Changing the Body of a Sales Report

Changing the Body of a Report

A printed report consists of several elements: the title, the company logo, column or field headings, and the body of the report. The body contains the customer or item data, sales figures, or other information that make up the actual report. You can control the information that prints in the body by changing the sorts or limits set up in the report selector. You can also add information to the body by adding detail lines to the selector.

Note: To change the body of a report, you should have a good understanding of report structure. For more information, see About Report Structure.

Once you type A at the Do You Want to Change All message, you can change your sorts, limits, or detail lines.

The Change Sorts prompt appears, along with the default sorts for your report. To make no changes to the sort selections and add no new sorts for this report, type N. Go to Step 5. If you are printing the Items Sold Restock Report or the Monthly Invoice Register, you cannot change sorts. Type N and go to Step 5.

To change the sorts for this report, type Y. Use the JOUR-S Selections Subscreen to change sorts, limits and detail lines. The fields in the JOUR-S Selections subscreen comprise one record.

The fields in the Customer Selection subscreen comprise two records: those in the top half (Acct # through Entry Date) are from the Customer Master tab. For more information, see In the Customer Master Tab.

The fields in the bottom half (Taxable through Copies) come from the Customer Order Entry tab. For more information, see In the Customer Order Entry Tab.

Each record is a separate entity. You must complete the sorts in the JOUR-S Selections subscreen before going to the Customer Selection subscreen.
The Fill Field Completely message appears. Now you can specify a sort. To specify a sort, enter the number corresponding to the sort order. For example, to make the item's UPC number the primary sort for the report, you would enter 1s in the UPC # field.

Note: You don't have to enter the sorts in order. For example, you can fill the Item # field with 3s before you fill the Desc field with 1s.

The portion of the field that you fill with the sort number is the portion that is used for sorting. To sort by the entire item number, for example, completely fill the field with 1s. If you only partially fill a field with characters, only that portion of the field is used to sort the report.

Note: You can enter the same sort number in more than one field. If you do, the fields are used together as a combined sort. The two sorts are treated as one long sort. Suppose you enter 1s in both the Co and Desc fields. The company name and the description sort alphabetically as one. In some cases, this may produce a report that is not usable.

One common use of duplicate sorts is the Date field. The Date field is actually three fields -- the month, the day, and the year. To make them all one comprehensive date field, specify the same sort number in all three fields.

Specify the sorts for this report. To skip a field, press Tab. To clear a field, space through it, then press Tab. To skip a sort group, press Enter.
At the Break Page On Sort message, you can force a page break for a sort. To begin a new page on the specified sort, type Y. To skip this, press Enter.
At the Ascend Or Descend Order On Sort prompt, you can specify whether to sort in ascending or descending order. Ascending sorts words from A to Z, and numbers from lowest to highest. Descending sorts words from Z to A, and numbers from highest to lowest.

Note: All characters, including letters, numbers, and symbols are sorted in the standard ASCII Sort Order.

For ascending order, press Enter. For descending, type D.

Note: The Break Page On Sort and Ascend Or Descend Order On Sort messages repeat for each sort. This lets you set page breaks and order individually by sort.

There are five Sorts fields just above the print lines. These fields are a quick reference to your responses to the prompts Break Page On Sort and Ascend Or Descend Order On Sort. When you set the page breaks and sort order for the first sort, the information transfers automatically to the Sorts field for that sort number. The first part of the field corresponds to your response to the Break Page prompt. The second part of the field corresponds to your response to the Ascending Or Descending prompt. As you complete the rest of the sorts for this report, you can refer to the Sorts fields as reminders of your specifications for the first sorts.

After you set page breaks and the sort order for each sort specified in a sort group, the cursor moves to the first field in the next record. For each record remaining on the screen, select the sorts, specify the page breaks, and assign the sort orders.
When the Change Limits prompt appears, the screen's fields are filled with question marks. To not change the limits for this report, press Enter. Go to Step 8.

To change the limit selections for this report, type Y.
At the Entering Limits From prompt, use the fields in the JOUR-S Selections and Customer Selections subscreens to define limits for the report. Enter the beginning range in the appropriate field. For example, to limit the report to include only invoice numbers 1000 to 2000, enter the beginning range of 1000 in the Invoice # field.

You can set as many limits as you need. A record must meet all of the limits you set to be included on the report.

To skip a field, press Tab. To skip to the next sort group, press Enter.
The Entering Limits To prompt appears. Tab to each field that you selected as a beginning limit and enter the ending value of the range. The above example limits the report to include only invoice numbers 1000 to 2000. To specify the ending value of the range, enter 2000 in the Invoice # field.

Note: The fields that you selected as limits display the beginning ranges that you entered in the From fields.

To limit the report to a single piece of information, tab past the To field to accept the same range limit that you entered in the From field.

After specifying the ending limits, press Enter through the remaining sort groups.
At the Add On Detail Fields prompt, you can add information to the report. Each new detail field creates an additional column on the right side of the report. For more information on detail fields, see About Report Structure.

To not add detail to the report, type N. Go to Step 10. If you are printing the Items Sold Restock Report or the Monthly Invoice Register, you cannot add detail. Type N and go to Step 10.

To include additional detail on the report, type Y.
After the format loads, the cursor moves to the Pick # field. At the Fill Field With Characters To Select prompt, fill the field with alphanumeric characters. As with sort fields, the number of characters you enter determines the portion of the field that prints on the report. If you completely fill the field, for example, the entire field prints on the report.

Note: Some detail fields accept only numbers.

For each detail field you add, the Enter Column Text message appears. It lets you specify a heading for the detail field. The text you enter appears on the report as the column heading for this information. To not enter a heading, press Tab.

Note: You can enter up to 30 characters of text. However, the number of characters that actually print on the report is determined by the number of characters you entered in the corresponding detail field. For example, if you enter five characters in the detail field and a 15 character header, only the first five characters of the heading print.

The cursor moves to the next field. Select additional fields by entering characters as you did earlier. To skip a field, tab to the next one.
Header text is a subheading or other descriptive text for the entire report. It prints between the report title and the column headings on the report. For example, if you limited the report by invoice number and date, you might use FOR JUNE 1 TO SEPTEMBER 1 INVOICES, NUMBERS 1000 - 2000 for the heading. This text would print between the title and column headings on the report. You can enter a heading up to 60 characters.

To enter a heading, enter the first 20 characters in the Header Text 1 field. Using the above example, you would enter FOR JUNE 1 TO SEPTEM. The Enter Header Text 2 prompt appears. Enter the next 20 characters of your heading in this field. Using the example, you would enter BER 1 INVOICES, NUMB. At the Enter Header Text 3 prompt, enter the remaining characters. In the example, you would enter ERS 1000 - 2000. If you enter fewer than 20 characters in this field, press Enter.

To not enter a heading, press Enter at the Enter Header Text 1 prompt.

Go to Changing the Sales Print Line.