Web Suite Report Center screen contains links that allow you to access or view reports or apply filters before doing so. Web Suite provides a wide variety of preset standard reports designed to give you quick and easy access to your company-related information. The Report Center groups similar reports together. Click any report category on the left to select the relevant report. The list of available reports pertaining to the selected category is displayed on the right.
Report Filters let you change the scope of a report. When you create a report, it can show more information than you need. When you apply a filter to a report, you choose how you want Web Suite to restrict the report to certain criteria. It then excludes from the report any information that doesn't meet your criteria. Filters enable you to display reports utilizing only the information you want to include. The intersection of data produced by applying all filters is what will be displayed on the report.
For example, if you make activities or expenses billable to a client or project, the Project Time & Expense Report initially shows unbilled costs for all projects and for all dates. This would be too much information if all you wanted were to see last year's unbilled costs to one of the projects. You would use the Date filter by itself to print last year's report for all projects in Web Suite database. But to print last year's report for a particular project, you must use the Date filter along with the Project ID filter. Each additional filter further restricts the scope of the report. Choose any category and then select the report you want from the list of available reports.
The following information describes the options available on the Report Center screen:
Selected Report Path
This displays the relative path of the report selected.
There is a panel on the left that contains a list of all the reports available in Web Suite. The panel has three tabs:
Standard: This displays the standard Web Suite reports in a tree structure. You can view the older organization method of reports by clicking the Legacy View check box.
Memorized: This displays a list of reports that have been memorized in Web Suite.
Favorites: Web Suite allows you to keep a list of most used reports by marking them favorite (Select report and click favorite button on button panel). All these reports marked favorite are accessible in the Favorite tab.
Double-click a report folder or click the folder's plus (+) sign to display the list of reports within
that category.
Date Filters
Up to two Date Filters can be specified for a report (for example, Invoice Dates, Transaction Dates or All Dates). Select the desired type of date filter from the Field drop-down and then specify the date range—All, Custom or any From-To range. You can select dates from the drop-down lists or pop-up calendar. You can also manually enter the dates in the From-To fields. Date Filters fields are unavailable if dates are not applicable to the report.
The
From-To date filters are pre-filled with a year range of 1970-2020 by
default, which you can change to set your own dates. For the As
Of filter,
the default From date is the oldest Time Entry Date in the database while
the To date is the current date.
Up to three Other Filters can be specified for a report. Select the desired type of filter from the Field drop-down and then specify the From-To range. You can also choose discrete items using the Select Items filter. The From-To option gives you a range for specifying the filters while the Select Items option provides you a drop-down wherein you select the specific clients, projects/managers/other items by checking the Sel option against the relevant IDs.
You can also apply filters of your own choice in More Filters, while Group Filters restrict data based on the groups they belong to.
While applying filters, you must select AND, OR or NOT to narrow or broaden the search. AND narrows the search for records that match the first filter and any filters with an AND. This is referred to as an 'intersection of data'. OR broadens the search by getting records that match one or more of the filters with an OR. This is referred to as a 'union of data'. NOT is an exclusion filter where you specify the items or data that should not be queried or fetched for the reports. This 'Not' filter has amazing power in analyzing data. For example, you might want to run a billing analysis report and not include a few projects. Such a task will be as simple as a mouse click.
Filters are unavailable if they are not applicable to the report. Web Suite provides many different types of filters for reports. The ones you'll probably want to use most often are: Date, Client ID (for client reports), Invoice Dates, Transaction Date (for aging reports), Employee ID, Project ID (for employee and project related reports), Project Managers (for project reports), Service Fee Schedule, Expense Fee Schedule (for company reports), etc.
When filtering report data by vendor or employee, you will be listed as
Current User.
Custom Query
Customized SQL string that refines the information to be included on a report can be added besides the given filters. An SQL string can be used separately or in combination with filters. The report query follows the standard Crystal Reports format and is case insensitive. You need to check the Append To Query option below to attach the SQL statement with the other filters. The general syntax to be followed in writing a SQL query string is:
{Table Name.Field Name}=Field Name
A SQL string query can be converted to a date query. The general syntax to be followed in writing a SQL query for date is:
{Table Name.Field Name}=cDate(Date)
For example, In order to apply multiple filters to a Activity report, the query will be: {Activity.AC_BillRate}=100.00 AND {Activity.AC_MinHours}>5; This will create a report on activity codes with bill rates $100 and minimum hours less than 5. Similarly, in order to apply a date filter to a Time Entry report, the query will be: {TimeEntry.TEDate}=cDate(2/13/2014).
While applying custom query, you must select AND or OR to narrow or broaden the search. AND narrows the search for records that match the first filter and any filters with an AND. This is referred to as an 'intersection of data'. OR broadens the search by getting records that match one or more of the filters with an OR. This is referred to as a 'union of data'.
Similar Reports
Gives you a list of reports similar to the one you have selected. This helps you find the most appropriate report for your needs. Clicking on one of these will open that in the Reports Center screen.
Search Item:
Helps you search for a specific report in a quick, robust way. Enter the keyword for the search in the text box and Web Suite will display all the matching reports. You can click on the desired report to select and load it.
Help:
Opens the Web Suite Help in the Report Center section.
Favorite:
Saves the currently displayed report as a Favorite report. Reports marked favorite are displayed in the Favorite tab to the right.
Options
Clear:
Click to clear all current report filters.
Clear All:
Click to clear filters saved with a memorized report.
Memorize:
Allows you to create a new memorized report. It memorizes the selected report allowing you to give it a specific name. You can also define the Report Group to save it to, to ease your access to the report later.
Save As:
To save an existing memorized report under a new name (for example, after modifying filters or SQL strings), click Save As. Enter up to 50 characters for the name. Be sure to give your reports descriptive names for easy identification in the future.
Save:
Saves the current report settings to a specified name. It is also used to update an existing report setting.
View:
Click the View button to view the selected report after applying the desired filters. Viewing the report provides you with various options. You can print or export the report (as a PDF file or any other format like Excel and Word), navigate to the previous/next report page or view the first/last page of the report. Exporting the report saves the report in the format specified on the client machine itself.
PDF:
Click to preview the report in PDF format. You can save the report's PDF file, print it or email it as an attachment.
Close:
Click to close the current page and return to the Login page.