Best Practice: Because Custom Reports can become incredibly robust, we recommend following this order of operation when building a report: 

1. Group

2. Sort

3. Hide irrelevant fields from the final result.

4. Aggregate

If they are multiple joined objects, apply filters on the initial object selected; since the filters are applied prior to the joins.

Steps: 

Navigate to Menu > Reports > Custom Reports > Create Report. 

• Click Create Report to generate a new empty report. The new report automatically opens on the Data tab. The report is titled Untitled Analysis until you rename it. 

Data Input

Use the Select Data drop-down menu and select from the various objects in Ordway that can be reported on. 

Once you select an object, a corresponding list of available fields appears. These fields can be added or removed to the report using the checkbox next to the field name.

Reports can be further enriched by bringing in additional data from joined objects. Click the Select Data drop-down menu below the primary Select Data option to display which additional objects can be added to the report.

In this example, the Customers object has been joined to the Invoices object, and now fields from both objects are available for reporting.  

Once you have determined the Report criteria, click Apply Column Selection to view the updated report below the parameters. 

Formula Input

The Formula tab aids with complex analyses by allowing you to perform calculations on any column pulled into the custom report.

• Name field determines the name of this new column.
• Formula determines how this new column is calculated.
• Insert a Column opens a drop-down with the list of columns that are currently in the report. Selecting a column will insert the column name into the Formula calculation. When inserted into the calculation, the field name formats as follows: [Object Name.Field Name] - e.g. ​​[Invoices.Invoice Amount]
• Formula drop-down shows a list of possible operations that can be performed. These follow a SQL-like syntax, and the full list with examples can be found by clicking the Formula Help button.
• Operator drop-down contains common mathematical operators: addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. Selecting one of these operators adds it to the formula calculation.
• Data Type drop-down indicates the type of the data that the Formula calculation will output. The options for this are: Number, Text, Date, Datetime and True/False.
• Display Format drop-down determines how the data is displayed in the resulting table.

Pro Tip: Click the Formula Help icon to view detailed descriptions of each formula field and corresponding options. 

Filter Input

The Filter tab allows you to limit the result set displayed in the table based on the criteria provided. In this tab, criteria are defined which return a result of either True or False, and records are included or excluded based on these conditions. 

• Filter Column drop-down allows you to select a column on which to apply the filter.
• Comparison drop-down defines the operation that will be performed. This includes:
• Mathematical operations: =, Not =, <, >, <=, >=
• List operations: In List, Not In List
• String matching: Contains, Not Contains, Starts With, Not Starts With
• Boolean: True/False, as indicated by a checkbox
• Date filtering: Including filtering on a specific date or within a date range
• Value field defines the value(s) used in the operation to evaluate each record. This could be a number for mathematical operations, comma separated list for list operations, text for string matching operations, as well as a date or range of dates for date filtering.
• Multiple filters can be applied by combining them together (And), or by including results that match multiple filter conditions (Or). When multiple filters are added, you can toggle between And/Or by clicking the orange And/Or icon.

Add Chart

You can easily add visualizations to a report through the Add Chart tab. This option creates a separate section of the report where data can be summarized and visualized. There are several different visualizations available in Custom Reports, including:

• Bar
• Line
• Curved Line
• Pie
• Scatter Plot
• Heatmap
• Gauge

Additional visualizations can be added when you click Add Chart again. If you would like to remove a visualization, simply click the trash icon next to the name of the chart. 

Note: A chart within a report causes report export to fail. To avoid this, duplicate the report from the gear icon in the main report view and remove the chart prior to exporting. 

Add Crosstab

The Add Crosstab tab allows you to create pivot tables to further summarize and visualize your data. When you click Add Crosstab, a new separate section of the report with the Crosstab, which can be removed by clicking the trash icon. Crosstabs can be modified by adjusting the following settings:

• Header Values Column creates a column in the Crosstab for each unique value in the selected field.
• Label Values Column creates a row in the Crosstab for each unique value in the selected field.
• Aggregate Values Column the field to be aggregated to populate the cells of the Crosstab.
• Aggregate Function the aggregation to be performed on the field selected (e.g. Sum, Average, Count, Distinct Count, etc.)
• Summary Function creates a row which summarizes the data in the Crosstab. This can be placed either at the Top or Bottom of the Crosstab.
• Compare Label Columns calculates the percentage change between columns (from left to right).

Report Options

Within each report, a variety of options are available. 

Rename or Duplicate a report from the Gear icon within a specific report: 

• Hide & show columns
• Add to Visual Gallery
• Download

Hide & Show columns

Click the plus icon to change how the data is displayed including:

• Hide or show columns
• Sort
• Group
• Aggregate data
• Pagination settings 

Click each formatting tab to change the configuration. 

Add to Visual Gallery

Click the window icon to add this report to the Visual Gallery, where reports can be easily added to a Custom Reports Dashboard. 

Download Report

Click the download icon and select from the following options:

• Excel 
• CSV
• PDF