What are report layouts?

Layouts are different "views" on your data within the same report. Reports can contain multiple layouts.

Some common examples of layouts are:

• Sales by customer
• Sales by product group
• Sales by country
• Sales by month

You can also watch the instruction videos.

Layout types

You can choose from over 30 different layout types. They fall into these categories:

Standard report

A combination of Excel pivot tables and subtotals, these reports show automatic row and column grouping, and subtotals.

Drilldown report

Similar to Excel pivot tables, these reports show aggregated two-dimensional information which you can drill into.

Pivot chart

Similar to Excel pivot charts, the charts include all common types, such as line, bar, column, pie, donut, area, radar.

Sparklines

Sparklines show the development of a given item over a period of time, which is useful to understand trends at a high level.

Organogram

These reports show data in a hierarchical structure. For example, revenue by region or business unit can be represented this way.

Gauge

Gauges show a single metric, ideally suited for KPI purposes.

Bullet chart

Bullet charts show a thermometer-like visual, enabling you to compare three different metrics, ideally suited for KPI purposes.

Scorecard

These reports show numeric scorecards, enabling you to compare two different metrics, ideally suited for KPI purposes.

Create a layout

Click on Define - Add layout. For each layout, you can enter a name and select its report type:

The report types that you can choose from are:

• Report: standard, drilldown, sparklines, treemap, organogram
• Chart: line, bar, column, pie, donut, area, radar
• KPI: gauges, bullet chart, scorecards

You can choose from over 30 different layout types.

You can edit a report layout by simply dragging fields into the various areas:

This window enables you to change the report options and the fields position:

Report options

These are settings that determine the overall appearance of the report layout:

• Report type - you can choose from over 30 different layout types
• Column totals - sum, average, variance, or none
• Report totals - sum, average, variance, or none
• Color scales - (only for KPI types: define the color scales)
• Sort by - sort either on the descriptions in the row fields (if you select multiple Row fields, these will all be included in the sort operation), or on the values in the report
• Footer text - you can optionally provide a text for the report totals. For example, instead of the default "Totals" you might want to call it "Net result"

Fields position

You can manually drag-and-drop any of the available fields into any of the report areas, and if you no longer want a field in your report, you can simply drag it out again.

• Fields - this shows all fields that are available within this report.
• Filters - drag fields here that you want to use as dynamic filters. They will be shown above the report with automatic lists of values. Whenever you select a different filter value, the report will be immediately updated to reflect this. There are several types of filters, which you can choose from by clicking on the field name:
  • date - this will present a date picker.
  • select - this will present a list of values, and allow the user to select one.
  • multi-select - this will present a list of values, and allow the user to select one or multiple choices.
  • text - this will allow the user to enter any partial text.
• Rows - drag fields here that you want to lay out into rows. This is the main dimension of your report. You can create a grouping in your report by dragging multiple fields here, and move them into the desired order. For the standard report type, you can also indicate where you want the report to show subtotals.
• Columns - drag fields here that you want to lay out into columns. Usually, these are fields that contain a period, date, or time. By including one or more fields into columns, you can create two-dimensional reports.
• Values - drag fields here that you want to summarize on. Usually, these are number or amount fields. Once you have dragged a field here, you can click on it to select the color and the type of operation.
  
  You can choose from these operations:
  • Sum - the sum of all values (non-numeric values are ignored).
  • Average - the average of all values (non-numeric values are ignored).
  • Count - the number of values that are not blank (values can be numeric or text).
  • % of total - the % that each value makes up of the report total (non-numeric values are ignored). The report total is always 100%.
  • Minimum - the smallest value (values can be numeric or text).
  • Maximum - the largest value (values can be numeric or text).
  All operations are automatically calculated for all subtotal levels in the report.

Scaling of KPI's

KPI report types (gauges, bullet charts, and scorecards) behave in a slightly different manner from the other report types.

A separate KPI will be shown for each value in the Group by section of the report layout. For example, if you set the "Company" field as Group by, a separate KPI will be shown for each individual company. Furthermore, KPI's do not show absolute values, but instead they show a relative scale from 0 to max 200 with colored bands.

These relative scales are necessary in order to compare different measurements against each other. The absolute values from the underlying report data are shown on a relative scale as follows:

• If you define 2 fields in the Values section of the report layout, the 1st value will be divided by the 2nd value for each data in the Group by field. For example, show actual sales as a percentage of budget sales for each company.
• If you define only 1 field in the Values section of the report layout, each value will be divided by the highest value across all data in the Group by field. This enables you to compare the same value between the various data in the Group by field. For example, compare sales by company.

The KPI's show colored bands across their scales. You can set the value treshold for every next color in the field Color scales. You can define 3 values, in a range between 0 and max 200 (the relative scale, as explained above), separate by a comma:

• An increasing range means "the higher the value, the better". For example "80, 90, 100": below 80 will be red, between 80 and 90 will be orange, between 90 and 100 will be green, and above 100 will be blue.
• A decreasing range means "the lower the value, the better". For example "100, 90, 80": above 100 will be red, between 100 and 90 will be orange, between 90 and 80 will be green, and below 80 will be blue.