The Report Builder enables users to create, customise and run reports to extract data from the system. The data that is retrieved and how it is displayed is highly customisable and controlled by the Report Builder.

When using the Report Builder, it's important to understand what type of data you are trying to measure. This information will inform the report type you should choose.

Reports

Extract vast volumes of system data
Provide insights into data trends
Form a basis for training analysis

Tip: There are two versions of reports: Live and Warehoused. Live reports use up to date data while warehoused reports include cached data from the previous day. Certain fields and functions are only able to be used with warehoused reports.

Run a report

aXcelerate reports are built using two main components, Filters and Display Fields. Filters affect how data is gathered from the system, while display fields affect how data is displayed in the finished report.
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These components can be configured independently of one another and will greatly customise the results of the report.

Select your report and click Live or Warehoused
Select the filters you wish to apply to the report
Select the display fields you wish to show in the report results
Click Submit to run your report

Tip: For further customisation of a report, the Designer or Chart can be used.

Note: Reports will include default Filters and Display Fields for ease of use. These can be updated to customise the report.

Filter your reports

Report Filters enable users to refine the data a report will return. Report filters are able to be added, removed or updated in order to set the correct parameters of the report and retrieve the desired information.

Click the Add Filter dropdown menu
Select any additional filters you wish to include
Click the Delete icon for any fields you wish to remove from your report

Tip: Some Filters may conflict with others. Try adjusting them to see how your results are impacted.

Choose your display fields

Display fields enable users to determine the data that will be displayed in the results of a report. These are able to be added or updated as required to display the desired information returned in the report results.

Click Display Fields to open the display field list
Click the Select a Display Field dropdown menu
Select any additional Display Fields you wish to include
Click Done

Tip: Live reports can include up to 25 Display Fields while Warehoused reports can include up to 200 Display fields.

Use the reports designer

The report designer enables users to configure how a report is displayed when printed and how it is run. Reports can be run and displayed in the following formats: Data Table, Print Format, Chart & Export.

The print formatting allows for the grouping of data at several levels. Groupings will determine the order in which the data is displayed. The Top-level grouping will be ordered first.
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Click Designer to open the Designer menu
Click the -- Select a field grouping -- dropdown menu
Select any Display Fields to you wish to group
Select the way you wish to display your report
Click Done

Descriptions of the various report display types can be found below.

The Data Table presents these results in a format which allows the entries to be sorted in ascending or descending order on any of the fields shown. This view will include hyperlinks to any applicable fields in your report to easily link you to other areas of the system.

Note: Initially, only a maximum of 10 entries are displayed in the data table. However, this can be changed so that up to 250 results are displayed per page.

The Print Format view shows the presentation and sort order of all returned results and fields. This view shows the returned results as static text.

If the report has been configured to appear as a chart, this will display according to the Chart view options.

Click the Chart Options tab to configure these settings.

Tip: Saved reports that have Chart Options configured will be able to be displayed as a widget on your aXcelerate dashboard.

This format will create a CSV or PDF file that will be downloaded to your device.

Upon running an exported report, it will be added to the report queue and be available for download once the status of the report is 'Ready'.

Tip: The Export option can be used to produce reports larger than 3900 results.

Note: If you are running a large report we recommend using the Export option. Any large reports will then be exported via the Report Queue. For more information on the report queue, please see our article on report results.

Configure chart options

The Charts feature allows you to visually represent the data returned by your reports using various Chart Types. Saved Reports with chart options configured can be set to display as a widget on your aXcelerate dashboard.

The chart types available for use are: Pie, Chart, Bar & Bubble

Click the Chart Options tab
Select the Chart Type you would like to use to output your data
Select a relevant Preset Chart to automatically fill the fields for the chart axes
Change the axis fields to customise the display of your report
Select Done

Tip: The available fields may change depending on the selected chart type.

Note: Customisation is unavailable for the Bubble chart type

About warehoused reports

Every night, a full backup of the aXcelerate database is copied and restored onto our reporting database. An automated system task then runs a series of scripts to add over 500 new columns to this database. These column values are often derived from complex calculations with data from several database tables. Due to this complexity, these scripts take many hours to run and may finish anywhere between 6:00 am and 8:00 am. The benefit of this is that when aXcelerate users wish to report on this data the following day, the warehoused reports run quickly because all the calculations have already been done. Without doing this, it could take over an hour to run a single report. These newly calculated fields then allow users to gain in-depth analysis and business insights without large loading times.

Tip: To see examples of these calculated columns please refer to the Report Builder fields help page. Select a Reporting Entity to view information about the field and how it is calculated.

General Reporting Webinar

This webinar demonstrates:

An overview of Report Builder
Example reports to run in the system
Applying report filters
Configuring display fields
Using the designer
Customising chart options

Report Building Webinar