What are reports?

Reports are configurable objects that define how information from your data sets will be combined and presented into reports and charts. You can give each report a name, define the source data, report fields, conversions, filters, create multiple layouts, and set user permissions. You can choose from over 30 different layout types.

Once created, you can run reports as often as you want. They will always show the latest data.

When you sign up, your account already has a number of predefined reports, aimed at financial reporting. They contain example data of a fictitious company. You don't have to start from scratch, you have working examples which you can start with, and you can add or change reports at any point in time.

Some common examples of reports are:

• Profit & Loss report
• Balance sheet
• Cashflow projection
• Sales report by customer

You can also watch the instruction videos.

Create a report

You can create a report in two ways:

• Click on Define - New in the sidebar menu.
• Click on the Actions - Create new button of an existing report. This also enables you to make a copy of an existing report.

Either way, the rest of the process is the same, and you can enter a name for your new report, set user permissions for it, and define its fields and layouts. At every change, the preview of the report will be automatically updated:

You can also watch the instruction video.

Settings

You can define the settings for the report via these fields:

• Name - enter a name. This must be unique within all your reports.
• Description - enter an (optional) description to explain the use of this report to users. The text can contain basic html tags to format your text (e.g. <br> for a next line, <b> for bold text). The text can also contain functions to include dynamic information or images in the text.
• Active/locked - activate or lock a reports. When locked, the report can not be run.
• Source data - select the source data set. This is the primary data set for your report, all linked data sets will automatically be included as well.
• Group - select how this report is to be shown in the menu navigation.
• User roles - select one or multiple user role(s) to restrict access to this report. If you leave this blank, all users have access.
• Sort - define an (optional) sort order (1-99999) that determines where this report is displayed in the menu. If you leave this blank, the report is ordered alphabetically.
• Script - create a script to process the source data before the report is generated. This option is for advanced use, and only visible if your user role has the relevant permissions. Read more about scripts.

You can also watch the instruction video.

Define

You can define the fields and layouts by clicking on the Define button:

This opens a dropdown menu with further options:

• Define fields - select the fields that you want to include in this report, and (optionally) define custom field names, conversions, calculations, and data filters.
• Add new layout - add a layout to this report.
• Edit this layout - edit the currently selected layout.
• Rename this layout - rename the currently selected layout.
• Delete this layout - delete the currently selected layout.

You can also watch the instruction video.

Define fields

By default, reports will include all columns from the source data set and its linked data sets, without any conversions or filters.

Optionally, you can click on Define - Define fields to include or exclude data set columns, rename fields, convert field values, or to set data filters:

You are free to rename fields for the purpose of this report, without impact on the source data sets or any other reports.

To insert, delete, copy, or move fields, you can either right-click on a row, or click on the ☰ button in the last column of a row. You can create 2 types of fields:

• Source field - this refers to a data set column. You can use the reserved word data to refer to its content if you want to convert or filter this data.
• Calculated field - this does not have its own source. You need to provide a static value, a formula, a function, or an expression on other fields to give this field some value.

In the above example, we have created 2 calculated fields: one to calculate a variance between 2 other columns, and another one to calculate the variance as a percentage.

You can optionally set a specific format for fields with numeric values. If you leave this blank, the field values will be formatted to 0 decimals.

You can also watch the instruction video.

Convert or calculate data

You can convert or calculate field values in your report. You can enter a simple function or an expression with multiple functions and operators. There are many functions you can choose from:

An expression can contain the following elements:

• The reserved word data - this is a placeholder for the current value of the selected field. Use this every time you want to refer to the current value in an expression. For example, to multiple the field value by 100:
  
  data * 100
• Field names in the report - simply type the field name. For example, to substract the Credit field from the Debit field:
  
  Debit - Credit
• Functions - you can choose from a large collection of functions with the same syntax as in Excel to perform a large variety of text, data, and number operations. Some examples:
  
  ROUND(Amount, 2)
  LEFT(data, 20)
  IF(Unit = "Actuals", Amount, 0)
• Static values - you can use any static value in your expression. When using text values, these must be enclosed by " (= double quote) characters. Some examples:
  
  data / 1000
  data + " some added text"
  IF(data = "Sunny", "warm", "cold")
• Operators - you can use all common mathematical operators, such as: + - * / and you can use brackets ( ) to control the sequence of operations. For example, to substract the Credit field from the Debit field, divide it by 1000, and then round the result to 0 decimals:
  
  ROUND(Debit - Credit) / 1000, 0)

You can also watch the instruction video.

Filter the data

You can filter the data in your report. Filtering means that you can exclude rows in your source data from the actual report. You can specify a static value, a single function, or an expression with the standard operators. You can also use these filter functions: BETWEEN, CONTAINS, ISANY, ISBLANK, AND, OR, NOT. For more information, see filter functions.

In below example, we are filtering a report on a certain period and only "P&L" data:

You can also watch the instruction video.

User selections

In many cases you might want the user to select some value when they start a report. For example, the company or the period. You can do that by using the SELECT() as a filter:

This will present a list of values that the user can select from before the report is generated.

A special variant of this is the SELECTPERIOD() function. If you use this function in combination with the PERIODSUM() function, you can build powerful and dynamic period-discrete and year-to-date calculations with just a few clicks. Read more about period conversion functions.

You can also watch the instruction video.

Layouts

Click on Define - Add layout or Define - Edit layout. For every layout, you can enter a name:

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

• Layout type - standard, drilldown, sparklines, chart, treemap, organogram
• Chart type - column, bar, line, pie, donut, area, radar, scatter, geo chart, gauge, bullet, scorecard, timeline
• Column totals - sum, average, variance, variance (-), or none
• Report totals - sum, average, result, result (-), or none
• 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"
• Zones and scale - only for KPI charts, you can optionally enter 3 zones, mininum, maximum, and goal value, separated by a comma
• Style - for charts, you can choose with or without gridlines

You can choose from over 30 different layout types.

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 layout 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).
  • cumulative - the cumulative value for every row.
  • % 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.

You can also watch the instruction video.

Sort order

By default, reports are sorted alphabetically on the values in the row and column fields. You can specify a custom sort order in the underlying data sets that are used as rows and column fields. Simply prefix the field values with a number followed by a colon (e.g. "1:text"). XLReporting will sort all reports on that prefix, but the prefix will not actually be shown in the report. This enables you to centrally set a sort order that is consistent across all reports.

Actions

When defining a report, you can use the Save and Actions buttons in the right-top of the screen:

These buttons enable you to do the following:

• Save - save your changes
• Actions - open a dropdown menu with further options:
  • Create a new report (or copy one)
  • Delete this report
  • Export data or print
  • Save Excel query
  • Review this report
  • Mark this version
  • Add to dashboard
  • Run this report

Save Excel query

In addition to exporting reports to Excel, you can also access XLReporting reports directly from Excel workbooks using saved queries. You can define cell formatting, formulas, charts, and pivot tables on this data. This enables you to build free-form Excel workbooks of your own design with realtime data from XLReporting. The data can be automatically refreshed at any time without having to login to XLReporting.

XLReporting creates a small file for you specific to each data set or report, which you can open in Excel via Data - Get external data - Run saved query, or via Data - Get external data - Web query. That creates a realtime link to your workbook without any manual steps.

You can choose to store your API token and selected values in the file, or leave them as runtime parameters.

Please note that this option is only visible if both your user role has Export data and Access API permissions.

Review this report

Click on Actions - Review this report to review a number of aspects of this report and its source data set:

• Data diagram - shows a diagram with all linked data sets. This is derived from columns that are set to data type Linked values.
• Linked data - shows the results of checks on the Key values and Linked values that are used to link data sets. Because linked values need to correspond with key values, this integrity check is important.
• Defined fields - shows a summary of all defined columns and data types.
• Data set use - shows all linked data sets, the imports, reports, and models that are using this data set, and the total number of data rows in this data set.
• Recent activity - show all recent user activity relating to this data set.

Add to dashboard

A dashboard is a personal page with your own favorite reports and models. You can create multiple dashboards, and each dashboard can contain multiple reports or models.

Click on Actions - Add to dashboard to add this report to either a new dashboard, or to a new dashboard: