CRM 2016 gives you a lot of options for customizing reporting through Word and Excel Templates. Before that, Cobalt created a variety of reports that are available to all users, even if you are using 2016. Your organization may also have custom reports available. *2016 users may not have the report templates generated. Many of these reports allow you to add custom logos, text, header and footer details. This article will provide steps on customizing those existing reports.
If you have trouble following the steps due to missing templates, or missing information on the report text form, let us know.
Do an Advanced Find for Report Templates
If you know the name of the report you are looking for you can filter by name a the report name and the report template name are the same, but you can also leave the filter blank to search all available templates.
Open the Report Template for the Report you want to customize.
You can usually ignore anything that says Sub-Report when it comes to customizations/report templates. They exist but that's not usually where you are making changes.
From the Report Template use the menu tiles to navigate to Report Texts
If there are existing records here you can edit them, if there are no records you will need to create them following the substeps below.
Create a Header for the First Page
- Name - Give the Report Name and then Header First Page as your title (this make searching if you want to do so by report text easier later but really any name here will do)
- Placeholder ID - HeaderFirstPage (this must be exact as it tells the system where to put the informaton
- HTML Text - Option field if your header should contain HTML text.
- Notes - To add an image you must create a note titled HeaderFirstPage and attach the image.
Create a Header for all pages (or if using HeaderFirstPage all remaining pages of a report)
Same as the previous record with the following exeptions.
- Placeholder ID - This must be Header
- Note - For an image make the note title Header and then attach the image
Add Report Text
To add custom text to the report, disclaimers, additional steps, contact information etc. You will want to create a Report Text Record. Reports usually can handle 2 different sections of text.
- Name/Description - Name of the Report then Report Text 1 (or Report Text 2)
- Placeholder Id - ReportText1 or ReportText2
- HTML Text - Here is where you can enter the text that will display on the report.
- Notes - If using an image here, the steps are the same as with headers. Title the note, ReportText1 (or ReportText2) and attach your image.
Add a Footer
- Name/Description - Name of the Report then Footer
- Placeholder Id - Footer
- HTML Text - Here is where you can enter the text that will display on the report.
- Notes - If using an image here, the steps are the same as with headers. Title the note, Footer and attach your image.
Errors on the report
If you run the report and find that you get an error saying "Report Text 1 is missing" or "Header is missing" then the system is referring to the report texts. Even if you don't plan on customizing the reports, you can create blank records using the steps above to resolve these errors.
Report text updates are not retroactive, but will appear on any future report generations.