Part 2 of 3: Learn how to customize your reports with Sage 50 Intelligence Reporting

4 minute read time.

Welcome to Part 2 of this three-part series! In part 1 we showed you how to get started with Sage 50 Intelligence Reporting. You'll now discover how to easily customize your reports. Intelligence Reporting pulls real-time data from Sage 50 - and other data sources you may want to report on - and delivers it in an Excel format that is easy to understand, interact with and customize, giving you instant visibility across your business. There will come a time when you'll need to customize your reports, such as adding or removing rows and columns or maybe adding some charts to visually represent your data. Let's get started

1. Start by unlocking the report by making a copy

  • Open the Sage Intelligence Report Manager. (If you are not sure where to begin, Watch the Activation Video).
  • In the Report Manager, right click on the report you would like to customize. In this example, we will choose the Sales Analysis 1-4 report located in the Sales folder.

  • Choose Copy.
  • Right click the folder you would like the new report to be placed in. In this example, we will right click on the Sales folder.
  • Then choose Paste.
  • A new report appears in the list with "Copy of" at the beginning of the name. In this case, the new report will be "Copy of Sales Analysis 1-4".

2. Verify the properties of the new report and rename it.

  • Click on your new report, in this case it will be, "Copy of Sales Analysis 1-4". You will see the properties of this report on the right-hand pane.
  • Rename the report by clicking in the Report Name box and typing in a new name.

  • After entering a name, click the "Apply" button in the top right-hand corner.
  • You will then see this pop-up message below:

  • Choose the first option to Assign a new name and delete the old template if unused by other reports (Recommended). You will notice the Report template name will also change to reflect the report name you entered. This keeps your reports and report templates in order.

3. Use the Columns tab to add and remove fields from your report

  • Next to the properties tab, you can access the Columns tab by clicking on it.
  • Notice how the window contains various fields pulled from your Sage 50 data. This is where you can choose to add, remove or rename your columns.
  • Let's keep this example simple, and choose to remove all columns except Amount Paid, Company name, Customer ID and Invoice number.
    • Simply click on a column to select it and click the remove button on the right.
    • To select multiple fields at once, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and the "down" arrow).
  • A pop-up message will appear, asking if want to remove the column, say "Yes".
  • The final result should look like this:

4. Run the report and edit the resulting Excel template Save hours with Intelligence Reporting by only having to customize your report once, and then saving it as a template, giving you the latest data looking just the way you want.

  • Click on your report, then click the Run button (the green arrow at the top) and choose your desired parameters. (Start and End dates)
  • Click OK.
  • The report will now run out into Excel.
  • From here you can take full control of the resulting Pivot Table and customize it further like the example below:

  • You can include visuals, like charts, graphs and logos as well as custom calculations to help with your analysis.
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  5. Save your Excel template Once you have finished customizing your Excel report, you need to save it as a template in the Report Manager.

  • In the Report Manager, click on your Report.
  • In the ribbon, click the "Save Excel template" button.
  • A pop-up message will appear with a list of all your open Excel workbooks. (Make sure you select the correct workbook).
  • Then click OK.
  • Another pop-up box will appear prompting you with regards to parameters.
  • Select Yes, then, specify a name for your template and click OK.

Your template is now saved and linked to your report for future use, so the next time you run your report, all your changes will already be saved, and your report will now show you the latest data looking just the way you want! Look out for the final part in the series, where we will show you how to work with your financials, using the Financial Report Designer.

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