Editing Templates

Editing your custom report in Microsoft Access is easy. You'll just open up your template file and click the EDIT REPORT button to edit the reporting object. The data for your report is filled in automatically from your database, and you don't need any access to the BigTime server to edit basic reporting files.

This section will cover a few of the basics, but Microsoft Access is a powerful tool. There are a number of excellent references on how to use Access, and a large number of professional consultants can help you generate Access reports.

Report Settings

When you open your custom report template in Microsoft Access, you will see the basic information shown here. You can edit the report's name, description and the category into which the report will be placed.

Note that the report's "file name" will need to be unique for each custom report you create. It doesn't matter what you call your report, but BigTime will assume that you want to overwrite any custom report that already exists with that name.

Editing Report Layout

To edit your custom report, just click the EDIT REPORT button at the bottom of this page. Your main report will be opened within the Microsoft Access report editor. Here, you can adjust the fields, columns, text, etc. and the click SAVE to save any changes you make.

Notes on Editing Reports

• Always use the "Default Printer" setting. If you setup your report to use a specific printer and that printer doesn't exist on the BigTime server, then you'll get an error when you try to print out your custom report.
• Don't change the report's data source property. That value is updated dynamically (by the reporting engine), so any changes you make here will be lost when you publish your report.
  • BigTime's standard reports have a fixed set of fields, but most reports support a number of fields that don't appear on your standard report format. It's easy, for example, to add a field like the "budget item" to your timesheet detail report.
  • If you would like to create your own data sources, BigTime will support that as well. For details on how to edit the data contained on a custom report, take a look at Editing Report Data.

    The data in your BigTime system can get fairly complex, so you will need some database expertise for this type of advanced customization.

• Required "Hidden Fields" are in red. Many of BigTime's standard reports use hidden fields to store data that the report uses, and those hidden fields shouldn't be removed (unless you are certain your version of the report no longer uses the field). Those hidden field are set to "visible=false" and are highlighted in red on your report design screen.