From this point forward, we will deal with the nuts and bolts of how to actually design and run the reports themselves.

For the sake of convenience, we will pick of one of the above reports and use that as a guide to setting up the templates for all of the reports.

Let's say we're going to create a template for the Product Sales Summary

• Select Reports > Point of Sale > Product Sales Summary from the Menu Bar
• The Report Design and Submit window appears.
• Here you can either choose to create a new template, run the report from an existing template, or access an existing template and alter it.
• We will create a new template.

To begin the process to create a new template:

• Click on the New Task Bar button at the top of the Report Design and Submit window.
• The New Report window will appear.
  • In the Enter Report Name field
  • Key in the name of the report template you are creating
  • Click on the Apply button
    • If you click Cancel you will be taken back to the Report Design and Submit window with no action having taken place

iMerchant Tip: If you want to change the username on the report, before clicking on New, enter a new name in the Change User Name on Report" field. This field defaults to the username logged in to the system, you will probably keep it unchanged. But the option exists.

Once you have clicked on Apply the Report Designer displays

The heading of this window will match the name you just entered in the Enter Report Name field back in the New Report window.

Let's start from the top of the Report Designer and work our way down.

There are three sections: Header, Detail, and Footer. Header is for the top of the report. Detail pertains to the body of the report, the "meat" of the report. Footer is for the bottom of the report.

Header:

• Click on the Design Report Header button.
• The Report Header Designer window appears. The window will be blank, since you haven't applied anything to it yet.
• To begin designing the Report Header
  • Click inside the blank Designer window.
  • The palette appears.
  • Scroll through the palette and decide which options you want to appear in the report template's header.
    • e.g., if you want the store address to appear in the header
    • Select Store Address
    • Drag the selected option into the Report Header Designer window, and place it where you want.

iMerchant Tip: Some of the palette selections are not fixed. You can use them for whatever purpose you want.

• The Comment Control selection is a good example. When you select this, it will appear in the Report Header Designer window, and the text within the selection will tell you to key in what you want.
• You might use Comment Control to key in a name specific to the report you wish to run. For example, if you wanted to title the report, "John's Orders," then you would key in "John's Orders" in the Comment Control field.
• This gives you the flexibility to key in what you want
• You can drag this palette selection onto the Report Designer window as many times as you like, in effect creating multiple user-definable field selections.

• Today's Date is a selection that will automatically update itself to display the current date. This might be a useful tool to add to your template report's header. If so, drag it over.
• The Line and Vertical Line selections are just what they say--horizontal and vertical lines.
  • Drag them over and then play around with them to make them look the way you want.
  • You can adjust the lines by lengthening or shortening them (using standard Windows practices) or by right-clicking on them once they are in the Designer and then experimenting with the Height and Placement. For general discussion about right-clicking on selected fields, click here.
• The Group Box selection allows you to place a number of individual selections into one large Group Box.
• The Picture Box selection allows you to import a graphic from another file onto the report.
  • When you drag the Picture Box into the Designer window, right-click within the Picture Box.
  • A menu appears.
  • Select Picture and bring in the image file you want using standard PC practices.

Near the top of the Designer window, there is a Default icon. If you would like to display the name of the fields you place in the Designer window (from the Palette), this is the tool to use.

• For example, if you choose Retail Price from the Palette, the retail price will appear on the label. But do you want the label to say the words "Retail Price"? If so, you would use the Default icon.
• When you click on the Default icon, the Display Options window appears, you are given four choices:
• Create the display name (or "label") on the right, left, or top of the field.
• The fourth choice is not to use a descriptive comment field.
• Whatever you choose here becomes the default for all Palette selections.

If you want to change this for a specific field in the Designer window (i.e., go against the Designer window Default selection), right-click on the field, and choose "Display" from the menu that appears.

This will call up the Display Options window as well, but in this case, the window will only apply to the specific field on which you right-clicked. The same four choices will appear, and you can choose any of them.

When you drag a field in to the Designer window from the Palette, do you want the field's full description or code to appear?

• For example, let's say you drag the Bindings field into the Designer window.
• Do you want the Bindings field to display the name of the Binding (for example, "Hardcover"); or do you want it to display the code (for example, "HC")?
• You can decide this on a field-by-field basis. . .
• Right-click on the desired field.
• Select "Display." This calls up the Display Options window.
• In addition to giving you the four choices regarding whether (and where) to display the name of the field (as described in the above note), there is a section at the bottom that will dictate whether the field will display the description or code.
• Under "Choose Description Display," there are two choices: "Display Code" and "Display Description".
• Click on the circle to the left of the choice you want.

Only fields that can display either a code or a description will showcase the "Choose Description Display" portion of the Display Options window. If a field has no code attached to it, the "Choose Description Display" portion of the window will not appear.

Repeat this process for all the options you want to include in the report template's header.

Arrange the selections within the Report Header Designer window the way you want by dragging them around the window using standard Windows procedures.

If you want the store address to appear on the top left of the header, then place it in the top left of the Report Header Designer window, and so on.

You can also resize the selections vertically or horizontally, again using standard Windows procedures.

If you want to delete a selection from the Report Header Designer window that you've already placed there:

• Right-click on the selection (for example, "Store Address").
• Select Delete. The selection is removed from the Report Header Designer window.

You can do more than delete a selection from the Report Header Designer window by right-clicking on it, though.

When you right-click on a selection, there are often two choices in the pulldown menu:

• Delete
• Font: you can change the font for the selection you just right-clicked on. Set the font the way you want it, then click on OK.

Some selections i.e. the Full Address selections (Store Full Address, Customer's Shipping Full Address, Customer's Billing Full Address ) offer more choices when you right-click on them.

• In addition to Delete and Font, these selections' pulldown menu also includes:
• Number of Lines: calls up the Address Lines window
  • You can set the number of lines designated for the full address using the up/down arrows to the right of the Use field.
  • After selecting the desired number of lines, click on the Apply button
• Visibility: calls up the Group Box Visibility window,
  • You can select whether or not you want the outline of the Group Box that surrounds the Full Address selection to print when the report is run and then printed as a hardcopy.
  • Select the choice you want and click on the Apply button
• Additional Fields: calls up the Additional Fields window.
  • This window lists a handful of fields that you can add to the Full Address box displayed in your Report Header Designer window.
  • The Full Address default fields are Name, Address, City, State, and Zip.
  • Whatever you choose from the Additional Fields window will appear below these fields once selected.
  • To select a field from the Additional Fields window, check the box to the left of the desired field
  • Click on the Apply button

Once you have set up your Report Header Designer window the way you want:

• Click on the Apply button
• The Report Header template has now been established, and you are returned to the Designer window for your template.
  • If you click on the Cancel button, you will also be returned to the Designer window, but no Report Header parameters will have been established.

Now you can design the Page Header criteria for the template:

• From the Designer window
• Click on the Design Page Header button.
• The Page Header Designer window opens.
• Follow the same exact guidelines you used when setting up the Report Header.
• The only difference is that the header you are designing here applies to the pages of the report template, rather than the Report Header, which appears at the very top of page one.
• The Page Header will appear in the header for pages two and up.

Once you have set up the headers, it's time to work on the detail, or body, of the report template.

This is the major section of the Designer program.

Under the Detail section of the Designer window, the first two fields are checkbox fields:

Totals Only:

• Checked = you don't want line-by-line detail to appear on the report.
• Unchecked = you want line-by-line detail to appear on the report
  • For the Customer Order Summary, if you check Totals Only, the individual titles the customer purchased won't appear on the report. Only the Totals info (for example, 5 titles purchased, total cost of $50.00) will appear.
  • More often than not, especially for a Customer Orders Summary, you will probably want to leave the Totals Only box unchecked.

Display Count: deals with individual items, not amounts.

• Checked = the report will list the number of different items on the report.
• Unchecked = the report will not list the number of different items on the report
  • e.g. On the Customer Order Summary, 12 different items are listed.
  • The customer purchased three copies of each item, for a total of 36 copies.
  • The Display Count is only looking at the items themselves, not the number of copies sold.
  • If Display Count is checked, the report will print a Display Count value of 12, representing the 12 different items.

To determine what columns your template should report on:

• Click on the Design Detail Layout button in the Designer window.
• The Report Column Designer window appears.
• The top portion of the screen tells you the font type that exists for the column headings
  • Font type will appear in bold type directly to the right of the Change Font button.
  • To change the font type
  • Click on the Change Font button and choose the font you want in the Font window, then click on OK.
  • When you return to the Report Column Designer window, the font type will have changed to what you just selected.
• Use Font Defaults: sets the font type to the system default.

Beneath these Font buttons, there are three checkbox fields and a numerical field.

Print Grid Lines:

• Checked = you want your report to print grid lines between columns and rows
• Unchecked = you don't

Double Spacing in Detail Section:

• Checked = you want the line items of your report (assuming you are not running it by Totals Only) to be doublespaced
• Unchecked = you don't

When the page width is exceeded wrap the columns around to the next line:

• Checked = you want the columns to wrap around to the next line (instead of having the excess columns bleeding over onto a separate page)
• Unchecked = you don't
• Please note, if you include Line Breaks when designing the report body, this field will be checked automatically.

Detail Lines Printed: key in the number of detail (line) items you want to see on the report.

• e.g. if you define the query to report on your store's best-selling books for the years 2005-2006, you can further define how many of the best sellers you want to see on the actual report.
• Let's say you want to see the top 10 best-selling books.
• In the Detail Lines Printed field, key in 10.
• Only the top 10 best-selling books will appear on the report.
• If you leave the value at zero, all items as defined by the report query will appear on the report.

The bottom portion of the Report Column Designer window is a display.

Once you choose which columns you want to include on the report template, they will appear in this display.

At that point, you can resize and rearrange the columns any way you want using basic drag-and-drop Windows techniques.

Finally you're at the point to select what columns you want to include on the report template.

• Click on the Column Select icon in the Task Bar at the top of the Report Column Designer window.
• Just below the Task Bar is an assortment of buttons.
• Most of the buttons pertain to specific categories of information
  • e.g. Product, Author, etc.
• When you click on each button, different column options will display in the lower portion of the window.
  • On the left are the field choices available listed under Field Name
  • You can select any of these fields to appear as columns on the report.
  • To select a field, click on the Use Field checkbox to the left of it.
  • That's all there is to it.
  • Every field you check in this way will appear as a column on the report template you are designing.
  • The Header Name section of the window, to the right, lists how the fields will display as the column headers for the report.
  • The names in the Header Name section should match the names in the Field Name section.
  • The Comment Literal refers to the Column Format tab, which we will get to in a moment
  • Some of the fields are code-driven
    • i.e. Accounting Category and Department Category
    • You can choose to have the information being reported on for these fields to appear as a description or in code form.
    • If you want it to appear in code form for a particular field
      • Click on the Use Code checkbox for the field in question.
      • Selected codes will appear in the rows for individual line items in a detailed report.
      • e.g. If you choose to display the Department Category code for items in your report, each item's Department Category code will appear after the item's name, or description.
      • So, all Fiction books on the report would display the appropriate Department Category code following their description (probably something like F for "Fiction,"), all Gardening books would display the appropriate Department Category code following their description, and so on.
• On the far right of the Column Select window is the Use Total field.
  • This only applies to the numerical fields listed in the window.
  • There is a checkbox in the rows of all applicable fields, and the system default is for the boxes to be checked.
    • Checked = the report will calculate total quantities for these fields selected in Use Field
    • Unchecked = onhand totals will not appear on the report.
• Please note two buttons near the top of the Column Select window:
  • In Use: If you click on In Use the options you have selected by checking the Use Field checkbox will display.
    • This is a good way of seeing, all at once, the column options you have selected for the report.
  • Column Format: this is where you can insert comments and line breaks. The headings Use Field, Field Name, Header Name/Comment Literal, Use Code, Use Total are the same as they normally are. The Field Name here, though, is relatively unimportant.
    • What you need to pay attention to is: Some field names are Comment fields (i.e., Comment0, Comment1, etc.), while others are Line Break fields (i.e., Line Break/Wrap here0, Line Break/Wrap here1 etc.). The Use Code and Use Total headings should be ignored on this screen.
      • For Line Breaks, if you want to insert one, simply check the Use Field checkbox to the left of a Line Break field.
      • That's all there is to it. You can insert up to six line breaks.
      • A line break will do just what it says. If you insert it after a column, back on the Report Column Designer screen, iMerchant will automatically insert a line break between that column and the next one.
        • e.g. Maybe you wish to break the line between Department Category and Book Class.
        • You would select a Line Break here.
        • Then, in the Report Column Designer window, you would manually drag the Line Break field between the Department Category and Book Class fields.
        • Repeat this process for each line break you select.
      • For Comment fields, select one by checking the check box to the left of a Comment field in the Column Select window.
      • Under Header Name/Comment Literal key in the comment you want to appear on the report.
        • e.g. Maybe before each line entry, you might key in: PO Number
        • This is simply a convenience tool that you want to use for clarification on your printed report.
        • Most likely it will define a line or field, clarifying the content of said line or field on your report.
        • You can select up to six comments.
        • Once you select a comment and key in what you want it to say
        • Move it to the appropriate, desired position back in the Report Column Designer window.

Once you have established your settings in the Column Select window:

• Click on Apply in the TaskBar
• You are returned to the Report Column Designer window.
  • If you had clicked on Cancel in the Column Select window, you would still have been returned to the Report Column Designer window, but nothing would have appeared in the display at the bottom of the window.
• The columns you selected in the Column Select window appear in the display at the bottom of the window.
• Rearrange or resize the columns using standard Windows practices as you see fit
• Once you have rearranged/resized your columns
• Click on Apply in the Task Bar
  • Click on Cancel if you want to back out without applying the changes you've made
• You are returned to the Designer window.

One more step remains in determining how the body of your report will look.

You have chosen what you will actually be reporting for, but you must now decide how the report should be sorted.

• e.g. You will run the report against the items Department Category, Accounting Category, onhand quantity, cost, and retail value.
• These fields will show up at the top of the columns in the report, and they will fill in with the appropriate data for the items on the Customer Order you are running the report against.
• But how should the rows, that is, the individual items on the Customer Order itself, be arranged or sorted?

To determine this:

• From the Designer window
• Click on Sorts and Groupings under the Detail section.
• The Design Sorts and Groups window appears.
  • If you are creating a new report, the section under Groups will be blank.
• Click on Add Group on the Task Bar
• A row fills in under the Groups heading.
  • This is the primary sorting method you will use for this report template.
• In the field under Groups
• Click on the down arrow at the right and select the sorting category you want from the pulldown menu.
  • e.g. You want the items on the report to be sorted by Department Category (all Fiction books grouped together, all gardening books grouped together, all cookbooks grouped together, etc.)
  • Select Department Category from the pulldown menu.
• To the right of the category field (in this case, Department Category), you will see a few more fields:
• Header:
  • Checked = each grouping will be preceded by a header.
    • e.g. The Fiction books will have a header above them that says Fiction; the cookbooks will have a header directly above them Cookbooks, etc.
  • Unchecked = no header will appear above the different groupings of items on the report.
• Footer:
  • Checked = you want the category field (in this case, Department Category) to appear beneath the grouping.
  • Unchecked = no footer will display.
• Page Break:
  • Checked = the system will insert an automatic page break after each of the groupings.
    • using the above example, a page break would be inserted after the Fiction books group, after the Cookbooks group, after the Gardening group, etc.
  • Unchecked = no page breaks will be inserted.
• Sort Order: The Sort Order field determines if you will sort the groups in ascending or descending order.
  • For alpha groups, ascending would be A to Z, descending Z to A
    • For numerical groups, ascending would place the lowest numerical value at the top of the grouping, descending would place the highest numerical value at the top of the grouping.
  • Select either Ascending or Descending by clicking on the arrow at the right of the Sort Order field, then choosing the desired method from the pulldown menu that appears.
• Display Top (optional): determines how many lines to display for any grouping with a header
• active only if you checked the Header box.
• If you did not, the Display Top field will be grayed out and unavailable.
  • e.g. You want to see only the top ten values for a particular grouping, you set the Display Top field to 10.
  • Use the up-arrow and down-arrow keys in the Display Top field to move either up or down in increments of one until you arrive at the desired value.
  • If the total number of items in a grouping would be, say, 76, and you choose 15 in the Display Top field, then only the top 15 items in that grouping will display on the report.

To add another layer to the sorting process, click on Add Group again.

• A new row will appear underneath the just-created row (Department Category in the example above).
• Repeat the process of selecting the sorting category, whether to include a header, footer, and page break, and how to sort the grouping.
• This second group would be a group within a group, so to speak.
• If the first grouping is Department Category and the second grouping is Publication Date, then the groupings will be sorted first by Department Category and then by Publication Date.
  • So, for the Fiction books group, they will be further sorted by Publication Date.
• You can add as many sorting layers as you want.

To delete a row underneath the Groups heading:

• Highlight the row you want to delete.
• Select Edit > Delete from the Menu Bar
• The row will be deleted.

Once you have finished creating the sorts as you want them:

• Click on Apply on the Task Bar
• You are returned to the Designer window; your sorts have been applied.
  • If clicked on Cancel, you still would have been brought back to the Designer window, but the sorts would not have been applied to the report template.

You have now finished designing the body of your template!

The last step to designing your report is to design the footers, both on the first page and then on subsequent pages.

The first two fields are checkbox fields:

Print Grand Totals:

• Checked = grand totals will print at the end of the report.
• Unchecked = they won't

Print Notes: only applies to the Customer Order Summary and to running a PO Report for just ONE PO, usually when accessed via the PO program itself

• Checked = the Customer Order notes or PO notes that you created for the applicable Customer Order or PO will print at the end of the report.
• Unchecked = they won't
• If the Print Notes checkbox field is grayed out, it is not active and does not apply.
• For more information on printable notes, please click here.

The Design Page Footer and Design Report Footer buttons operate identically to their counterparts dealing with the Header.

The Report Footer refers to the footer only on the first page of the report.

The Page Footer refers to the footer on all subsequent pages

• good for putting in a page number in your Page Footer.

Once you have finished setting up the template (Header, Detail, Footer), save your template:

• Click on Save in the Task Bar
• The parameters for the template have been saved
• You are returned to the Report Design and Submit window where you can submit the report for processing.
  • If you accessed the report from a Query that is where you will be returned.

To select an existing report template and then make changes to its design:

• Select the desired template from the Select Report on File field in the Report Design and Submit window
  • or select the desired template using the Select Report on File field in the upper right corner of the Query window
• Click on Design in the Task Bar, and use the same techniques we just covered to redesign the template.

To delete the report template from the system:

• Select Edit > Delete from the Designer window.
• The report template is deleted, and you are returned to the Report Design and Submit window.

If you want to rename the report template:

• Select File > Rename Report from the menu.
• The Rename window appears.
• Key in the new name and click Apply

If you want to create a new report template that is nearly identical to the one you have open in the Designer window:

• In the existing template, change the few fields that need changing in the Header, Detail, and Footer section.
• Once the change (or changes) is made
• Select File > Save As from the Designer window menu.
• Key in the name of the new report you are creating
• Click Apply
• The new template is saved

If you want to save the report to an .xml file:

• Select File > Save to XML from the Menu Bar
• A dialogue box appears, asking if you want to use the current report name when saving to XML.
• If you select No, a Change Name to window will appear, and you will need to key in the new name
  • Then click Apply
  • Then the Save As dialogue box appears, and you can save the report to a chosen directory on your PC.
• If you select Yes , you bypass the Change Name to window and proceed straight to the Save As dialogue box.
• Clicking  Cancel backs you back out to the Designer window.

To submit a report for processing:

• Select the desired template from the Select Report on File field in the Report Design and Submit window.
• Click on Submit on the Task Bar
• This calls up the Report Viewer window
• Select which printer you want to print to, how many copies you want printed, and whether you want the report to be printed in Portrait or Landscape
• Prior to printing, if you want to preview what the report will look like
  • Click on Preview
  • When the preview displays on your screen, scroll through and see what you think.
  • If you don't like it, you can go back in the Designer window, make the desired changes, then resubmit.
  • Within the Preview window for the Inventory (Product) Report and the Product Sales Report, there is a toolbar button that allows you to create a Product List from the records that will display on the report.
  • If you want to create a Product List
    • Click on this button
    • The Create New Product List window will appear.
• When you are ready to print, click on Print
  • You don't need to print the entire report if you don't want to.
  • In the Report Viewer window, under the Print Range section
  • Set a page range to print or key in a page or pages to print.
  • If you want to print the entire report, just leave the All choice selected.

If you want to save the report as a .csv file (Excel)

• Click on CSV
• Save the contents of the report to a desired directory on your PC.