Reports - Batch Tracking

The Reports option allows up to eight reports to be defined against the batch file, one of which is pre-defined for you as a batch ‘listing’ report. On selection of the Reports option you will be presented with the list of available reports for you to select, where only one report is defined this is selected for you. After selecting the report you will be presented with a list of optional parameters that can be set (discussed below) before printing the report.

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 it is printed, it is helpful to know up to what date the stock file has been processed. Often these are the same but it could be that stock transaction entry is some way behind if the Datafile system is not the primary instigator of stock movements. The report ‘as at’ date therefore is the date up to which transactions have been entered.

Location Code (blank for all)

Only applicable if using the multi-location facility, this allows you to limit this report to batches for a specific stock location. If you leave it blank then all locations are included. You can use <F4-Select> to check your location codes.

From Stock Code

To Stock Code

You may be interested the batch details for just a group of stock codes, in which case these prompts allow you to enter a range of codes. The From and To codes give you the start and end range – and you can use the <F4-Select> key to choose the codes you want. If you leave the From stock code blank then the system assumes you want to start the beginning of the file, if you leave the To code blank then the system assumes you want to run to the end of the file.

Or List of Stock Codes

If not entering a range of stock codes to report the batches for you can enter a list of up to 200 stock codes to report. Selecting this item gives you a pop-up to enter these codes, <F4-Select> available as required. Once you have entered your selected codes pressing <Enter> on a blank input completes the entry.

Specify Any Selection Criteria

Selecting this option allows you to restrict the batch records to those that match 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.

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 and cannot be selected. To set user defaults see the appropriate section below.

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

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.

Paper Size – select the paper size the report is to be printed to (i.e. A4).You can elect to leave this blank in which case the report is printed as per the last/default page size of the printer, however, if you do this you can only choose fixed pitch fonts – selecting a page size is mandatory to use proportional fonts. If you set a page size then the options screen re-displays with the appropriate parameters. If you leave blank then the options screen remains as above.

Default Printer Font – a font dialog is display allowing you to select as required, the default font to be used for this report. If you’ve sent the page size then all fonts are available, if you haven’t set this then only fixed pitch fonts can be assigned. You can also set bold/italic attributes and font size – note that if you haven’t set a page size then the font size option is not applicable (font is sized as per previous rules).

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 ‘Purchase Details’ report this shows, by default, the batch code (30 characters), the stock code (16), the supplier code (10), the purchase order number (10), purchase delivery number (6), purchase date (8), and original qty (14) together with spaces between the items this gives a total of 108 characters, or columns required, across the page (think graph paper – you have 108 ‘cells’ across the page).

Those 108 columns are split equally across the available page (page size and margins taken into account) as starting positions for data items – so the batch code starts at column 1, the stock code at column 32 (batch code plus 1), etc. If you select a font size too big then the stock code may not finish printing before the description starts causing the description to overlap the end of the stock code. 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.

Default to Landscape – set to default the printed report to landscape, leave blank for usual portrait orientation. You may want to set reports such as the Sales Ledger Aged Debtors Report or the Cashbook Receipts Analysis Listing to landscape as these reports require a large amount of detail to be printed and otherwise the font size 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 – 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.

The next set of parameters allows you to specify formatting and margin settings. This section is different if you set the page size earlier.If you have set the page size then you set the margins in millimetres. If you haven’t set the page size then you set margin in ‘columns’ for both portrait and landscape - the appropriate settings being used based on the orientation of the output selected at run-time.

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.

Minimum Characters Per Line – the system displays the width of the report items to the right. If you leave this value as 0 then the report width is the larger of either the report print items or 80 characters. You can manually set a report width – from 64 to 255 characters wide – but if you set a width less than the items actually printed then this is overridden by the report width at run-time.

Maximum Lines Per Page – if left at 0 then when printing a report the system will determine the number of lines per page based on the report width and the printable area of the page up to a maximum of 72 lines per page in portrait mode or 50 lines per page in landscape mode. Alternatively you can set the number of lines per page, from 16 to 255, and this is then taken into account when deciding font size to ensure that number of lines is printed. If left at 0 then when sending to the spooler the lines per page is assumed to be 72 in portrait mode and 50 in landscape. If you require an identical print from the printer and the spooler then a maximum number of lines should be set.

Left Margin – set the number of characters to be used as a margin from 1 to 64.If you require a margin then when entering the value you need to take into account the report print width – a margin of 4 characters on an 80-character report will be bigger than a margin of 4 characters on a 132-character report. If left at 0 no left margin is applied.

Right Margin – if you require a margin to be applied on the right of the report set the number of characters accordingly (again 1-64), if leave as 0 then no right margin is applied.

Top Margin – set the number of lines to leave as a margin at the top of the page (1-32 lines). If left at 0 then no top margin is applied.

Bottom Margin – set the number of lines to leave as a margin at the bottom of the page (1-32 lines). If left at 0 then no bottom margin is applied.

Finally, you can set default options that are used when you send the report to print or e-mail.

Print Device – 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.

E-mail Address – 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.

Article ID: 541
Created On: Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 1:41 PM
Last Updated On: Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 10:44 PM