Reports

Reports are built in the Report Builder: pick a datastore, choose columns or totals, filter, run, and save the result for reuse. A Create Report button on a datastore's list takes you straight there, already pointed at that datastore.

This replaces the older per-datastore report builder, which was retired in September 2026. Reports are no longer a separate tool attached to each datastore: there is one Report Builder, and every route into it opens the same screen.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Data:

• Report Builder — build, run and save reports across your datastores
• Datastores — open a datastore's list, where the Create Report button appears

Admin Panel → Reporting:

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

Before the button appears

1. Switch Business Intelligence on. Reporting is part of the Business Intelligence module, which ships off. Turn it on in Platform Modules (the setting is also shown as "Enable Business Intelligence" in Site Settings). While it is off, no datastore list shows Create Report.
2. Give people access. Architects always see the button. Anyone else sees it only when their security group has been granted the Report Builder item in the Admin Panel. It ships granted to nobody.
3. Check what they can read. The Report Builder only offers datastores the person's security group can read. If a datastore is not on their list, Create Report on it opens the Report Builder without that datastore selected rather than revealing it.

The button is shown and the screen is opened by the same access check, so a person who can see Create Report can always use what it opens.

From a datastore list to a report

1. Open the datastore's list and click Create Report.
2. The Report Builder opens in Simple view on that datastore: its fields, a flat list of conditions, sorting, Run, Save and CSV. The joins and the canvas are hidden.
3. Choose Records to list rows or Totals to count, add up or average them.
4. Tick the columns to show, or choose the figures and what to group by.
5. Add conditions, or click a report period if the datastore has a date field.
6. Click Run and check the results. For totals, the Chart tab draws them.
7. Click Save, name the report and choose who can see it.

Need a second datastore, such as the customer behind each case? Switch to Advanced view. It is the same report, so nothing you have chosen is lost, and you can now add related datastores and join them.

Simple view is only a smaller screen. A report built in it is checked by the same rules as one built in Advanced view and reaches nothing extra. The view you pick lasts for the visit only: the next time you click Create Report, Simple view opens again.

Where the detail lives

• The screen itself: Report Builder & List Mode covers every part of the screen, records versus totals, charts, report periods, and standard reports and summary figures.
• Putting a report in front of people: Panes, Schedules & the Dataset API covers showing a report on a record screen, sending it on a schedule and reading it from another system.
• Dashboards: BI Dashboards.

When to reach for something else

The Report Builder answers a question about your datastores and the relationships between them. When a figure needs defining once so that everybody's number agrees, such as "active customer" or "net revenue", define it in the semantic layer and explore it there. A report is the right tool for a question with a known shape that you ask again and again.

What goes wrong and how to tell

• No Create Report button on a list: Business Intelligence is switched off, or the person's security group has not been granted the Report Builder item.
• "You do not have access to the Report Builder.": the person reached the screen without the item being granted to their group. Grant it in the Admin Panel.
• The report opens on no datastore: the person cannot read the datastore they started from. Check its permissions for their group.
• Two people get different numbers from one report: a report always runs as the person viewing it, with their permissions. That is intended.

Worked example

A housing team leader is looking at the Repairs list and wants this month's open repairs by contractor. They click Create Report, which opens the Report Builder on Repairs in Simple view. They choose Totals, group by Contractor, filter Status to Open, click Start of this month under the report period, and run it. The Chart tab shows the spread at a glance. They save it as "Open repairs by contractor", visible to their security group, and the operations manager adds it to the team dashboard.

Recommendations

• Start from the list when the question is about one datastore. Create Report saves choosing it again.
• Grant the Report Builder deliberately. It can reach every datastore the person can read.
• Name reports after the question they answer, so others can find and trust them.
• Check who can see a report every time you save one.