Question
- How do I add cycle time to a report in BI?
- How can BI give me the difference between two dates in DASH?
- Can I create a calculated field to give me the time between two dates on my jobs?
Answer
Cycle Time calculations are able to tell you how long it took a job(s) to go from one date to another in DASH (ex: Received Date to Arrive on Site Date or Received Date to Start Date, etc).
- Navigate to your report in BI. Select Edit > Design
- Click " Add Calculated Field" above your list of data sources
- Enter the Column Name for the cycle time you want to measure (ex: Received Date to Arrive on Site Date)
- For cycle times you will want to utilize the DATEDIFF expression (see this manual for a cheat sheet of all the calculated field expression options. This cheat sheet gives you the standard formatting to follow as well.)
- You will want to enter the function in this formatting as a placeholder: DATEDIFF(datepart, startdate, enddate)
- Then replace datepart, startdate, and enddate one-by-one using the light bulk icon (see gif below)
- datepart: this will be the date component that you want to measure (ex: hours, days, weeks, months). This manual contains all the date part names and abbreviations at the bottom of the PDF. NOTE: you can either use the full datepart name (ex: week) or you can write it's abbreviation instead (ex: ww or wk)
- startdate, enddate: use the lightbulb icon to add in the expression/date from DASH
- NOTE: spacing does not matter with expressions, if it makes it easier for you to read, you can add spacing in the calculation
- Click "Preview" to ensure that you get a result. Don't worry if the number does not make sense; generally as long as it is a positive integer, that indicates the expression does not have any errors.
- If you get an error that says "The syntax of the expression is incorrect" when you try to save/preview it. Try building your calculation from scratch and make sure there are no missing parenthesis or missing data.
- Once you've saved your Calculated Field successfully, you can search for it from the fields/data source menu on the left hand side or scroll down to the "Calculated Fields" folder in your data source list. Drag and drop it into your columns for your report.
- Once you've added the calculation to your report, make sure the date is formatted in a way that makes sense for the calculation.
See this video for more general information on calculated fields in BI.
Questions? Contact Us
Want more guided assistance with complex BI calculations? Check out our bi-weekly BI webinar with our BI subject matter experts.
Questions? Contact Us!