Creating reports from scratch - Introduction

The Custom Report Writer enables you to create bespoke reports to show in a table grid, which you can then share or export.

This guide is the first guide in a series of eight. The other guides in this series are:

• Creating reports from scratch - Introduction
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 1 - Titles and Topics
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 2 - Effective Date
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 3 - Select columns
• Creating reports from scratch - Steps 4 & 5 - Ordering and sorting columns
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 6 - Filters
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 7 - Groupings
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 8 - Collations and reviewing your report
   

Permissions

• School: General Admin: Export Data - Create and manage custom reports in Custom Report Writer.
• Custom Report Writer: Superuser - Access to view and edit all Custom Reports that have been created. Without this permission, you can only see reports you have created or reports that have been shared with you.

The data you can view in a custom report depends on the permissions needed to see that same information elsewhere in Arbor, allowing you to control what information is visible to protect students and staff.

Some data may be restricted for staff without the necessary permissions. For instance, if you can't view Child Protection Status in student profiles, it won't be available for you to view in a custom report either. For more information, please refer to our Who can access Custom Report Writer reports and fields? guidance.

If you don't have the relevant permissions, ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.

What are the different ways to create custom reports?

There are 3 options to choose from when creating a custom report:

• Create a new report: See the Creating a report from scratch section below.
  
  

• Create a new report from a template: Select the template you would like to use. You are then automatically taken to Step 2 of the report creation process with all the fields pre-populated with the info you require. This allows you to customise the template to fit your needs, without having to manually enter each column, filter and grouping.
  
  You can find an overview of the available report templates in the Template Library within Arbor (Reporting > Template Library) and in our Templates Available in the Template Library guide.
  

• Import a custom report: You can import reports that another school or staff member has shared with you using these instructions, or check out the common Custom Report Writer reports you can download from the Help Centre.

Getting started

Start building a report from scratch by following these steps:

1. Go to School > Custom Report Writer via the top menu
2. Click the green Create New Report button in the top right-hand corner of the page.
3. Select Create a new report to start building your report on the slide-over that opens.
   

Navigating the setup and skipping the wizard

Clicking Create a new report on the slide-over starts the report setup wizard, an 8-step process to help you create your report.

If you prefer to use the report editing view instead of the 8-step process, complete step 1 and tick the Skip setup wizard box before clicking the green Next button to create a blank report with the report focus and title you selected on the slide over and the date range Current academic year.

If you decide during a later step that you want to skip the wizard, you can click the green Skip setup wizard button at the bottom of steps 3 to 8 to skip the wizard, too.

You can identify which stage you are at by looking at the top of the page you are on. To go back to a previous step, use the grey back button at the top of the page.

Each step also has a What happens on this step? section at the top of the page, which you can click on to expand and see further guidance for the stage you are at. 

To get started with Step 1 of building your report, please move on to the next guide in this series: Creating reports from scratch - Step 1 - Titles and Topics