How Do I Build a Classic Custom Report?

The Classic Custom Report feature allows users of SchoolInsight to create and generate reports of specifically desired groups of students along particular sets of data. Some examples of uses for a Classic Custom Report include:

1. Generate a list of all users without an email address
2. Generate a list of all contact mailing addresses
3. Generate a list of all student custodial contacts

Additionally, Classic Custom Reports are used when exporting student / contact data externally.

1. How to Create Classic Custom Reports
   • Report Type
   • Filters
   • Data
   • Sorting
   • Output
2. How to Manage Classic Custom Reports

How to Create Classic Custom Reports

Classic Custom Reports can be built at Main > Reports > Saved Reports. From this page, select Create > Classic Custom Report. Alternatively, you can access the same page from Main > Import / Export > Export Students.

Report Type

The first step in building the report is to choose which data you’d like to query as well as how you’d like your data to appear. Because it is primarily a student report, Students is automatically selected under Data to Query.

You may additionally select to query Contacts, Discipline Incidents, and Fees. Each of these categories opens up additional fields to display, filter by, and sort by. You may not query for both Discipline Incidents and Fees at the same time.

Choose whether to use a Details Report or Summary Report. This article will only cover the Details Report, which displays every line of data. Refer to the images and the tooltips  to learn more about how these appear.

Filters

The purpose of the filters is to allow users the ability to only pull certain groups of data. You may apply filters for any data you elected to query in the Report Type tab.

By default, the Academic Year and Enrollment Status (Active) filters are enabled, but you’re not required to use them. This is input for ease of the user because most reports will only query active students within the current academic year.

To add a filter:

1. Select Add Another Filter
2. Select a filter from the drop-down menu. Optionally: enable Sort fields alphabetically to display the fields alphabetically within each drop-down menu.
3. Possible Values
   1. Depending on the data type of the filter you selected, the Possible Values will operate differently
   2. List
      • Examples: Class, School Name, Homeroom
      • These have a specific list of values to choose from.
      • For these, you may only select equal to or not equal to a certain value.
   3. Numeric
      • Examples: Grade Level, Academic Year, Birth Date
      • These have a specific list of values to choose, but have a numeric range.
      • For these you may implement equal to, not equal to, and combinations of greater than / less than a certain value.
   4. Text String
      • Examples: Student First Name, Student Email Address
      • These do not have a specific list of values to choose from.
      • For these, you may implement equal to, not equal to, or contains a certain string of characters.
   5. There are other filters that don’t directly fall into these categories but they will operate in a similar fashion to at least one of them. Please contact support if you have questions about how a particular filter works.
4. OR vs AND
   • Every filter added with the “Add another filter” button functions like an AND statement: every row is required.
   • Within a single filter, you may accept data that falls into one or more possible values. In this case, use the blue plus sign    to add an OR statement.
   • These filters can be combined. For example, to get a list of students who are male AND in either fourth OR fifth grade:

To remove a filter:

1. Next to the filter, select clear

Data

This is where you may select which data fields you want to show on the report. The typical report views will display every field as a column, although some output types do not use columns.

To add a data field:

1. Select from the Available Fields drop-down menu. Optionally: enable Sort fields alphabetically to display the fields alphabetically instead of by category.
2. Once you’ve selected a field, click Add. The field will move down to the Fields to Show section.

Fields to Show:

• This is the list of data fields which have been selected to show on your report.
• The order of the fields from top-down will determine how the data appear on the report. In outputs that use columns, the top-most field is the left-most column.
• Use the Move Up / Move Down buttons to change the order of your fields.

To remove a data field:

1. Click the name of the field in the Fields to Show section
2. Select Remove

Sorting

This determines, from top-down, in what order students and their accompanying information will appear in the report.

To add a sort field:

1. Select from the Available Fields drop-down menu
2. Once you’ve selected a field, select Add. The field will move down to the Sort by section.

Sort by:

• This is the list of data fields which have been selected to determine the sort order on your report.
• The order of the fields from top-down will determine in which priority the data is sorted. 
• Use the Move Up / Move Down buttons to change the sort order prioritization

Ascending / Descending:

• This option allows the user to completely reverse the sorting appearance of specific fields. For example, the default Student Last Name sorting is ascending, i.e. it sorts last names A to Z. Switching to descending mode will sort Z to A.
• To change Ascending / Descending modes
  • Click the name of a field in the Sort by section
  • Select Ascending / Descending
  • If Descending is selected, “Descending” will appear after the field name. If Ascending is selected, the field name will appear by itself.

To remove a Sort by field:

1. Click the name of the field in the Sort by section
2. Select Remove

Output

Define the format of the report.

1.  
   1. Normal Web Page
      • This allows you to see your report within your current web browser.
   2. Printable Page
      • This allows you to see your report in a printable format within your current web browser.
   3. Mailing Labels
      • This is generally used for addresses printed onto sticky labels to put on envelopes. Several size options are available. When printing, make sure the option “Fit to page” is not selected and that you are printing at 100% scale; otherwise the text may not align with labels.
   4. Envelopes
      • This is used for printing directly onto envelopes. Several size options are available.
   5. Comma Delimited (CSV)
      • This is the best format for data manipulation as it outputs a downloadable .csv file, which can be opened in spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel. It’s also the format we require for exporting data.
   6. Printable Letter & Email
      • After creating a letter template, this output option will allow you to email the group selected from your report or print letters for them.
   7. To save the report
      • If you’d like to run this report in the future or use it on a scheduled export, you should save it.
      • Select Save As…
      • Give the report a distinctive name
      • Save

How to Manage Classic Custom Reports

After your reports are saved, they’ll show in (School District) Admin Main > Reports > Custom Reports page. There you can see details for each report, and run, edit, or delete each one.

By default, only reports that you have created are visible. To view reports created by other users, check “Show reports saved by other admins” at the bottom of the page.

To run a report:

1. Next to a report, select run
2. The report will be run under whatever format you saved it. For example, if the report used the format of Normal Web Page, the report would appear right in your browser after running.

To edit a report:

1. Next to a report, select edit
2. Here you can make any kinds of edits you’d like to the report. You can make edits without saving and affecting the original report.
3. If you made some changes and you’d like to save them, you have two options:
   • Save the report under the same name
     • This will overwrite the existing report and whatever set of options were there before will be lost.
   • Save the report under a different name
     • This will use the new options you set and create a new custom report, leaving the previous one unaffected.

To delete a report:

1. Next to a report, select delete
2. Confirm deletion

Scheduled Exports:

• To learn more about how these reports may be automatically exported to an SFTP server daily, please refer to How do I Schedule Automated Export Files?