When going into the report writer, ask the following questions before creating the report:
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What is the purpose of the report and/or for whom is the report being created?
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What criteria should be displayed in the report?
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How should the data be displayed?
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What do I want as Headers if any?
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What do I want in the body of the report?
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Do I want Footers if any?
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Do I want Subtotals?
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How do I want the report to be sorted?
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How often will I be using the report?
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Is this a report that I will use repeatedly, if so, what would I like to be prompted on at run time?
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What type of report do I want: PDF, CSV?
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Do I want to e-mail, save or print the report?
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Do I want it portrait or landscape?
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What size do I want the font?
The following template can be used when answering some of the questions above:
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Question |
Answer |
|---|---|
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Report Title (What should the report be called?) |
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Headers (If I am sorting for example by location do I want each location name centered and bolded at the start of that location?) |
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Body of the Report (What do I want printed on the report?) |
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Sort By (How do I want the data sorted?) |
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Footers/Subtotals/Totals |
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Type of Report: |
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When re-running the report, what selection criteria do I want to be prompted for: |
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When going into any of the Report Writers, the reports that are displayed are visible to all and accessible to all; as the list of reports grow, it could become frustrating searching for reports.
The best way to group reports together and to make then easily identifiable is to put something at the beginning of the report title. It could be the user's initials, it could be the type of report for example Absence, or the different payroll reports could be identified by payroll: TEA-, SUP-, CAS- etc.