Designing Your First Report

This tutorial will take you step-by-step through creating a spreadsheet report using the Wink Reports designer tool.

It assumes you have already logged in, created an organisation, and activated at least one connector.

By the end of this tutorial,you will understand data sources, filters, grouping/sorting, and adding/removing columns.

Step 1 - Create a New Report

When viewing the report list, click + New Report.

Enter a title. Don't worry - you'll be able to change this later. I called mine "Report Tutorial". I also picked ServiceM8 Jobs as the data source, because I want each row in the report to be for a job. This can be changed later too.

Your list of available data sources will depend on which connectors have been setup.

Step 2 - Designer Introduction

Next you'll see the report designer.

Buttons at the top-right allow you to save changes. The grey menu bar contains all of the report settings, and a large live preview is shown beneath.

The first few columns from the data source have been added to the report automatically, so you should see a fully functioning report right away!

Step 3 - Layout

Next I'm going to choose which columns to show in the report. The list of columns available will depend on which data source I selected earlier.

Under the "Layout" menu, use "Add Columns" to choose columns one by one. You can type to search for column names, and click to add to the report. I'm going to start by adding Category and Date Completed.

As I add columns, they will start to appear below.

I can remove the columns I don't need (e.g. Date Opened) using the trash can icon:

I have changed my mind and decided that Job # should come first, so I simply drag it into the right position.

I also think that "Job Status" would be a clearer name for the Status column. Click the cog icon on the Status column to show the quick options, then change the title:

Step 4 - Filters

Report filters allow you select which information will be included in the report every time that you run it. For this report, I'm going to make the Job Completed Date and Category available as filters.

Use the "Filters" menu item to choose filtering options.

I'm going to skip over the other filter options for now, I'll come back to them if I need to change something.

Step 5 - Save and Run

Once happy with the design, find the Save and Run button at the top of the screen to execute the report.

You can see below that my Job Completed Date and Category filters are available. The columns I selected are all there, and the Job Status column has my modified name.

Step 6 - Grouping and Sorting

Now that I've seen the first draft, I think it could do with some improvements!

Return to the designer by using the  Design Report button. You should see the same screen as when you first designed the report.

I would like to see the report grouped by job status so I can see how many were Completed vs Unsuccessful, and the total invoice value for each.

To get started, I'm going to use the "Sorting and Grouping" menu item of the report designer.

For what I want to see, I'm going to add Job Status as a grouping column, and then sort by Job #. Add columns by choose one from the adjacent dropdown menus. You can also remove selected columns by clicking the column's minus sign.

If I was doing multi-level grouping, I would use the Grouping Display option to choose where the grouping appears.

Step 7 - Grouping Totals

Now that I have chosen some grouping, I need to tell the designer which columns should include totals and counts.

My report heading has changed to look like this:

I would like the space in Date Completed to show a count, and Invoice Amount to show a total.

To get started select the "Columns" menu item, and make sure Date Completed is selected.

Then I'll set the Total Row option to Count:

I'll do similar for Invoice Amount and choose Sum, then Save and Run. Here's how my total row for "Completed" looks afterwards:

Step 8 - Publish

The Report menu lets you change the title, and set an optional description to remind you what the report is about.

The Draft option lets you keep the report hidden from other users until you've finished working on it. When you are ready to share it, simply turn off the Draft option.

Next Steps

That's it! You've created a simple custom report using the report designer.

Once you've got the hang of it, you might like to explore these topics:

• Creating dashlets
• Formatting cells
• Conditional Formating
• Column Value Formulas
• Row Filter Formulas
• Aggregation