Millennium FAST Finance User Guide 
What is FAST Finance?
FAST Finance is the “Finance Reporting” portion of a data warehouse application from Millennium
Computer Systems. FAST accesses data from Banner Finance and Banner HR, allowing end‐users to
more easily query financial and budget data, produce ad‐hoc reports and reconcile budget and staffing
information.
How do I get access?
Everyone granted access to Banner Finance is automatically granted access to FAST Finance.
If you don’t have Banner Finance access, request it via esign form:
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Not sure if you have Banner Finance access? Send an email to Banner.Finance@wwu.edu |  |
Now that I’ve got access, how do I login?
Go to this webpage: https://millfast.admcs.wwu.edu/FastPortal_Prod
If you aren’t currently logged in to myWestern or Banner, you’ll be presented with the Universal Login page. Enter your username and password:
Once logged in, you’ll be presented with a Code of Responsibility agreement. Click on “I Agree” to acknowledge this agreement and enter the FAST data warehouse.
FAST Home
Depending on your permissions, the FAST home page may list several applications. This document will discuss how to use the “Finance Reporting” application.
Click on the menu selection “Applications”, then “Finance Reporting”. Or…if the menu pane is visible on the right‐hand side of the page, select “Finance Reporting” from there:
Quick Tip…
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If the right‐hand menu pane is visible, click on the “Hide Menu” button to hide it. |
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If it’s hidden, click on the “<” button to open it. |
Entering parameters
The first step in running a report is to enter parameters to specify the data you want. By default, the parameters page specifies only a chart and a fiscal period. Running a report on those values alone is not recommended! Unless you really need to see the entire university, enter one or more additional parameters, e.g. a fast index, fund code, organization code, etc.
No hourglass during data retrieval
After you’ve submitted your parameters, FAST searches through the database to find the records you requested. Depending on what you asked for, it may take several seconds to retrieve the data. FAST does not display an hourglass to show you it’s working, so you may be momentarily looking at a blank page. Just wait a few seconds, and your report will appear.
Display formats for amounts
Some reports present options for “Display” in the top right‐hand corner. Click on this to specify how amounts should be displayed. If the “0.00” format is chosen, cents are displayed; if “0” is chosen, amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar; if “K” is chosen, amounts are rounded to the nearest thousand.
Drilldown links
When data has been returned, look for blue links (these also display a hand cursor when you hover over them). Click on these links to drill down to more detail. If you continue, you will eventually drill down to individual documents.
Backwards and forwards navigation
Want to return to the previous page? Use the back arrow on your browser. Or… right‐click on a white space anywhere on your page, and when the shortcut menu appears, click on “Back”.
Want to go forward, returning to the page you started from? Use the forward arrow on your browser. Or… right‐click on a white space on your page, and when the shortcut menu appears, click on “Forward”.
Exporting your report to Excel
Most pages display this icon in the bottom right‐hand corner. Click on it to export your data to an Excel spreadsheet in the “xls” format. A file download dialog will appear: click on “Open” to open the file, or “Save” to save it to a specified location.
Note: When you open the file, you’ll see another message warning that the file “…is in a different format than specified by the file extension. Verify that the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source…” The file is not corrupted and is okay to open. Click on “Yes” to open the file.
Printing your report to PDF
Most pages display this icon in the bottom right‐hand corner. Click on it to print your report to a PDF file. There will be a momentary pause, then your report will open in Adobe Reader.
Returning to the parameters page
Most pages display this icon in the bottom right corner. Click on it to return to the parameters page.
Returning to the home page
No matter where you are, return to the home page by clicking “Home” on the menu.
Parameters allow you to specify the data you want to see on your report. Note that the records
returned will be those that match all of the values entered. For example, if you specify a Fund code and an Orgn code, only records that have both codes will appear on your report. You will not get all the records that have that Fund plus all the records that have that Orgn, but only records which have both.
After entering parameter values, click on the “Enter” button to run your report.
These parameters allow you to specify the data which should appear on your report:
The final parameter allows you to select the report or query:
Entering single values
Either type the code directly into the field, or select it from a drop‐down list. For example, to run a report for account code E050, type that value directly into the Acct parameter:
Or…click on the arrow to the right of the field, then select from the drop‐down list:
Entering wildcards
Use “%” to enter a wildcard value for that parameter. For example, to report on all organization codes that start with “3”, enter “3%” into the Orgn parameter:
Entering ranges
Use “:” to enter a range of values for that parameter. For example, to report on all fund codes from 51000 to 52000, enter it like this in the Fund parameter:
Entering lists
Use “,” to enter a list of values for that parameter. For example, to report on account codes E354 and E357 only, enter it like this in the Acct parameter:
Specifying multiple charts
Typically, you’ll want to report on just one chart at a time. However, FAST can return data for more than one chart in the same report. Results will be broken out by chart, in addition to the normal breakdown by Fund, Orgn, etc.
To select more than one chart, click on the “Use Multiple Charts” box. An additional line will be displayed, allowing you to specify the charts that should be included:
Parameters displayed in report header
When your report has run, you’ll see the parameters values you entered displayed in the report header, above the data. This will look slightly different from report to report. Here are a couple of samples:
On the Operating Statement report:
On the Transaction Detail report:
This information will also be repeated when you export the data to Excel, or print to PDF.
Quick Tip…
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You can use several filtering methods at once, though only one method per field. For example, this set of parameters specifies a single value for Fund, a range for Orgn, and a wildcard for Acct. Other parameters have been left blank. If you don't want to filter by a segment, just leave the parameter blank. |
