Changing the Body of an Inventory 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, press Enter. Go to Step 11.

Note: The Contract Report contains subtotals; therefore, you should not change the sorts unless you move the subtotal line using Report Writer.

To change the sorts for this report, type Y.
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, 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 Chart.

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.
After you set page breaks and sort order for each sort group on the screen, the Do You Wish To Sort From Item Detail prompt appears. As with previous sorts, the item detail sorts determine the order in which the item detail information prints. For example, if you sort by the extended item number, all the information for the item is grouped together and printed in numerical order according to the item's extended item number. In addition, you can specify page breaks and ascending or descending order for each item detail sort.

Note: You can specify only five sorts for a report. Therefore, if you specify three sorts in the first sort screen, you could specify two more from the Item Detail screen.

To not sort this report by item detail, press Enter. Go to Step 7.

To sort this report from item detail, type Y.
The Item Detail screen has seven records: Master, Primary Direct Buy, Pricing, Hazard Forms, Columns, Primary Wholesaler and Units of Measure. (For more information, see In the Item Master Tab.) Each record represents a sort group. Set item detail sorts just as you did in Step 2.
Use the Do You Wish To Sort From History prompt to determine the order in which item history information prints. For example, if you sort by month-to-date sales, all the information for each item is grouped together and printed in numerical order according to item's month-to-date sales. You can also specify page breaks and ascending or descending order for each history sort. (You can specify only five sorts for a report.)

To not sort this report by history, press Enter. Go to Step 9.

To sort this report from history and/or totals, type Y.
Use the Inventory History/Detail subscreen to set sorts. You can specify sorts in three different sort groups. The first is the Inventory Usage Record. It comes from the I-AUX file. For more information, see About Item History.

The two remaining records, the History Record and the Yearly Totals Record, come from the Inventory History window. The History record contains the Monthly Quantity Sold boxes. The Yearly Totals Record contains the Quantity through YTD Hits boxes. For more information about these fields, see In the Item History History Tab.

Note: The Gross Profit boxes are not part of Year Totals. However, they display with the Year Totals boxes. Gross Profit is calculated using the totals in the Cost $ and Sales $ boxes.

Each record represents a sort group. Set history sorts just as you did in Step 2.
Use the Do You Wish To Sort From Alias/Contract prompt to determine the order in which alias and/or contract information prints on the report. For example, if you sort by contract number, all of the information for each contract is grouped together and printed in alphabetical order. You can specify up to five sorts for this. In addition, you can specify page breaks and ascending or descending order for each alias and/or contract sort.

Note: You can sort with alias and contract fields only if you are printing the Item Alias Master Listing, the 13-Month Low-Stock Report, or a contract report.

You can specify only five sorts for a report. Therefore, if you specified three sorts in the first sort screen, you could specify two more from the Alias/Contract screen. To not sort this report by alias and/or contract information, press Enter. Go to Step 11.

To sort this report by alias and/or contract information, type Y.
Use the Alias/Contract subscreen to set sorts. You can specify sorts in three groups. The first is I-Alias Selections. It contains the Customer # through Co fields. These fields come from the Inventory Alias dialog boxes, and are stored in the file I-ALIAS. For details, see Item Aliases.

The second group is Contract Selections. It has the Contract Number through Contract Cost $ fields. They come from the Inventory Contract Price window and are stored in the CONTRACTS file. For details, see Contracts.

The third group is I-DB-Index Selection. It has the Direct Buy Vendor $ through Co fields. They come from the Direct Buy box in the Item Master tab. This information is stored in the I-DB-INDEX file.

Each record represents a sort group. Set Alias/Contract sorts just as you did in Step 2.
When the Change Limits prompt appears, the screen's fields are filled with question marks. If you don't want to change the limits for this report, press Enter. Go to Step 17.

Note: To print the Contract Report, you must limit the report by specifying a range of contracts to include. Otherwise, the report does not print.

To change the limit selections for this report, type Y. Use the Inventory History/Detail subscreen to set limits.
At the Entering Limits From prompt, you can define limits for the report. Enter the beginning range in the appropriate field. For example, to limit the report to include only item numbers 1000 to 2000, enter the beginning range of 1000 in the Item # 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 item numbers 1000 to 2000. To specify the ending value of the range, enter 2000 in the Item # 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.
The Do You Wish To Limit From Item Detail prompt appears. To not limit the report from item detail information, press Enter. Go to Step 15.

To limit this report from item detail information, type Y. Enter limits the same way you did earlier.
The Do You Wish To Limit From History/Detail prompt appears. To not limit the report from history and/or detail, press Enter. Go to Step 16.

To limit this report from history and/or detail, type Y. Enter limits the same way you did in the earlier screen.
Use the Do You Wish To Limit From Alias/Contract prompt to limit the report by alias or contract fields. You can limit by alias and contract fields only if you are printing the Item Alias Master Listing, the 13-Month Low-Stock Report, or a contract report.

To not limit the report by alias and/or contract information, press Enter. Go to Step 17.

To limit this report from alias and/or contract information, type Y. Enter limits the same way you did in the earlier screen.
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 Understanding Report Structure.

To not add detail to the report, press Enter. Go to Step 22.

To include additional detail on the report, type Y.
After the format loads, the cursor moves to the Item # 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.
The Do You Wish To Add On From Item Detail prompt appears. To not add fields from the Item Detail screen, press Enter. Go to Step 20.

To add information from the Item Detail screen, type Y. Select the fields as you did earlier.
The Do You Wish To Add On From Detail/History prompt appears. To not select history detail fields, press Enter. Go to Step 21.

To add history detail fields, type Y. Select detail fields as you did earlier.
The Do You Wish To Add On From Alias/Contract prompt appears.

Note: You can select alias and contract detail fields only if you are printing the Item Alias Master Listing, the 13-Month Low-Stock Report, or a contract report.

To not select alias and/or contract detail fields, press Enter. Go to Step 22.

To select alias and/or contract detail fields, type Y. Select detail fields as you did earlier.
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 sorted this report to display sales and usage for each salesperson, you might enter DECEMBER INVENTORY SALES ANALYSIS AND USAGE REPORT 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, enter DECEMBER INVENTORY S. The Enter Header Text 2 prompt appears. Enter the next 20 characters of your heading in this field. Using the example, enter ALES ANALYSIS AND US. At the Enter Header Text 3 prompt, enter the remaining characters. In the example, enter AGE REPORT. 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 Inventory Print Line.
If you are printing the Contract Report, at the Enter Customer Number For Contract prompt, press Tab. This prompt does not apply. Go to Changing the Inventory Print Line.

If you are printing the Contract Report for Customers, at the Enter Customer Number For Contract prompt, you can enter the customer's account number. The customer's name, billing address, account number, and department number print at the top of the report.

To exclude this information from the top of the report, press Enter. Go to Changing the Inventory Print Line.