Reporting (Advanced): Building custom reports
Build your own reports with a powerful report designer. In this article, you will learn how to turn any data into a report, which keywords to use, and how to work with the reports you generate.
Covered here:
Report designer, explained
To create your own detailed reports, utilize the Report Designer, which incorporates data from your firm's Invoices, Time Entries, Jobs, Tasks and Pipelines.
The Report designer operates based on the keywords you input. Each keyword corresponds to a report column and filters data from the selected source. Once you've configured all the settings and entered the necessary keywords for the desired data, the report will be generated.
Generated reports are fully customizable. You can adjust the visualization type, modify the keywords used and apply filters. Once your report is ready, save it for future use and pin it to a Dashboard.
Tip! For quick report generation, utilize AI search, a user-friendly tool designed to comprehend natural language.
Analyzing data
To build a report based on the data you need, follow these steps:
1. Go to Reporting > Report designer from the left menu bar. You will see the search field along with the Data menu bar on the left.
2. Click on the 
wrench icon in the Data menu bar and select one or both data sources, depending on data you will need:
- Time and Billing (your firm's Invoices, Time Entries)
- Workflow (your firm's Jobs, Tasks and Pipelines)
By default, the source you last used is selected.
3. Enter your keywords in the search field, for example, Amount Overdue 90+ days monthly 2023, and click Go. To learn more about keywords, go to the section below.
You will see a generated report as a search result.
Keywords
The Report designer understands data names, values, date filters and other specific keywords listed below. Here are some examples:
- Data names: Invoice Amount, Time Entry Billable Hours, Task Assignee, Tasks Completed Count
- Values: 200, 10000, Customer = Otto Mann
- Date filters: 2023, yesterday, last month
In the search field, keywords are divided by colors:
- Blue: these keywords affect the X axis (except for bar charts, where the Y axis is affected)
- Green: these keywords affect the Y axis (except for bar charts, where the X axis is affected)
- Gray: these attributes function as additional filters
Refer to our keywords list for the Report designer queries:
| Keyword / Keyword type | Example | What you'll find |
| Common keywords | ||
| top n | top 5 Invoice Paid Revenue Customer | top five client accounts with the largest total payment amount |
| bottom n | bottom 5 Invoice Paid Revenue Customer | top five client accounts with the lowest total payment amount |
| sort by | Invoice Paid Revenue sort by Invoice Service | total payment amount sorted by services |
| by... | Invoice Service by Time Quantity | time entries total duration sorted by services |
| Date keywords | ||
| after/before | Invoice Amount for Invoice Posted Date before march 2024 | total amount of invoices posted before march 2024 |
| between...and... | Invoice Amount for Invoice Posted Date between 01/01/2024 and 02/21/2024 | total amount of invoices posted between 01/01/2024 and 02/21/2024 |
| daily/hourly/weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly | Tasks Completed Count monthly | amount of completed tasks sorted monthly |
| daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly year-over-year | growth of Invoice Amount by Invoice Posted Date quarterly year-over-year | invoice total amount dynamics sorted quarterly and compared year-over-year |
| day/month/quarter/week/year | Task Count 2023 | total number of tasks in a specific year |
| day of week/month/quarter/year | Task Count by Task Created Date day of week by year | total number of created tasks sorted by days of the week and by year |
| week of month/quarter/year | Task Count by Task Created Date week of month by year | total number of created tasks sorted by weeks of the month and by year |
| month of quarter | Task Count by Task Created Date month of quarter by year | total number of created tasks sorted by months of the quarter and by year |
| quarter of year | Task Count by Task Created Date quarter of year by year | total number of created tasks sorted by quarters of the year and by year |
| growth of...by... | growth of Task Count by Task Completed Date | total number of completed tasks dynamics |
| growth of...by...daily/monthly/quarterly/weekly/yearly | growth of Task Count by Task Completed Date quarterly | total number of completed tasks dynamics sorted quarterly |
| hourly | Task Count hourly | total number of tasks sorted hourly |
| last month/quarter/week/year | Task Count hourly last month | total number of tasks for the last month, sorted hourly |
| last n days/months/quarters/weeks/years | Task Count hourly last 3 months | total number of tasks for the last three months, sorted hourly |
| n months/years | Task Count hourly last 3 months | total number of tasks for the last three months, sorted hourly |
| n days/weeks/months/quarters/years ago | Task Count hourly 3 months ago | total number of tasks three months ago, sorted hourly |
| this day/month/quarter/week/year | Task Count hourly this month | total number of tasks for this month, sorted hourly |
| today/yesterday | Task Count hourly yesterday | total number of tasks yesterday, sorted hourly |
| Time | ||
| hourly | Task Count hourly | total number of tasks sorted hourly |
| last hour/next hour | Task Count last hour | total number of tasks for the last hour |
| Number | ||
| average | average Invoice Amount | average total amount of your invoices |
| count | count Invoice Amount by Customer | total number of invoices sorted by client accounts |
| max/min | max Invoice Amount by Customer | max total amount of invoices sorted by client accounts |
| sum | sum Invoice Paid Revenue | total amount of payments |
| Comparative | ||
| = (equal) | Invoice Amount = 1000 by Customer | only client accounts with invoices of exactly $1000 |
| >= (greater than or equal) | Invoice Amount >= 1000 by Customer | only client accounts with invoices of exactly or exceeding $1000 |
| > (greater than) | Invoice Amount > 1000 by Customer | only client accounts with invoices exceeding $1000 |
| <= (less than or equal) | Invoice Amount <= 1000 by Customer | only client accounts with invoices amounts of exactly or less than $1000 |
| < (less then) | Invoice Amount < 1000 by Customer | only client accounts with invoices amounts less than $1000 |
| != (not equal) | Invoice Amount != 1000 by Customer | only client accounts without invoices amounts of $1000 |
Results customization
Once you've a report is generated, you can customize it to your needs, save it for future use, pin it to a Dashboard and more:
1. Search field: Shows keywords used to generate the report. Edit them and click Go go to try again. Use the backward and forward arrows on the right to undo or redo your query.
2. Sources: Edit the data source you have used.
3. Formulas: Employ logical, mathematical, and other functions for comprehensive data analysis.
4. Parameters: Use parameters, such as Integers, Booleans, Strings and so on, to filter your data.
5. Report name and description: Edit the report title or add additional info.
6. Filter: Click to edit the applied filter or hover over and click X to the right to delete it.
7. Chart/Table: Click to switch between chart and table visualization types.
8. Three dots Report menu: Opens a menu with options to Save, Show underlying data and Download the report.
9. Pin: Click to pin the report to a Dashboard.
10. Visualization: Choose a visualization type, such as Bar, Donut, Funnel and more.
11. Chart/Table configuration: Edit chart/table settings, such as axes, lines, gridlines, labels, columns, text wrapping and other details.
12. Query details: Displays additional information on the computed data, combined attributes and filters.
13. Report: The generated report. Click on axis names for sorting, view data details by hovering over the lines and work with columns in the case of the table view. For details, go to the article on exploring reports.