How to Make Reports More Informative in Planfix

Reports become more informative the moment you decide what question the table should answer, before you add a single column. Reports in Planfix show the data your team already enters in tasks, projects, contacts and data tags, so the difference between a wall of rows and a clear answer is the setup: the object, the filter, the columns, the grouping and the formulas. This three-minute video goes through those settings in order.

What you’ll learn: how to make reports more informative

1. Create a report in the Report Wizard and choose the object its data comes from (0:06).
2. Add columns and decide what each of them displays.
3. Group and sort the selected rows so the table reads as a summary (1:17).
4. Calculate values in a column with a formula (1:51).
5. Export the finished report for sharing or further analysis (2:17).

How to make reports more informative in Planfix, step by step

Step 1. Create the report and choose its object

Open the Reports section and click New report on the task panel; to start from something that already works, select an existing report and click Create copy. Either way, the Report Wizard opens. In General information, choose the group the report belongs to, name it and select the object whose data it uses: Tasks, Actions (Comments), Data tags, Contacts/Companies, Directories, Projects or Time off calendar. That choice decides what you can work with in the next steps.

Step 2. Select the data the report shows

In Selection parameters, set the filter that decides which records reach the report. The settings look the same as task filters: define any number of conditions and set the logical connections between them in the designated field. When the report is built on data tags, each data tag can get its own selection criteria, which keeps one report flexible instead of splitting it into three.

Step 3. Add columns and name their headers

Report view is where you build the table. For each column, set at least a column header and the object type for the output; Planfix then offers the fields available for that object, so a Tasks column and a Data tags column ask for different details. For a data tag column, set the display parameters for each data tag in the selection. Plain headers and only the columns someone actually reads do as much for clarity as the data itself, and the report designer keeps both editable later.

Step 4. Group and sort the rows

Grouping turns a long list into a summary: rows collapse under the project, the employee or the period they belong to. Grouping and sorting can be set straight away in Selection parameters or after the report view is configured. The second order is usually more convenient: once the columns exist, you can group and sort by them as well.

Step 5. Calculate values with a formula column

One of the object types available for a column is Formula. A formula uses the data from the columns to the left of it, up to the formula column, where each column is denoted by its own letter, and it accepts standard operators and Planfix functions. Formulas are calculated from left to right in one pass, after the non-formula columns are filled with data, so a formula works with database values rather than with the results of other formulas. The help article on formulas in reports explains the order in detail.

Step 6. Export the report

Run the report first: the Export button appears once there are results on the screen. Reports export to XLSX, CSV and Google Sheets, so the same table can go to a spreadsheet for extra math or to a client as a file. For Excel, a data export template sets the layout of the file in advance. See exporting reports for the available formats.

Who it’s for

• Management: project data with efficiency ratios calculated in a formula column.
• Finance: amounts entered with data tags, grouped by project and exported to XLSX, CSV or Google Sheets.
• Project managers: task data and task statistics in one table, selected the way you filter tasks.
• HR: a summary of everyone’s vacation days from the Time off calendar object, ready to print for approval.
• Operations: reference data such as stock balances from directories.

FAQ

Start with the question your report answers

Take one report your team runs every month and ask what single question it should answer. Then choose the object, the filter and the grouping that answer it, and let a formula column do the arithmetic. When numbers need to be seen rather than read, charts and graphs visualize the same report data. For a full build from scratch, see how to set up automated project reports. New to Planfix? Sign up to try it.

• #Custom fields, forms & formulas
• #Reports & dashboards

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