The Custom Report writer offers Clients & Profits X users a quick (and relatively easy) way to create simple client lists, job lists, cost reports, and accounting export files.

Custom reports are completely customizable (within reasonable limits) and can access any part of the database.

Custom reports select, sort, and display data from your Clients & Profits X database. This data can be printed to the window for a quick review, to the printer for a hard copy, or export to disk to be used by spreadsheets or word processors. A custom report is a stand-alone document that contains the report’s design, its fields, any queries, and settings that determine how the data is sorted and sub-totaled.

Custom reports don’t replace the reports built into Clients & Profits X; instead, they supplement them by letting you see data from different fields. They have limitations since they aren’t programmable (for example, you can’t age accounts automatically before printing a custom client aging report). Custom reports are best suited for showing information that’s already available from other built-in reports. The advantage to custom reports is in their flexibility: you can decide which fields to show or hide, as well as the how the records are selected. These features give you the ability to see beyond what the standard reports offer.

Customize Reports Toolbox
There are many tools available to help you customize your reports, including text, line, and drawing tools, as well as a custom color picker. You can also customize the typeface for individual sections of a report using the typeface style and size tools.
	Text Tool Use this tool to activate the text cursor, which will allow you to edit text in the reports header, records, and total labels.
	Line Tool Quickly and easily creates individual lines. Click where you want the line to begin, and drag where you want the line to end.
	Rectangle, Rounded-Rectangle, and Ellipse Tools Let's you draw rectangles (including squares) and ellipses (including circles) by dragging from one corner of the rectangle or edge of the ellipse to the opposite corner or edge.
	Typeface, Style, and Size menus Use the Type pull-down menu to apply any font in your system to your report. You can choose the type size in the Size submenu, and apply various styles such as plain, bold, italic, underline, shadow, or outline.
	Color Picker Use the Color Picker to select the type or line color by choosing from the color palete. In addition, you can use the color mixer to fine tune the color to your liking.

Custom reports are based on templates
Every custom report gets its basic design and layout from a report template. The report template is like a style sheet that determines where fields, sections, headings, and subtotals appear on the page. For consistency, the template designs look like the built-in reports printed from Clients & Profits X.

When you create a new custom report, you'll base it on one of the report template designs. This saves time, since you only need to focus on the content of the custom report--and not the technical make-up of the report.

The Report Templates file (named TEMPLATE.REP in Windows) contains basic layouts for six different custom reports:

List w/1 sub-total
List w/2 sub-totals
List w/3-sub-totals
Labels (1" x 2 5/6")
Labels (2" x 4")
Spreadsheet file

You can change the position of fields and labels on a custom report. However, you can't rearrange the sections; these are part of the report template.

The Report Templates file must be stored next to the Clients & Profits X application; otherwise, you'll get an error when trying to create a new report.

Custom reports are based on sections
Sections are used to display fields on custom reports, including:

Page heading: Fields, labels (the report title, the date and page number), and graphics appear at the top of every printed page.

Sub-total heading: Fields and labels appear once each time a record is subtotaled.

Record: This is the body of the custom report, and typically contains most of the report’s fields. The record section prints one line for every record you’ve selected.

Sub-total: This section appears whenever records are sub-totaled, after a record section.

Total: The total section appears at the end of the report.

Sections are copied from the template. You can control where they appear on the page by moving them with your mouse.

Selecting records
Data is selected for printing on custom reports using queries. Queries define how the database is to be searched when the report is printed. These searches are flexible enough to let you find any record in the database relatively quickly. Queries can be modified as needed. Any field on the report can be used as a query.

Sorting
Any field on your custom report can be sorted. Sorts can be simple or complex, depending on the fields on the report. For example, a job list can be sorted by job number by sorting the J_NUM field; a complex, multi-level sort might sort a job list by J_CLIENT_NUM, J_PROD_ STATUS, and J_NUM (i.e., client number, production status, job number). Up to nine fields can be sorted on a custom report.