What time range do I want the report to cover?
Is this a report about the past, present or future?
Do I want to know about specific events or types of events?
Am I primarily concerned with patron information (how many attended and their demographic information) or am I more concerned with the programs themselves (when they started, who led them, ect.)?
What do I really need to know from this report?
Are you looking for data about the past year? The coming week? Yesterday? Next year? You can compile information about events as far back or far ahead as you have entered in the system. Remember that reports on current and future events won't have attendance data associated with them, but you can find out if people are registered for the events.
Knowing what time frame you want to research is indispensable for building your report.
Internal classifications are invaluable for creating a well-rounded event calendar, but they can be confusing when it comes time to create reports. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the terms "Ongoing", "Archived", "Unpublished", "Featured", and "Shared Attendance" before attacking this section.
If you want to analyze attendance or registration numbers broken down by age, simply chose the age categories relevant to your needs. If you aren't interested in that data, just leave the field blank.
If so, choose which branch or branches you want to see data from.
Event types are classifications that you set to help group similar events together. Running reports by event type can be a great way to analyze what kinds of events are popular with your patrons.
Perhaps you want to compare the popularity of toddler events versus the popularity of preschool events. Creating appropriate event types then allows you to track the two categories. The data can then be used to decide what kind of events to offer more of in the future, or how to classify and market events in a way that will attract the most patrons.
Using this filter allows you to sharpen the focus of your reports.
There are many ways to see the data the report generates. HTML form lets you look at the page in a web browser. Word is a word processing program that makes the report easy to print, edit, and include in other documents. Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows you to sort data, add up data, and create a wide variety of wonderful tables and charts. CSV, or Comma Separated Value, is a format that can be easily read by a wide variety of text readers if you don't have access to Word or Excel.
The final field has many options and can appear daunting, but don't be intimidated. The myriad of fields are there to help you get the information you need. Some of the boxes may be checked by default, but remember that you don't HAVE to include them in your report.
Ask yourself: what do I really need to know?
For example, do you want to know about the set up and take down time for the events? If not, then don't check that box.
The more boxes you check, the more information your report will contain, but the more complicated it will be as well. As you read through the boxes, if there is an option don't understand, simply leave it unchecked. If you don't understand what the field refers to, you likely don't need the data it offers.
If you think you'll want to run your custom report again, click save as. Give the report a name and you'll be easily able to access it again for future use.
Article ID: 32
Created On: Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 2:03 PM
Last Updated On: Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 1:06 PM
Online URL: https://kb.demcosoftware.com/article.php?id=32