Custom Reports

Custom reports is a growing tool that allows you to build a vast array of customised reports to help manage your staff and venues. These reports can be filtered with multiple criteria on each column, allowing you to view only the relevant records. Filters are stored for your next viewing, too. 

Why are Custom Reports useful?

Unlike other reports in the system you can set each custom report up so that it meets your exact needs. They include many variables that you can choose to include. This allows for a great deal of flexibility and user customisation.

Custom reports are also helpful if you want to track progress as well. You will receive progress updates when running complex reports. A screenshot of your reports can also be saved and viewed so you are able to compare reports between different periods of time.

Building a Custom Report

Now we know why we use custom reports let us review how to create one. You can find and manage reports under Reports > Manage Custom Reports. From this page, you can create or edit your own reports. If a Custom Report is deleted, the system will log which personnel member deleted it.

You will also receive progress updates when running complex reports so you can see the progress.

From this page you can also click Create New Report to start building a new custom report. The first thing you will need to do is choose is what type of report it will be. Each report has a base type that sets what the first column will be. There are several different report types that correlate with different features that the system is able to track. These include:

The reports all have a ‘Type’ that sets what the first column will be:

• Absence & Holiday Periods - This is a report showing all absence periods (including holiday) within the system. Use the Status column to filter by different statuses to see those cancelled, rejected, approved and pending.
• Absence Categories - Displays each absence type category down the left side and allows you to see absences and costs for a defined date range. You can also filter just to one absence type.
• Absence Types - Displays each absence type down the left side and allows you to see absences and costs for a defined date range.
• Award Nomination - This a report for each award nominated within the system.
• Days (daily summary) - Displays a list of dates down the left and will provide figures for hours worked etc per day.
• Exams - Provides columns to report on each exam in the system. This can include total pass rates and failure rates in any given time period.
• Expense Claims - This a report for each expense claim within the system.
• Monthly (monthly summary) - Displays a list of months down the left and will provide figures for hours worked etc per month.
• Organisation Week Numbers (Dates and week numbers based on organisation’s year start date) - Displays organisation week numbers down the left and provides summary figures for hours worked per week.
• Pay Element - Displays the pay element down the left. This can be used to include information about hours and the value of this pay element. You can choose to specify that this will be set to weeks, months, years.
• Recruitment (Positions) - Displays positions that the company is currently recruiting for. Columns can be added to show the number of spaces available for each skill and how the recruitment process is progressing.
• Recruitment (Applications) - Display applicants that the company is currently recruiting. Columns can be added from the application including adding dates relevant to the application, and also the applicant's details, including their name, the current status and the Position Applied For. 
• Skills - Displays each skill down the left and provides summary figures for a date range you set per skill. You can choose to specify that this will be set to weeks, months, years.
• Staff - All currently active staff will be on this report.
• Staff (new starters) - Choose a date in the top right and it will display all staff who had an account created since that date.
• Staff (leavers) - Choose a date in the top right and it will display all staff who have been archived since that date.
• Training Certificates - Displays information for each of the training stages; this is often completion information so providing total staff numbers for each stage.
• Training Programs - Displays information for each of the training programs; this is often completion information so providing total staff numbers for each program.
• Shifts - This is a report showing all created shifts within the system.
• Shift Events - This is a report which will display shift event information. This includes the following columns: the Event (Artifax Event ID), the date and the venue. This is useful as managers can see which events are each day within a venue.
• Shift History Events - This is a report which will show the history of past shifts and changes made. This includes columns like, changes to the shift, the staff member who actioned the change, the affected staff member and date and time when this happened.
• Time Entries - This is a report showing all time entries within the system. Use the status column to filter out deleted entries.
• Venues - Displays each venue down the left and provides summary figures for a date range you set per venue.
• Venue Groups - Displays all venue groups down the left and provides summary figures for a date range you set for each venue group.

Then all you need to do to set up your report details is add a title and select who has access to each report. You are then ready to move to the next stage, which is creating your columns.

Adding Columns to your report

You will then see a list of columns that can be added to your report. Some columns will be closely related to your report type but some are more broad and might be more related to the staff you are getting the data about, such as names and DOB. 

You can then add any combination of columns to a report, allowing you to customise it to your needs. Column options include absence hours, skill, budget cost, training pass history, attendance of shifts during a month, percentage of non-attendance shifts, shift confirmation/acknowledgement status and more.

Many columns are already available, and we can add as many as you need upon request. Simply email us at support@staffsavvy.com

Editing your Columns

Once you have created columns you will be able to edit them. You can add set filters to that data so that filter will always apply to that column. This means that all viewers will see the same data. This is helpful for when you want the filter always apply if it is always relevant.

Columns can also have customisable titles. If you have filters on your column, you can make the title more specific to convey this is a filtered column. In addition to this, columns can also be hidden. This means you can apply a filter to a column and then hide it so the results are filtered correctly, but you only see the columns you want.
 

Always Filter option

Within Custom Reports, you can set a filter so that reports are always filtered. There are several different ways you can use filters, the filtering options available are:

• Equals
• Contains
• Starts With
• Greater Than
• Less Than
• Does Not Equal
• Is Blank

Additionally, if you have already created a report and want to retrospectively add filters, to do this, Go to Manage Custom Reports, then click the MORE button next to the report you are interested in and select Manage Columns. From here, you will be able to add filters to each individual column.

How do Filters work?

Filters allow to to make your data more specific. For example, you might add a standard column under holiday like Primary contract type. Then, under filters, you might filter Equals permanent or Does not equal Casual. This would then automatically filter so that you would only see permanent staff whenever this report was run. This change allows you to bring more specificity into your reports, creating columns customisable to your needs.

Refining your Columns

Another option that you will see here, (depending on the data type) is the option to refine your data. If the column supports refining the data, you will see a Refine Data button which will provide you with further options to adjust the data included in that column’s total.

This
powerful ability allows you to  to refine data in aggregate (collected) report columns. For example, if you had created a Total Shifts Worked column, you could now refine this summarised data to only include shifts with specific statuses, such as Completed or Approved, while excluding shifts that were canceled. This will allow for much more finesse when creating or customising reports allowing comparisons between different contract types or access levels.

Running a report

Once your report is complete you are able to run it. To do so, go to Reports > Manage Custom Reports. You can set a specific duration to run by setting a start and end date.  Then, select Run Report on the Report you are interested in.  
 

Filtering columns

When running a report you are also able to add filters. These are temporary (unlike the Always Filter option you can add whilst creating a report) and will reset once you run another report.

You can filter by whatever the column is measuring, e.g. number, number of absences, to get specific information. To add a filter to your column in your report clicking the filter icon (the funnel icon) next to it.

What can you filter by? The filtering options available are:

• Equals
• Contains
• Starts With
• Greater Than
• Less Than
• Does Not Equal
• Is Blank
• Is not Blank

Summarising columns

When running a report there is an option to view summary data for any column in any custom report. This will show you a count and percentage for each item in a column. This can also be exported to Excel or CSV.
To do so, at the top of the report, next to each optional column, next to the filter icon, there is a second icon that will show you summary data.

Schedule Reports

You can also schedule your custom reports to repeat regularly. You can do this under Manage Custom Reports. Under the 'more' option, select the 'schedule report button'. Choose details, including when you want the report to run and how long snapshots last.

Uploading custom Reports

Custom reports can also be generated and uploaded to an sFTP location or an Azure Blob Storage destination on a schedule, allowing you to upload a document automatically to another server. 

Thus, it will allow reports to be uploaded when a snapshot is generated.

You will need to include details here for your export, including the desired file name extension, upload format, and the folder to which you would like the file to be uploaded.

Template Custom Reports

Under Custom Reports, there is the option to use one of the system template reports to help you get started (these templates were created keeping in mind report types frequently used in HR). These can all be found under Manage custom reports. With our new templates, you can immediately run them as designed or edit them for more customisation. To edit the template, you will need to make a copy first.

These templates are reports that are frequently used in processes, including an FTE equivalent report, an absence report, Lateness & Attendance Flags report, New Starter Report and Scheduled Shifts Report. It is helpful to remember that when running these reports, you can set how far back you want to go and can filter by skill!

The new starter report includes all new hires, their contracts, venues, and start dates. It is helpful to run this report if you have hired new staff in bulk and want to see all their details in one place. 

The Scheduled Shifts Report includes fields like venue, scheduled shifts/hours, and the staff member’s next shift. It also includes their access level, managers, skills, pay rate and email address. The Lateness & Attendance Flags Report allows you to see each staff member and how many times they have been filed under each attendance flag. The Absence Report shows staff and any recorded absences. The FTE equivalent report shows staff, their venue, and their FTE value.

In addition to our search by name filter, there is now also the filter option to only see created reports or our template reports. 

Run reports on raw data

You can also create custom reports for shifts, time entries, absence periods, award nominations, and expense claims, allowing you to run reports on raw data and access them via the report API. 

From here, you can choose to edit or create a new report. When creating a new report, specify that the ‘type’ of report you are creating is a ‘Shift’ Report. From here, you can add columns so that the report gives more details about the shift, i.e. skill/pay/duration.

New report types that allow you access to raw data:

• Shifts
• Time Entries
• Absence Periods
• Awards
• Expense Claims

There are already staff reports that also allow you access to raw data.

You can filter so that you can specify categories relating specifically to ‘Time Entries’ or ‘Shifts’ and then add those as columns for the final custom report.

Custom Reports with weekly, monthly or yearly data

The system also allows for comprehensive aggregate reports for staff, skills and venues. You can view data such as paid hours each week for any period. The report will repeat the selected columns so you can see information such as “Paid Hours in Week 1”, “Paid Hours in Week 2”, etc.

The reports can automatically produce data such as number of shifts per person per week for an entire year; these reports can have a huge number of columns. We recommend the download report option to be able to view this information in a concise way.

Go to Reports > Manage Custom Reports to build one of these reports. Create a new report and choose the option that includes “(split columns into…)”. 

The report builder allows you to repeat any columns that use dates, such as planned hours, worked hours, absences, etc.

Columns include:

• Staff Reports:
  • MFA Status
  • Primary Contract Type
  • Non-entitlement Absence Days
  • Archived Date
  • Absence Days (total of all absences excluding holidays)
• Venue Reports:
  • Total Pay excluding holiday and sickness
  • Total hours excluding holiday and sickness
  • Shifts Scheduled: Not assigned (a count of all extra, offered and unassigned shifts)
  • Shifts Scheduled: Supplier accounts (a count of all shifts assigned to supplier accounts)
  • Shift Budget: Not assigned (all extra, offered and unassigned shifts)
  • Shift Budget: Supplier accounts 
• Absence Reports
  • Names of staff with that type of absence or absence category
  • Default Skill/ Rate of Pay for the staff member
• Shift Reports
  • Current status of a shift
  • The time between a shift being cancelled and its expected start time

You can also create custom reports for shifts, time entries, absence periods, award nominations, and expense claims, allowing you to run reports on raw data and access them via the report API.