SQL Server Reporting Services features (part two)

Posted by Chelsea Schlepp

SSRS Feature: Linked Reports

At this point, many companies know about SSRS, however most are not using it to its full potential. There are several features available (at no charge to you) that may make your life easier.
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The next feature we want to focus on is linked reports. (If you missed Part One: Subscriptions, you can find it here.) Linked reports allow you to make a copy of a report. This report will update as you update the original report. Why bother? It can help manage security on the site or even within the report.

​Below is an example that will address both.

Current scenario:

It’s year end and your auditors want Trial Balances in Excel. (Sound familiar?)

How you handle it now:

If you aren’t using SSRS at all, you are likely running the Trial Balance out of GP, using the export feature.   It then ends up in an undecipherable format, ready for you to spend the time editing just to give them something coherent. And then they want a different date range.

How SSRS can make it easier:

• Security on the Site
  
  Set your auditors up with access to your SSRS site and create a special folder just for them. You can set it so this is the only folder they can access. Here’s where the linked reports come in. Go to your regular financial folder, find the Trial Balance and create a linked report that lives in the auditor folder. Now they can access this (and export it beautifully to Excel) without your involvement.
• Security within the Report
  
  ​Once you create this linked report, you can also hard code certain parameters for that specific version of the report. So, if you’d only like the auditors to be able to view historical years, you can set that parameter to default and hidden and that’s all they’ll be able to access.
  
  ​Linked reports can be created by going to the properties of the report and clicking the “Create Linked Report” button. Choose if you’d like to change the name or location and click OK. In order to hard code parameters, choose the parameters option on the left under the report properties. From there, choose your options to default them, hide them, etc. This can all be done on a per report basis.

If you need assistance with this or any other SSRS features, feel free to contact us and keep an eye out for the next SSRS feature blog, coming soon!