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Navigation: Using Responsive Time Logger (topic list) > Creating Reports |
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Contents of this section: Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Report
You can create a wide variety of time reports with Time Logger. Each time report can optionally show three sections:
The columns that appear on the report will be the same ones that appear in Time Logger's main window. If there isn't enough space for all the columns across the page, Time Logger will warn you. In this case, you may want to eliminate some columns, or decrease the widths of the existing columns. Another good alternative is to print your reports in landscape mode (choose File/Page Setup to change this). To view a Time Report any time on the screen choose File/Print Preview. To actually print the report choose File/Print/Report. The tutorial in this user's guide contains an example (see Tutorial Step 6: Printing a Time Report). Here are some examples of what you might use a time report for:
There are many features available for Time Reporting that make it possible for you to create just about any report that you need. Here are the basic concepts and features that you will need to understand and apply to create the reports you desire. Three Sections of a Time Report There are three sections of a Time Report. You can modify which sections appear and how they look using Tools/User Options/Printing.
To show or hide these three section, choose Tools/User Options/Printing and modify the checkbox options beginning with: Report: Additionally, on the Tools/User Options/Printing window you may select which columns appear in the Summary and Subtotal sections by modifying the checkboxes that begin with: Sumary: Subtotals: Considerations and Options for Customizing a Time Report By adjusting the Columns, using the Filter, applying Sort Orders and defining Subtotals, you can create an infinite variety of Time Reports and then save them as an Environment to use again in the future. Here is a summary of the options that are available to design the report you desire:
Each of the above sections is discussed in more detail below.
TIPS:
Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Report 1) Modify the print and layout options First decide which of the three primary sections you want to see on your report, 1) Each time record, 2) Subtotals, 3) Summary. Go to the User Options Window/Printing Tab and set these with these three checkbox options below: Report: Display subtotals in report Report: Display summary information in the report Report: Display the Time Records in the report Additionally, set these fields and options on the User Options Window/Printing Tab: Report Title - change the report title and customize it for the client, person or project Description - change how the description is printed (on its own line or as a column) Report: Display the print date/time in page header Subtotals: - there are several checkboxes that determine which Subtotal parts are printed Summary: - there are several checkboxes that determine which Summary parts are printed (Many other checkbox options are on the window that are not listed here)
2) Select a specific set of Time Records using a Filter Set the Filter (see: Filtering the Time Records). The Filter determines which Time Records are displayed on the main window and listed on the report (if you are displaying each time record). The filter also determines the set of time records used to create the Summary and Subtotals. When no Filter is set, all of the Time Records that are in the current Time Records database file are used for the report.
3) Set the Sort Order and optional Subtotals Set the Sort Order which determines the order that the Time Records are displayed in the Time Records List and on the Report (see: Sorting & Subtotaling the Time Records). Set the Subtotals checkbox options which allows you to pick which fields are subtotaled (see: Sorting & Subtotaling the Time Records). Both are set on the Sort Order/Subtotals Window. TIPS:
4) Define the Time Record Columns You can skip this step if you have unchecked the option: Report: Display the Time Records in the report on the User Options Window/Printing Tab. If you are displaying each Time Record on the Time Report (the details), they will appear in the same order and with the same columns as what you see on your main window (your time records list). See Changing Column Layout for details on how to alter your column layout.
5) Select a specific font Select the menu option Tools/Font to determine the font that is used for the record details, headings and report title.
6) Save the settings as an Environment After you have your report working the way you want it to then save all of your settings in what is called an Environment file with a meaningful name such as "ABC Report" (see: Saving your Settings In Environments). Then, whenever you want to see that Time Report just load that Environment using Tools/Load Environment.
Custom SQL In the case where the desired Time Report cannot be obtained using Time Logger's built-in features, you can use your own custom Structured Query Language (SQL) to create a custom Time Report (see: Filtering Time Records via SQL). Additionally, all of the Responsive Time Logger database files are ODBC compatible. This allows you to connect to the databases using third party tools to obtain data for reporting purposes. See: Sharing Data with Other Programs Exporting Time Record Data The Time Records that you see in your Time Records List can also be exported to a text file (see: Exporting Time Logger Data to a Text File). The records are exported in the same column and row order as displayed in the Time Records List. This allows you to easily put Time Record data into other applications such as Microsoft's Excel by importing the Time Record data text file. While the default delimiters are the double-quote (") and comma (,) you can change them within Time Logger (see: Exporting Time Logger Data to a Text File).
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