How to add text and variables to reports and documents

All your Sage 200 reports and documents contain information taken from the Sage 200 database. This information is added using a Variable. You can add or remove variables and any text and in most reports or layouts using Report Designer. For example, you may want to amend a report to show your customer's account name as well as their account reference.

How to locate the report or document

Open: Tools > Run Sage Report Designer.

Go to File Explorer section.

The default reports are all stored under the Defaults folder by type of report and module such as nominal, purchases etc:

If you've previously amended the report or document, it will be saved in the Custom or Company folder.
Report types
- Labels - prints labels for stock items and suppliers.
- Layouts - used for printing invoices and credit notes.
- Letters - for debtor letters to send to customers.
- Reports - all reports

How to add text

There are several ways you can add text. The simplest method is to use the Dynamic help.

Open: View > Dynamic help

Select Add text or data field and then Add text.
Enter the required text, such as Account name.
Choose the required style from the drop-down list. It's a good idea to use the same style as the other fields in the section.

The font, size and colour are shown below, you can change these here, if required.
Choose how to align the text within the text box and whether to add borders.
Click Next.
Choose the section and location within the section.
Click Add to report.
Use the mouse or arrow keys to position and align the box correctly.

Add a variable

Each variable represent a data field from your Sage 200. The variables are grouped together in data tables. For example, information about your customer accounts, such as the address, code, name, status etc are held the SLCustomerAccounts table.

Open: View > Dynamic help

Select Add text or data field and then Add a data field
Select the table that contains the data
Select the data field.

For example, to add the customer name, choose SLCustomerAccounts and then CustomerAccountName.
Choose where to add the data field. If you're added a text box as the label for the new field, make sure it's the same section and approximate position as the text box.
Click Add to report.
Use the mouse or arrow keys to position and align the field correctly.
To make sure it uses the same formatting as other information in the section, click on the field and then select the same style from the toolbar.

Tip: Preview the document to check that it's displaying correctly (View > Preview).

How to remove text and variables

You can remove also remove and text or variables you don't want.

Just select the text or variable and click Delete.

Tip: Don't forget, if your remove a variable, you'll need to remove the text label for it as well.

Saving your amended report or document

When you save a customised report or document, make sure to save it in a new folder. This is to make sure that the original isn't lost.

If you have more than one company, you can choose whether the amended report should be used for all companies or just for a specific one.

When you generate a report or document Sage 200 first looks for the version in the Company folder, then the Custom folder, and if it does not find one it uses the 'out of the box' version. For each report, it will check in a specific folder for a specific filename.