Reports

You can print the Bill of Materials reports as and when you need them and this option groups all the reports for the Bill of Materials system in one menu.

Prompts Used Throughout the Reporting Process

Throughout the Bill of Materials reports there are a common set of questions whenever a report is printed – supplemented by others for the specific report.These questions are displayed when you select the report. If the responses to these questions are acceptable then you can select the PRINT button to print the report. Alternatively you can use the mouse or the <TAB> key to position the cursor for the response you with to change.

Date of Report

It is usual to print today’s date on the report. You can overtype this with another valid date.

Report "As At” Date

Whilst the date above represents the date on which the report is printed, it is helpful to know up to what date the works orders files have been processed. Often these are the same but it could be that works order entry is some way behind if the Datafile system is not the primary instigator. The report ‘as at’ date therefore is the date up to which works orders have been entered.

Note

From Order Ref

To Order Ref

You may be interested in just a group of orders, in which case these prompts allow you to choose a range of references. The 'From' and 'To' references give the start and end of the range — and you can use the <F4–Select> key to help you choose the references you want. If you leave the 'From' reference blank, then the computer assumes you want to start at the beginning of the file. If you leave the 'To' reference blank, then the computer assumes you want to end at the end of the file. This prompt is only applicable on the reports ‘Order Status’, ‘Works Order Specification’, ‘List Order Headers’, ‘Analyse Orders’, and the ‘Consolidated Order/Stock Picking Sheets’.

Specify Any Selection Criteria

Selecting this option allows you to restrict the works orders (or works order details were appropriate) to those that match an entered criteria.

The OPTIONS Button

When you select to print an application report an OPTIONS button is available alongside the PRINT/CANCEL buttons. Selecting the OPTIONS button allows access to the print configuration.

The layout of this screen differs slightly based on whether you have set the page size (as above) or not. Before discussing the parameters you should note the buttons available at the footer of this parameter screen.

Default - This option updates the individual parameters from your user default when they are set, overwriting presets where applicable. If no user defaults are set then this option is ‘greyed’ out. To set user defaults see the appropriate section below.

Accept - This option accepts your entered parameters for this print only, reverting to defaults next time the report is run.

Save - Depending on whether the user is configured as an ‘Install’ user then the next option will be SAVE. This saves your set parameters so they are offered as default next time this report is run (Note: this is system wide not per user). Setting the user as an ‘Install’ user is achieved through the user configuration available under the MASTER sign-on.

Abandon - This option abandons any changes made and returns you to the report screen.

The report parameters available are:

Paper Size – select the paper size the report is to be printed to (i.e. A4).

Default Printer Font– a font dialog is displayed allowing you to select as required, the default font to be used for this report

Selecting the Font Size

Generally you can’t go far wrong with 10point. However, if you have a lot of data items on your report, and are printing in portrait, 10point may be too big to fit all the required information without overlapping fields.

The positioning of fields across the page is determined by the item size – if you imagine a report that shows, the record number (6 characters), transaction date (8), the reference (6), the description (20), the amount (14), the tax code (3 – as field name of TAX is longer than field then the print size is based on name), the tax amount (14) and total (14), together with spaces between the items this gives a total of 103 characters, or columns required, across the page (think graph paper – you have 103 ‘cells’ across the page).

Those 103 columns are split equally across the available page (page size and margins taken into account) as starting positions for data items – so the record number starts at column 1, the date at column 8 (record number plus 1), etc. If you select a font size too big then the record number may not finish printing before the date starts causing the date to overlap the end of the record number. If this occurs then you may need to either reduce the font size or consider swapping the report to landscape orientation if the font size would go too small.

Print in Landscape– set to default the printed report to landscape, leave blank for usual portrait orientation. You may want to set larger width reports to landscape as these reports require a large amount of detail to be printed and otherwise the font size required to fit all the text could be too small.

Show Time in Report Headings – set to include the printed time in the report headings in addition to the printed date.

Include Selection Criteria – set to print any selection criteria that were applied to the report.

Email as Text Attachment – if send this report via email this option allows you to send as a text file attachment as opposed to, if left blank, PDF.

Omit Full Page Headings – When printing a multi-page report the system repeats the headings for each page. Setting this option reduces the heading details for the second and subsequent pages allowing more record detail to be printed per page.

Default Output to Spooler – Usually, when printing a report, the default printer is the last print device used. Select this option to set the default printer as the spooler for this report. This acts only as a default and doesn’t prevent you electing to print the report instead.

Allow Change of Printer Alias – when these options are configured then it is assumed you are printing as ‘direct windows print’ and this is the alias set by default. Setting this option allows you to change the default alias at run-time to one of the list of Datafile configured printers. If you change the alias to a ‘DOS’ style alias then the page size (length/width) and font are again picked up from the Print Style Profile, although other settings such as ‘include time’ etc. remain from the OPTIONS display.

Print Negatives in Red – on selected reports, assuming you have a colour printer; it may be useful to print negative values in red. This option allows this.

Allow Excel Pivot Table / Default Output to Pivot Table – set whether the report is to allow printing to an Excel pivot table and whether, if allowed, should default to pivot table. Would be unusual to do this for most reports.

Characters Per Line– the system displays the width of the report items on the right. If you leave this value at 0 (recommended) then the report width used in determining the start column positions of data items (as discussed above with regards to font size) is the larger of either the report print items or 80 columns.You can manually set a report width – from 64 to 255 columns. You may want to increase the number of columns on (say) a landscape report with few print items to bring the fields closer together to aid in reading.

Lines Per Page – if left at 0 (recommended) then the number of lines per page is determined by the font and page size. Alternatively you can set a number of lines per page, perhaps to give a greater gap between rows of data items.

Left Margin (mm)– set the size of the left hand margin (relative to page orientation in millimetres.

Right Margin (mm) – set the size of the right hand margin.

Top Margin (mm) – set the size of the top margin.

Bottom Margin (mm) – set the size of the bottom margin.

Default Printer – if using a stand-alone Datafile system then you can set a default printer to output to. This option only applies when sending to a print device; if last printer was spooler or fax then this remains the default. If using a networked Datafile system then you can still set this where you are printing to a networked printer – provided all terminals have a consistent device path. If the print device isn’t valid then the normal printer is offered instead.

Send to Email – if the report is sent to email then here you can enter an email address that is to be used by default for this report – though it can be amended at run-time.

Excel Template – this option allows you to reference a template for use when printing to a pivot table which would allow formatting of the output. Once a file is set here then on first use the template will be created based on the standard layout (this can subsequently be modified within Excel itself), subsequent use will use the existing template.

Once you’ve set the desired parameters select the ACCEPT option to apply the settings for this print or, if available, the SAVE option to apply for this and future prints.

Once you have changed the print parameters to your required settings you can then select the PRINT button to print your report.