Extra report type

Hello!
I would like to suggest an extra report type - a simple list.
It could be useful in various situations where charts are not applicable. For instance, to create a list of the upcoming soon-to-end contracts, or upcoming maintenance actions or whatever… Some of those lists could be created via Search module but I believe it would be easier, faster and more flexible if Report module could also display data in list form.
Just a suggestion thou… :blush:
Regards,
vinkobak

Can you please elaborate what that list would look like? How is it different from a simple Report with just one field, for example, Contact Names:

John Doe
Jane Doe
etc
...

@vinkobak
I am not sure I understand your request but, from my knowledge, with reports, you can do exactly what you are looking for.

Furthermore, once you have created your report you can display it as a dashlet.

@amariussi while you’re here: I will be away until the middle of next week, if you can keep visiting the forums and helping out people that would be great. Whatver your time allows, even if it’s just a few answers now and then, it’s better than nothing. Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

I’m a SuiteCRM newbie and maybe I missed or misunderstood something, but while creating TestReport I couldn’t find List Type for creating report. That’s why I have suggested to implement an extra type of reports.

In attachment you can see my effort of creating a TestReport (fields, conditions and chart tab). To be completely honest, this suggestion is actually a spin-off of my other topic - Calculating Date Field based on two parameters - is it possible?
I thought if we can solve that other topic one way or another, I should be able to create a simple report in a form of list and based on field which is populated with date from the following month. But couldn’t find the way to create such type of report.

I’m doing this as a friendly favour to my pal who’s in DDD business. He’s a man of field action and computers are not his field. He’s been doing this job for eleven years now and his entire client related documentation is in - yes, horror - MS Word! Hundreds of contracts with various maintenance periods, invoices for every maintenance performed followed with maintenance record… You can imagine the mess and time consuming tasks they are performing now. And most time-consuming task is to find which customers should be taken care of in the following month. A single employee is working on it 5-10 days a month!

Now he’s finally realised he should do something about it and asked me for help. I’m a designer, not a programmer but I guess I was the closest to developer he could think of. On the other hand, I was interested in something new, something I have only met as user.

After a few weeks of trying and reading of CRM apps, my choice was SuiteCRM. I found it even more user friendly than less robust apps, intuitive for using even for less experienced users in such apps (like me), and very well documented. However, some things can not be found in User’s or Dev’s manual and it’s something I have expected - one can never write absolutely comprehensive manual with all the possible needs or issues covered. And in some cases, parts of the manual are indeed written like all the users have some previous knowledge and experience with this app and unfortunately I am not one of them. :blush:

So, I apologise if this issue has been already solved and if so, I was obviously blinded with so many options of SuiteCRM and missed the solution I was looking for. I am really trying to figure out the most of it on my own. But, sometimes we all get distracted or overwhelmed by something and so we miss the point.

Thank you for reading this and up front - thank you for any suggestions and help!
Best regards,
vinkobak

P.S. FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON I CAN’T ATTACH JPG TO THIS MESSAGE!!! I’LL GIVE IT ANOTHER TRY LATER!

Here are the attachments!

It’s not a Chart type you want.

Just leave the chart tab blank and work only with conditions and fields, this will generate a clean list.

You shouldn’t be getting those “undefineds” all over the place, that is usually a sign of bad Linux permissions configuration.

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Yes, I know about “undefined”, I’m still trying to solve that issue. Some “undefined” labels were corrected with a script via File Manager in cPanel and maybe I should run it again.
After writing my last post I came to idea to try a report without choosing a chart type, exactly as you suggested! You were faster thou… :lol: I thought all the tabs in Create Report are obligatory.
Did you by any chance took a look on my other topic I have mentioned in my previous post? If it could be done the way I have imagined it would be really helpful for many things. I’m so sorry now for such lack of knowledge on writing conditional formulas and not knowing how and where to implement them in the system. But from what I have read, I think it’s possible.
Thank you for clearing this Report issue for me!
Best regards,
vinkobak

@pgr
I’ll do my best for you!
I will be rather busy until Friday but will dedicate some time starting from Monday then. :wink:

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I’m just coming into this post, but looking at the original entry, what you probably want to do is a simple export of selected fields to a CSV file, not a report. This will give you a file (of the selected fields of the selected records) that can then be viewed directly in something like Excel or any basic text program.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that the best/most efficient use of SuiteCRM will usually come from using it in combination with other more-capable/full-featured programs (Excel, Word, accounting, etc.), rather than trying to do everything inside SuiteCRM.

Actually, I was looking for exactly what I have described and without any need for connecting that list type report with external programs. But I never crossed any info on creating simple reports and so I tought, while creating a report, one MUST choose report type. And dropdown offered no list type, only charts. As pgr explained, in one of the previous posts, leaving chart tab empty creates a list type report.
And I have already found when using export to csv of selected fields would be handy as well but for this particular need report features suit my needs much better.
Thank you for suggestion and idea and best regards!
vinkobak

There’s no real “connection” necessary in the case I described. It’s all quite transparent, fast and almost effortless.

If your client/desktop system (I will assume Windows) is set to use Excel as the default program for .csv files, you simply run your “Export to CSV” inside Suite, which drops the output onto your desktop … then you just click on the file to open it (in Excel). There you will have all the rich functionality that Excel has to offer in regards to data manipulation, etc.

The other upside to pulling data out of Suite (into something like Word or Excel), is that you can then delegate a lot of backend work to an assistant or office worker.

I’m pleased that you found the solution to your scenario, but perhaps what I was more trying to illustrate was that many users agonize over trying to make everything work inside SuiteCRM, rather than viewing Suite more as the centre-piece to a framework of programs.

Oh, maybe I used wrong term when I mentioned ‘connection’! I meant the same as you, I ju

Sorry, I was writing from my cell phone and something obviously went wrong at some point… So, let’s do this properly this time!

Oh, maybe I used wrong term when I mentioned ‘connection’! I meant the same as you, but that sentence just didn’t sound right. Anyway, I totally agree with you on using external resources and avoiding painful efforts to get everything done in CRM. But being a SuiteCRM newbie lead me to Reports module because it was a kind of logical choice - Report modules should almost always be the most versatile and flexible modules and I thought this one is too. At the end it really was but before prg’s answer I didn’t know one can leave Chart tab empty and, as a result, to get the list type report.
Probably, both outputs will be used in everyday’s operations - .csv for delegating backend work to assistants and field operators and .pdf/print only for compiling timeline for field activities based on dates, locations and/or type of maintenance work.

However, every idea is welcomed and useful, if not right away than in the future.
Thank you for suggestions and explanations and have a nice day!
Best regards,
vinkobak

Your thought process regarding reports made perfect sense. I originally did the same thing … and also came away disappointed.

Sadly, “reporting” is not one of SuiteCRM’s strong features, so I just want to mention the availability of add-ons to enhance the applicability of the software. Reporting add-ons are some of those available.

(Back-story: As SuiteCRM was originally a fork of SugarCRM’s community edition, many Sugar add-ons will also work with Suite. You’d just need to check with the authors re: your version of SuiteCRM).

Google: SuiteCRM Store and Sugar Outfitters.

Add-ons can be very useful (a few are even free of charge), but the total cost can add up quickly, depending on the licensing available. Some enterprising authors like to charge on a per-user basis … which is not a good situation if you have a large number of users!

(Although not applicable to reports, I would also check on this forum for possible shortcuts or workarounds for other needs that may arise in the future. If you know anything about SQL, you can SOMETIMES make changes quickly … albeit with some associated risk … simply by doing that at the SQL table level).

Finally, in the reporting arena, something like Crystal Reports (running directly against the MySQL tables) would give you ultimate reporting flexibility. However, Suite’s SQL table and relationship structure is quite complex, so that would take some effort.

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Hello paullm!
Thank you for further explanations on this matter! So far I’m still poking around SuiteCRM to see and learn how to set up the system, what kind of data should be used and where to put it etc. The next step is to sit down with a friend for whom I’m doing this research and create a detailed list of features and options to meet his needs. So, right now I can only assume but still don’t know what may arise and it’s good to know there are resources for shortcuts and workarounds other than this Forum (which is always my second choice after checking User’s manual).
At the beginning, I have briefly checked add-ons just to see what kind of add-ons are available and conditions of their use. But I decided to give it a try without any add-ons because I was sure there must be a relatively easy way to solve this request within SuiteCRM itself.
I don’t know if you have read all of my posts in this topic and I don’t know if this what I am about to write belongs here or elsewhere in Forum but maybe some day someone else with same or similar problem stumble upon this… It would be useful to read about the problem and possible solution in the same post.

List type report for monthly maintenance planning

1) Scenario
A company has a couple of hundred clients (Accounts, in SuiteCRM). Each Account has at least one Contract assigned. Depending on provided services, many Accounts have two or more Contracts. Each Contract has it’s own rhythm of maintenance arranged on monthly or multiple months base (monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, etc.). Also, many Accounts have more than one location to maintain (offices, factories, plants, etc.).

2) Problem
How to create an user friendly Report in SuiteCRM to show which Accounts/Contracts should be processed in the following month?

  1. Solution development
    At the beginning I thought it would be some kind of dynamic solution… Like, to add an extra field in each Contract - a field defined with formula with mathematical operation between Contract’s Start Date field and Contract Type Field (Type field contains number of days for recurrent period of maintenance - 30, 60, 90, etc.).
    It turned out to be far to much for my knowledge and topic on this Forum didn’t get any suggestions or responses for a couple of days. So I took entirely different approach.

4) SOLUTION
First, in Studio -> Contracts -> Fields, add 12 checkboxes named by the months of the year.
Second, in Studio -> Contracts -> Edit View, add new Field Panel and then add Month checkbox fields in it. Make sure you click on the checkbox in the top right corner labeled “Sync to Detail View”.
Third step: now one can open an existing Contract to add this feature or create a new Contract and use this “Maintenance” tab with ease - while populating fields in Contract, pay attention on Start Date field, Contract Type field and according to data in those two fields mark with “X” appropriate Month checkboxes.
The final step: for testing purposes I have created 12 reports - one for every month of the year. As one can see in attached pics, report parameters are chosen on what I assume SuiteCRM user(s) would need. Leave “Charts” tab empty while creating a report to get list type report!

Now we have, IMHO, a very simple and user-friendly solution. It doesn’t require much work or extra knowledge of the system admin and asks for even less effort of the user/operator.

Notes:
As I said, a single Contract may cover different locations so I used Billing Address, Shipping Address and Description field to manage up three different addresses on one Contract.
Maybe it is possible to create only one report but it would have to be related with present month and it sounds like another dynamic solution. I haven’t got that far…
Disregard “untitled” labels, it’s known permissions issue I’m currently dealing with.
Picture “01contract.jpg” - a preview on Contract with Maintenance checkboxes for quarterly type of maintenance.
Picture “02reports.jpg” - 12 reports, one for each month of the year.
Picture “03report-february.jpg” - a preview on the report for Contracts to be processed in February.

I hope this would help someone someday. Any suggestions or ideas on how to improve this solution or creating a better and simpler one are welcomed!

Best regards and have a nice rest of the day!
vinkobak

I didn’t have much time to look at this, but a few quick observations …

Your idea of checkboxes is workable, but you would have to clear and re-populate the boxes, annually.

The ideal solution is going to involve some PHP programming … using PHP’s date (arithmetic) function, taking the “last service date” plus the number of days service frequency (30, 60, 90, etc.) to calculate a “next scheduled service date”, then re-update the “last service date” in each contract record.

Something more clunky, but easier to implement, would be to export the relevant data to Excel and use a [date] formula to create the “next service date” column. Then extract and print the relevant data chunk … next month’s service calls.

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Actually, one does not have to populate checkboxes annually if the contract is renewed continuously. If, on the other hand, there is a gap between contract end date and renewal date then, yes, checkboxes must be populated again manually.
But even in that case, to me it still seems somewhat easier or more user friendly than export to Excel and finishing the calculation there.
PHP programming was my first choice for obvious reasons - minimum manual input (only dropdown choices for Start Date field and Contract Type field) and Maintenance field gets populated automatically. Too bad I don’t know jack about PHP programming. :blush:
Maybe I should suggest this feature in Suggestion Box in this Forum, for some upcoming version…