The following Operations permission is required to access the Report Wizard module:

• 611, Report Wizard

This permission is enabled by default for the Property and the Owner user role, but disabled by default for the Clerk and Accountant user roles.

To access the Report Wizard module, go to Reports > Report Wizard.

Click the New button to create a new report.

Starting with the Report tab, each tab will be worked through to create the report.

Each field on the report tab has a particular function:

• Name: Enter a name for the report. This name will be both the name of the report within the Report Wizard, and in the Report Menu (should you wish to show the report in the Reports menu)
• File Name: Pick a file name for this report (can be the same as Report Name).
• Based On: The two options within this pull down menu are Reservations and Transactions. Will the report being created be based on reservation data (information pertaining to a guest reservation) or transaction data (information pertaining to guest folio transactions)? Please note more fields are attached to reservation data than transaction data.
• Category: Allows you to place the custom report within a sub category. The default “General” may be selected, or a customs category may be created. For this example, a sub category will be created called Reservation Reports.
• Active: The next check is asking whether this report is active or inactive. To be able to use this report, it must be active.
• Show in Menu: If this box is checked this report will show up under the report pull down in the main screen under Reports > Custom Reports > “the name chosen for the subcategory” > “The name of the report”
• Landscape: If this box is checked the report will print in landscape format rather than the default portrait.
• With shares: If this box is checked it will display a reservation share's information within the report.
• Omit details: Will only display totals on the report, and will omit the line by line details.
• Show counter: If this box is selected, a counter adding up the amount of records displayed will appear at the bottom of the report
• Description: The description is a way to tell others exactly what this report is displaying. The description used in this example states: “This report shows all reservations booked by Rate Plan for a selected Arrival Date Range.”

After all necessary fields have been filled in, click Next to proceed to the Header tab.

The Header tab allows a custom header to be added to be the report, such as the Property's name and address.  

• To populate the header info, click the "..." buttons at the end of each line to see a list of available fields to choose from
• Click on the desired variable to be added, then click the Insert button

Fill in all the desired fields, then click Next to proceed to the Fields tab.

The Fields tab is where all the fields to be displayed on the report are selected.  All items on the left side are available, and all items on the right side are the ones selected for this report.

Press the + symbol to expand the list of fields under each category. Use the arrows to more the fields on or off the report.

NOTE: Any field that will have conditions imposed on it will need to be added in this section. For example, if the report is supposed to only show reservations with Res ID's greater than 2000, then the field Res ID would need to be added to the Selected Fields side here.

The following Filter tab is where all conditions will be imposed. All filters and conditions are based on Boolean logic, and some appropriate modifiers.

Below is a list of fields that have been selected for the Reservations By Rate Plan report.  The order in which the filters are added is not important at this point, as they can be re-ordered and organized appropriately in the Columns tab.

Once all required fields have been selected, click Next to proceed to the Filter tab.

The Expression button in the middle of the screen will assist in filtering the data to be searched.

For example: to search for reservations whose Res ID’s were GREATER than 2000, an expression needs to be created to state that.

For this report, there are several expressions required that will allow the user to:

• Select the Date From and the Date To based on Reservation Arrival and Departure Dates (as the report will return results for Arrivals for a specific date range)
• Filter out Reservations with the status "CANCELLED" or "NOSHOW" (as they are not needed for this report)
• Optionally, a filter could be added that allows the user to enter a specific Rate Plan name, so the report only returns results for bookings on that specific Rate Plan

The first step will be to set up an expression that allows a Date Range to be selected, based on Arrival Date.  

1. Locate the "Arrival Date" field under the available Report Fields
2. Click the Expression button in the middle

The Report Expression box will be displayed.

1. Start by selecting >= (great than or equal to) in order to search for all dates great than or equal to whatever date is selected by the user when running the report
2. Next, we will add the ability to select a different Date From whenever the report is run, so, check the box next to Parameter and enter the Prompt to be shown when the report is run.  For this example, that prompt will be Date From
3. Click OK to save

Some Boolean Expressions:

• = - equals
• <> - does not equal
• >= - greater than or equal to
• <= - less than or equal to
• > - greater than
• < - less than
• IsNull - Empty

NOTE: To have the report always run from the same date, use the Value drop down to select a specific date instead of using the Parameter option. This will generate the information for the report based on the selected date, and the user will not have the option of changing that date when running the report.

Notice that the Filter Expressions box to the right now populates with the filter expression.

To be able to have the ability to select a date range when running the report, the report filter must also be set up so it asks for a Date To as well.

The first step is to add an AND rule to tell the report to look for an Arrival Date From AND an Arrival Date To.

Click the AND button located it the middle of the screen to add an AND to the filter expression.

The next step is to add the Date To parameter for the Arrival Date, to be able to close out the date range.

To do this, select the Arrival Date again from the Report Fields on the left, and click Expression. The Report Expression box will open again.

1. This time, select the <= Less than or equal to option
2. Check the Parameter box, and enter Date To: in the prompt
3. Click OK to add the expression

The next step in the filter expression is to omit Cancelled and No Show reservations from the report.  To do this, first input another AND after the Date To: expression by clicking the AND button.

Click on Status field to the right and then click the Expression box. To not include Cancelled reservations, select <> (does not equal) and type CANCELLED into the Value. When done, click OK.

Select AND again, as the next expression to be added will instruct the report to omit NOSHOW reservations.

Again, select Status and click Expression

Select <> (does not equal) and type NOSHOW into the Value box. Click OK.

The filter expression is now complete.  It instructs the report to ask the person running which Date From and Date To to search for, and to omit reservations during that time frame that were either cancelled, or were No Shows.

The expression could be taken one step further by adding another AND, and adding a Rate Name filter.  The Rate Name filter would ask the user to enter in a specific Rate Plan name to search for.

• To do this, select Rate Name from the Report Fields and click Expression
• In the Report Expression box, choose like, and type Enter Rate Plan Name into the Parameter box
• Click OK to save

NOTE: The like option was selected instead of the = (equals) option. The reason for this is that it permits a partial match on the Rate Name when searching. For example, if a search was done for "Best", it would return any rate plans that started with the word "Best".  If = (equals) was used, it would mean the user running the report would have to enter the full, exact name of the rate plan in order to return any results; if the Rate Name was misspelled or incomplete, no results would show.

The filter is now complete. Select Next to move on to the Columns tab.

The Columns tab is used to set the parameters for the columns displayed on the report.

Each row shown here represents a column on the final report when it is generated.  The row can be shown or hidden by checking or unchecking the corresponding box under the Column column.

• Name - Shows the field that is being displayed for each column in the report. Items inside [ ] will be what prints as the column header on the final report
• Title - Appears blank at first, but can be filled in to replace the name of the column under Name
• Format - Allows configuration of the display format, such as date or currency displays
• Width - Allows configuration of the column's width on the report. How many characters of space will each column need?
• Column - Allows the column to either show, or be hidden on the report (Check to show, uncheck to hide)
• Sum() - Check this box to have the values in this field added together, and a total displayed. NOTE: Certain fields (ie: dates) cannot be added together

Once all the columns have been configured as desired, click Next to move on to the Group By tab.

The Group By tab allows grouping of all reservations that have the same filter together.  In the below example, the report results will be grouped by Rate Name.

To set a Group By, select the desired field from the Report Fields side, and move to the Group By field using the arrow in the middle.

When report data is grouped by Rate Name, it will show all reservations made under each different Rate Plan name. Alternatively, the report data may be grouped by Arrival Date to see all the reservations that are arriving under the same day.  Below is an example of a report grouped by Rate Name.

When done, click Next to move to the Order By tab.

Use Order By to select the order in which the data is sorted. If the information is to be sorted numerically by Res ID, move Res ID over to the right hand side. If the information is to be sorted by Arrival Date, move Arrival Date to the right hand side.

In the example below the records will be displayed in order of Arrival Date.

The image below shows the report sorted by Date In (Arrival Date).

After all the sections of the report have been completed as desired, click Finish. To both finish the report, and run a preview of it, click the Run on finish box.

When running this report, based on the filters used, several prompts will appear.  The first prompt asks for the starting date of the report (the first Arrival Date to report from):

The second prompt is for the end date of the report (the date to report up until):

The last prompt is asking for the name of the Rate Plan to return information on:

The Reservations by Rate Plan Report will return results for all reservations booked under the *Best Available Rate:

There are two options for running this report again. The first option is:

• Proceed to Reports > Report Wizard > Reservations. Click the + symbol to expand the list, select the Reservations by Rate Plan report, and click Run.

The second method to run the report is through the Custom Reports section of the Report Menu.

• Proceed to Reports > Custom Reports > Load Custom Reports to load the Custom Reports into the report menu

• Once loaded, proceed to Reports > Custom Reports > Reservations > Reservations by Rate Plan to run the report