Finding the Right Report

How to find the report you need.

How do I start?

You must first determine what you want contained in your report.  If you can put into words what the desired output will be, you are half way there.

For instance, “I want to generate letters for all individuals who currently have a credit balance, informing them of the dollar amount of that balance and proposing that they use it for an upcoming class.”

Where do I go?

Once you’ve decided what information you want on your report, you must determine which report to use.  Begin by determining what reporting area accesses that information.   For instance, to get information on registrants, you would choose the Registration reporting area, not the Faculty reporting area.

Default vs Additional reports?

Every report area provides one Default report that displays the most common elements for the particular report area.  For example, the default Name Roster report may list registrant data in a columnar format.

Most report areas also provide Additional reports. These are report templates that display the same data in a different format. Or they are report templates designed for specific purposes.

For example, this is a Name Roster that sorts registrants by Firm assigned.

Report vs Query?

• Query - a query is a request for information. You request specific information from the data tables to be displayed on the report. E.g. return all people which took courses starting between 2 dates.

• Report - a report is a template which displays the information you've requested in a certain manner.  For instance, a mailing label template displays information from the Name record in a block form for printing mailing labels.