NOTE: You must have a Professional Edition of the software to have the ability to change the layout/design of an existing report or create your own reports.
Very often to create your own version of one of the reports provided, you will select the report and click the Copy button at the bottom of the Reports screen, then type in the new name for your report and hit [Enter] on your keyboard. Then you will be able to click the Layout/Design button at the bottom to access the ReportBuilder program to make whatever changes to the report design.
Also, remember that the criteria you setup is also saved with each report. So it may be easier for you to have the same report layout that is copied different times with different criteria, so you don't have to change the criteria each time you run the report.
For example, let's say you wanted an invoice list report for last month, and you also wanted one for last week only. Instead of running the Invoice List report and changing the criteria, you could copy the report, naming one copy “Last Month Invoices” and making the criteria for that report be "Order Status is Exactly Done AND Date For Reports was in last month", and another copy of the report named “Last Week Invoices” where the criteria is "Order Status is Exactly Done AND Date For Reports was in last week". You can use this same idea on many of the reports.
Remember that by making a copy of a report, and then playing with its design, you do not risk damaging other versions of that report, so feel free to experiment.
To add your company's header information to a report, right-click on the report in the list there and choose the Reset Report Header Information option. You can then check the options that you want to appear in the report header. To further customize how the information looks on the report, you will have to customize the report in the ReportBuilder program.
To create a brand new report NOT based on one we have already created, the new report wizard will take you through choosing the type of data you want on the report and then choosing the fields you want to display on the report and the order in which you want the data to be shown (sorting). Use the New Report Wizard by following these steps:
1. Click on the New Report button at the bottom left corner of the Reports screen.
2. Choose the dataset on which you want to base the report, and click Next. The most common choice is either Contact List or Order List. Look in the Help file index in the software for "datasets" for a more detailed list of what those datasets contain.
3. On the Choose the fields you want displayed and the order to display them on the report and click Next. Choose the fields by double-clicking from the choices of fields in the list on the left and they will move to the list on the right. You can click and drag the fields in the list on the right to put them in whatever order, then click Next.
4. The next screen allows you to choose to Group By any of the fields you have chosen to display. This means that on the report, there will be a Group Header and a Group Footer section where you can display totals for whatever you group by (e.g. if you want to group sales by Site Zip, then you could choose that field and later in the report design, you can add DBCalc controls in the Site Zip footer section to give you totals for the sales in each zip)
5. The next screen allows you to sort the results by one or more of your chosen fields. It works just like the screen where you chose the fields. Remember that by checking the field in the box on the right, you are making it sort in descending instead of ascending order (i.e. for date fields the more recent ones are first, for numbers, the larger ones are first).
6. The next screen allows you to choose the layout and orientation for the report. Select whichever one appeals to you. If you have a lot of fields to display, it may be best to choose Landscape so you will have more width on the page to work with. You can also check the box to adjust fields widths so they all fit on one page, and you usually do want to check this box.
7. The next screen allows you to choose from different styles. Select whichever one appeals to you and click Next.
8. The next screen is where you enter the name for the report. Be sure you enter a name that is unique (different from any other report name) and that you can easily recognize.
9. Once you enter a report name, be sure Modify the Report's Design is selected and click Finish to be taken to the ReportBuilder screen.
10. Here you will see the different sections of the report and you can move things around, change field box widths, change fonts, and add in the DBCalc controls to the footer section (and possibly group footer sections) to give you the totals you want to see.
11. Once you think you have the report designed basically how you want it, click the X at the upper right corner and say "Yes" you want to save your changes.
IMPORTANT: Never save your report in the ReportBuilder screen by choosing File Save or Save As in that screen. Always just click the X in the upper right corner, and then answer Yes to save your changes. You risk overwriting data and messing up one of the existing reports if you do not save your reports this way.
Making Report Criteria You Have Set Show on the Report
You can now add the criteria to the header of the report by simply right-clicking on the report in the list, choosing the Reset Report Header Information option, and then checking the Criteria box and clicking OK.
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