Reporting Periods

Reporting Periods is a new option available under the Tools menu.

Its purpose is to store an image of a report.  Each image is known as a Report Revision.  Report Revisions can be created as needed.  The benefit is this allows a report to have multiple revisions that can be viewed and compared as desired.  Each revision is an image of the data at the time the Report Revision is created.  As projects, orders, etc. change; these Report Revisions can be compared to show how the data changed over time.

Creating a Report Revision
To create a report revision, From the Tools menu, choose Reporting Periods, Create Report Revision...

This will open a dialog window that will give a suggested name for the revision.  The suggested name is based on the name of the saved report appended with the current date.  If this suggested name is not unique to the report, "(Revision #)" where # is a unique numerical value is inserted after the report name.
Example: Where the report name is Reporting Periods...


The revision name is editable and can contain any value.  However, it must be a name unique to the saved report.  If it is not, this dialog will appear...


The existing revision can be overwritten with a new revision if desired by clicking Yes.  Note that the revision will not be recoverable once it is overwritten.

Note:  The revisions are stored within saved reports.  Therefore, the report itself must be saved before a revision can be created.  This dialog appears to prompt to save the report (not the revision) if the report is not yet saved...


The suggested name will be based on the name entered in the report title.  It uses the same protocol to create a unique report name as the Save and SaveAs report features.  The report name is editable and can contain any value.  However, it must be a report name unique to the OASIS database.  Once the report is saved, the report revision dialog will appear as described above.

Comparing Report Revisions
To compare report revisions, From the Tools menu, choose Reporting Periods, Compare Report Revisions...


This will open a dialog window that will allow two report revisions to be chosen...


Drag and drop entries or use the Add buttons to copy entries from the 'Reports available for comparison' list to the boxes on the left.  The top left box is the starting report.  It is compared to the report in the box below it.  Clicking Compare will compare the two selected reports and display report differences.

Comparison Rules
When a match between report transactions (same quote, order, invoice, etc.) is found, these rules are used to formulate the resulting report field value:

Text Content
Text content such as manufacturer name is compared character by character.

No Difference
If there is no difference in value, the result shown will be the value shared by both reports.

Change in Value
If there is a change in value, the content of the second report is displayed with an asterisk in front of it.

Date Content
Date content such as bid date is compared.

No Difference
If there is no difference in value, the result shown will be the value shared by both reports.

Change in Value
If there is a change in value, the content of the second report is displayed with an asterisk in front of it.

Number Content
Number content such as a percentage is compared.

The value displayed is the numerical amount of the second report subtracted by the numerical amount of the first report.

Currency Content
Currency content such as sell value is compared.

The value displayed is the currency amount of the second report subtracted by the currency amount of the first report.

Display Results
The results displayed of the comparison of the two reports is a results report that will use the same Layout as the second report.
Example:
First Report

Second Report


Result


Differences in Report Layouts
If the two reports being compared have differences in their report Layout, the Layout of the second report is used.  Therefore, if the first report contains a report field that is not within the second report, the field is ignored.  If the second report contains a report field that is not within the first report, the comparison will consider the difference between the two reports as if text and date fields of the first report are blank; and numerical and currency fields of the first report are zero.

Other Options

Include Transactions Not in the 1st/2nd Report
When an unmatched transaction (unmatched quote, order, invoice, etc.) is found, these options indicate whether to include the transaction in the results report.  If checked, then the report content of the transaction is included in the results report.  The name of the Report Revision (with the report name removed if present) is used as a header line to indicate which report it belongs to.

Example:

Indicate When Transactions Match
Choosing this option determines whether this line appears or does not appear in the results displayed.


Viewing Report Revisions
Another feature is the ability to view the report revisions that are saved.  Each saved report revision also keeps a PDF copy of the report.  To view a report, drag and drop or use the Add buttons to copy an entry from the 'Reports available for comparison' list to one of the boxes on the left.  Once the entry is placed in a box on the left, click View Report.  A PDF viewer is launched that will show the report.  It may be that comparisons of reports are never used.  But having the ability to look at a report that shows how the data looked at a certain point in time can be useful.