Designing Custom Reports

Creating custom reports allows you to retrieve information from the program's memory in a meaningful format. You have the option of using this information to create a paper report, mailing labels, or a tab-delimited data export file.

Eventually you will want a report with different features than those contained in the existing sample reports. The Custom Reports Designer functions in the software allow you decide what you want on the report. This feature is available under the Deal History tab, the Inventory Detail tab, and the Dealer Financing tab (if you have purchased the Buy Here/Pay Here module).

To learn how to use this feature effectively, you need to experiment and practice the different options with your existing inventory!

To access the Custom Reports Designer, click Reports in the menu bar and select Custom Reports Designer from the drop-down menu. You can also access the Custom Reports Designer by clicking the Report Designer button on the left-hand side of the window.

Limiting Data Displayed on Custom Reports

Whenever you print a custom report or create a data export file, the data for the report will always be pulled from the data shown in the listing grid in the middle of the window. If you wish to limit which vehicles, deals, or customers will display on your report, you must also limit the number of records listed in the data grid by setting a data filter . If you notice that your custom reports are not showing all of the vehicles you expect, you may want to check the filters controlling the data to see if a filter is currently being applied.

In the example photos shown, a dealer is working in the Inventory List. To limit the vehicles listed on this dealer's report, the dealer would enter the Inventory List by clicking on the Inventory List tab on the right-hand side of your screen. Next, the dealer would enter any filter criteria you need to produce a limited display of the inventory. The dealer would then apply the filter by clicking the Apply Filter button. Any custom reports the dealer would now run from the Inventory List would be created from the data that would be shown in the reduced list of data in the data grid in the middle of the screen.