This is a powerful tool to create reports of any kind with a vast range of designs. The reports you create can be printed on paper and/or viewed online. All reports can also be automatically converted to HTML and e-mailed to the applicable recipient, or exported to a supported spreadsheet program.
The report you want to create is controlled by the type of report you choose. The Report Writer offers the following two types of reports:
- Summary Reports
- Line Reports
These two types are the driving force of the entire tool, thereby dictating the components you can use to create the report and the result you will get.
Summary versus Line reports
The differences between Summary and Line Reports are outlined in the table below.
Note: For both types of reports, the output depends on the data in your database. The system searches the database and retrieves the applicable values depending on the keys you choose to include in the report (a key being a main account, customer, area, item, item group, etc.).
| Summary Reports | Line Reports |
|---|---|
| These are table-driven reports meaning the output is dependent on both the structure of your system tables and files (e.g., your Chart of accounts or Customer file) and the data in your database. | These are reports where the user makes all the decisions about the content and layout. You tailor every line of the report, specifying the behaviour and content. These types of reports are ideal when you want to structure the report in a certain way. |
| The result (amount of data presented) depends on the contents in the Balance file and what you have selected. See Overview of balance structure for more information about balances. | The number of lines printed always depends on the number of lines you define and whether or not you want to show zero results. |
| You always have to decide what keys you want to sort the information on and the selections for the keys. | No sorting. You decide in what order the data should be presented, by assigning a line number. E.g., you may want income accounts to come before cost accounts. |
Advantages with both reports
Some advantages with creating both types of reports are outlined in the table below:
| Summary reports advantages | Line reports advantages |
|---|---|
| Normally much faster to execute because you only have to select data once. | You are completely in control of the order in which you want to present the information. This is controlled first by the line number that you assign the line and then by the sequence number for the line. If you have defined specific line numbers but want to present the lines in a different order you can always re-sequence the order by assigning a sequence number. |
| You automatically receive totals for the different keys in the sorting (i.e. version). | Can have different selection criteria per line. |
| Can drill down from the highest sorted key to the lowest sorted key (via the expand option – clicking the plus (+) sign next to a line). | If more keys have been added in your database from which you can select, and you want to include these in an existing report, this normally would be very time-consuming work. Tip: By numbering the lines with a large interval span, you can simplify the insertion of additional lines. Alternatively, you can use Masks. |
| Can create multiple versions. This means you can re-run the same report using different versions – as long as one of the keys matches. The same report (with layout and columns) can be presented in different sorting orders and selection ranges. | Improvement with presentation. Because you decide each line you want to analyse and the order in which the line will be presented, the presentation of the report will always be the same (e.g., same amount of lines, same structure, etc). If you then want to export the data to a spreadsheet program (e.g., Excel) you will be guaranteed the same result. |
Typical reports for FIN and DIS
The following table outlines the typical reports you can create for Summary and Line Reports:
| Summary Reports | Line Reports | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial-related | Distribution-related | Financial-related | Distribution-related |
| Details for Balance Sheet (i.e. balance on every account) | Sales reports | Balance sheets | Sales Commission reports |
| Details for Profit and Loss Report | Purchase reports | Profit and Loss Reports | |
| Details for Annual Report | Annual Report |
Note: For Financial-related reports, the type of report you want to use to create the report normally depends on what you are working with and what you are doing. In the Financial world, Line reports are normally used when you want to distribute the information externally. Summary reports are normally used when you are doing the closing analysis.
Tip: With the connection feature in the Report Writer, you can easily connect a Summary report to a Line report. This feature is ideal for Financial-related reports. Take, e.g., a Balance sheet – which is normally a Line report. If you create a Summary report with the same keys as those in the Line report you can connect the Summary report to the Line report. This will give you the following results:
- The Line report outlining the sum of accounts and/or account combinations.
- The Summary report which you can use for internal purposes, thereby drilling down to the details of each account.
The creation process
The creation of a report is a simple process. Each part of the process is divided into components – all accessible from one Notebook area.
Note: Each component is a unique page in the Notebook
Main components
For each report you create you have to define the basic information (done via the Main page of the notebook). This includes the:
- Report identification
- Keys you want to include in the report (e.g., Main account, Customer, Item, Item group, Area, etc).
- The type of report (Summary Report or Line Report)
Depending on the type of report you choose (i.e. Summary or Line), the main components that you can use differ.
Differing main components
- Versions – This is only applicable for Summary reports. Via this component you define the sorting order of the keys you are using in the report and the selection criteria for the keys. When generating the output for the report (i.e. running the report) you have to connect the report to a version.
Note: Several versions could be valid for one report. The versions applicable depend on the keys included in the report.
- Lines – This is only applicable for Line reports. Via this component you define the line type and the selection criteria for the key(s) used in the line. Four different Line types are available for use.
Common main components for both types of reports
The following main components are common for both types of reports:
- Columns: In the columns page you define the column headings for each column, the column type and the Period/Year for which you want to retrieve the data. You can also further tailor the report by making selections on column level, for the applicable key. You can define up to 99 columns and can choose between a significant number of column types.
- Layout: There is a free-form layout design meaning you can decide the presentation of the report. This includes everything from the heading area (which normally includes the report name, the user who created the report, the page number, and the column headings) to the Data area (which is the report body).
Common miscellaneous components
The common miscellaneous components (are valid for both Summary and Line reports) include:
- Size – the number of lines per page, lines and characters per inch
- Printer – the print attributes for printing the report on paper
- On-line Defaults – the number of days you want to keep an online report in the system before being replaced with an updated version; the number of column heading lines to display in the on-line report; the default version if a Summary report, etc.
- Connections – You can set up connections which will allow you to drill down to detailed information in the report. The following drill down options are available:
- Connect the applicable Balance enquiry template to a Summary report
- Connect the applicable Balance enquiry template to a Line report
- Connect a Summary report to a Line report
- Markings – If you want to compare values in one column to another, you can draw attention to the comparison values by defining markings
After creation
After defining all the components for the report, you generate (run) the report
Note: You can also set up report groups. Report groups are useful if you, e.g., print a number of reports (always the same reports) on a regular basis – be it daily, monthly or weekly, and distribute them to one, or several persons within the company.
During the generation process you can choose to:
- Print the output on paper
- View the output on-line
Note: Both can be done via a batch job or interactively.
Once generated the following options are also available:
- Export the data into a spread sheet program (e.g., Excel)
- Automatically create an HTML page and e-mail the results to the applicable recipient(s).