Report Builder & List Mode

Build a report without writing SQL, save it once and reuse it everywhere, with records or totals, charts, report periods and standard reports.

The Report Builder

The Report Builder (formerly the Query Builder) is where you build a report from your datastores without writing SQL: choose a starting datastore, join related ones, pick columns or totals, filter, and see the results, a chart or a CSV. Saved reports can be reused, added to dashboards and sent on a schedule.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Data:

Report Builder — build, run and save reports

Admin Panel → Reporting:

Report Builder — the same screen for people who are not architects, once the item is granted to their security group

A Create Report button on a datastore's list also opens it, in Simple view, on that datastore.

Before you start

Switch Business Intelligence on. It ships off. Turn on the Business Intelligence module in Platform Modules (the same switch as "Enable Business Intelligence" in Site Settings). While it is off the screen says so.
Grant access. Architects can always use it. Anyone else needs the Admin Panel item granted to their security group; it ships granted to nobody.
Check datastore permissions. People can only report on datastores their group can read. See Who Sees What.

The screen

Top bar: Start from (the datastore), Show (Records or Totals), the Query name, Undo and Redo, Run, Open…, Save, CSV and a Simple view / Advanced view switch.
Standard reports: ready-made starting points across the top. See Standard Reports and Summary Figures.
Report period: quick date ranges, when the datastore has a date field. See Report Periods.
Datastores (Advanced view): Find a datastore, with Related and All datastores lists, and a canvas showing the joins.
Inspector: Columns to show, Filter by, Group & count by and Sort.
Tabs: Results, Chart, How this runs, SQL (architects only) and Assistant (when AI is configured).

Building a report

Choose the datastore in Start from.
Choose Records to list rows, or Totals to count, add up or average them.
For Records, tick the Columns to show. For Totals, choose the figures and what to Group & count by (up to six figures and two groupings).
Add conditions under Filter by, or click a Report period.
Click Run. Check the Results, and for Totals look at the Chart tab.
Click Save, give it a name and choose Who can see this. The report gets its own key automatically.

What goes wrong and how to tell

"You do not have access to the Report Builder.": grant the Admin Panel item to the person's security group.
"There are no datastores you have access to, so there is nothing to query.": the person's group has no Read permission on any datastore.
"A saved query needs a name.": name it before saving.
Two people see different numbers from the same report: every report runs as the person viewing it, with their permissions. That is by design.
The Admin Panel item reads "Query Builder": it is the same screen under its old name.

Worked example

A service manager wants open cases by team. The architect switches Business Intelligence on and grants the Reporting → Report Builder item to the managers' group. The manager chooses Cases in Start from, picks Totals, groups by Team, filters Status to Open, clicks Run and sees a bar chart on the Chart tab. They save it as "Open cases by team", visible to their security group, and add it to the team dashboard.

Recommendations

Grant the Report Builder deliberately; it can reach every datastore the person can read.
Start in Simple view and switch to Advanced view to join datastores.
Name reports for the question they answer.
Check Who can see this on every save.

Records and Totals

Every report in the Report Builder is one of two kinds, chosen with Show: Records, a listing of individual rows, or Totals, figures counted or added up across rows. Choosing the right one first decides what you can do with the report afterwards.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Data:

Report Builder — the Show switch is in the top bar

Admin Panel → Reporting:

Report Builder — the same screen, once granted

Records

A row listing: one line per record, with the columns you tick under Columns to show, filtered and sorted as you choose. Use it for working lists and exports: "every open complaint with its owner and age", "applications received this week".

Results shows the rows; CSV downloads them.
A listing has no chart. The Chart tab says "A chart needs totals. Switch Show to Totals and group by something, or use Results for a row listing."
Because it has no chart, a listing cannot be added to a dashboard.
A listing can be sent on a schedule as a CSV or spreadsheet. See Scheduled Delivery.
Large listings are capped at a maximum number of rows, so use filters rather than exporting a whole datastore.

Totals

Figures across rows: a count, a sum, an average and so on, optionally grouped by one or two fields. Use it for anything you would chart or put on a dashboard: "open complaints by category", "income by month".

Up to six figures and two groupings.
The Chart tab draws it. See Charts in the Report Builder.
Add to dashboard on the Chart tab puts it on a BI dashboard.
A total with no grouping can be saved as a summary figure that appears above results. See Standard Reports and Summary Figures.

Choosing

Ask what the reader will do with it. Act on individual records: Records. Compare or track numbers: Totals.
Choose Show first, then columns or figures, since the two use different parts of the Inspector.
If you need both, save two reports: a Totals report for the dashboard and a Records report listing what is behind it. On a dashboard, Show the records on a chart also lists the rows behind a figure.

What goes wrong and how to tell

The Chart tab is empty with "A chart needs totals": the report is set to Records.
Add to dashboard is greyed out: there is no chart yet; run a Totals report first. The button is hidden altogether if you cannot edit any dashboard.
"A summary figure has to be a total, not a row listing. Switch Show to Totals.": you tried to save a listing as a summary figure.

Worked example

A housing team wants to see voids by area each week and to chase the oldest ones. It saves "Voids by area" as Totals, grouped by Area, and adds the bar chart to its dashboard. It saves a second report, "Void properties", as Records with Address, Area, Void date and Officer, sorted by Void date, and sends it every Monday morning as a spreadsheet to the voids officers.

Recommendations

Decide Records or Totals first.
Use Totals for dashboards and Records for working lists and exports.
Filter listings rather than exporting everything.
Pair a chart with a listing where people need to act on what the chart shows.

Charts in the Report Builder

Any Totals report in the Report Builder can be drawn as a chart on its Chart tab, from a single big number to bars, lines, pies or a cross-tab. The chart you choose is saved with the report and is what appears when you add it to a dashboard.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Data:

Report Builder — the Chart tab beside Results

Admin Panel → Reporting:

Report Builder — the same screen, once granted

Drawing a chart

Build a report with Show set to Totals, and click Run.
Open the Chart tab. With Show as on "Chosen automatically", the platform picks a suitable chart for the shape of the report.
To choose yourself, pick a type in Show as. Only types that fit the report are offered.
Save the report. The chart choice is saved with it.

Which charts fit which reports

What is offered depends on how many figures (totals) and groupings the report has:

No grouping: Single figure (one to six big numbers) or Table.
One or two groupings, one to six figures: Bar chart, Stacked bar chart, 100% stacked bar chart, Horizontal bar chart, Line chart, Area chart and Table.
One grouping: Radar chart; with two to six figures also Bar and line; with exactly two figures Scatter chart, and with exactly three Bubble chart.
One grouping, one figure: also Pie chart, Doughnut chart, Polar area chart and Funnel.
Two groupings, one figure: Cross-tab, a grid with one grouping down the side and the other across the top.

Some types are listed as "unavailable" with a note that they need a module not installed on this system; they cannot be chosen.

"Chosen automatically" picks Table for several totals with no grouping. If you want them as big numbers, choose Single figure yourself.

Putting a chart on a dashboard

On the Chart tab, click Add to dashboard. It is active once a chart is showing, and only appears if you can edit at least one dashboard.
In "Add this chart to a dashboard", choose the Dashboard and type the Title on the dashboard.
The chart goes on the dashboard's first tab. If the report was saved, the dashboard chart stays linked to it; if not, the dashboard keeps its own copy.

Charts are not sent by scheduled delivery, which sends data as a file. See Building a Dashboard.

What goes wrong and how to tell

"A chart needs totals.": the report is set to Records. Switch Show to Totals and add a grouping.
The type you want is not offered: the report has the wrong number of figures or groupings for it. A pie needs exactly one figure and one grouping.
"This system cannot draw a ... chart yet, so the figures are shown as a table.": the saved type is not available here.
"You have no dashboards you can add to.": create a dashboard, or ask its owner to share it with edit rights.
"This query asks for a value each time it runs, and a dashboard has nothing to supply it with.": save a version with the value filled in and add that.

Worked example

A fundraising team builds "Donations by month" as Totals: the sum of Amount and the count of donations, grouped by Date by month. "Chosen automatically" draws a bar chart; the team switches Show as to Bar and line, so the amount is bars and the count a line. They save it and click Add to dashboard, choosing the Fundraising dashboard and the title "Donations this year".

Recommendations

Let "Chosen automatically" have the first go, then refine.
Use Single figure for headline numbers, chosen explicitly.
Use pies only for a few categories; a bar chart reads better beyond five or six.
Save before adding to a dashboard, so later improvements reach the dashboard too.

Report Periods

The Report period bar in the Report Builder limits a report to a date range in one click: "Past 30 days", "Start of this quarter" and so on, or a From and To date of your own. It writes an ordinary date condition that you can see and remove.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Data:

Report Builder — the Report period bar above the datastores

Admin Panel → Reporting:

Report Builder — the same screen, once granted

When it appears

The bar appears when the starting datastore has a date field. Every datastore has at least two, Created and Last updated, so in practice it is almost always there.

Using it

Choose which date the period applies to, for example Date received rather than Created.
Click a preset, or type a From and To date. Either end can be left open.
Click Run. The condition appears under Filter by, where it can be edited or removed like any other.
Click All dates to remove the period.

The presets

The buttons include Today, Yesterday, Past 7 days, Past 30 days, Past 90 days, Start of this week, Start of this month, Start of this quarter and Start of this year, with All dates last. The "Start of this ..." presets run from the start of that period up to now. There is no screen for adding presets of your own.

Periods are fixed dates when saved

This is the point to understand before you save. Clicking "Past 30 days" works out the actual dates at that moment and writes them into the report, for example 7 September to 6 October. The report does not remember that you meant "the past 30 days". So:

A saved report keeps the dates it was saved with.
A dashboard chart added from it shows that same fixed range.
A scheduled delivery sends the same fixed range every time.

For a rolling view on a dashboard or schedule, leave the period off and group by month instead, or open the report and click the preset again before you run it.

What goes wrong and how to tell

No Report period bar: the starting datastore has no date field you can read.
A weekly e-mail shows the same weeks every time: the report was saved with a preset's dates. Remove the date condition, or group by date instead.
A period seems to have no effect: it was applied to a different date field. Check which date is selected.
There is no comparison with a previous period: the bar sets a single range. Group by month to compare periods side by side.

Worked example

A complaints lead opens "Complaints by category", chooses Date received in the period bar and clicks Start of this quarter before their quarterly meeting. For the team dashboard, though, they save a separate version with no period and grouped by month of Date received, so the chart moves on by itself as new complaints arrive.

Recommendations

Use presets for one-off answers, not for saved reports that should roll.
Choose the date that matters, not just Created.
Name saved reports with their dates if a fixed range is intended ("Q3 2026").
Group by month for anything that should stay current.

Standard Reports and Summary Figures

When you save a report in the Report Builder you can make it more than a saved query: a standard report, offered to everyone as a starting point across the top of the screen, or a summary figure, a single number shown above the results whenever that datastore is being reported on.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Data:

Report Builder — Save, then "Show it as" in the save dialog; standard reports appear under Standard reports

Admin Panel → Reporting:

Report Builder — the same screen, once granted

The three ways to save

In the Save this query dialog, Show it as offers:

A saved query: listed under Open…, for reuse.
A standard report: a chip under Standard reports across the top of the Report Builder. Clicking it opens the report, checked against the current user's permissions.
A summary figure: one number above the results whenever its datastore is the starting datastore. Up to four per datastore.

Who sees it

Who can see this in the same dialog decides who gets it:

Everyone who can reach this screen.
Only my security group.
Named security groups, entered as group numbers in Group IDs.

Architects see all of them. Every report still runs with the viewer's own permissions, so a shared standard report never shows anyone data they could not otherwise read.

Creating a standard report

Build and run the report.
Click Save, name it for the question it answers, and choose "A standard report" in Show it as.
Choose who can see it, and save.

Standard reports are listed whichever datastore is chosen, not only on their own, so keep the list short and the names clear.

Creating a summary figure

Set Show to Totals, choose one figure and no grouping, for example the number of open cases.
Save it as "A summary figure".
Choose the datastore in Start from again: the figure appears above the results.

When there are none

With no standard reports visible to you, the strip says "Nothing saved yet" and offers up to six automatic suggestions, such as "Number of ..." and "... by month".

What goes wrong and how to tell

"A summary figure has to be a total, not a row listing. Switch Show to Totals."
"A summary figure is one number, so it cannot be grouped.": remove the grouping, or save it as a standard report instead.
A figure shows a dash: it could not be worked out for you. Hover over it for the reason, often a permission.
"That saved query is not available to you.": it is shared with groups you are not in.
Two ledger reports appear on every datastore on systems with ERP: they are platform standard reports for the ledger.

Worked example

A customer service lead saves three standard reports for their team ("Open complaints by category", "Complaints closed this month", "Overdue responses"), each visible to their security group. They also save "Open complaints" as a summary figure on the Complaints datastore. Now anyone in the team who opens the Report Builder on Complaints sees the open count at the top and the three reports one click away.

Recommendations

Publish a handful of standard reports rather than many.
Use summary figures for the numbers people check daily.
Share with groups, not everyone, unless the report is genuinely general.
Review standard reports when processes change, so stale ones do not mislead.