Creating Advanced Reports

In addition to the standard reports the system provides and basic custom reports, you can create advanced reports with a report designer that uses combinations of tables, matrices, lists, and charts. You can create an advanced report starting with blank or system default settings or with settings based on another existing report.

Note: If the report template that was used to create a custom report is updated, the custom report will receive the update when you open the report. Custom report settings may be overridden if they differ from those of the updated settings in the report template.

To create an advanced report, do the following:

1. Open Dashboard, click Application Links on the navigation panel, and then click Reports Manager under Reports.
2. Do one of the following to display the Create New Report window:
   • Select an advanced report in the grid, and then select New > Advanced > Use this Report on the Home tab to create a custom report using the selected report's settings.
   • Select a group in the My Reports or Shared Library on the navigation panel, and then select New > Advanced > Blank Report on the Home tab.
3. Enter the report information in the boxes provided. Explain the components of the window.

Component	Description
Report name	Enter a unique name for the report. The report name is entered for you and can be modified if you opened the window by selecting New > Advanced > Use this Report (step 2).
Report type	Select a report type from the list, for example, Activity - Accounts Receivable Collections. The report type is selected for you if you opened the window by selecting New > Advanced > Use this Report (step 2).
Description	Enter a description of the report in the box provided.
Custom fields	If your firm has custom client fields set up in Global Lists, you can select the fields to include in the Client Profile report. You can select up to ten custom fields. Note: To view or manage custom client fields, click Lists under Firm on the Dashboard Application Links window.

4. Click OK.
5. Design the content and layout of your report.
   1. Click the Insert tab.
   2. Insert a table with your desired number of rows and columns.
   3. Drag fields into the table.
   4. For address fields in the table, do the following to change <BR> HTML tags from normal text to line breaks in the report:
      1. Select the field name in the Data row (the bracketed text, such as [Primary_Address]).
      2. Right-click the text and select Placeholder Properties from the menu.

      

      3. Select HTML - Interpret HTML tags as styles and click OK.

Note: You can do the following to display information about using the components and features of the Report Builder:

• Click in the upper-right corner of the Report Builder window.
• Press F1 to display Help for an active window.
• Click Tutorials from the Report Builder Help system table of contents tab and select from the available lessons.
• Click Getting Started with Report Builder > Report Builder How-to Topics from the Report Builder Help system table of contents tab for a list of links to all the procedural topics.
• Read what the Reporting Services team members have to say in the Reporting Services team blog.

6. Do one of the following:

   • Select Save on the Report Builder Application menu to save your changes.
   • Select Save As on the Report Builder Application menu to save, copy, and rename your changes.