Business Intelligence

All data entered in Vertec can be evaluated with the Business Intelligence (BI) module. The BI module allows a business analysis of all performance data.

In order to show the evaluations efficiently over longer periods of time and with large amounts of data, the data is pre-calculated. When querying the BI data, all predefined and pre-calculated measures are available.

The displayed evaluations are based on BI views, which define which values can be displayed where.

Opening the BI view

If you have licensed the Business Intelligence module and are working in Vertec on an object or on a list of objects for which suitable BI views are defined, the BI button appears at the top of the navigation view.

Clicking on this button or using the F9 button opens the BI view of the selected object or the selected list (Own projects in the example below):

The BI view is structured as follows:

1	In the BI view, only those elements for which BI views are available are shown in the tree.
2	At the top, you see the views that are available for the selected item as buttons.
3	The date ranges are Year, Quarter, Month, From – To and All. The default interval is a quarter. Which period is generally available depends on which data has been calculated. By default, it is the period from January of the penultimate year to the end of the next year. Vertec remembers when the date setting in a BI view changes. When opening new BI views, the last set date is used.
4	Displayed measures. Via the selection field, you can display additional measures in the graph. Using the buttons, you can adapt the display of the measures as follows: Show/hide the measures in the graph Ascending or descending sorting Display of the saved help text Remove the added measure The measures you selected for display in the graph remain when you switch between different views, as long as they are available on the selected view.
5	Below, you can see the values shown in the graph. The grouping corresponds to the grouping in the BI view definitions. These appear either as a bar chart: or, in the case of a time series, as a line graph: If you hover over a bar or dot, the effective values are shown as numbers. If there are more bars than there is space in the window, a button appears on the right side. Clicking on this button shows all the available bars in the window. If you click again, only the first ones are shown. Double-clicking on a bar opens the corresponding single object in a separate tab.
6	By clicking on the Excel export button, you can transfer the currently displayed BI data to Excel:

Changing the currency

The BI values are always shown in the key currency by default. Figures in other currencies are converted to the key currency. This is useful because otherwise the figures cannot be directly compared.

Under the currency drop-down list, all the measures with the unit Amount and Hourly rate can be shown in the current view in the selected currency:

The currency selection is shown only if:

• multiple currencies have been configured and are active in Vertec.
• at least one measure with the unit Amount or Hourly rate is shown in the BI view.

If a different currency is selected, the exchange rate values are used, depending on the date of the displayed value. The key date is the 1st of the month; other exchange rate changes in the same month are ignored.

Recalculating data if there are currency changes

If you define another currency in Vertec or change the key currency, you must recalculate the entire time range that contains BI data.

Otherwise, it could happen that illogical data may be shown in the past (before the recalculated period, by default January of the penultimate year until the end of the next year).

The recalculation takes place either via the scheduled task overnight or you can initiate it manually (right mouse button on the scheduled task BI recalculation > Execute now or via vtcapp.standardprocessbi().

URL support for BI views

The Vertec Breadcrumb URL is also available in the BI views:

It can be copied and sent with the usual buttons. The path of a BI URL starts with bi-view. It represents the selected object in the tree in the basic view and the following parameters:

• Date range
• Selected evaluation
• Selected measures, incl. sorting and coloring

For example, a URL would look like this:

vertec://bi-view/Christoph+Keller-2576/Own+projects-191/?interval=2025-Q1&measure0=FeesExt&m_visible0=1&sort_order=Desc&sort_measure0=&measure1=FeesExtCharged&m_visible1=1&measure2=FeesExtOpen&m_visible2=1&measure3=FeesExtWrittenoff&m_visible3=1&currency=EUR&display=DimensionDisplayProjectListFeesByProjectBarChart

Saving the configuration of BI views in favorites: You can save BI views as favorites. When called up, these are shown with all parameters (see above). BI views saved as favorites are given a designation according to the sequence Node (BI): Displayname, so that you can identify the BI views in the favorites at a glance:

Opening the folder directly in the BI

You can configure folders and link containers to open directly in the BI view when clicked.

In addition, specific BI views can be assigned to the folder or container, which are automatically displayed. This enables you to provide and retrieve ready-made evaluations with a click.

In the folder settings, you can find a When opening selection box designed for this:

When you select the option switch to BI view, a small BI icon appears in the tree next to the folder/container, so that it is clearly visible that the folder/container is shown directly in the BI when it is clicked.

Using the Assign BI views button, you can preselect BI views, which are then automatically shown when the folder/container is selected:

The available BI views refer to the class specified on the folder/container.

For link containers, these mappings are on the relevant link type:

As soon as such a container is selected in the tree, the view switches to BI and displays the linked BI views:

If no BI views are assigned to the folder/container that switches directly to the BI view when opened, the default view appears as if the navigation button for the BI is clicked.

BI user rights

To query BI data, the BI data user right is required.

The user must have this right on the selected class for the evaluation to be shown.

The following default user rights are implicit:

• A project manager has a BI data right on their own projects
• A project supervisor has a general BI data right
• A teamleader has a BI data right on all their team members

User rights can be granted for each BI measure. The following applies:

• The BI data right can be granted to both classes and objects.
• Once you have set the BI data user right and selected the relevant class, you can select a measure under field name. If you want to set a user right on all classes, select UserEintrag.
• As before, you can enter relevant expressions on a selected class in the Expressions field.
• To activate the BI button (see above), the user must have at least one measure activated on the selection. For a single object, a measure must be available; for a list of objects, each object must have at least one measure.
• If there is at least one measure defined for each object in the BI when selecting an object, but no measure for which a user right is set on all objects, “No data available” appears.
• If a selected object in the BI does not have a user right for a particular measure,“Access denied” appears.

You can check user rights with the OCL operator hasBiDataRight('measure'), which gives feedback for each entry as to whether the logged-in user has BI data rights for it.

What happens if there are no user rights

• Users without a BI data right for projects will see a special graph with the notification (“No access to BI data for projects”) for all evaluations on projects or project lists.
• With object user rights, you can manage user rights on a single object. As soon as the user does not have BI read permission on an object, the user receives the error message “Access to an object of type 'Project’ was denied”.
• Users with a BI data right to projects, but not to users, still see the evaluation when evaluating projects by users. For the authorization check, only the dimension that is assumed (selection in the BI view) is decisive, not the dimension according to which it is displayed (grouping in the BI view).
• For users without any BI rights whatsoever, the BI view button is hidden. This only happens if the user definitely does not have BI rights. In complicated rights constellations, the BI view button may be shown even though the user cannot actually view the BI evaluation.

Denying the BI right to a user with implicit user rights

If you still do not want to grant the BI right to a user with implicit user rights (e.g. project manager, see above), you can revoke this right as follows:

• Insert another row on the relevant group (e.g. project manager)
• Select the BI data right
• Note: You must specify the class for which the BI data right is to be denied. Without this specification, the row is ineffective.
• If you want to remove all user rights for BI data, you have to enter UserEintrag as the class.

Who sees which folders in the BI tree

Which objects and folders are available in the BI tree view are determined as follows:

First, it is determined whether the BI data right exists on the class. The logic is as follows:

• A user without a general BI data right on the content class and without a project manager right, project administrator right or administrator right, does not see a container (e.g. “All addresses”) in the BI tree.
• In particular, the address administrator right does not imply BI data rights, i.e. a user who has address administrator rights does not have a BI data right to addresses. Consequently, in order to see meaningful BI data, the user should be granted project supervisor rights or similar, in addition to the BI data right to addresses.
• As soon as users are granted project manager rights, they see all project and phase containers.
• A user with a teamleader right sees all the user containers, project containers and phase containers.
• A user with the project administrator right sees all the user containers, project containers, phase containers, address containers and task containers.
• An administrator sees all the containers for which a BI view is defined and active.

In a second step, all explicitly granted rights are processed on the user. Here, only the BI type rights are of interest to data on the matching classes (inheritance is taken into account, i.e. a right to address entry has implications for a query on an account).

• If the right is allowed, then the BI data right is granted. It does not matter what you have entered as a field name (measure) or as an expression.
• If the right is denied, the field name and expression must be empty (since these impact the object level, but the basic user right for viewing in the tree must be decided at the class level). If the right is denied and the field name or expression is set, this user right for viewing is ignored.

As usual for rights, this determination of rights builds on one another. This means that if the BI data right is assigned to entries, but then a right denies the BI data for projects, the user has no right to projects afterwards.

Note: The description here is only about determining what can be shown in the tree and selected by the user, and not about the actual "user rights" on the data.

Launch

When you start Vertec for the first time after an update, the BI data is not yet calculated. This means that you do not see any figures in the BI view.

The data is automatically calculated at night, so you can just wait until the next day and see the results.

Another option is to start the calculation manually once. Please be aware that the calculation with large amounts of data will require a lot of resources and Vertec may be blocked for normal operation during this time.