As with most HR Systems or Personnel Software, there will be a need a some point extracting data from the database and pumping it into a different tool such as Microsoft Excel. In most instances using  People Inc this is typically done using a report and saving the file type as a XLS file or PDF etc.

If however you wish to export all the data from a table, you can use the built in Export tool within People Inc. which is useful for quickly exporting data from one screen at a time without having to create a report.

This is particularly useful if maintenance work is required on one screen of data for example it needs tidying up before re-importing it or if you want to quickly dump the data on the screen into Excel etc.

To Export Data in this way:

1. Open Management Console
2. Right Click on the Screen you wish to export
3. Choose ALL TASKS>EXPORT DATA
4. Choose the FILTER you wish to use to select which records will be exported (this will need to be set up first if it doesn’t exist otherwise all of the data maybe exported)
5. Click on the EXPORT drop down list and choose SPREADSHEET
6. Click FINISH

The system will then open the selected data in MS Excel.

NOTE: If you want to save the file as a CSV text file, then choose TO FILE, choose the FILE TYPE and a file location

Working with People Inc. Filters

There are many filters already set up within People Inc, but it is highly likely you will need to set up your own filters.

Before you can run or create any filters you will need to understand how a filter is defined. You will need to establish what it is you are looking for and how to tell the system to look for it. To do this you will need to make a note of the 4 ‘settings’ below:

Screen/Table       (Which sub-screen holds the information we are looking for)

Field                        (which contains the value we are searching for)

Operator                (which determines how the information is found)

Value                       (which is the information we are looking for)

For example, if we are trying to find all the people in the Administration Department we would use the following settings:

Screen/Table       = Employee Details

Field                        = Department

Operator                = Is Equal to (we want to find an exact match)

Value                       = Administration

You will only learn the location of fields by using the system and making a mental note of which fields appear under which.

Operators (or Functions) is the logic that we apply to the Filter to ensure we get the correct results. For example to find people who Joined the company on a specific date, the we would use EQUAL TO. If we wanted to find people who joined before or after a specific date we would use GREATER THAN or LESS THAN and if we wanted to find people who joined between 2 dates, we would use BETWEEN

There are several operators:

We will use the example where we only want to see Active Employees rather than all of them. Before creating a new filter we need to determine what the properties are.

These properties usually take the form of a table whereby we need to specify the Table, Field, Operator and Value in order set up a filter. For our example our table will look as follows:

Filter Properties Table:

To create a new filter:

1. Open the Management Console
2. Click on the Screen where you wish to set up the filter (i.e. Employees)
3. Right Click on an existing filter in the right hand screen and choose NEW FILTER
4. Enter a name for the filter (Active)
5. Enter a Description for the Filter (this can be very useful to remind users what the filter does specifically)
6. Click FINISH to open the QUERY DESIGNER
7. Choose the TABLE you wish to use (EMPLOYEES)
8. Click the FIELDS tab and choose the fields you wish to use in the Filter (STATUS)
9. Click the SEARCH tab and choose the same field(s) as before
10. In the CRITERIA area choose the OPERATOR (=)
11. In the CRITERIA are type in the VALUE (Active)
12. Click OK

The query now appears in the list of Filters on the Employees screen.

If you want to apply more than one criteria simply repeat the steps 1 to 11 to set up your first criteria, then repeat steps 9 to 11 to set up subsequent criteria.

You can also create OR and NOT conditional statements. For example, you might want to find Employees who either reside in a certain city OR are willing to relocate. In this case, you define the first criteria as equal to the city, then insert an OR statement, and define the second criteria as willing to relocate is True.

Editing a Query with the Query Designer

To edit a query we have to use the Query Designer. This allows us to change the properties for the filter.

In this example we will edit our Active Employees filter and add a second criteria to find all the Active Employees who are Female. The properties for this filter are:

To edit a query:

1. In the Management Console locate the filter you wish to edit.
2. Right click on the Filter  and choose ALL TASKS>EDIT FILTER – this opens the Query Designer
3. In the SEARCH Tab scroll down the list of fields to find GENDER and double click on it – this adds the field to the Criteria window
4. Click on the GENDER field in the Criteria window to select it and then set the OPERATOR to Equals To (=)
5. Enter the VALUE as ‘Female’
6. Click OK

Then apply the filter to the screen to view the results.

Changing Sort Order

You may want to not only apply a filter, but also change the sort order of how the records appear in the screen.

Using our example we will change the sort order of our Active filter to sort by SURNAME and then FIRSTNAME.

To change the sort order

1. Either create a new filter or edit an existing one
2. In the Query Designer click on the SORT tab
3. Locate the Surname field and double click on it
4. Locate the Firstname field and double click on it
5. In the Sort Fields Window the two fields should be shown
6. Click OK
7. Apply the filter to the Employees screen to see the results

NOTE: The sort order only sorts the fields in the order in which you double clicked on them. For example if you had double clicked on Firstname first and then Surname it would have sorted the data in this way.

Deleting a Filter

To delete a filter simply locate the filter you wish to delete in the Management Console, right click on it and choose DELETE FILTER.

Applying And Removing Default Filters

As mentioned, default filters are filters, which are set up on a specific screen within the management console, so that each time you open the screen it automatically applies the chosen filter to save having to apply the filter when the screen is opened. For example, when you open the Employees screen you may only ever want to view Active Employees by default.

To set up a default filter you must initially make sure you have already set up the filter you wish to use (refer to the Setting up Filters section on how to do this). Then:

1. Open the Management Console
2. Click on the screen you wish to apply a default filter to
3. In the right hand window, right click on the filter you wish to apply as default
4. Choose the ALL TASKS>APPLY AS DEFAULT FILTER option

This now means that when you next open the relevant screen, in this case Employees it will only show active Employees.

If you change the status field on a Employees record to anything other than active, they will no longer appear when you next open the Employees screen.

Filters can also be set up on the action list to show all of your own actions due by a specific date for example.