What is the Template Library?

The Report Template Library is a collection of pre-built report templates designed to save you time and ensure consistency in your reporting. These templates can be used as a starting point to quickly create new custom reports tailored to your school's needs.

Where to find the Template Library

You can access the Template Library in two ways:

1. From the Top Navigation:
   
   • Go to Reporting > Template Library from the main menu.
2. From the Custom Report Writer:
   • Go to School > Custom Report Writer
   • Click the green Create New Report button in the to right corner.
   • Choose to Create report from template

Browsing and finding templates

On the Reporting > Template Library page, you see:

• Clickable categories at the top of the page for areas like Attendance, Behaviour and Assessments. Pressing these helps you filter and explore report templates across different areas in the list below the buttons.
• A search bar to quickly find templates by name or keyword. Just start typing to narrow down the list of templates.

This layout mirrors the experience in the Reports Library (Reporting > Report Library), so it will feel familiar if you have used this before. 

The template tiles let you know what the template is called and is about, clicking on these opens a slideover confirming the focus of the report and the columns included in the report template.

Please note: if you click on a category without any available report templates, or your search does not match any report templates, you will see a We couldn't find any results message. If that happens, you can:

• • Check the Report Library (Reporting > Report Library) too to see if the report you need exists elsewhere
  • Create a bespoke report manually

How to create a report from a template

1. Click on a Template tile - this opens a slideover confirming the columns and data that will be included in the report.
2. Click the green Create Report from Template - this generates a new report based on the selected template.
3. Access your new report - once created, the report will:
   
   • Appear in your Reports Library on the Reporting > Report Library page.
   • Be available in the Custom Report Writer on the School > Custom Report Writer page, where you can edit reports created from templates like any other custom report.

Editing and customising reports created from templates

Once you have created your report from a template, you will likely want to edit it. To start editing a report, open up your report and click the grey Edit button. Things you can consider editing to customise your report are:

• Report Titles - This is particularly handy if you plan on using a template to create multiple reports, so you can add unique names for each report, making it easier to find and manage them.
• Date ranges - Change the overall date range of your report or date ranges specific columns, filters or groupings to adapt your report to custom time frames. 
• Report Columns - Edit, add, remove or hide columns to customise the data items included in your report
• Report filters and groupings - Add filters and groupings to your report to hone in on specific groups and narrow the focus of your report. More on how filters and groupings work here: Using AND and OR filters in the Custom Report Writer

More on editing reports can be found here: Viewing, editing or deleting a report

FAQs

Can I use a template more than once?

Yes. You can create multiple reports from the same template. Each one will be treated as a separate, editable report — allowing you to tailor each version as needed.

Can I add my own templates to the list?

No, it is not possible to add templates to the Template Library; the templates in the library are created and maintained by Arbor. When you manually import a report from a template into Arbor, this creates a report, rather than adding a new template to the library.

Imported templates can be accessed via the Reports Library and the All Reports page (School > Custom Report Writer). Once imported, you can duplicate and edit the report, and share the report with others as you would any other report.

Can share feedback about the Template Library

If you have any feedback about the Template Library, or have any ideas for reports or further features you would like to see, please share this with us by going to Help & Learn with Arbor [in the left-hand menu] > Share Product Idea on any page in Arbor. All feedback gets read and taken into account when planning improvements! Find more on our feedback process here: Our Product Roadmap and how to submit ideas and improvements

Which Templates are available in the Library?

You can find a list of the available templates on the Reporting > Template Library page by ensuring the category at the top is set to All. For a list of each report template, the area the report focuses on and the columns the report includes, please refer to our Templates Available in the Template Library guide.