Creating reports from scratch - Step 2 - Effective Dates

This guide is the third 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
   

Introduction

The second step to building a report from scratch asks you to select your date range. The date range you choose narrows down the amount of data from the report focus (your dataset or library) set in Step 1 that pulls into your report. 

For example, if you have set your report focus to 'Students', setting a date range of 'Current academic year' ensures each row of your report represents students enrolled in your school during the current academic year, rather than also including historic and future students. 

If you think of your report focus as the library the report writer uses to build your report, the date range you set is like instructing the report writer to only use books that were or are in circulation between two dates.
 

Completing Step 2:

• Use the Date Range drop-down to select the type of date range you want to use. The two types of date range are:
   

  • Relative dates - a dynamic rolling date range that changes automatically over time. 
    
    For example, 'today' will change the date range every day to the day you are viewing the report on. In other words, if you set the date range to 'today' now, and go to view your report tomorrow, the date range remains 'today', but the From and To fields will change to tomorrow's date.
    
    This allows you to create reports that adapt over time, without having to make manual changes each time you view the report. 
    
    The available dynamic date ranges are:
     
    • Current academic year
    • Next academic year
    • Previous academic year
    • Two academic years ago
    • Last week
    • This week
    • Today
    • Yesterday
    • Current term
    • Last term

  It is not possible to set custom dynamic date ranges (like a rolling date range of 'two weeks ago'), the options you are presented with in the drop-down are the only dynamic date ranges you can choose.
   

  • Custom dates - Selecting Custom in the date range drop-down allows you to specify fixed dates in the From and To fields to the right of the drop-down. 
    
    The dates in the From and To fields won't update automatically and will need to be adjusted if you need to show data for a different period.
    
    For example, if you set your custom dates to From 1st Sep 2025 and To 31st Dec 2025, your report will always show data focused on the period between September 1st and December 31st 2025, unless you manually adjust the dates. 
    
    When using custom date ranges, make sure to:
     
    • Change the Date Range drop-down to custom; otherwise, the system will apply the dynamic range listed and ignore the dates in the To and From fields
    • Set dates in the To and From fields - leave these blank when the Custom date range type is selected, and the system won't let you proceed to the next step!
       

Once you are happy with the date range, click the green Next button to go to Step 3 - Select Columns