if the report lacks the basis you expected.
2Check the Test ReportSelect Show report and open the new workbook. First check the Data sheet, then the template’s own summaries. #### Details - Start with the period and a work task or account whose basis you know. This makes it easier to find whether an unexpected result is caused by the selection, missing data, or the workbook’s presentation. - If Data lacks the values you expect, check the template’s accounts, work tasks and groups, your period selection, and your access rights. Do not try to fix a formula before confirming the correct data has been retrieved. - If Data contains the correct data but the summary looks wrong, the workbook’s own calculations and presentation must be reviewed. Do not assume a pivot table shows the new data just because the Data sheet is populated. - Read the column headers when linking the presentation to Data. CompanyName, CostDivisionName and AccountName indicate company, work task and account. Group names may be in the same columns as individual work tasks or accounts, so the name or a number alone does not reliably show the type of summary. - Period columns change with detail level. Year has Year, quarter adds Quarter, month adds Month, and week adds Week. Multiple selected years end up on the same Data sheet, not on a separate sheet per year. - Only Day overview has the date column Date in column K. It also contains information about day of month and weekday. For month level, column K contains Approved, and for week level Balance. Therefore, do not reuse a formula for date column K when changing detail level. - Balance contains the value in the account’s display unit. Approved differentiates preliminary values, marked with 0, from others, marked with 1. These are not date columns. The current function can still give column K a date format even at month and week levels. If a value looks like an unexpected date, check the header, cell value and format before interpreting it. - The workbook is not limited to the first 1,000 rows. Check that your own formulas and pivot tables’ source ranges cover the full basis, especially when adding more years, work tasks or accounts. - The report uses the template’s filename if a usable one exists. Otherwise, it is named ExcelReport.xlsx. The filename itself does not prove that the period and basis are correct. - Each retrieved workbook is a separate result. If you fix the template or Timeplan data, you need to fetch a new report and check the new file. The previous file is not updated retroactively.
3Upload the Finished WorkbookProcess the presentation on a sheet other than Data and save the workbook as .xlsx. Upload the file to the correct Excel template. Choose Save and then check a new report extraction. #### Details - Use the test report to see which basis the presentation needs to handle. For example, you can place summaries and a clear report period on a separate sheet, but check that they reference the correct data in the workbook. - Save the processed file on your computer before selecting it under Excel file on the template page. Editing a downloaded file in Excel does not automatically update the workbook Timeplan has saved. - After uploading, generate a new report. Also check a different period than used when building the presentation, so that a different number of rows does not give a misleading result. - Keep the template’s data selection and the workbook’s presentation separate. If an account is missing in Data, the selection needs review in Timeplan. If the correct account is there but missing in a summary, the presentation needs review in Excel.
4Update Statistics if NeededIf changed data is still missing despite the correct template and period, the basis may need recalculating. Choose Update statistics on the Excel Reports page and read the confirmation before proceeding. #### Details - The confirmation informs you that the report basis will be recalculated. If you continue, the processing is queued; if you cancel, no work is queued. - Closing the confirmation does not mean processing is complete. Do not immediately fetch the same report and interpret unchanged results as a failure. - The report page does not show its own confirmation that the requested job is finished. A downloadable report is also not proof the statistics update has completed. - When processing is finished, you need to select Show report again and check the new workbook. Updating statistics does not change a file already on your computer. - If you cannot determine whether the processing is finished, it must be checked before concluding the numbers. Have an authorised administrator help you follow the run instead of requesting the same recalculation repeatedly. - An administrator can use the Server queue page to check if a job is waiting, processing, or has an error. The list needs refreshing and shows a limited number of jobs. That a job is not visible is therefore not alone proof that it succeeded. In unclear cases, the current processing must be followed; the time elapsed since clicking Update statistics does not indicate completion. - If data is still missing after completed processing, check the template’s data selection, the report’s dates and access to work tasks again. Recalculation does not replace a missing account in the template or an incorrect year selection.
Fördjupning
Verify the Results
You are done when the report uses the correct template, period and organisational selection, when the Data sheet contains the data you expect and when the workbook’s summaries match these. Check again after changes to the template, groups or source data before sharing or using the file as decision support.
Steg för steg
Frequently Asked Questions
1Why are recently changed figures missing?Start by checking that you have opened a new report extraction with the correct template and period. Also check the data selection and your access. If the report basis needs recalculating, use Update statistics and wait for the process to complete before fetching a new file.
2Why is the summary empty when Data contains data?Then you need to check the workbook’s own formulas, references and any pivot tables. Timeplan’s data selection and the presentation in Excel are two different parts. A correct list on Data does not guarantee that a custom summary uses the entire list.
3Do I need to upload the workbook every time?No. The saved file remains when you change other template choices without selecting a new file. Upload again when you want to replace the workbook on which future reports will build.
4Why did I get a different basis than my colleague?Compare template, period, year markings and access to work tasks. Also check if anyone has changed a group or the template itself between your extractions. Same template name does not mean two reports were created with the same assumptions.