Reports are so useful largely because of the way they allow you to generate and report on many variations of system data without the knowledge of complex queries.
There are three different kinds of reports that can be created within the system: built-in reports, custom reports, and comprehensive reports.
Different reports can be used for different departments and user roles; there are reports which help specifically with pastoral care and people, and others specifically related to services and groups.
Built-in reports are pre-defined reports available for quickly generating information related to specific areas of your account. Existing reports related to the People, Groups, Services, Check-in and Financial areas of the system can be accessed and defined within the Reports area.
This is useful in a number of different ways. For example, the built-in ‘Service Statistics’ report shows graphs and statistics based on the information inputted into service reporting. It provides a helpful overview of tracking the different demographics and attendees of particular services or service types.
Standard Reports are reports that generate a list of people and their corresponding details based on criteria you specify. They’re useful for pulling specific information within a group of people.
An example of how a standard report could be useful is if you wanted to generate a ‘birthdays’ report. You could create and then schedule a custom report that had a criteria set to ‘date of birth’ ‘is in the next two weeks’, and ensure no one was forgotten.
Reports Versus People Views
When you set up a report, the default is that you set up a report and a People View. People Views are the same as a report, except that you can Mass Manage anyone who appears in the report’s results. We recommend setting up a People View with any report that generates results you intend to move into a People Flow.
Comprehensive reports combine multiple reports and statistics into one big report. They’re particularly handy when it comes to presenting information to ministers or department leaders, and provide a great overview of the different areas and departments being used in the system.
Building Comprehensive Reports
Comprehensive reports make referencing a large amount of information incredibly straightforward. We recommend setting up a comprehensive report for any reports you regularly present together. A comprehensive report on first-aid, for example, could include which disciplines department individuals are qualified in e.g CPR or lifesaving, how long their qualifications are current for, and whether any department individuals require training.
All reports are generated online by default for quick and easy access and can also be exported into various formats including:
1. Excel spreadsheets (XLS)
2. Comma separated values (CSV)
3. PDF files
You can share Reports with a select group of people, or mark them as public. Scheduling reports is particularly useful to help remind and inform individuals which tasks need to be performed (based on the generated results).
Automatic Sharing
For most situations, we recommend sharing reports on a weekly basis, or whenever the results of the report will require action. An absentees report, for example, should be automatically shared with anyone responsible for following up.