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Surpass Custom Reports 
Surpass includes a wide variety of
built-in reports,
each with a range of options. But for times
when built-in reports just won't do, you'll
appreciate the powerful integrated report generator.
Other automation systems include only limited custom
reporting capabilities. Or worse yet, they
might not include a custom report generator at all,
requiring you to purchase and learn a 3rd party
reporting tool and acquire knowledge of how to tap
into complicated back-end databases to extract raw
data. Because our report generator is
built-in, it can integrate with and work perfectly
with MARC and patron data, providing great "helper"
features along the way as described below on this
page.
Getting
Started With Custom Reports
 Starting
a custom report
You can create new reports by starting from scratch
or by using an existing report as a starting point
for your own.
Limit to a
location
All patron and material-based reports allow you
automatically filter the report to include records
from a specific location or all locations.
Defining
the layout
Select data for
each column
Select any field from your MARC record or patron
database to appear as a column in the report.
The report below will have four columns. The
last column, labeled "New Column" is for adding
another column to the report. Each time a new
column is added, another blank one will be created
at the end to allow you to add more.
 Selection
menus
Each column contains a drop-down menu that lists
all possible MARC and patron fields that you can
choose from, as well as custom and calculated
fields. There's no need to have your MARC tags
or patron field numbers memorized since they'll
appear in plain English in the list! And the
list of available subfields will automatically
change to reflect the ones available for the
currently selected field.
Rearrange the
columns
Simply drag and drop the
column heading in the new location! In this
image you can see that we're moving column 4 to the
position of the 2nd column.
Selecting Records
In order to limit
your report to include only the records you'd like
to include (such as only certain materials or only
specific patrons) you add conditions to the report
definition. The conditions tell Surpass which
records to select. Conditions might be "is
equal to," "is greater than", "is in the range",
"starts with", or others. Surpass lets you put
multiple conditions on any field. Use just a
few for a simple report or use multiple conditions
for more advanced reports.
Condition Helpers
Surpass doesn't make you memorize the format needed
for entering these conditions though. A pop-up
window will help you choose!
 Smart
Conditions
Smart Conditions help you with the process of
putting conditions on fields to define which records
should be included in your report. For
example, you may be working with a report where you
want the results to be limited to records created
within a certain date range. Smart Conditions
automatically recognize that you'll be working with
dates and will use a pop-up calendar to help you
select dates. This way, you don't need to
remember the format for entering dates.
Smart Dates
In addition to pop-up calendar help, Surpass
also allows you use "Smart Dates." This means
that you can simply type in a plain English
"yesterday", "Wednesday", or "eom" (for end of
month).
 Multiple
Conditions
You can add more than one condition to any field.
These would be considered "OR" conditions. Each time
you add a condition, the report grid will add a new
row to the bottom where you can enter another
condition. This can be particularly useful for
selecting a non-consecutive range of records.
For example, you might be creating a report of
materials with damaged barcode labels that need to
be re-printed. Some might be in a range, but
most will be scattered. The example above
would select all records in the range 1 through 10
plus 454 and 8877.
Options,
options, options!
Other rows of the
report definition grid allow for more fine-tuning of
your report to get exactly the results you
desire.
Sort Order
Select up to three fields to use for sorting the
report.
Column Headings
You can change the text that will appear at the top
of each column.
Totals
You can tell Surpass to include a total at the
bottom of any column. This can be particularly
useful on reports that include dollar amounts.
More
Other options allow you to specify the width of the
column on the printed report, whether or not to
actually print the column or just use it for the
purpose of sorting or for conditions, and which
fonts and paper sizes you'd like to use for the
report.
Conclusion
As you can see,
the possibilities are almost endless! No other
system allows this level of flexibility and this
much power over your custom reports. Because
our report generator is built-in, it's directly
supported by our support team, so you can always
call for help with creating any report. In
fact, Central even has the ability to export and
import report definitions created by others.
So our support representatives can create a report
and send it to you, or you could export a report
definition to send to another Surpass customer who
many need the same type of report.
Related pages:
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