Create a Custom Report

Learn how to create a custom report or a periodic report

Updated on July 5th, 2024

AroFlo's standard reports can easily be customised to include a variety of fields, filters and options.

 

Create or edit categories (optional)

Reports can easily be organised into categories by first creating the categories you need and then selecting the appropriate category when saving your custom report. This is useful if you're planning on creating several custom reports.

Do I have to create categories?

No. If you don't create categories, your custom reports will be stored under the Standard Reports category (folder), visible underneath the Custom Reports header. You can choose to create categories at a later stage and drag reports into categories (folders) using the (two lines) next to the name of the report.

 
  • Create a category - Click Add Category, enter a category name and click Done.
  • Create a sub category - Hover over a category, click (green plus icon), enter the sub-category name and click Done.
  • Edit a category name - Hover over a category, click (edit icon), edit as required and click Done.
  • Delete a category - Hover over a category, click (X icon) and click OK.

You can only delete a category once you have removed all reports from it, either by moving them to another category or by deleting them.

 

 

Customise a report

When you open a standard report, access the Customise menu at the top right.

The Customise menu provides four tabs:

Filters

Filters allow you to display only the information you need. Each report has its own set of filters based on the fields available.

You can only filter on information that appears in the report. If the field doesn't exist in the report, then you can't filter on that field.

 

See Apply filters, below.

 
 
 

Fields

The Fields tab is broken into three sections:

 
 

Advanced

There are a range of advanced options available for report display and printing:

  • Show Column Totals - adds totals (for numeric or currency fields only) to the end of a group, and/or end of the report.
  • Show Overall Total - adds an overall total (for numeric or currency fields only) to the end of the report.
  • Show Overall Line Count Total - adds a total line count of all items at the bottom of the reports.
  • Show Grouping Line Count - adds a line count of items within a group, and/or the entire report. This setting also enables view as a chart the top of the report.
  • Show Groups Collapsed - collapses grouped data within a report. Column Totals, Overall Total and Grouping Line Count are displayed outside of the collapsed group to provide a quick overview. You can view individual items within a group simply by clicking the + icon.
  • Print Head Groups On Separate Pages - prints group headings on separate pages (Internet Explorer and Firefox only).

The Show Groups Collapsed option is especially useful when grouping by an extended date field (e.g. Date Week Year, Date Month Year, Year Quarter), as it allows you to see total values for a specified period at a glance.


For a graphical representation of the grouped data, use the chart options at the top of the report.

 
 
 
 

Save

Once you've created a report, you can save it as a custom report for future use:

  • Save - used for saving your existing custom report. This option will not be available if you have customised one of the standard reports.
  • Save As ... - used for saving a copy of your current report under a different name. This option is available if you have modified one of the standard reports.
 
 

  • When using the Customise menu, remember to click Refresh Report (at the bottom of the Customise menu) to update your customised report with the changes you have made.
  • If your report has too much information or if you've forgotten to include some fields, click Cancel while the report is generating, and then make your refinements before refreshing again.

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Sort Custom Reports

You can sort your custom reports list by creation date, the date the report was last run, and by who it was last run by. Just click the arrow beside Date CreatedLast Run, or Last Run By.

  • You can also manually sort the default order of your custom reports by dragging the (two lines button)
  • The Last Run and Last Run By includes when the report was last opened but also when it was last exported (e.g. to Microsoft Word).
 

 

Apply filters

You can only filter on information that appears in the report. If the field doesn't exist in the report, then you are unable to set a filter on that field.

From/To date filters provide advanced options which can be accessed by clicking (arrow icon).

  • Print - Check this box to include the date range filter within the report heading.
  • Outside Range - Check this box to filter the report excluding the range entered.

All selection lists provide a Select All option but only some have an option to select None. If this option is available, it will be the first option in the list.

  • Use the search box at the top to quickly find the field you wish to filter.
  • To remove all filters, click the Remove All Filters button located at the bottom right of the Customise menu.
 

Custom Fields

Client and asset reports include the option to filter by custom fields. Custom fields using the ‘Checkbox’, ‘Radio’ or ‘Select’ field types appear at the bottom of the Filters tab. Custom Field filters will also be rolled out to other report areas.

 
 

 

Add or remove fields

The Selected Columns and Column Order section lets you select the fields you want to include in your report and their display order.

  • To add a field, use the Available Columns search box to find the fields you need, check the box for that field, then click Refresh Report.

    Line items vs Totals

    For areas of AroFlo that feature both line items and totals (e.g. quotes, invoices, tasks), you have the option of reporting on one or the other.
    - Select MatLab or Exp for line items   
    - Select MaterialLabour or Expenses for totals.
     
     
  • To remove a field, highlight the field in the left hand side by placing your cursor over the field name, click the X icon, then click Refresh Report.
  • To move a field up or down in the list of displayed fields, click and drag the field to your desired position, then Refresh Report.

Looking for custom fields?

If you've added custom fields, you can include these in your reports by typing 'cf' in the Available Columns field. If you want to further narrow down your search, type in the start of the name of the section the custom field belongs to after 'cf', for example, 'cfloc' for a location custom field.

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Occasionally when moving fields in the display order, the field can become stuck to the mouse pointer. If this happens, move the field to your desired position and click the left mouse button again. The field will now release from the mouse.

 
 

 

Change the sort order of fields

The Sort Order section allows you to set how your data will be sorted in your report.

  • To add, remove or move a field, refer to the instructions above.
  • To change the sort order of a field from ascending to descending or vice versa, click or (up or down arrow icons).

 

Add field groups

The Group By section allows you to set how your data will be grouped in your report. To add, remove or move a field, refer to the instructions above.

 

Fields of note

There are some fields for which it's not quite apparent what data they will retrieve and how you might best use them. Below is a list of these fields; we'll update this list as we add new fields to the reporting area.

Report Area
Field
Description
TASK KPI_TODAY_VS_REQUIRED KPI field: Numeric value to show how many days left to meet Due Date
TASK KPI_TODAY_VS_REQUIRED_EX_WEEKENDS KPI field: Numeric value to show how many days left to meet Due Date, excluding weekends
TASK TASK_INVOICES_TOTAL_EX Calculated field for the total of all invoices raised against the task

 

Save your report

Once you've created the custom report you need, instead of having to recreate it each time, you can save it for future use.

  1. In the Customise menu within your report, click the Save tab.
  2. Enter a Report Name.
  3. Enter a Report Description (optional).
  4. Select a Category (optional), i.e. display the category list for the selected report area. See Create or edit categories (optional)
  5. Click Save As > OK.
  • If you have given a client login access to your AroFlo site, you can make specific reports available by clicking the 'Available to Clients' checkbox before you save the report
  • The Type field defaults to the type of report you're in, e.g. quotes, tasks, compliance. Changing this is useful if you're creating a report which relates to a different area. For example, if you're creating a task report showing tasks containing purchase orders, you might want to house that under purchase order reports. This will save you having to switch back and forth to both report areas when viewing reports.
 
 

 

Report Restrictions

You can also create report restrictions from here so that only certain users will be able to view them. For more information, please see Report Restrictions.

 

Save as Periodic Report

You can also schedule reports to be emailed at a day and time of your choosing:

Scenarios

You might want a report of tasks created for the last week, scheduled for the past day, or completed in the last month.

 
  1. Scroll down on the Save tab and click Set as Periodic to access the applicable options.
  2. Fill out the fields as per below.
  3. Save your report.

This will only work if already dealing with a custom report. If wanting to do this for a standard report, you'll first need to Save As... to save your report as a custom report.

 

Once you've saved your report, you'll see when the report is next scheduled to run, depending on the options you've chosen. In addition, the reports list will also tell you the report is periodic and tell you the frequency (see above image).

 
Field Description
When Choose between Daily, Weekly, and Monthly, and for Weekly and Monthly, which day you want the report to be sent.
At Choose a time for the report to be emailed.
Send to

Either choose a user to be emailed this report, or select Custom to input an email address.

Click Add To for multiple recipients, or to delete recipients.

 
Format The format of your report. Choose from PDF, HTML, JSON, or CSV.
Business Unit If using multiple business units, select the business unit this report is being sent from.
History

Shows a history of when this report was sent for the last 5 entries.

View Email

You can even view a copy of the email that was sent for successful entries.