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Anatomy of a Report

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Anatomy of a Report: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/978715

New to reporting? You've come to the right place!  PatronManager has robust reporting capabilities - with so many possibilities, it can be a bit of a puzzle to understand what everything means without a bit of guidance. 

In this article, we'll explore the structure of a report. We'll answer the following questions:

Reporting is pretty complex!  It can take some time to understand it fully, but the knowledge is invaluable - let's jump in!

This article covers reports from the Reports tab.  If you're looking for information on other packaged PatronManager reports, check out CRM Snapshots and Financial Reports.

How do I navigate the Reports tab?

First, let's learn about some key parts of the Reports tab:

  1. Navigation Sidebar: Contains report categories, folders, and your favorite reports
  2. Main Paine: Shows the reports in the category/folder you select in the navigation sidebar
  3. New Report button: Click this button to create a new report from scratch
  4. New Report Folder: Create a new report folder to place your reports in a custom category - you'll be able to navigate to it in the navigation sidebar
  5. Gear: Click this to set fields to display and adjust column widths in the main paine
  6. Global Search Bar: Quickly search for a specific report name from anywhere in PatronManager

Remember: when you create or modify reports (or even when you just ask us for help!), always keep those two questions in mind:

What do you want to know?

What are you going to use it for?

What can I see and do on a report?

Next, let's break down what you can see and do when you open a specific report; we'll use the All Donations by Fund pre-loaded report as our example.

Main report page
  1. Report type: The report type displays at the top of the report above the report name
  2. Groupings: Summarize your report by certain fields. In the above example, Donation records are grouped by the Fund field
  3. Fields: Add, remove, and organize field columns to control what information about these records appears on your report
  4. Filters: Include or exclude records based on the filter criteria you set
Buttons and toggles on the report page
  1. Magnifying Glass: Search for data in the report, like a Contact name or a dollar amount
  2. Add a Chart: Visualize your data with a nifty chart!
  3. Refresh: Click this button to refresh your report and see the most up-to-date data
  4. Edit: Brings you to the report editing interface, Report Builder; we'll explore this in just a moment
  5. Bottom Toggle Panel:
    • Toggle Details Rows on and off to see each record in your report
    • Subtotals show a sum for each grouping
    • The Grand Total displays a sum for the whole report
    • Use Row Counts to answer questions like "How many Contacts are on this mailing list?"

Here are the available options when you expand the Edit arrow:

  1. Edit (Salesforce Classic): Takes you back to Classic to edit the report - we don't recommend it because Lightning reports are way cooler
  2. Save As: Saves your changes as a different report so you don't override the original report
    • Always use Save As when working from a report template like "Donations by Fund", "Accounts and Contacts", etc
  3. Save: Saves a new version of the report  
    • Only use Save if you're building a report from scratch or want to save over an existing report
  4. Subscribe: Use this to schedule the report to be emailed to you and/or your colleagues on a regular basis
  5. Export: Choose this to export your report to an excel spreadsheet
  6. Delete: You won't often need to delete a report; It's not necessary since you can create new reports and update old ones
  7. Add to Dashboard: Once your report is nice and pretty, add it to a Dashboard to see a graphic representation of your results

What kind of edits can I make in the Report Builder?

When you click "Edit", you'll arrive at the Report Builder, which is the report editing interface. Let's explore all the elements Report Builder has to offer.

Filters, Groupings and Fields
  1. Filters: Control what records show up in your report
  2. Groupings: How you summarize those records
  3. Field Columns: The columns of information in your report

Want to learn how to use Filters, Groupings and Fields in a report?  Our Basic Reporting Customizations article will show you the way!

What do all these buttons do?
  1. Add Chart: If your report has groupings, add a Chart to see the results of your report visually
  2. Save or Save & Run: Save any changes you've made on the report builder.  
    • Always be sure to use Save As first so you don't save over an important report template
  3. The drop-down arrow: Go here to utilize the Save As function when starting from report templates like "Contacts and Accounts" or "All Donations"
  4. Run: Run your report to see your results!

What report formats are available?

Reports in PatronManager can have four formats: Tabular, Summary, Matrix, and Joined. The vast majority of PatronManager reports are either Tabular or Summary, but we'll briefly explain all four here.

Tabular Report

Tabular reports are the most straightforward reports in PatronManager. They're the best choice when you create email lists, or when you need a detailed sense of what's happening on a per-patron basis.

  1. Tabular reports display one row per record with columns for all available data; all data is visible at all times
  2. To modify a Tabular report, you can
Summary Report

In Summary reports, the records are grouped according to the data in up to three field columns. They are especially good for answering questions like "how many patrons do we have from each city?"

  1. Group your data by any available field in the report
  2. To modify a Summary report:
    • Add filters to restrict what records are included
    • Change the columns to determine what information is displayed
    • Add or remove groupings
    • Show or hide the details within those groupings
Matrix Format

Matrix reports show the relationship between two fields in a table format. You will almost never make matrix reports of Contacts - they are much more likely to be Ticket Order or Donation reports.

  1. Matrix reports contain one field grouping along the rows and a different field grouping along the columns.
  2. To modify a Matrix report:
    1. Add filters to restrict what records are included
    2. Change the columns to determine what information is displayed
    3. Add or remove groupings on the row or the column
    4. Show or hide the details within those groupings
Joined Format

Though rarely used and a little tricky to set up, joined reports make comparisons between two or more reports.

  1. Joined reports display reporting blocks side-by-side, with different columns and filters for each block
  2. To modify a Joined report
    • Add filters to restrict what records are included in each block
    • Add or remove reporting blocks
    • Change the columns to determine what information is displayed in each block
    • Add or remove groupings across both blocks
    • Show or hide the details within those groupings
Previous Article All About Reporting
Next Article Library of Useful Pre-Loaded Reports

Reporting & Dashboards

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General Reporting 17
CRM Snapshots: Complicated Reporting Made Easy 5
Financial Reporting 18
Dashboards 6
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