Saved reports and the report builder

Reports → Saved reports lists the reports you built and the ones others shared with the workspace; Reports → Report builder is where a report is made. A report is a saved question about one source of data: how to group it, what to count or total, and what to ask whoever runs it. Running it always shows the rows you are allowed to see — a shared report never grants access to anything. An administrator can switch the whole feature off from Configuration → Features; it is on by default.

Running a saved report

Open Saved reports (needs the run saved reports permission) and pick a report, or use the Run action on its row. The report runs with today's dates: a period such as last month is resolved when you run it, not when it was saved.

• When the report asks questions — a period, a customer, a project, statuses… — a bar above the result holds them. Answer what you need and press Run; an unanswered question leaves the saved filter as it is. Answers are not saved with the report.
• Refresh runs it again.
• When the report has a chart, it is drawn above the table or after it, as the report was built.
• Export to PDF and Export to spreadsheet download the table exactly as shown, subtotals and totals included, headed by the report's name and description. Money columns carry the workspace currency. The PDF also carries the chart, in the position the report was built with; the spreadsheet holds the table only.
• Totals are always over everything that matched. Only a detail list is capped at 5,000 rows; when more match, a notice says so: add a parameter, narrow the filters, or switch to a summary.

Which layout do I need?

If you have never built a summary or a pivot in a spreadsheet, start here. Every report answers a question about a pile of items, and the layout is just the shape of the answer. Take five work items as the pile:

"Show me the items." That is a detail list: one line per item, the columns you choose, nothing added up. It is the pile itself, sorted and trimmed. Use it when someone needs to see or export the actual items.

"How much per customer?" That is a summary table. You pick what to group by (the rows: Customer) and what to compute for each group (the measures: Work items, Hours spent). The report makes one line per customer, adds up the items behind it, and puts a total at the end:

You never see the five items — only what they add up to. A second row dimension nests inside the first: rows Customer then Status gives Acme's Done and In progress lines with a subtotal for Acme, then Globex's, then the total.

"How much per customer, split by status?" When the question has two "per", and you want the second one across the top rather than nested underneath, that is a pivot table. Rows: Customer. Column: Status. Measure: Hours spent. Every cell is one customer and one status; the last column is the customer's total, the last line the status totals:

The column dimension should have few values — statuses, priorities, or a date bucketed by month or quarter. A pivot shows at most 60 column values; with more, the preview says how many instead of drawing the table.

A cheat sheet:

Two things to remember. A measure is a number computed per group — count, hours, value, a percentage; a dimension is what you group by — a customer, a status, a date. And the totals are always exact over everything that matched, whatever the layout, because the server adds up the whole pile, not the part on screen.

Building a report

Report builder (needs the create and edit report definitions permission) works top to bottom. Every field has an info icon; hover it for a one-line explanation.

1. Name it, optionally describe it, and pick a source — what one row is:
   • Work items: one work item you can see, as the Works list shows them. Repeating task occurrences are not rows. Its measures include estimated time, time and value spent (from the spent ledger), remaining time, the percentage of the estimate consumed, and overdue items.
   • Spent entries: one time or value entry, as the spent report shows them. Needs the view the spent time/value report permission.
   • Customers: one customer, as the Customers list shows them. The fees type appears only with the view customer financials permission; custom fields follow their view roles.
2. Choose a layout (see Which layout do I need? above):
   • Summary table: rows down the side, one column per measure, subtotals and a total.
   • Pivot table: the same, plus one group of columns per value of a column dimension — for example customers down the side and months across.
   • Detail list: one row per item with the columns you pick, capped at the first rows.
3. For a summary or pivot, pick the rows (up to four dimensions, outermost first; a date dimension groups by day, week, month, quarter or year), the pivot's column, and the measures. For a detail list, pick and order the columns.
4. Set the filters. They are the source's own filters: the Works list facets, the Customers list facets, or the spent report's parameters plus a period (this month, last 30 days…) that moves with the calendar.
5. Tick the parameters the report should ask when it runs. An answer overrides the saved filter for that field; leave a parameter unticked to fix its value in the filter instead.
6. Choose a sort: a dimension, or a measure to order rows by their totals — each level keeps its subtotals together.
7. Pick a chart, if the layout allows one, the measure it plots, and its position: at the top, above the table, or at the end of the report (see below).
8. Preview runs the report as it is, with the parameter bar if any are exposed. The button stays off until the layout has what it needs, and a line under it says what is missing.
9. Save. Switch on Shared with everyone to let everyone with the run saved reports permission see and run it. Only you — or an administrator — can edit or delete it.

Changing the source of an existing report clears its layout, filters and parameters, because they belong to the source.

Three reports the builder is made for: hours by customer by month, last quarter (Spent entries, rows Customer, column Spent on by month, measure Time spent, parameter Period, line chart); estimate against spent per project (Work items, rows Project, measures Estimated time, Time spent, Remaining time, % consumed, bar chart of Time spent); workload (Work items, rows Assignee, column Status, measure Work items, stacked bar chart).

Charts

A chart draws one measure from the table, at the outermost grouping — the first row dimension. It is drawn from the same figures as the table, so it never disagrees with it, and it is redrawn at once when you change the chart type or measure; no need to run the report again.

• A summary table can draw a bar, pie or donut chart: one bar or slice per value of the first row dimension. With two or more row dimensions, the chart uses the subtotals of the first one.
• A pivot table can draw a bar, stacked bar or line chart: the column values go across (months, statuses…), with one series per value of the first row dimension. A line chart suits a date column; a stacked bar shows how each column value splits between the rows.
• A detail list has no chart.
• Durations are drawn in hours. The chart draws at most 40 categories and 12 series (the first ones in table order) and says so when it cut; the table below it is always complete.
• The chart sits at the top by default, above the table; choose at the end to put it after the table instead. The PDF export follows the same position, in the same colours as on screen. The spreadsheet export holds the table only.

Permissions

Administrators can do both, and can edit or delete anyone's report.