Report Selection Screen

Each of the report screens have a similar layout. Sections include:

This is where you define the criteria that will be applied to the report to filter the output to just the records you want.

To display a list of fields available in the selected file, click on the arrow below the Field name field. A drop-down list appears that shows all available fields that can be used in filter expressions. Press [up-arrow], [down-arrow], [Page Up] and [Page Down] to move the highlight to a field, then either click on the highlighted field name, or press [Enter]. Fields names usually correspond with the most commonly used fields in the relevant report module you have selected, but can also include special conditions so read the field list carefully.

Specifies the function to be performed on data during a sort to determine if a record meets criteria required for selection from the database. Available operators include:

• Equal to - Tests for an exact match between the field designated in Field Name and the entry in the Value field. When the data field and the comparison value match, the record is selected. For example, selecting the field State and the Value entry NSW creates the filter State Equal to “NSW” that will select every record with the State entry of NSW.

• Not Equal to - Tests for a difference between the field designated in Field Name and the entry in the Value field. When the data field and the comparison value do not match, the record is selected. For example, selecting the field State and the Value entry NSW creates the filter State Not Equal to “NSW.” Each record with the State entry of NSW will not be selected. Records with State entries of any other State will be selected.

• Greater than - Tests for a value in the data field alphanumerically higher than the comparison value. In a test for alphabetic entries, such as State, a higher value is one that comes after the entered value; that is, later in the alphabet. When the data field’s value is alphanumerically higher than the comparison value, the record is selected. For example, selecting the field State and the Value entry NSW creates the filter State Greater than “NSW.” A record with a State entry of VIC will be selected, but a record with a State entry of ACT or NSW will not be selected.

• Less than - Tests for a value in the data field alphanumerically lower than the comparison value. In a test for alphabetic entries, such as State, a lower value is one that comes before the entered value; that is, earlier in the alphabet. When the data field’s value is alphanumerically lower than the comparison value, the record is selected. For example, selecting the field State and the Value entry NSW creates the filter State Less Than “NSW.” A record with a State entry of ACT will be selected, but a record with a State entry of NSW or Queensland will not be selected.

• Greater or Equal - Tests for a value in the data field equal to or alphanumerically higher than the comparison value. In a test for alphabetic entries, such as State, a higher value is one that comes after the entered value; that is, later in the alphabet. When the data field’s value is alphanumerically higher than the comparison value, the record is selected. For example, selecting the field State and the Value entry NSW creates the filter State Greater or Equal to NSW. Any records with State entries of NSW and any records with State entries that come later in the alphabet, such as Queensland, will be selected. However, any records with State entries that come earlier in the alphabet, such as ACT, will not be selected.

• Lesser or Equal - Tests for a value in the data field equal to or alphanumerically lower than the comparison value. In a test for alphabetic entries, such as State, a lower value is one that comes before the entered value; that is, earlier in the alphabet. When the data field’s value is alphanumerically lower than the comparison value, the record is selected. For example, selecting the field State and the Value entry NSW creates the filter State Lesser or Equal to NSW. Any records with State entries of NSW and any records with State entries that come later in the alphabet, such as ACT, will be selected. However, any records with State entries that come later in the alphabet, such as Queensland, will not be selected.

• Begins with - Tests for a value in the data field that starts with the comparison value. If the characters of the comparison value match the starting characters in the data field, the record is selected. For example, the filter State Begins with “N” will include records in which the State entries all start with N, such as NSW and NT.

• Contains - Tests for the existence of the comparison value anywhere within the data field. If the data field contains the comparison value, the record is selected. For example, the filter State Contains “N” will include records in which the State entries include N anywhere in the State name, such as NSW, Queensland, NT.

• Does Not Contain - Tests for the absence of the comparison value anywhere within the data field. If the data field does not contain the comparison value, the record is selected. For example, the filter State Does Not Contain “N” will include records in which the State entries do not include N anywhere in the state name, such as SA, VIC and, TAS. However, NSW, Queensland And NT will not be selected.

• Is Empty - Tests for an absence of any entry in the specified field. Character fields are empty when they contain only spaces. For example, if you have contacts in both the Australia and other countries, and you want to search for only contacts in the Australia—assuming you have not entered country data for domestic clients—the filter Country Is Empty will select contacts located in the Australia.

• Is Not Empty - Tests for any value in the specified field. For example, if you want to print a report of all of your client companies with an email address, the filter Email Is Not Empty will select all companies with an email address entered in the Email field.

Note: Not all operators are available at all times depending on the type of Field Name selected above.

To finish the filter expression, type the value to which the records will be compared in the Value field. The entry in Value specifies the comparison value. The comparison value is not case-sensitive. For example, in the filter State Equal to “NSW”, the Value is NSW. If your field name is a date then an additional option becomes available. You will notice a check box to the right of the date value entry field. You can enter a specific date if you wish but if you check the box, a series of new date options appear. These are:

• Today
• Yesterday
• 1 week ago
• 2 weeks ago
• Beginning last month
• Beginning 3 months ago
• Beginning 6 months ago
• Beginning last calendar year
• Beginning this calendar year
• End of last month
• Tomorrow
• In 7 days
• In 14 days
• Beginning of next month
• End of next month
• Beginning last week
• End of last week
• End last calendar year
• End this calendar year.
• Beginning 12 months ago
• End of 12 months from now
• Beginning this month
• End of this month
• Beginning of Financial Year
• End of Financial Year

Using the special data values allows you to easily and consistently select date ranges without having to know the exact dates. Additionally, saved report definitions can be recalled and reused without having to update the date ranges. This is very important when scheduling reports.

Note: The value may not always be required depending on the Field Name and type of Operator selected. Once you have selected the relevant report file on which to apply the filter, then selected a field, operator, and value, you must connect the components together into a condition. press the Insert button to place the condition into the Report Selection Criteria list.

Note: A common mistake is to enter report selection criteria and not pressing the Insert button to insert the criteria into the Criteria List. Report Selection Criteria are not recognised until your insert them.

Complex filter expressions are composed of simple filter expressions connected by logical conjunctions. These conjunctions have an order of precedence that determines the sequence in which the simple expressions are evaluated within the complex expression. Parentheses ( ) within complex expressions are used to modify the order of evaluation. Simple or complex expressions, enclosed with parentheses, are considered simple expressions. TSM evaluates these sub expressions before continuing to evaluate the remainder of the complex expression. Complex expressions are evaluated as follows:

1. When there are simple expressions within complex expressions, the simple expressions are evaluated first.
2. When there are AND conjunctions within complex expressions, if the two operands surrounding the AND operator are both true, then the expression is evaluated to be true. If either of the operands is false, then the expression is evaluated to be false. The operands surrounding the AND operator can also be expressions.
3. When there are OR conjunctions within complex expressions, and if either of the two operands surrounding the OR operator are true, then the expression is evaluated to be true. If both operands are false, then the expression is evaluated to be false. The operands surrounding the OR operator can also be expressions.

By connecting simple expressions according to the rules listed above, you can create very complex expressions that test for very specific conditions on the contact record. For example:

((State is Equal to "NSW" OR 
State is Equal to "VIC") OR 
(Phone Begins With "02" AND Contact Type is Equal to "CONTACT")) AND
Account Status is Not Equal To “Hold”

When this filter is active, records will be displayed if: either contact’s state is NSW or VIC or the contact’s phone number begins with “02” and the contact type of the contact is “Contact” and the contact’s account status is anything but hold

You can add conditions to the simple expression to build a complex expression from the following:

Opening parenthesis: inserts a left, or opening, parenthesis in the filter expression.

Closing parenthesis: inserts a right, or closing, parenthesis in the filter expression.

Inserts a logical AND in the filter expression.

Inserts a logical OR in the filter expression.

It is easy to get confused with the above logic. A common mistake would be to code the following filter to list all of Joe or Fred’s jobs that are open. Employee equals Joe OR Employee = Fred AND Job Type = Open. The above example would give all of Joes jobs forever OR All of Fred’s jobs which are open since the AND forces a simple expression with Fred and Job Type. To force the intended logic, you should use parenthesis to force the simple expressions to be evaluated in the correct order:

(Employee equals Joe OR Employee = Fred) AND Job Type = Open

Inserts a new report criterion into the Report Selection Criteria list using the values specified in the report selection criteria dropdowns.

Updates (edits) the selected report criteria in the Report Selection Criteria list.

Removes the selected report criteria from the Report Selection Criteria list.

Removes all report criteria from the Report Selection Criteria list.

Swap the order of the selected row in the Report Criteria list with the one immediately above it in the Report Criteria List.

Swap the order of the selected row in the Report Criteria list with the one immediately below it in the Report Criteria List.

Saves the report criteria list for later reuse. You can improve the speed of producing frequently accessed reports by saving complex report criteria for reuse later. Select whether the report criteria will be saved as a publicly available filter or a filter saved under your login name. Enter a meaningful Description of the Report Criteria. Press the Save button to save the report criteria.

You can permanently remove saved filters by selecting the filter you want to remove and pressing the Delete button.

View report filters available to all users.

View report filters available to the logged in user only.

This area contains options that vary depending on which Report Screen you have selected.

Choose the order you want the output to be sorted by. Some reports can not be sorted.

TSM provides many different report layouts for you to choose from. Select the report layout you want this report run to use. TSM will remember the layout you last selected. Report layouts are customisable via the TSM Report Customisation screen.

• Detail - Reports contain the maximum level of information. Typically this is used to print out full page printouts such as Job Cards, Invoices. Contracts etc.
• Summary - Prints line based summary reports of varying degrees of detail.

Maintain your own custom reports. See the Customising Reports section for more details.

Exit the Reports screen.

Output the selected report to your preferred output device. The following options will become available:

Output the report to the printer. If you want to choose the printer you will print to, select the check box and you can choose your printer. Otherwise, TSM will print to the default printer setup in the TSM setup screen.

Display the report to the screen. Note: You must have Adobe Acrobat reader loaded for this to work (available from the TSM CDROM or from the TSM web site or from www.acrobat.com. TSM Generates a PDF representation of the report on the fly then launches Adobe Acrobat to display the report.

Output report information to an output file. Enter the name of the file you want to create. Select Report output type

• Text Report - Print report as an unformatted text file.
• ASCII - Output report information as an ASCII comma delimited data file. Note: Only information in the primary report database will be output. Information included in linked tables will not be included. For example, creating an invoice file will include only the base invoice information. Customer address information will not be included.
• Excel - Output report information as an Excel spreadsheet. Note: Only information in the primary report database will be output. Information included in lined tables will not be included. Hint: Excel has an excellent Data Import add-in which allows you to extract information directly from TSM data files. See separate documentation on linking Excel with TSM. Hint: The output engine interprets blank space on a report as blank rows and columns. By altering the report to position the fields and their headings flush against one another you will be able to remove the blanks between them.
• PDF - Output report information as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.
• Word Document - Output to a Microsoft Word document.
• Rich text - Similar to Word Document.
• HTML - Output to an HTML file useful if the report needs to be published online.
• XML - Output to the XML format for integration with other software.

Regardless of which type you select, you will be able to preview the file to screen when completed.

Automatically email the printed output to your desired recipient. This option creates an Adobe Acrobat compatible PDF file (or text file depending on your Setup options) which it links as an attachment to an email. Acrobat PDF files are a convenient way of emailing or saving reports for later review. TSM can use it's internal email module or a MAPI client to send email. See the Miscellaneous section of setup for more details.

Cancel report output.