In this chapter and video we begin to take a look at how to get meaningful data back out of the system using reports, and saved searches. We cover the difference between financial and non-financial reports, and saved searches, as well as when you would want to use each of these. We also cover some differences when creating each of these.

In this lesson we cover building a non-financial report from scratch. We create an Item / Sales Order report, and talk about the different report formats that can be used such as summary, detail and matrix. We cover searching for finding and displaying fields as either columns or rows. We cover filtering the report based on specific criteria, and how to use and iterative build process and run the report intermittently while building it. We cover adding sorting criteria so that the report data is listed in a way that makes sense. We cover setting a default expansion level for a report, and controlling access to the report through the audience and access subtabs. We cover changing the display at runtime, using filters, date selections, and other display options. Finally, we cover exporting the report, creating a snapshot of the report, emailing or printing the report and scheduling the report to run at a later time.

In this lesson we cover creating financial reports, or statements. We create a standard balance sheet, and cover changing the layout of the report, within the constraints provided, to make sure the data is presented in a meaningful way. We cover how summary rows look and whether they show as expanded or not, and the actual colors, fonts and other display characteristics of the report. We also take a look at some of the column editing differences between financial and non-financial reports, and look at the alternate period range that is used to do period over period, think month, quarter and year, comparisons. Finally we cover some extra options that are available when building and when running the financial report.

In this video we take a look at saved searches, and how they differ from reports. We look at the different types of searches that can be created, and go through the entire process of creating a transaction search for sales orders. We cover using an iterative approach to creating searches and reports, and why this is important. We cover adding fields to search results, and setting the fields the search will sort by. We cover how to use the search that we created as a list view or in a dashboard, or how to set it as the default search for specific users or roles. We cover filtering by criteria at build time, as well as adding filters for run time filtering, and use examples of filtering by type, transaction mainline, and date. We cover creating highlighting and formatting rules to help key data stand out. We cover controlling access to the search through audience, permission and search owner settings, and viewing the audit trail to see if the search has been changed, and the execution log to see when a search has been run. Finally we talk about search translation, inline editing results while running a search, and exporting the results to Excel, CSV, PDF or via email.

In this lesson we cover automating reports and saved searches, and having their results sent to users automatically. We cover sending new search results when the results of a saved search change, and sending a saved search on a scheduled basis. We cover recurring scheduling options, and how to set them up. We look at setting specific recipients to receive the notifications, and having the recipients selected from the search results. We cover allowing users to subscribe to specific searches. We cover using updated fields to trigger the search results to be sent out, and we cover how to customize the message that is sent along with automatic search results and the format of those results. We cover scheduling reports and their recurrence, customizing the report message, and changing those schedules at a later time if necessary.