Running Reports in Cognos Analytics

Overview

Instructions on how to navigate to, and run, reports in Cognos Analytics.

Navigation Options

Upon logging into Cognos, you begin with the Cognos Analytics Portal welcome page.

Navigation and actions take place in three areas, the Top Application Bar, the Side Navigation Bar and the Switcher (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Cognos Front Page, with main navigation options highlighted

As you run reports, many windows open within the portal so if you lose your way, you can use the Switcher in the middle of the top application bar to see all of the reports you have open (Figure 2). 

• Clicking on IDR | Cognos option will take you back to the main Cognos Analytics Portal page 
• Clicking on the X icon to the right of the content item name will close the report or folder

Figure 2: Cognos Switcher, used for managing the multiple windows that the application opens for report runs

Running a report

1. From the left side navigation bar, click into an Enterprise report folder (Student, HR, or Finance), or use the main Content link to navigate to the folder of interest (Figure 3). The Tile/List View toggle switches the folder view - List View will be more familiar to long time Cognos users. Content can be added to the user's list of Favorites for easy navigation
   
   Figure 3: Cognos Folder Navigation Features
    
2. Select the report name to run the report in the default format (typically HTML), or,
3. To run the report directly to Excel or PDF, bring up the Action Menu by selecting the three dots  to the right of the report name, or right-clicking the report name, and select Run As.
   1. The Run As option will launch a new window that will allow you to select the desired output format and configure background run options, if desired. (Figure 4). HTML format outputs to the browser window. Other formats are routed to the browser file download area.
      
      Figure 4: The Cognos Run As Menu
       
4. After running a report, there are options for Resetting the prompt values and running the report or running the current output to a different format available on the Top Application Bar (Figure 5).
   
   Figure 5: Options for rerunning the active report