Great Reports. Some Limitations.
EPIC has quite a few reports that are essential for day-to-day administration of assessments. However, some of the most usefule reports have a few limitations. Let’s see how those limits affect daily use.
Most of these reports use the EPIC Search Screen to filter what shows on the report. This is a powerful tool and we have some power-user tips to get the most from it. See our blog article, The Search Screen: Your Best Friend in EPIC to learn more.
Case Study: Customer Status Reports
The Need:
On disc training hub, our customers often purchase multiple assessments, which they distribute to their learners. Because these customers don’t have administration access to EPIC, they can’t see who has (and has not) completed which Access Codes. So, we send a report to provide this information.
Limitation 1: Time Consuming
Prior to this new EPIC feature, generating this status report was a process: I had to generate both a Completion Detail report and a Pending Credits report for the same set of records. Next, I had to copy and paste each report into a spreadsheet I had built, which returned a customized version of each report. I then exported the reports as separate PDF files and combined them into one, two-page report. Seven steps.
Limitation 2: No Email Addresses
The standard EPIC reports never included email addresses and there are two in every record in EPIC: The one assigned when the assessment was created and the one the learner used to create their account. This address is especially critical for Catalyst, because it is used to log into the Catalyst platform. When these email addresses are different, it can cause Problems Logging into Catalyst.
Limitation 3: Data Warehousing
Some changes to a record in EPIC are held in a queue (“warehousing”) to be processed later. Most reports in EPIC pull from the main database, which may not include the most recent changes. The Search screen’s results are always current, however.
See the article Data Warehousing in EPIC if you’re curious about this.
New EPIC Feature to the Rescue!
With this new feature, I can now export all of the records, pending and completed into one file. I modified my spreadsheet to accept this new format and return all of the results on a single page. The seven step process is now three steps, taking far less time. As an added bonus, I can now include the email address for the learner account. And I am never caught out by warehoused changes that didn’t appear in the reports I used previously
A feature added to EPIC in March 2024 solves all three of the issues I discussed. It’s a game changer for some of the administration duties I perform on pretty much a daily basis. But it’s not immediately obvious how to do this, so let’s walk through it!
I hope you find this new feature useful. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Support like this is always free for our customers!
Step 1: Export the Data
The first step is to find some data and export it. I often use the Edit Existing Records function (the second option on the Manage Reports menu) just to look things up. It’s the easiest way to get access to that nearly-magical Search screen.
On this screen, I can find a set of records by using some of the filters available. Sometimes I look up one person by name or email address. Very often I am looking at a group of records from a specific folder. In my case study, I would always select the Customer Groups folder and then select the individual customer. I don’t need to change the “Results per Page” because the export will include all of the records, not just what is visible on the first page of results.
Once the search results return, I find the blue button that says “CSV Export”. Click that and the report will be downloaded very quickly.
Step 2: Process the EPIC Download Data
A CSV file is a file of Comma Separated Values, which is just raw data with commas in between. It may appear to be a spreadsheet on your computer, but it doesn’t support any formatting or formulas. And that’s okay, because you can still open a CSV file in Excel or Numbers and save it as a spreadsheet. Most often, I import these files into Google Sheets.
Once you have this data in a spreadsheet, you can manipulate it by adding formulas and formatting cells to create whatever you need!