In our previous blog post, we discussed a few ways to make your reports easier to read, and more accessible. We continue along that path with a few more tips in this week’s post.
Adding Reports to Your Dashboard
The Dashboard can be a helpful tool, especially to gauge the ebb and flow of your daily business activities. To help make your Dashboard complete, you can add any Fishbowl report, and then pull it up within a few moments. All of this can be done without having to go to the reports module to open the report.
Just remember that the more reports you add to the Dashboard, the longer it will take your Fishbowl Client to load. Another thing to be aware of is that the reports on your Dashboard will be displayed with whatever filters you have set on the report in the Report Module. For tips on saving multiple reports, but with different filters, see our last blog post, or give us a call.
Scheduling Reports For Export
Reports can be scheduled to export on a regular basis. These reports can be exported as excel files (including csv’s), as pdf’s, or as Rich Text Files, which can be helpful if you want to keep a record of your reports within a designated folder. At the same time, the reports can also be emailed to a designated recipient.
One of the known problems in Fishbowl Inventory is that some reports are not accurate if you are back-dating the report. For example, the “On Hand by Date” report shows you the inventory quantities from your chosen date, but it displays the asset values as of today.
Another example is the “Inventory Valuation Summary” report. This report cannot be back-dated, so if you did not save a copy of the report on a given date, that report is lost forever.
We suggest that you find the reports that most impact your business, and schedule them for automatic export on a daily basis.
Default Reports
Fishbowl has set up their own reports as defaults in specific modules (e.g. the “Sales Order Report” in the Sales Order Module, or the “Pick Ticket” in the Picking Module). But, what if you want to print or email a different report from these modules, when prompted? This can be accomplished in the Reports Module by choosing which Default Reports you want to have assigned to each Module within Fishbowl.
Setting up Default Reports in specific modules can help you more easily get the reports you need, at the time you need them. The report that you have set up as the default report for each module will be the one that prints out when you click the “Print” icon in the module, or when you are prompted to print a report after completing a step while processing orders.
Other Settings (Module Options)
In the Module Options of the Report Module, you will find some other handy options that you might not already know about. Some of these options include:
- Displaying the “Modify Report” dialog box upon opening a report
- Setting a Default Date Range
- Setting a Default Location Group
- Setting a Default Salesperson
- Choosing how many decimal places to show on your reports
- How the date displays on your reports
These options can be helpful for getting the most out of your reports.
Let us know if you have any questions about Fishbowl reports and Fishbowl Inventory Custom Reports. As always, we are happy to help!
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