Helpful Tips
May 2002
Creating Customized Reports
Timesheet comes with a built in reporting engine that allows Users to create custom reports or modify existing ones as needed. The majority of the report making magic occurs in the report modification screen. To get to this screen, either enter a new report name and click Create, or select an existing report and press modify.
The first portion of the report modification screen allows the User to anchor the report to certain dates. Simply select an anchor start date and anchor period from the drop down boxes, and the report will display information only for that time period. For example, if you select January 1 and one month, the report will show records for the month of January only. If the report has no anchor, the User will be prompted to enter a start and finish date each time the report is run. The portion of the modification screen below the date anchor section is a set of filters. This section allows the User to filter the records by various attributes. For example, a User can select Only Selected Users under Choose Mechanism and then highlight the name Joe User. The report will then show only the records for Joe. Users can only filter by attributes that are in their group unless they have Admin or Reporter privileges. The report can also be modified to show only committed or uncommitted records by selecting the corresponding button.
Below the filters is a drop down box that allows the User to decide whether the report will be modifiable if it is copied to other Users.
The next section down allows the User to customize the report header and footer. This section uses HTML tags to add text to the header or footer. Text should be surrounded by <center></center> in order to be centered in the header, <strong> </strong> in order to appear as strong text, <h1> </h1> to appear as a large heading, etc. For example, <strong><center>Joe's Report</center></strong> would produce a centered, strong Joe's Report in the report header. Additionally, tricky tags may be added that display attributes as seen in the Time Entry Screen Management HTML Options section.
The next section down is specific to the type of report being created/modified. For a Time Report or Expense Report, there is a series of drop down boxes and radio buttons. The first box allows the User to set a Subtotal period by dropping down and selecting a number of days, weeks, months or years. The next box allows the User to select an attribute by which the report will Subtotal. The next box allows the User to limit the records to meet certain Subtotal criteria. The first button lets the User decide whether or not a grand total will be displayed. The next button chooses whether or not to display days or Subtotals with zero as the number of hours. The last button sets the report to either display all the details or hide them all and only show Subtotals.
For a Matrix Time Report or a Matrix Expense Report, there are two buttons and two drop down boxes. The first button sets the report to either show percentages on the far right column and the bottom row or hide them. The second button sets the report to either show column and row Subtotals or hide them. The drop down boxes allow the User to select which attributes will be the row and column headings.
For a Project Status Report, there is a drop down box that allows the User to roll up Project actuals as described above.
Matrix Time Reports and Matrix Expense Reports, have no further sections. For Time Reports, Expense Reports, and Project Status Reports, there is a last section that allows the User to hide certain fields on the report by selecting the appropriate button.
Users can see only their own time. They can only filter on Projects in their reports. Reporters and Administrators can see anyone's time. They can filter on Codes, Projects, Users, and state of Approval.
Managers can only see the time of members of their groups. They can filter on Codes, Projects and Users in their groups. A result of these rules is that a Reporter can generate an item report that for him/her shows the data for all Users. When s/he distributes this report to all of his Users, the report will only show the User his/her own time data. The Copy button on the Report Menu screen allows report distribution to other Users.
