This article will just give you a few tips and tricks for reporting
These will include - how to see your totals, changing columns, changing parameters, exporting search results (to PDF / Excel or Printer), how to save custom reports, setting reports to a Favourite, scheduling reports to generate at specific date/time etc
Tip 1 - Running Reports
- Work out what you want to report on and then start with one of the Custom Searches as your basic report
- For example - if you want to run a report to list Customers - look for a Search about Customers
Tip 2 - Create your Own Report
- Blackpurl provides you with the option of creating your own report from scratch
- Instead of starting with one of the reports available, why not click on
- Then just set your own parameters by starting with the selection of Type and then moving down the other filters
- Depending on what Type you select will then dictate what other parameters / filters are available to you
Tip 3 - Change Parameters / Filters
- Once you have the basic report OR you have created your own report, you can change the parameters (eg date range or created by) to suit what you want to report on, just by simply clicking on
and review the current parameters
- Then just change the parameters you want ie date filter etc
- You can also click on
as this will give you further options
- Click on
to update the search result with your new search parameters
Tip 4 - Columns
- Once you have generated your report, you can change the columns to only show what you need in the report by adding additional columns or removing columns you don't want to see
- Simply click
and then select and/or deselect the relevant columns and then click on 
to have your search result update the columns
Tip 5 - Totals
- To see Totals click on
and it will list the totals relevant to the report you are running
- If you want to see additional totals or remove totals that you don't need, click on
Tip 6 - Exporting or Printing your report
- If you want to export or print your report, click on
- Just work down the Export / Print options
If you want to select Totals to be included, click on 
If you want the report to group specific items together, click 
If you want to export to Excel (.csv) / PDF File / Printer,, click on 
and then select the relevant format that you want to export your report to from the dropdown
- Then just click on
or 
for the report to be available in the format that was requested
Tip 7 - Save the same Report for next time (Custom Reporting)
- If you like the report you generated with your set parameters and columns etc and want to use it again next time, click on
- You will be required to give the report a unique name
- All your settings will be saved for next time in the Custom Search section with your unique report name
- This means that next time you want to use that same report, just find it in your Custom Search section
Tip 8 - Favourite Search
- If you want to mark any Report as a Favourite and for it to be available in the Favourite Search section, simply click on the star and make it
- The report will then be available to you from the Favourite Search section
Tip 9 - Schedule Reports to run a specific Date/Times
Did you know that you can schedule some of our reports to run at specific date / time and be emailed directly to a Blackpurl User at your Dealership?
This article will go through how you can do this - Reporting - Scheduled Reporting
For example for end of month reports, schedule them to run at midnight on the last day of the month so that you have the reports ready for your accounting reconciliations
At the moment some our reports are not available for scheduling but our Blackpurl Development Team is working their way through the reports so that sooner or later all reports can be scheduled