Focus On: Custom Financial Reports

 

Welcome to our Focus On series. In this series of e-mail tutorials, we will show you a few overlooked features in our system. We encourage you to print this document to follow along through the lessons.

 

Tutorial: Custom Financial Reports

 

Custom Financial Reports let you run a report of the transactions you have entered in BackOffice.  These customizable reports are a great way to keep track of your finances, and make very quick updates.

 

This tutorial covers:

Lesson 1: What is the Difference: Custom Financial Reports vs. Custom Report Generator?

Lesson 2: Understanding the Custom Financial Report Generator

Lesson 3: Common queries

Lesson 4: How to get the results you want

 

Lesson 1: What is the Difference: Custom Financial Reports vs. Custom Report Generator?

 

Many of you are probably already familiar with the Custom Report Generator.  Although the Custom Report Generator is a great way to pull phone lists, track supporters, and so forth, it has a different goal than Custom Financial Reports.  The Custom Report Generator automatically looks for people, whereas the Custom Financial Reports looks for transactions.

 

For example, John Jones and his daughter, Barbara Jones, are both contributors.  John has contributed three times.  Barbara contributed once and then moved out of the area; consequently, you made her inactive in your database.

 

If you were to query your contributors through the Custom Report Generator, John’s name would appear only once because he is one person.  Barbara would not appear at all because her record is inactive.  Here are the results from a Hyperlinks Report if you were to query All Contributors through Custom Reports:

 

 

On the other hand, if you used a Custom Financial report, John would appear three times next to each transaction, and Barbara would appear once.  Here are their results if you query All Contributors though Custom Financial Reports:

 

 

Why is there a difference?  Because the Custom Report Generator counts each person whereas Custom Financial Reports counts each transaction.  As you’ve seen, because the Custom Report Generator automatically excludes people who have been made inactive because it’s interested in an active record count rather than a transaction count.  Since transactions are never inactive, Custom Financial Reports display transactions whether the record is inactive or not – if a record has a transaction associated with it, it will appear on the report!

 

Custom Financial Reports also allows you to make quick modifications to your transactions when you find errors.  They are also one of the best ways to get accurate dollar amount totals for your transactions in the database, which can also help you find discrepancies in your Government Reports.

 

 

Lesson 2: Understanding the Custom Financial Report Generator

 

Go to Reports > Custom Financial

 

 

Here are the fields available to you in the Custom Financial Report Generator, starting at the top-left:

 

 

Include allows you to limit which transactions you are targeting by selecting the areas you wish to review. By leaving each section at All, your report will include all areas by default.

 

 

Transaction Types allows you to select which specific transactions you would like to look at in your results.  To see every transaction, select nothing.

 

 

Display Extra Information allows you to include information in the final report that would not otherwise appear.  If you do not need any extra information displayed, the default information that will appear on your report is: Date, Amount, Transaction Type, Record Type, Name, Category, and Election.

 

 

AmountRange allows you to include a specific range of amounts in your report.  To include all amounts, leave these fields blank. 

 

 

Dates allow you to limit the date range for the transactions. To include all dates, leave this area blank.

 

 

Group By allows you to specify how you would like the report to group the transactions on your report.  Grouping will prevent you from seeing individual transactions, which allows you to get quick totals for the method you select.

 

 

 

Sort By allows you to select the manner in which the final report is sorted. By default, the report will sorted alphabetically by name.

 

 

Other Targeting allows you to search by a particular payment method (cash, check, credit card, other), a specific check number, or a specific bank number should you be recording that information.

 

 

  Generate will run the report with BackOffice so that you can make quick modifications to transactions or records.

 

  Excel Export allows you to download your report as an Excel file.

 

  Print will print out the options you selected in the Custom Financial Report Generator in case you need to refer back to this information later.

 

 

Lesson 3: Common Queries

 

Now that you have an understanding of when to use Custom Financial Reports, and what each area in the Generator does, let’s run some practice reports.

 

All Credit Card Contributions: This will produce a list of all transactions with the payment method recorded as Credit Card.  Note:  Any transaction processed via a BackOffice Online Contribution Page from your PublicPages will have the payment method stored as Credit Card by default.

 

1.       Go to Other Targeting

2.       Drop-down Payment Method

3.       Select Credit Card

4.       Click Generate

 

 

A Specific Check Number:This will produce a report of any transaction with the number you specify entered in the Check Number field. 

 

1.       Go to Other Targeting

2.       Drop down Payment Method

3.       Select Check

4.       Type the check number you’re looking for into the Check Number field

5.       Click Generate

 

All Individual Contributions Since January 1st :This will produce a list of individual monetary contributions, with transactions dated on or after January 1st, 2006.

 

1.       Go to Include

2.       Drop down Record Types

3.       Select Individual

4.       Go to Transaction Types

5.       Check the Contributions box

6.       Go to Dates, and enter the following:

7.       Start Date: 1/1/06

8.       End Date: [ leave blank ]

9.       Click Generate

 

All Expenses with a Particular Category for a Specific Election, Sorted by Date then by Name: This will produce a list of every expense associated with a particular election and a particular category.  The report will be sorted first by name, then by date.

 

1.       Go to Include

2.       Scroll though Categories and click on the one you want

Note: If you would like more than one category, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard as you click on the ones you want.  For a range of categories, click on the first category, then hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, then click on the last category of your range.

3.       Also in Include

4.       Drop down Elections

5.       Select the election you would like

6.       Go to Transaction Types

7.       Check the Expenses box

8.       Go to Sort By

9.       Drop down First By

10.   Select Date

11.   Drop down Then By

12.   Select Name

13.   Click Generate

 

 

 

Lesson 4: How to get the results you want

 

You have two options to view your report—you may either generate it within BackOffice, or you may export it into Excel.  If you need to make quick changes, get totals, or just want to see the report, use Generate.  If you need to give this report to someone else, do different types of calculations, or just prefer to see it in Excel, use Excel Export.

 

When you Generate your report but need to go back and make changes to your report criteria, you may do so by clicking.  Modify will bring you back to the Generator with all of your previous criteria still selected so that you can quickly make changes without re-entering your report criteria.  Do NOT use your browsers Back button, or your original criteria will be lost.

 

If you’re happy with your report and need to make changes to transactions or records, click on the name of the person or organization you wish to update.

 

 

Once you click on the name, the individual or organization record will appear in a second pop-up window.  From there, you can easily make changes to either the record, or to the transaction itself.

 

Hopefully, with a better understanding of how to run reports off of your transactions through Custom Financial Reports, you now can easily find certain transactions, gather totals quickly, and make fast modifications. 

 

 

 

 

Do you have an idea for our next Focus On? Is there something you would like to know more about? Simply email us at: support@completecampaigns.com.  We’d love to hear from you!