Here a project has run three tasks against two reports selected for validation. The names of reports selected in the Reports grid were appended to the Tasks grid where the results of each task, run for each report, were indicated. Notice that one report has been flagged, because one of the tasks run against it failed. 

Look in the Tasks grid at report Sales_C0102_20081231.xls. Task 02 – “Sum of units sold in territory” failed because the spreadsheet query on the left reported 16625 while the database query on the right reported 16600. Clicking on that cell would open the task and point to the report, ready to investigate.

Here’s a closer look at a project’s properties. 

First, you create a Report List Query that produces the list of reports to search for in your report folder. Also, you create a list of input parameters so your query will be dynamic. 

The Report List Query is executed when the project is opened. Its result columns will be passed to each task. This way each task can be run for each report using a specific set of parameters such as unique territory ID, product ID, sales date - whatever you require.

Each task runs two queries; most commonly one spreadsheet query and one database query. You may configure this combination as you like.

Wizard screens help you pinpoint the spreadsheet data you desire. You may test your queries, as you develop, by selecting a spreadsheet report to test with. Notice how, for each spreadsheet selected, a unique set of parameters are used by the task and passed to the two queries.  These parameters were generated by the Report List Query in the Project Properties window (above). 

Finally, as a test, the two queries can be run, side by side, and their results compared.