When talking about reports, there are three areas involved and each can be customized.
Those are:
The report wizard steps
The programming for the report
And the report format or exported data
The term ‘standard’ refers to what is included for everyone and ‘custom’ refers to what is determined by the individual association. Keep in mind that these customizations are by association not user.
Being able to implement customizations is done on a case by case basis.
Report wizard steps
Most reports have standard steps with standard options in the report wizard. Here in the events participant list report there are 5 standard steps.
There are default settings for each of those steps. For a particular step, the default setting can be changed for an association.
For example, for this report, the default in step 2 is for No address information.
If your association generally runs the report using the Firm name, city, and state option, CDS can set the report step to default to Firm name, city, and state in step 2.
In a standard step, a custom option can be added.
Here in step 4, for this report, there are standard options for additional information that can be shown on the report. If your association sometimes wants to have payment information shown but other times you don’t, a custom option could be added to this step for Print payment information.
A report wizard can also have custom steps, which would have customized options, added.
If your association, instead of having a need to show payment information, had a need for two very different report layouts then a custom report format step could be added to the report wizard with options for the different formats.
Programming for the report
All reports have programming associated with them which determines what data to return on the report.
Part of that programming is hard coded, meaning that it is the same each time the report is run and is not affected by the user’s settings in the report wizard steps.
But some of the programming is soft coded, meaning that the programming used is determined by the user’s settings in the report wizard steps.
There can be additional programming for an association. That may be tied to a report step or part of the hard coded programming. This programming would make the report behave differently for that association.
Report format or exported data
Just like the report wizard steps, the report format and exported data can be either a standard or custom output.
If the report is an export, meaning no report format is generated like in Email Export, or you use the exported data in place of the report format that is generated, the fields exported can be customized.
Here in Email Export these 7 fields are included in the exported data. If your association needs additional information exported CDS can add those fields to the exported data.
A particular report will either have a standard report format or require that a customized report format be created for each association.
A standard report format is used when the output is standardized so everyone can use the same output, like a receivables report.
A report where everyone would need a different output, like a dues invoice or event confirmation, requires a custom format for each association.
If your association needs a change in a report that uses a standard format, depending on the request, CDS may be able to add that custom information to the standard report format. In other cases CDS may need to create a custom format, so for that association the standard format would not be used.
Just like the data generated for a report has programming associated with it, a report format also has programming, or scripting, associated with it that can affect the output that is seen.
A simple example of this would be a report that has a text label and then the data in a field shown next to the label, like you can see here on this report for the On-Site Administrator.
When there is no data in the field, like you can see here for Hotel. You may not want the text label to show. So there can be scripting added to the text label so it is hidden when the data field is empty.
Another example would be if you want different text shown in a field depending on the value in another field.
For example on a confirmation, you may have text in a field that when the event is assigned to a certain division needs to be different than for all other events.
If your association works with webinar vendors, such as ACPEN or CPA Crossings, and you have text on your confirmation regarding those vendors, your confirmation has scripting controlling when that vendor text is shown.
Sometimes people will refer to their ‘webinar confirmation’ as if it is a different report format than their standard event confirmation format. There actually is just one confirmation report format that generates different outputs. The various outputs seen are handled in the scripting on the report format.
Email Reports
Reports, that are not an export, will have a print report format.
Some of these reports have email functionality that allows you to send the report via email.
A report having the functionality to send a report via email is separate from the creation of an email report format.
A print format and email format are separate report formats within the system, so when CDS adds email functionality to a report where an association already has a custom print format, a second report format has to be setup for that association for emailing the report.
Usually CDS will copy the print format as the base for
creating the email format to save time. These two formats though, do not have to
be identical.
For an email format, it can either be setup to be sent in the body of the email or as a PDF attachment.
If you do not specify that you want the email report to be a PDF attachment, it will be setup to go in the body of the email by default.
With an email report format there is always default text used as the subject line set in the reports programming. Each association can have the text in that subject line set to what they want for that report.
When an email report is sent as a PDF attachment, you need to specify the text you would like in the email body. There is no default text. The text in the body of the email can support merge fields and HTML including links to images.
Images in Reports
Images can be used on reports. On a print report format or an email report format being sent as a PDF attachment, image files with an extension of JPG, PNG, GIF or TIF can be used.
On an email report format set to be sent in the body of the email, a URL for an image must be used.
Custom Reports
Everything discussed to this point relates to standard reports in the system.
If an association has a reporting need, and that can’t be handled through the customizations already discussed, CDS can also create a custom report. Everything then is custom, the report wizard, programming and formats. An association can also request to have emails generated from the AM.NET Server which is done on a customized basis.
Other vendors
Everything I have talked about so far is in regards to reports that are generated from AM.NET.
Your association may also have reports or emails generated from other systems, like your website. CDS can’t speak to what types, if any, customizations can be made to reports or emails generated from another system or vendor.
The other systems or vendors that your association may have reports generated in, or emails sent from,
are your website vendor, webinar vendors (such as ACPEN or CPA Crossings) and Highroad Solution.
How many systems and/or vendors, and what is generated by each, will vary from association to association.
In some cases there may be similar reports generated from AM.NET and another system such as your website.
When you have a request or issue, the first thing you need to know is what system generates that report.
That will tell you who to contact. In some cases that may be just one vendor and in other cases it may be multiple vendors.