Report Specification - Sales/Purchase Batch Updates

This option allows definition of the output report produced after the transaction import.

This setting controls the page size when the OPTIONS parameters have not been enabled. The possible print styles are shown at the bottom right of the screen when the cursor focuses on this item. Usual responses are ‘1’ for a standard 80 column report or ‘2’ for a condensed 132 column report.

Items to be Printed

Up to ten items from the resulting sales/purchase transactions are available for print. Select as required.

Which Details

This asks which of the imported transactions which are to be reported. Options available include:

1 Always – Includes Totals within the Import Report (only applicable if set to 1/2 above)

The OPTIONS Button

Selecting the OPTIONS button allows access to the print configuration – page size / margins / fonts / etc.

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 pre-sets where applicable. If no user defaults are set then this option is ‘greyed’ out.

Save - This saves your set parameters so they are offered as default next time this report is run

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

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 the default update report 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 is longer than field then 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 – these options are not applicable for the batch update commentary 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.

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 relates to templates for pivot tables and is not applicable for batch update commentary.

Once you’ve set the desired parameters select the SAVE option to apply for future prints.

Article ID: 1680
Created On: Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 9:32 AM
Last Updated On: Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 4:15 PM

Online URL: https://kb.datafile.co.uk/article/report-specification-sales-purchase-batch-updates-1680.html