3. The Financial Report Window Interface

1. Searching & Creating Templates
2. Input
3. Filters
4. Settings

1. Searching & Creating Templates

The main Financial Report window contains a list of options to configure in order to generate your reports:

Search fields

If you have a long list of Report Templates, you can use the search field at the top left corner to easily find them by name.

You can also combine this with the Group By option to search according to the groups being used.

Hit Enter to see the result in the Reports area below.

Financial Report Interface

The Template column shows the name given to each report when saved, the Description column shows a descriptive note that can be read through mouse over. The rest of the columns show the Groups compatible with each Template.

Click on any of the column headers to sort by that specific column as a help to find a specific Template.

Reports

To create a new Report Template, click on the green Plus icon.
Enter a Name, a Description (if needed) and select the Groups the report will be based on.

For example, if choosing Objects as grouping (1) and Project/ Media Order/ Unref. Invoice as grouping (2), the report will contain:

• A list of Objects displaying total numbers (rates/ quantities).
• For each Object there will be a list of the Projects/ Media Orders/ Unref. Invoices that these

Objects are booked for, displaying the total numbers (rates/ quantities).

Description of available Groups:

* These groupings will only be available if the Budget Module is licensed. Please also consult the Budgeting Manual for more information related to Financial Reporting of Budgets.

Once a Report Template is selected, if no other setting or filter is to be modified, click on the Generate Report button to access the Print Designer.

2. Input

The Input section shows the number of Projects, Media Orders or Unreferenced Invoices the report will base its data on. It is linked to the selection made prior to accessing this window.

The number is only estimated, to maintain performance. The actual data sources used can only be retrieved during the Report generation. Therefore the number displayed in the Input section may differ from the actual Report result.

3. Filters

Objects

Depending on where the report has been accessed from, next to Objects, Farmers WIFE either shows:

• The number of selected Objects the report will be based on (when accessing the Financial Reports from Object), or
• 'Any', which means that data of all Objects involved in the selected Projects/ Media Orders/ Unreferenced Invoices will be included in the report.

To change the selection, click on the drop-down arrow and choose 'Select' or 'Load List From Basket'.

When choosing 'Select', the 'Select Objects' window shows all Objects in the database allowing you to select the Objects the report should include.

In the example below, the Category filter is set to Suites/Workstations and two Objects are selected. Thus, when clicking OK, the Objects Filter will show the quantity of selected Objects between brackets, as (8):

To use Objects currently loaded in the Object Tree, click on the 'Select Objects In Tree' option.

When choosing 'Load List From Basket', the existing baskets will show to load saved quick-pick selections of Objects.

To create, modify and/ or remove Baskets, go into the 'Select Object' window, and click on the drop-down arrow at the top right for the following Basket-related options:

• Add Selected Objects To Basket: to add the highlighted Objects to either a New Basket or to an existing Basket .

• Remove Selected Objects From Basket: to delete the highlighted Objects from an existing Basket .

• Load List From Basket: to load all Objects that are within a Basket.

• Remove Basket: to delete the selected Basket.
  
  
  

More options available in the drop-down arrow of the 'Select Objects'' window:

• Show Accessories': when selecting an Object that has Accessories, this option will show its Object Accessories.
• 'Show Group Members'': when selecting a Group, this option will show the members of the`Group.
• 'Show Inactive': inactive Objects will not appear listed, unless this option is selected.· 'Display': to modify the display columns in this window.

Classes

Similarly to the Objects option, when accessing the Financial Reports from Object Classes, this field will show the quantity of selected Object Classes.

When generating the Financial Report from Projects, Media Orders, Invoices, or Budgets, this field will state Any, which means that all Object Classes involved in the selected sources will be included in the report.

To change the selection click on the arrow and choose Select and follow the same steps as forchanging Objects (see above).

Financial Lines In Range

Only when the Financial Report is accessed from Objects or Object Classes, will this filter display the selected time range. Otherwise, the date is set to Don't Filter, meaning that regardless of when anything has been booked or time reported the data will be included in the report. This is e.g. the case when creating a Cost to Date report on a Project, to see how much it has been Used up to date by displaying Used Numbers in the report.

In case that only a specific time period should be reported on a Project, the Financial Lines in Range filter can be applied so all individual financial lines outside the specified date range are ignored.

Click on the grey bar and choose Change. From the Choose Start And End Date window, select the start date from the left calendar and the end date from the right calendar and hit OK.

The new time range will be displayed next to Financial Lines In Range.

The following warning appears when selecting specific Objects and/or Classes, besides changing the date range:

• Choosing Yes will modify the previous Input by searching the database again going through all sources, but only for the selected Objects/Classes and during the specified time frame.
• Click on No to keep the same Input: the report will then be based on the selected sources (Projects, Media Orders, Project Work Orders, Invoices), but only for the specific Objects/ Classes and time range.
• When defining a date range at Filter Lines In Range and filter by some Objects, the Financial Report will offer to collect new input for the report based on those filters. It will ignore the archived Projects/Media Orders, but instead take the Invoices from those Projects/Media Orders and treat them as Unreferenced Invoices.

Save Settings

Will save the selected settings from "General Settings", "Use" and "Project Settings" with the selected template.

Save Filter

Sometimes users need to save filters (including specific Objects, Object Classes and/or dates under Financial Lines In Range) per report template, so when generating a Financial Report on some Projects or Objects, they can easily re-apply the saved filters.

So you can conveniently select a few projects from Long Form > Project tree or Toolbox > Projects and select the Financial Report On Selected Projects. Then use the template with the saved filter. The report will only include the Objects and Classes from the Saved Filter and any date range that was also saved.

To allow this, there are three setting, two that apply per user and one that is global.

The following two new options in Toolbox > Settings > Miscellaneous (apply per user) are meant to save filters per User, and not per Template:

• "Use 'Save Filters' in Financial Reports" (enabled by default).
  When enabled, the new button "Save Filters" shows next to "Generate Reports" in the Financial Reports window, to save the current Filters to the selected Report Template.
  To delete saved filters on a report template, put the Objects and Object Class filters back to Any and the Financial Lines In Range back to Don't Filter, and click Save Filters.
  If disabled, the button does not show for this user in the Financial Report window: this user cannot save filters but he will still get filters saved on templates if the global setting “Apply Financial Report Saved Filters Per Template” is enabled (see further down).
  
  
• "Ask Before Loading 'Saved Filters' in Financial Reports" (disabled by default).
  When enabled, when you select a Report Template with saved filters, a pop-up window says: "The Selected Template Has Saved Filters. Apply?".
  Selecting Yes, the saved filters will be loaded in the Filters area.
  Selecting No, the new selection (if any) will be loaded in the Filters area.
  When this setting is disabled, there will be no pop-up window, therefore the saved filters on a Report Template (if any) will always be loaded.
  An exception to this rule is that even if the setting is disabled, if the User starts the report by selecting Objects or Object Classes (in Toolbox or in Object Tree), as a report template with saved filters is selected, the window "The Selected Template Has Saved Filters. Apply?" will still show to allow deciding that in this particular case the new selection should apply instead.
  A user can always put the Objects and Object Class filters back to Any and the Financial Lines In Range back to Don't Filter, if for a particular report there is no need of the saved filters that got loaded.
  
  Some examples:
   
• These saved filters might only include Objects, e.g. all Editing Rooms, but no specific dates. This might be useful to save this filter to a report template that applies to editing department only.
   
• The user might need to run the same financial report every month, but separate per department. In this case, before selecting any specific Object, he would go to the Financial Reports window, select the report template and choose the whole month under Financial Lines In Range, and click on "Save Filter". This report template is now ready for the user to then go choose some Objects (in the Objects Tree, or Toolbox > Objects) to generate the report for that saved period of time. And then repeat the operation choosing some other Objects, etc.
  
  There is a third setting, which is global:
  
  Toolbox > Settings > Server Setup > Apply Financial Report Saved Filters Per Template.
  This setting is to change the explained behaviour and make the saved filters to apply directly to the Template.
  If this setting is enabled, any saved filters will be connected to the print template and will apply to any user running that print template.
  
  Finally, if a User has the Toolbox > Settings > Miscellaneous setting “Use Save Filters in Financial Reports” disabled, it means that the button does not show for this user but any saved filters still apply when he uses a template with saved filters.

4. Settings

There are three types of Financial Report Settings:

• General Settings
• Use
• Project Settings
  
  

The Financial Report Settings are applied per Report. Therefore, before changing any of these Settings select a saved Template from the Reports area or generate a new one by clicking on the green Plus icon.

Once the changes are done, click on the 'Save Settings' button at the bottom. Next time the Template is selected, the saved Settings will apply.

A. General Settings

Report Name

This field will display the name of the Template selected from the Reports area.

Mix Sources

This setting applies to Rows. Use this option when creating a Report of all revenue generated for a certain set of Objects. It determines what to display if two or more lines are encountered with the same Object, but receive their input from different Sources (Project/ Project Work Order/ Media Order/ Invoice).

If e.g. two Bookings involve the Object 'Avid 1', the Mix Sources option will compile the data into one line regardless of whether or not these two Bookings belong to the same Project.

• If set to No the two lines will remain as two separate lines in the Report, both coming from the same Source (Project).
• If set to Yes the two lines are merged into one, adding up together the Rates and Quantities (see Mix Units below).

IMPORTANT: Mix Sources = Yes requires more Memory usage and computing time on fw Server and fw Client app side. It can be a overall HEAVY LOAD on the system to generate Reports using this configuration! 

Using this can lead system crashes due to lack of available Memory!

If you encounter this situation, reduce the Input to only one item and verify on a working set of data if Mix Sources = Yes is really needed, or if Mix Sources = No will also suffice.

Mix Units

This option also applies to Rows and is to be used in conjunction with the Mix Sources option.

This is primarily used to display financial information rather than displaying Quantity. If two or more lines are encountered with the same Object, but they contain different unit names for their quantities, it is optional to either mix the names and amounts of the units (e.g. Hours and Days) or to display them as separate lines.

See below an example with three Bookings containing the same Object. One of them is based on unit Days and the rest on unit Hours.

A Report is generated through grouping by Object with the aim of getting financial info. The Project info is taken from the Rows.

If Mix Units is set to No, the Units (Hours and Days) are not mixed and the Financial Report shows the lines related to Projects as three separate lines.

    IMPORTANT: Mix Units = Yes gets used in combination with Mix Sources = Yes!

    Mix Sources = Yes requires more Memory usage and computing time on fw Server and fw Client app side. 

    It can be a overall HEAVY LOAD on the system to generate Reports using this configuration!

    Using this can lead system crashes due to lack of available Memory!

    If you encounter this situation, reduce the Input to only one item and verify on a working set of data if Mix Sources =     Yes & Mix Units = Yes is really needed, or if Mix Sources = No and Mix Units = Yes will suffice.

If set to Yes, the Financial Report shows the rates added up into a single line. The Quantity info, which are the Units (Hours and Days), is then mixed and displayed N/A (Not available).

For both settings, Mix Source and Mix Units, any value, not only Units, that is different in the various lines, will come up as N/A.

Hide Line On “0” Sell Rate

This setting applies to all groupings as well as to the Rows section. By default this setting is set to No. If set to Yes those lines which have 0 Sell rate will be hidden.

This example shows four Objects, each of which displays the Booked Quantity and the Booked Sell rate. The two resources show 0 sell rate.
If Hide Line On “0” Sell Rate is set to Yes, the Objects with 0 Sell Rate (meaning with zero financial value) will then be hidden:

However, if the Sell Rate is not being displayed in the Report, the lines with 0 Sell Rate will not be hidden. E.g. in the case of a Utilization Report, where only the booked time is being displayed.

Next to the 'Hide Line on "0" Sell Rate, there is a drop-down menu with the option 'Force Draw "0" Rate When 100% Discount". Enable this option if you wish to display lines with 100% discount.

Mix Dates

When using the feature "View Class Booking As Separate Days", the "Mix Dates" option (if set to Yes - default) allows you to display a multiple-day Booking as a single line. 

If days are to be displayed as separate lines, then set Mix Dates to No.

IMPORTANT: Mix Dates = Yes uses less Memory and computing resources both fw Server app side and fw Client app side! Depending on the Input for a Financial Report, this can mean a 20x faster creation.

Mix Dates = No, requires requires more Memory usage and computing time on fw Server and fw Client app side. It can be a overall HEAVY LOAD on the system to generate Reports using this configuration!

Using this can lead system crashes due to lack of available Memory!

If you encounter this situation, reduce the Input to only one item and verify on a working set of data if Mix Dates = No is really needed, or if Mix Sources = Yes will also suffice!

This example illustrates a Project with a 5-day Booking shown as separate days, and how the Mix Dates option affects the report.

 Incl. Markers

This setting is related to the Date grouping.

Markers are not a real source of financial data - i.e. they do not have any Quantity or Rate. However, they can be useful to have in a report for planning and it is possible to include them by setting the Incl. Markers option to Yes. Each Marker will then be one row (in the Rows section when selecting Item Description), and when grouping by Date, the grouping will contain values in the Marker field.

Incl. Binders

This setting is related to the Date grouping.

Binders are not a real source of financial data - i.e. they do not have any Quantities or Rate. Therefore Binders will not appear in a Financial Report unless they contain Bookings. When grouping by Date, the Binders will only appear on the days where there are Bookings involved.

It is possible to include Binders (with Static Time Frame) for days without Bookings, by setting the Incl. Binders option to Yes. Each day from each Binder will then be one row (in the Rows section) and when grouped by Date this section will contain values in the Binder Name field even on those days where there are not any Bookings involved.

The following example displays a Project with Binders and Markers:

The planning report is generated using Financial Reports, grouped by Project and by Date.

The Include Binder and Include Markers options are both set to Yes. Then even those days without Bookings appear listed in the report to display the related Binder. Markers also appear listed next to the date in which they were set for.

Here both options are set to No. This time the dates without Bookings do not appear listed, and neither do the Markers.

Empty Groups Are

There are cases where the data from any Group By section is empty. Through this setting you can decide if the empty group should then be displayed First or Last on the report. Lets take an example where we have Objects that don't belong to any Object Class such as Extras, then they could be displayed at the top (left picture) or at the bottom of the report (right picture) depending on how this setting is configured:

* You could use a String Operator to give an empty group a name, e.g. "Extras. For more detailed information on String operators, please refer to the Print Designer Manual.

Sell Price Operators

The Sell Price Operator refers to Price Operators that can be added through the Eye icon in the Edit Project window to reflect a Cash Discount, a Percent Discount, a Markup (From the Buy Rate), or a Markup (From the Sell Rate) to the total price of the Project.

There are two options to determine how the information should be displayed in the Financial Report when a Sell Price Operator has been used on a Project:

• As Separate Lines means that the report will show the Sell Price Operator as a separate line at the bottom of the report. This is the default value.
• Add To Financial Lines means that it will be calculated as part of each line in the Project; that is, the operator will be added or discounted from each line.

This example shows a Project including one Booking with two Objects and an Administration fee of 10 % Mark-up From Sell:

A report is generated by selecting Group By (1) Project/ Media Order/ Unref. Invoice; and (2) Object.

If As Separate Lines is selected, the result will show the Administration fee as a separate line.

If Add To Financial Lines is selected, the result will not show the markup as a separate line, but applied to each of the lines.

Force Bookings Into Separate Days

The "Force Bookings Into Separate Days" and "Mix Dates" settings both cause each day in a multi-day (and single day) Booking to be split up into a different row, e.g. making the rows suitable for grouping by Month or making it possible to show the "Timereport Day Note".

B. Use

For Budgeting

If this option is enabled, the report template will be accessible directly from the Report icon in the Budget window.

See the Budgeting manual for more info.

For Invoicing

Tick this box for those report templates used for printing out Invoices, to make them accessible directly from the Report icon in the Invoice Editor window.

The setting Use Report For Invoices (in Server Setup > Financial tab) is to be configured to any of these two options: Financial Reports, or Both Invoice & Financial Reports.

C. Project Settings

Include Actuals

Enable the Include Actuals setting to be able to get financial data from the Actuals. Use in combination with the Use Actuals From View setting.

To exclude Actuals, for example to generate a report on just Budgeted or Quoted data, do not tick this checkbox.

Use Actuals From View

This Setting refers to the Project Views as configured in the Server Setup - user defined views configured in the Edit Project window are not displayed. It determines from which Project View the Actuals will be collected. By default this option is set to the view for the final invoice. It is more correct to set it to the view typically called "Actuals" which covers confirmed bookings, extras, work orders, media orders.

To see what is included in each view, open the Edit Project window of any Project and select Show View Filters from the Eye icon. The views will be displayed at the bottom.

Include Quoted (From XXX View)

The Quote View (in the Server Setup > Projects tab > Projects Views) should be set to a Project View that includes current quotes.

If Virtual Bookings are being used for quoting, the typical name for this view is Virtual Bookings (as configured in the Server Setup > Projects tab > Project Views).

Enable this option so the data included in this view is available for the report template. If disabled, the data will be hidden.

If Budget Module is used for quoting, the usual name for this view is Current Quotes/ Budgets (as configured in the Server Setup > Projects tab > Project Views).

Include Budgeted

This Setting is used if the Budget module is being used for budgeting/ quoting.

Enable this option in order to include data from the Budget module, regardless if the quote/budget has been approved yet or not (if it has been set to Active), and regardless if the quote/budget is set to be the current one.

If disabled, data from this module will not be available. See the Budgeting manual for more info.