Reports Feature
One of the most powerful features of SCP is the ability to create custom reports. Reports offer a way to slice and dice the system for the information you care about.
Any domain object in the system can be the subject of a report, so the possibilities are endless. Each report is saved in the system for later use. What's more, you can schedule each report to be emailed on a regular basis to anyone you like.
Report Examples
Here are some examples of reports you could create:
Email Messages in the system that were unopened, or bounced, in the past day/week/month (eg to help follow up on communication with customers or partners). Define from the Email Messages grid screen with filters for status and created date.
Order Items, including their totals, from a given supplier, that were placed in the past month (eg, to help your suppliers understand how much business you are generating for them, or for commission payments, etc.) Define from the Order Items grid screen with filters on the supplier ID and placed on date fields.
Customers who have logged in during the past week (eg to get an idea of who is using the system). Define from the Customers grid screen with filters on the status field and last logged in date.
Orders that were placed during the prior 24 hours, but have still not been shipped (eg to warn when orders are not being fulfilled fast enough). Define from the Orders gride with filters on status and placed on date.
Orders that are currently appearing on the Customer Service Dashboard (eg a manager could have this sent to them each hour to review the volume of new orders and the pace of fulfillment). Use the built-in Customer Service Dashboard report. Note: the same could be done for each of the other dashboards.
Order Items, including their totals, for a given product over a period of time in the past such as 'last year to date' or 'this year to date' (eg as a sales report). Define from the Order Items grid using filters for created date and product ID.
Order Discounts that were used in the past week, month, etc., including their dollar values (eg to assess the success of marketing efforts). Define from the Order Discounts grid screen, with filters on created date and discount code.
Shipments whose tracking information has changed recently, and the status they currently have (eg to get updated on the status of all pending shipments in the system). Use the built in 'Shipments With Recently Updated Tracking Info' report.
Units currently out on transfer and where they being transferred to (eg to help keep track of inventory). Use the Units grid screen with a filter on status and location ID.
Products and their inventory levels at each location in the system (eg to help balance inventory at various locations). Use the Product Locations grid screen.
Agreements that were created over a month ago but not yet submitted (eg to follow up on loose threads). Use the Agreements grid screen with filters on status and the created date.
Creating Reports
By far the easiest way to create a new report is to define the filters, sorting and other parameters for it from the domain object's grid screen. Once you have defined the parameters of the report on a grid screen, you can click this link to save them as a report:
For full details on using the grid screen, including defining filters, sorting, displayed columns, etc., please refer to the Administrator Grid Screens document.
After clicking the Save Page As Report link, you'll be taken to the Add Report form. Each of the report parameters will be filled out for you based on the last grid screen you were on. At a minimum, all you have to do is give the report a name and click Add New Record to save it:
From that point on, the report will show up under the main Reports screen (found under Operations in the main menu). You can click the report's three-dots menu, and "Run Report" to run the report at any time:
When you run the report, you'll be taken back to the grid screen you were on, and records shown will be updated to match filters and other parameters you defined.
Scheduling Reports To Be Emailed
As you create your report, or after you have created it, you can also set it up to emailed to anyone you like, on a scheduled basis. To do this open up the report's "Scheduled Fields" section:
Note the following fields in this section:
For Scheduled Frequency, you can choose anything from Hourly to Yearly
For the Notification field, you should select the "Basic Report Notification", or another similar notification that you have created as a custom notification. (See the Notification Features document for more details.)
The rest of fields - those which say "Override" - are optional. By default the Top, Ccs, Subject, etc. of the emails that are sent will be borrowed from the Notification. Typically, the reports are sent to the main "Store Email Address" setting defined on the Email Settings screen. For convenience you can override them right here in the report configuration.
The Body Prefix Override field allows you specify any text, such as a message, or instructions, that appears above the body of the report in the email.
The last field in the section, Send Even If No Records In Report, can be useful if you need to be aware when the report is empty. It tells the system to send the report even if the filters and other parameters return no records at the time its run. Otherwise, it will skip sending an email.
For more details, please visit the Report Notifications section of the Notification Features document.
Emailed Reports
The emailed report will show up in your inbox like this:
Note that the body of the email itself displays the report so you can see what it looks like immediately when opening the email.
In addition, by default the Basic Report Notification includes the report as an attachment in CSV format. This can be useful for integrations with other systems or to open in a spreadsheet program for more analysis and manipulation.
The CSV file can also be used with the system's Import feature. The user can make changes in a spreadsheet program, save the file, and import the changes back into the system. For full details, please visit the Exports and Imports document.