Some reports in [i] Merchant (such as the Sales & Receipt Report) have their own template and own independent way of functioning. But others can be grouped together, in the sense that, the way to set up the templates for these reports is consistent--there is one overriding method--even though the reports themselves are different. The following list of reports have templates that are set up in the same manner. ou can create as many templates as you want for each report.
To skip straight to the instructions on how to run a report, please click here.
Some of the reports listed here can be accessed straight from the Reports menu of the main [i] Merchant Desktop. Others must be accessed via the applicable Find program. Either way, setting up report templates is the same. However, when selecting a report straight from the main [i] Merchant Reports menu, you first need to determine what you are reporting on. When you select a report via the applicable Find program, what you are reporting on is already determined by how you run your Find.
The Inventory (Product) Report can be selected via Reports-Inventory Status-Product Report right from the main menu. Or the report can be accessed via the Find Product program. If you access it via the Find Product program (with the desired products displayed on the Find screen, select Reports-Product Report at the top of the screen; the Report Design and Submit window will appear--for information on creating or selecting report templates, click here), it will report on ALL of the products displayed in the grid at the bottom of the Product Find screen after running a search. You can format the report any way you want and include or omit the product details of your choosing.
The Customer Orders Summary will apply to ONE Customer Order, which you will have selected via the Find program. This report will serve as an order summary that you can give to the customer. It will contain applicable information pertaining to the Customer Order. To access this report, once you have accessed the desired Customer Order, select Reports-Customer Order Form from the menu at the top of the screen. The Report Design and Submit window will appear, which is the jumping-off point to selecting or creating a report template and then running the report. For detailed information on creating report templates, please click here.
The Customer Report allows you to generate a report on either a single customer or a range of customers. The Customer Report gives you the flexibility to report on a wide range of information. Access the report from the main menu via Reports-Customer-Customer Report.
The Customer Card Report applies to one customer. It is a specialized report used to create a customer card or sheet of information for a selected customer. This report can be used to create customer ID cards with a barcode. To access this report, once you have accessed the desired customer, select Reports-Customer Card Report from the menu at the top of the screen. The Report Design and Submit window will appear, which is the jumping-off point to selecting or creating a report template and then running the report. For detailed information on creating report templates, please click here.
The Returns Summary/Packing Slip applies to ONE Return, which you will have selected from the Find screen. This report will serve as the packing slip to accompany your returns. To access this report, once you have accessed the desired Return, select Reports-Return Form from the menu at the top of the screen. The Report Design and Submit window will appear, which is the jumping-off point to selecting or creating a report template and then running the report. For detailed information on creating report templates, please click here.
The Returns Report allows you to run reports on Returns information. The different ways you can run this report are virtually endless. Create as many templates as you need. Access this from the main menu via Reports-Returns-Returns Report.
The Product Sales Report provides an analysis of the products you sold over a specified period of time. You set up the parameters to determine which products you want to report on and what time frame you want to report on. The permutations and levels of desired specificity are virtually limitless. Access this report from the main [i] Merchant menu via Reports-Sales Analysis-Product Sales Report.
The Cost Profit Report also provides a further analysis of products that you have sold. This report reports on topics not incuded in the Product Sales Report, and can be accessed from the main menu via Reports-Sales Analysis-Cost Profit Report.
The Customer Order Report allows you to run reports on Customer Order information. The different ways in which you can run this report are virtually endless. If you want to run a report for a single customer's Customer Order history, you can do that. If you want to run a report that shows information for every Customer Order processed in March 2007, you can do that, too. Create as many report templates as you need.
The PO Report allows you to run reports on PO information. As with the Customer Order Report, you can choose to run this any way you like. Simple, complex, pertaining to one vendor or every vendor you order from, your options are layered and all but limitless.
The Receiving Report provides an analysis of the products you received over a specified period of time. You set up the parameters to determine which products you want to report on and what time frame you want to report on. The permutations and levels of desired specificity are virtually limitless. Access this report from the main [i] Merchant menu via Reports-Receiving-Receiving Report.
The Inventory (Product) Report may be accessed via the Reports menu at the top of your [i] Merchant main menu. The Product Sales Report, Customer Order Report, PO Report, and Receiving Report are also accessed in this way. When you access a report in this manner, you need to determine what you want to report on. Here is how you determine that . . .
Once you select a report (say, the Inventory Report) via the main Reports menu, you are taken immediately to a Query window, where you can either select to run an existing report template or create a new report template.
In the upper right corner of the Query window, there is a "Select Report on File" field, with a pulldown arrow at the right of it. Click on this arrow. A list of existing report templates displays. You can simply select one of those and then run the report (more on running the report later). Or you can select the "New" icon from the toolbar menu at the top of the Query window. If you do that, the New Report window displays and you will want to name the report and design it. To design the report template, click on the "Design" toolbar button at the top of the Query window; for detailed instructions on how to design a report template, click here.
At this point, once you have either selected an existing report template or created a new one, you are ready to run a query to determine what to report on. Please turn your attention to the "Select using" section of the Query window.
You can either run an existing (saved) query, or create a new one. To create a new query, click on the "Manage saved queries" button at the top right of the "Select using" section of the query window. A dropdown menu appears.
From this dropdown menu, select "Create a new query to save". A small window appears, prompting you to name the query you are about to create.
Key in the name of your new query in the blank line where the cursor displays, then click on the OK button. The name you just keyed in will display in the "Select saved query" field back in the Query window.
Now it is time to select the criteria for the new query. What do you want your query to include? In other words, what do you want to report on? Your query can be as narrow or as wide as you want it to be.
Choose the category you want to define your query by in the Select Field field by clicking on the down arrow at the right of the field. A pulldown list of categories appears. Click on the one you want. Once selected, it displays in the Select Field field. For an example, let us say you selected Department Category.
In the Select Operation field, choose Like, equal to, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, or between.
In the Choose Value field, choose the value or values that define the selection criteria. With the Department Category example, say you chose "equal to" in the Select Operation field. If you then select "FD/Food" in the Choose Value field, the query will be run for all products with a Department Category of Food ("FD" being the code, "Food" being the description).
For applicable categories (such as Department Category), there will be a binoculars icon at the right of the Choose Value field. If you need to view information on how to select a parameter in a code-driven field, please click here.
If you selected "between" in the Select Operation field, two fields will display under Choose Value. In the top field, choose the start value. In the bottom field, select the ending value. For example, if you selected Publication Date in the Select Field field and you want to run the query for products ordered between pub dates 1/01/01 and 1/01/05, you would select "between" in the Select Operation field, key in 1/01/01 in the top Choose Value field, and key in 1/01/05 in the bottom Choose Value field.
For Date categories (such as Publication Date), a calendar will display if you click on the down arrow at the right of the Choose Value field(s). This is a convenient way for you to select a particular date, if you'd rather not key it in.
Note:
If you choose any date-related category in the Select Field field, the Choose Value field will automatically default to the current day's date.
Once you have set the query fields the way you want, click on the Add button at the right of the Query window. The query criteria you just set will display in the Selected Ranges box. For example, if you selected a Department Category of FD (Food), then "Department Category = FD (Food)" will display in the Selected Ranges box.
Note:
If you want to blank out the query fields and begin again (prior to clicking on Add), click on the Cancel button. The query fields are blanked out.
Repeat the above process as many times as you want to define the criteria for your query. Each time you establish a new set of criteria and click on the Add button, the new criteria will display in the Selected Ranges box. The more sets of criteria you select, the more specific the parameters of the report will be. So, for example, you may set criteria for multiple categories in order to run a well-defined, highly specific report. Perhaps you want to run the query with the following specifications: Department Category = Food, Publication Date between 1/01/01 and 1/01/05, and Store Number 1. Simply define these criteria, one after the other, until all are set. When the query is run, it will only display results that fall under all of these specifications. For example, if a product had been ordered from Store 1 (within the range you set) but was not published between 1/01/01 and 1/01/05 (as you defined), then the product would not display on the subsequent report. To run a less-defined query, simply remove some of the criteria. There is no limit to the criteria. If you want to define 100 sets of criteria, you can.
After creating the criteria for this new query, click on the Manage saved queries button and select "Save the current query". At this point, you can run the report using this query immediately, or you can exit the query without running the report at all.
Let's take a closer look now at the other selections under the Manage saved queries button.
Two choices allow you either to view the list of queries saved only by you or the list of queries saved by everyone on the system. This is user-definable and up to you. Choose whichever makes the most sense. You can switch back and forth anytime you like, but the system will always default to the way you left it the last time you were in the Query program.
These two selections have a direct impact on the Select saved query field to the left. This field has a pulldown arrow. Click on the arrow and a dropdown menu displays, listing all of the saved (existing) queries you can choose from. When you select one, that query's criteria will display in the window. At that point, you can run the query.
If you selected only to view queries you yourself created under the Manage saved queries button, then only queries you created and saved will display under the Select saved query field. If, however, you chose to view all queries on the system under the Manage saved queries button, then all queries (created by all the users on the system) will display under the Select saved query field.
The last choice under the Manage saved queries button is a "Delete the current query" option. Clicking on this will call up a dialogue box that asks you if you want to delete the query that's displayed. If you do, simply click on "Yes". The query will be deleted.
To submit the report using the selected query, click on the Submit icon at the top left of the Query window. This calls up the Report Viewer. (Click on the Cancel icon in the toolbar at the top of the Query window if you want to exit the Query window without running the report.)
All of the above information was essentially on how to select what to report on when accessing a report via the main menu (that is, not via a Find program, in which case what to report on is already determined by how you ran the Find program). From this point forward, we will deal with the nuts and bolts of how to actually design and run the reports themselves.
For the sake of convenience, we will pick of one of the above reports and use that as a guide to setting up the templates for all of the reports. Remember, the way to set up the report templates is the same, regardless of the report you're working with.
Let's say we're going to create a template for the Customer Orders Summary.
Access the Customer Orders program, and run a search to locate a specific Customer Order. Or you can create a new Customer Order on the spot. Either way, you must choose one specific Customer Order for which you want to run the report summary.
Once you have selected (or created and saved) a Customer Order, select Reports-Customer Order Form from the menu at the top of the screen. The Report Design and Submit window appears. Here you can either choose to create a new template, run the report from an existing template, or access an existing template and alter it. For our purposes, we will create a new template.
To begin the process to create a new template:
If you do not want to change the username on the report, click on the "New" toolbar icon at the top of the Report Design and Submit window. The New Report window will appear. In the "Enter Report Name" field, key in the name of the report template you are creating, then click on the "Apply" icon at the top left of the window. (If you click on "Cancel," you will be taken back to the Report Design and Submit window with no action having taken place.)
If you do want to change the username on the report, before clicking on the "New" toolbar icon, enter a new name in the Change "User Name on Report" field. This field defaults to the username logged in to [i] Merchant (i.e., you), so you will probably keep it unchanged. But the option to alter it exists.
Once you have changed the "User Name on Report" field, click on the "New" toolbar icon. The New Report window will appear. In the "Enter Report Name" field, key in the name of the report template you are creating, then click on the "Apply" icon at the top left of the window. (If you click on "Cancel," you will be taken back to the Report Design and Submit window with no action having taken place.)
Once you have keyed in the new template name and clicked on "Apply," a new window displays--let's call it the Designer window for convenience. The heading of this window will match the name you just entered in the Enter Report Name field back in the New Report window. This Designer window is your gateway to designing the report's template. Let's start from the top and work our way down.
The Designer window has three sections: Header, Detail, and Footer. Header and Footer are self-evident. Detail pertains to the body of the report, the "meat" of the report.
To design the report template's header (the header that will appear at the top of the first page of the report:
Click on the Design Report Header button. The Report Header Designer window appears. The window will be blank, since you haven't applied anything to it yet.
To begin designing the Report Header, select View-Display Palette from the menu at the top of the Report Header Designer window, or simply click inside the Designer window. The palette appears.
Scroll through the palette and decide which options you want to appear in the report template's header. For example, if you want the store address to appear in the header, select "Store Address". Drag the selected option into the Report Header Designer window, and place it where you want.
Some of the palette selections are not fixed--that is, you can use them for whatever purpose you want. The Comment Control selection is a good example. When you select this, it will appear in the Report Header Designer window, and the text within the selection will tell you to key in what you want. You might use Comment Control to key in a name specific to the report you wish to run. For example, if you wanted to title the report, "John's Orders," then you would key in "John's Orders" in the Comment Control field. This gives you the flexibility to key in what you want, and you can drag this palette selection (as well as any other selection) onto the Report Designer window as many times as you like, in effect creating multiple user-definable field selections. It's up to you.
"Today's Date" is a selection that will automatically update itself to display the current date. This might be a useful tool to add to your template report's header. If so, drag it over.
The Line and Vertical Line selections are just what they say--horizontal and vertical lines. Drag them over and then play around with them to make them look the way you want. You can adjust the lines by lengthening or shortening them (using standard Windows practices) or by right-clicking on them once they are in the Designer and then experimenting with the Height and Placement. For general discussion about right-clicking on selected fields, click here.
The Group Box selection allows you to place a number of individual selections into one large Group Box. This is basically a functional tool that you may or may not want to incorporate. Play around with the Group Box and determine if you like it.
The Picture Box selection allows you to import a graphic from another file onto the report. When you drag the Picture Box into the Designer window, right-click within the Picture Box. A menu appears. Select "Picture," and then bring in the image file you want using standard PC practices.
Note:
Near the top of the Designer window, there is a Default icon. If you would like to display the name of the fields you place in the Designer window (from the Palette), this is the tool to use. For example, if you choose Retail Price from the Palette, the retail price will appear on the label. But do you want the label to say the words "Retail Price"? If so, you would use the Default icon.
When you click on the Default icon, the Display Options window appears, where you are given four choices: Create the display name (or "label") on the right, left, or top of the field. The fourth choice is not to use a descriptive comment field. Whatever you choose here becomes the default for all Palette selections. So if you choose to display the field name to the left, a comments field will appear to the left of the fields you drag in from the Palette.
If you want to change this for a specific field in the Designer window (i.e., go against the Designer window Default selection), right-click on the field, and choose "Display" from the menu that appears. This will call up the Display Options window as well, but in this case, the window will only apply to the specific field on which you right-clicked. The same four choices will appear, and you can choose any of them.
Note:
When you drag a field in to the Designer window from the Palette, do you want the field's full description or code to appear? For example, let's say you drag the Bindings field into the Designer window. Do you want the Bindings field to display the name of the Binding (for example, "Hardcover"); or do you want it to display the code (for example, "HC")? You can decide this on a field-by-field basis. . .
Right-click on the desired field. A menu appears. Select "Display." This calls up the Display Options window. In addition to giving you the four choices regarding whether (and where) to display the name of the field (as described in the above note), there is a section at the bottom that will dictate whether the field will display the description or code.
Under "Choose Description Display," there are two choices: "Display Code" and "Display Description". Click on the circle to the left of the choice you want.
Only fields that can display either a code or a description will showcase the "Choose Description Display" portion of the Display Options window. If a field has no code attached to it, the "Choose Description Display" portion of the window will not appear.
Repeat this process for all the options you want to include in the report template's header. Arrange the selections within the Report Header Designer window the way you want by dragging them around the window using standard Windows procedures. If you want the store address to appear on the top left of the header, then place it in the top left of the Report Header Designer window, and so on. You can also resize the selections vertically or horizontally, again using standard Windows procedures.
If you want to delete a selection from the Report Header Designer window that you've already placed there:
Right-click on the selection (for example, "Store Address"). A dropdown menu appears. From the menu, select "Delete". The selection is removed from the Report Header Designer window.
You can do more than delete a selection from the Report Header Designer window by right-clicking on it, though. When you right-click on a selection, there are often two choices in the pulldown menu: Delete and Font. If you select Font, the Font window appears. From this window, you can change the font for the selection you just right-clicked on. Simply set the font the way you want it, then click on OK. You will be returned to the Report Header Designer window, and the selection's font will now display according to the changes you made. You can change the font for every selection in your Report Header Designer window, if desired.
Some selections--the Full Address selections ( Store Full Address, Customer's Shipping Full Address, Customer's Billing Full Address )--offer more choices when you right-click on them. In addition to Delete and Font, these selections' pulldown menu also includes: Number of Lines, Visibility, and Additional Fields.
The Number of Lines option calls up the Address Lines window, where you can set the number of lines designated for the full address using the up/down arrows to the right of the "Use" field. After selecting the desired number of lines, click on the Apply button at the top left of the window.
The Visibility option calls up the Group Box Visibility window, where you select whether or not you want the outline of the Group Box that surrounds the Full Address selection to print when the report is run and then printed as a hardcopy. Select the choice you want, then click on the Apply button at the top left of the window.
The Additional Fields option calls up the Additional Fields window. This window lists a handful of fields that you can add to the Full Address box displayed in your Report Header Designer window. The Full Address default fields are Name, Address, City, State, and Zip. But whatever you choose from the Additional Fields window will appear below these fields once selected. To select a field from the Additional Fields window, simply check the box to the left of the desired field, then click on the Apply button at the top left of the window.
Once you have set up your Report Header Designer window the way you want:
Click on the Apply button at the top left of the window. The Report Header template has now been established, and you are returned to the Designer window for your template. (If you click on the Cancel button, you will also be returned to the Designer window, but no Report Header parameters will have been established.)
Now you can design the Page Header criteria for the template:
From the Designer window, click on the Design Page Header button. The Page Header Designer window opens. Follow the same exact guidelines you used when setting up the Report Header. The only difference is that the header you are designing here applies to the pages of the report template, rather than the Report Header, which appears at the very top of page one. The Page Header will appear in the header for pages two and up.
Once you have set up the headers, it's time to work on the detail, or body, of the report template. This is the major section of the Designer program. What information do you want the template to report on? Do you want Totals only (more of a summary) or do you want detailed, line-by-line information? How do you want the information on the report to be arranged and sorted? These are the questions you will answer here.
Under the Detail section of the Designer window, the first two fields are checkbox fields: "Totals Only" and "Display Count". Check "Totals Only" if you don't want line-by-line detail to appear on the report. For the Customer Order Summary, if you check "Totals Only", the individual titles the customer purchased won't appear on the report. Only the Totals info (for example, 5 titles purchased, total cost of $50.00) will appear. More often than not, especially for a Customer Orders Summary, you will probably want to leave the "Totals Only" box unchecked.
If you check "Display Count", the report will list the number of different items on the report. "Display Count" deals with individual items, not amounts. So, for example, let's say on the Customer Order Summary, 12 different items are listed. The customer purchased three copies of each item, for a total of 36 copies. But the "Display Count" is only looking at the items themselves, not the number of copies sold. If you check the "Display Count" box for this example, the report will print a "Display Count" value of 12, representing the 12 different items.
You can check both the "Totals Only" and "Display Count" fields, one of them, or neither of them.
To determine what columns your report template should have (i.e., what information you want to report on):
Click on the Design Detail Layout button in the Designer window. The Report Column Designer window appears. Before detailing how to select the columns you want to include on the report template, let's take a quick look at this window.
The top portion of the screen tells you the font type that exists for the column headings (the font type will appear in bold type directly to the right of the Change Font button). To change the font type, click on the Change Font button and choose the font you want in the Font window, then click on OK. When you return to the Report Column Designer window, the font type will have changed to what you just selected.
The Use Font Defaults button sets the font type to the system default.
Beneath these Font buttons, there are three checkbox fields and a numerical field.
If you want your report to print grid lines between columns and rows, check the box to the left of the Print Grid Lines field.
If you want the line items of your report (assuming you are not running it by Totals Only) to be doublespaced, check the box to the left of the Double Spacing in Detail Section field.
If the page width is exceeded, and you want the columns to wrap around to the next line (instead of having the excess columns bleeding over onto a separate page), check the box to the left of the "When the page width is exceeded wrap the columns around to the next line" field. Please note, if you include Line Breaks when designing the report body, this field will be checked automatically.
In the "Detail Lines Printed" field, key in the number of detail (line) items you want to see on the report. For example, if you define the query to report on your store's best-selling books for the years 2005-2006, you can further define how many of the best sellers you want to see on the actual report. Let's say you want to see the top 10 best-selling books. In the "Detail Lines Printed" field, key in 10. Only the top 10 best-selling books will appear on the report. If you leave the value at zero, all items as defined by the report query will appear on the report.
The bottom portion of the Report Column Designer window is a display. Once you choose which columns you want to include on the report template, they will appear in this display. At that point, you can resize and rearrange the columns any way you want using basic drag-and-drop Windows techniques.
Now you're at the point to select what columns you want to include on the report template. Here's how . . .
Click on the Column Select icon in the toolbar at the top of the Report Column Designer window. The Column Select window opens.
This is a straightforward window. Near the top are an assortment of tabs. Most of the tabs pertain to specific categories of information (for example, "Product," "Author," etc.). When you click on each tab, different column options will display in the lower portion of the window. It is now time to take note of this portion of the Column Select window.
On the left are the field choices available (listed under "Field Name"). You can select any of these fields to appear as columns on the report. To select a field, simply click on the Use Field checkbox to the left of it. That's all there is to it. Every field you check in this way will appear as a column on the report template you are designing. The columns of the report will, of course, dictate what you are reporting on, so this selection process is crucial to the design of the template. (The Header Name section of the window, to the right, lists how the fields will display as the column headers for the report. The names in the Header Name section should match the names in the Field Name section. The Comment Literal refers to the "Column Format" tab, which we will get to in a moment.)
Some of the fields are code-driven (such as Accounting Category and Department Category). You can choose to have the information being reported on for these fields to appear as a description or in code form. If you want it to appear in code form for a particular field, click on the Use Code checkbox for the field in question. Selected codes will appear in the rows for individual line items in a detailed report. The codes, therefore, DO NOT apply to columns, but to the rows of information.
For example, if you choose to display the Department Category code for items in your report, each item's Department Category code will appear after the item's name, or description. So, all Fiction books on the report would display the appropriate Department Category code following their description (probably something like F for "Fiction,"), all Gardening books would display the appropriate Department Category code following their description, and so on. The use of codes has positively no bearing on the columns you decide to use.
On the far right of the Column Select window is the Use Total field. This only applies to some of the fields listed in the window--numerical fields. There is a checkbox in the rows of all applicable fields, and the system default is for the boxes to be checked. If you leave these boxes checked, the report will calculate total quantities for these fields (if you select the fields to be included in the report using the Use Field section of the window). For example, if you left the Use Totals box checked for OnHand, then onhand total amounts will appear on the report. If you uncheck this box, then onhand totals will not appear on the report.
Please note two tabs near the top of the Column Select window: In Use and Column Format.
If you click on "In Use," only those options you have selected by checking the "Use Field" checkbox will display. This is a good way of seeing, all at once, the column options you have selected for the report.
The Column Format tab is where you can insert comments and line breaks. The headings--"Use Field," "Field Name," "Header Name/Comment Literal," "Use Code," "Use Total" are the same as they normally are. The "Field Name" here, though, is relatively unimportant. What you need to pay attention to is: Some field names are "Comment" fields (i.e., "Comment0," "Comment1," etc.), while others are "Line Break" fields (i.e., "Line Break/Wrap here0," "Line Break/Wrap here1" etc.). The "Use Code" and "Use Total" headings are meaningless in this context, and should be ignored.
For Line Breaks, if you want to insert one, simply check the "Use Field" checkbox to the left of a Line Break field. That's all there is to it. You can insert up to six line breaks. A line break will do just what it says. If you insert it after a column, back on the Report Column Designer screen, [i] Merchant will automatically insert a line break between that column and the next one. So, maybe you wish to break the line between "Department Category" and "Book Class." You would select a Line Break here. Then, in the Report Column Designer window, you would manually drag the Line Break field between the Department Category and Book Class fields. Repeat this process for each line break you select.
For "Comment" fields, select one by checking the check box to the left of a "Comment" field in the Column Select window. Then, under "Header Name/Comment Literal," key in the comment you want to appear on the report. For example, maybe before each line entry, you might key in: "PO Number." It can be anything. This is simply a convenience tool that you want to use for clarification on your printed report. Most likely it will define a line or field--clarifying the content of said line or field on your report. You can select up to six comments. Once you select a comment and key in what you want it to say, be sure to move it to the appropriate, desired position back in the Report Column Designer window.
Once you have established your settings in the Column Select window:
Click on the Apply button in the toolbar at the top left of the window. You are returned to the Report Column Designer window. The columns you selected in the Column Select window appear in the display at the bottom of the window. (If you had clicked on Cancel in the Column Select window, you would still have been returned to the Report Column Designer window, but nothing would have appeared in the display at the bottom of the window.) Rearrange (or resize) the columns using standard Windows practices, if desired.
Once you have rearranged/resized your columns, click on Apply in the toolbar at the top left of the window. (Click on Cancel if you want to back out without applying the changes you've made.) You are returned to the Designer window.
One more step remains in determining how the body of your report will look. You have chosen what you will actually be reporting for, but you must now decide how the report should be sorted. For example, let's say you will run the report against the items' Department Category, Accounting Category, onhand quantity, cost, and retail value. These fields will show up at the top of the columns in the report, and they will fill in with the appropriate data for the items on the Customer Order you are running the report against. But how should the rows, that is, the individual items on the Customer Order itself, be arranged or sorted?
To determine this:
From the Designer window, click on the Sorts and Groupings button under the Detail section. The Design Sorts and Groups window appears. If you are creating a new report, the section under "Groups" will be blank.
Click on the Add Group toolbar icon. A row fills in under the "Groups" heading. This is the primary sorting method you will use for this report template. In the field under "Groups", click on the down arrow at the right and select the sorting category you want from the pulldown menu. For example, if you want the items on the report to be sorted by Department Category (all Fiction books grouped together, all gardening books grouped together, all cookbooks grouped together, etc.), then select Department Category from the pulldown menu.
To the right of the category field (in this case, Department Category), you will see a few more fields: Header, Footer, Page Break, Sort Order, and Display Top. If you check the box under header, each grouping will be preceded by a header. For example, the Fiction books will have a header above them that says "Fiction"; the cookbooks will have a header directly above them ("Cookbooks"), etc. If you leave the Header box unchecked, no header will appear above the different groupings of items on the report.
Same thing with the Footer box. Check it if you want the category field (in this case, Department Category) to appear beneath the grouping. If left unchecked, no footer will display.
If you check the Page Break box, then the system will insert an automatic page break after each of the groupings. In the above example, a page break would be inserted after the Fiction books group, after the Cookbooks group, after the Gardening group, etc. If you leave the box unchecked, no page breaks will be inserted.
The Sort Order field determines if you will sort the groups in ascending or descending order. For alpha groups, ascending would be A to Z, descending Z to A; for numerical groups, ascending would place the lowest numerical value at the top of the grouping, descending would place the highest numerical value at the top of the grouping. Select either Ascending or Descending by clicking on the arrow at the right of the Sort Order field, then choosing the desired method from the pulldown menu that appears.
The optional Display Top field is only active if you checked the Header box, back to the left. If you did not, the Display Top field will be grayed out and unavailable. Essentially, this field determines how many lines to display for any grouping with a header. For example, if you wanted to see only the top ten values for a particular grouping, you would set the Display Top field to 10. (Use the up-arrow and down-arrow keys in the Display Top field to move either up or down in increments of one until you arrive at the desired value.) In other words, if the total number of items in a grouping would be, say, 76, and you choose 15 in the Display Top field, then only the top fifteen items in that grouping will display on the report.
To add another layer to the sorting process, click on the Add Group toolbar icon again. A new row will appear underneath the just-created row (Department Category in the example above). Repeat the process of selecting the sorting category, whether to include a header, footer, and page break, and how to sort the grouping.
This second group would be a group within a group, so to speak. If the first grouping is Department Category and the second grouping is, say, Publication Date, then the groupings will be sorted first by Department Category and then, within that, by Publication Date. So, for the Fiction books group, they will be further sorted by Publication Date. The Cookbooks will be further sorted by Publication Date. The Gardening books will be further sorted by Publication Date, and so on. This adds another layer, a sort within a sort, to the layout of the report.
You can add as many sorting layers as you want. If you want to group the items by Department Category, group the items within each Department Category grouping by Publication Date, group the Publication Date subgroup by Binding Code, etc., then go for it. The sort can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
Keep in mind that the system will sort from the first row down. That is, the first row beneath the "Groups" heading will be the primary sort for the report; the second row will be the secondary (grouped within the first grouping) sort; the third row, the tertiary sort, etc.
To delete a row underneath the "Groups" heading:
Highlight the row you want to delete. Select Edit-Delete from the menu at the top of the Design Sorts and Groups window. The row will be deleted.
Once you have finished creating the sorts as you want them:
Click on the Apply toolbar icon at the top left of the Design Sorts and Groups window. You are returned to the Designer window; your sorts have been applied. (If you had clicked on Cancel, you still would have been brought back to the Designer window, but the sorts would not have been applied to the report template.)
You have now finished designing the body of your template.
The last step to designing your report is to design the footers, both on the first page and then on subsequent pages. Please direct your attention to the Footer section of the Designer window.
The first two fields are checkbox fields: Print Grand Totals, and Print Notes (Print Notes only applies to the Customer Order Summary and to running a PO Report for just ONE PO, usually when accessed via the PO program itself). Print Grand Totals means just what it says. If you check the box to the left of this field, grand totals will print at the end of the report. If you check the box to the left of Print Notes, the Customer Order notes or PO notes (for the Customer Order or PO you are running the report for) that you created for the applicable Customer Order or PO will print at the end of the report. (If the Print Notes checkbox field is grayed out, it is not active and does not apply.) For more information on printable notes, please click here.
The Design Page Footer and Design Report Footer buttons operate identically to their counterparts dealing with the Header. Please follow the guidelines above for Header and apply the same principles to designing your footers. Again, the Report Footer refers to the footer only on the first page of the report. The Page Footer refers to the footer on all subsequent pages--so, you might want to put in a page number in your Page Footer.
Once you have finished setting up the template (Header, Detail, Footer), save your template:
Click on the Save toolbar icon at the top left of the Designer window. The parameters for the template have been saved, and you are returned to the Report Design and Submit window (or the Query window, if you accessed the report that way), where you can submit the report for processing.
To select an existing report template and then make changes to its design:
Select the desired template from the Select Report on File field in the Report Design and Submit window (or select the desired template using the "Select Report on File" field in the upper right corner of the Query window), then click on the Design toolbar icon, and use the same techniques we just covered to redesign the template.
Before discussing the report-submission process, let's return to the Designer window and look at the menu options.
To delete the report template from the system:
Select Edit-Delete from the Designer window. The report template is deleted, and you are returned to the Report Design and Submit window. If you were to look for the template you just deleted in the Select Report on File field, you won't find it. You have deleted it.
Back in the Designer window. If you want to rename the report template:
Select File-Rename Report from the menu. The Rename As window appears. Key in the new name and click on the Apply button. Simple as that.
If you want to create a new report template that is nearly identical to the one you have open in the Designer window:
In the existing template, change the few fields that need changing in the Header, Detail, and Footer section.
Once the change (or changes) is made, select File-Save As from the Designer window menu. The Save As box appears, and you can key in the name of the new report you are creating, then click on the Apply toolbar button. The new template is saved. This is a convenient process if you're creating a new report template that is almost identical to an existing template.
If you want to save the report to an .xml file:
Select File-Save to XML from the menu at the top of the Designer window. A dialogue box appears, asking if you want to use the current report name when saving to XML. If you select "No", a Change Name to window will appear, and you will need to key in the new name, then click on the Apply toolbar button. Then the Save As dialogue box appears, and you can save the report to a chosen directory on your PC. If you had selected "Yes" at the dialogue box, you would bypass the Change Name to window and proceed straight to the Save As dialogue box. (Clicking on "Cancel" would have backed you back out to the Designer window.)
To submit a report for processing:
Note:
If you accessed the report via the Query window, click here for submission instructions.
Select the desired template from the Select Report on File field in the Report Design and Submit window.
Click on the Submit toolbar icon at the top left of the window to run the report against the Customer Order you have selected (or the Return you selected, or the list of products you selected for an Inventory Report).
This calls up the Report Viewer window, where you select which printer you want to print to, how many copies you want printed, and whether you want the report to be printed in Portrait or Landscape (select Portrait or Landscape in the "Orientation" field).
Prior to printing, if you want to preview what the report will look like, click on the Preview button at the top left of the window. When the preview displays on your screen, scroll through and see what you think. If you don't like it, you can go back in the Designer window, make the desired changes, then resubmit.
Note:
Within the Preview window for the Inventory (Product) Report and the Product Sales Report, there is a toolbar button that allows you to create a Product List from the records that will display on the report. If you want to create a Product List, click on this button, and the Create New Product List window will appear. If you do not wish to create a Product List, just ignore this button.
When you are ready to print, simply click on the Print toolbar button. The report will print.
Note:
You do not need to print the entire report if you don't want to. In the Report Viewer window, under the "Print Range" section, you can set a page range to print or key in a page or pages to print. If you want to print the entire report, just leave the "All" choice selected.
If you want to save the report as a .csv file (Excel), click on the CSV toolbar button, and save the contents of the report to a desired directory on your PC.