Creating bespoke reports in the Custom Report Writer

This is where you set the title and subject of your report. After naming the report you can see the choices for what or who this report is about. Select one and then click on next.

Select your date range. This will determine which users (students with an active enrolment or current staff) will be pulled into your report. You can select either:

• Relative dates - a 'dynamic' rolling date range which will change automatically. For example, 'last week' will change the date range each week to look at the previous week.
• Custom dates - custom date ranges with specific dates - these won't update automatically and would need to be adjusted.

In this example, I’m going to generate a report of the last term so only want to look at students on roll last term, but you can set it to report on the last year, term, week or day.

This stage of the wizard allows you to select the columns you want in your report.

On the left-hand of the screen, you can search for column titles in the search box or scroll through the list and select the columns you need. Drag and drop these into the right-hand side.

A slide over may appear after you have added a column, allowing you to set parameters for the column. 

For dates, you can select either:

• Relative dates - a 'dynamic' rolling date range which will change automatically. For example, 'last week' will change the date range each week to look at the previous week.
• Custom dates - custom date ranges with specific dates - these won't update automatically and would need to be adjusted.

Also choose what to display in the summary row. Average and Sum is available for columns involving numerical values, such as attendance and Row Count can be used for all columns.

If you add a column and then decide you no longer want that in your report, the right-hand side of the screen has a small bin icon beside each column you add. Clicking on this will remove the column from your report.

Edit the column further by clicking the pencil icon.

Reorder the columns you have placed in the right-hand area of the screen by dragging and dropping them into the order you wish.

Top Tip: For reports about Students, you'll also see a Bulk Add Assessment Columns button at the bottom of the page. Use this to add assessment columns in bulk - just select the year, assessments and periods, and for Summatives choose which marks or targets to show.

This allows you to reorder your columns should you decide to make any changes. Just click and drag the columns into the correct position.

This is an optional step that allows you to sort your columns alphabetically or chronologically.

You may want to filter the data for your report, for example, you only want to see students in year 8. Using a filter will reduce the number of records seen in your report to only those matching your set criteria. This guide will give you some handy hints when using filters in a student-based custom report: Using AND and OR filters in the Custom Report Writer

You can use further filter options for ‘Not Yes’ and ‘Not No’. For example, if you want to look at students who have a brother, you can now filter by ‘Not Yes’. Your results will then include students for whom it is not recorded whether they have a brother or not.

You do not have to set filters to create a report and this section can be left blank.

To add a filter, type the filter into the box then click Set parameters.

This will allow you to set the date range and parameters of your filter. For example, you only want your report to show students who were in certain year groups.

You can add Groupings if required. If you want to group your results into categories or clusters, for example sex, EAL, FSM, Year Groups, this is where you can add these groups. 

To add a grouping, type the group into the box then click Add Grouping.

This will allow you to set the date range and parameters of your grouping.

Collating a report allows you to collect results into different sections. This means when you download the report, you can choose how rows are grouped together.

To add a collation, type the collation into the box then click Add Collation.

This will allow you to set the date range and parameters of your collation.