Get more help with Report Designer

This product help contains some content on Report Designer to get you started, see Designing your own reports and documents.

You can find more help and resources for Sage Report Designer.

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Report Designer articles

You can find a large number Report Designer articles in the Sage Knowledgebase:

• Sage 200 Services - Report Library.

  Browse Sage-designed reports by module, then download and add the required report to Sage 200.

• Sage 200 Services - The Ideas Hub.

  Use the Ideas Portal to submit suggestions, vote and comment on ideas, and follow their status; a Sage login is required.

• Sage 200 Services -Your guide to Sage 200 Services.

  An overview of Sage 200 Services, including the Report Design Service, report library, Ideas Portal, Community Hub, and business advice.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Calculations with dates using the Now() function.

  Use the Now() function in report expressions to compare document dates with the current PC date and filter for future, past, or recent transactions.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add a new data source in Report Designer.

  Create a data source in System Administration, copy its SQL connection string, then add and configure that source in Report Designer.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to write IF statements in Report Designer.

  Build conditional expressions with the new Report Designer syntax: ? represents THEN and : represents ELSE, with examples for signed invoice and credit values.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to show product images on a report / layout.

  Add stock images to reports or layouts by storing image files in the company data Images folder and referencing them with an expression; guidance covers version differences and joins.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to replace the Foreign Revaluation Posting Report.

  Replace the standard Foreign Revaluation Posting Report by locating the reports folder, renaming the existing report, and saving the customised report there.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Emailing layouts to multiple contacts and roles.

  Configure customer roles, document types, contact email fields, and layout settings so Sales Order documents can be emailed to up to two contacts.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to setup SOP invoices to send via email.

  Set up Report Designer email options, a customer role and preferred contact, then add the invoice layout to Sage 200 and email invoices from preview.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to set up dispatch notes to send via email.

  Configure despatch-note email options and customer roles to send messages to the delivery-address contact, falling back to the preferred customer contact.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to set up order acknowledgements to send via email.

  Configure the order acknowledgement layout to use the customer contact email, select it in Sage 200, and email acknowledgements from preview.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to set up debtor letters to send via email.

  Set up debtor-letter email settings, document roles, and preferred customer contacts, then select the layout for the required ageing period.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to set up purchase orders to send via email.

  Configure purchase-order email settings with the supplier contact address, assign a supplier role and preferred contact, then email orders from preview.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to set up project invoices to send via email.

  Configure project-invoice email settings, customer roles and preferred contacts, select the layout for the invoice report key, and email from preview.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Functions.

  A reference to Report Designer functions for calculations, text manipulation, dates, conditional values, totals, and other report expressions.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to create or edit filters.

  Create, edit, or remove report filters using table fields, operators, values, and optional advanced expressions to control which records appear.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add criteria to reports and layouts.

  Add or edit report criteria to prompt for data when a report runs, including range operators, presets, dropdowns, ordering, and date-picker selections.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add groups to reports and layouts.

  Add report, page, or group header and footer sections to organise data and totals, then adjust section properties or remove sections.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to email reports and layouts.

  Configure default email providers and document-specific recipients, subjects, formats, and sending options, or email a one-off report from preview.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Introduction and Features Quick Guide.

  A quick guide to common Report Designer tasks such as adding criteria, filters, groups, images, email settings, text, variables, and sorts.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - A summary guide to setting up and printing labels.

  Set up label layouts by choosing or defining label paper size, orientation, margins, label dimensions, pitch, and page arrangement.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Reporting changes in Sage 200 2013.

  Explains the company, custom, and default reporting folders, including upgrade and legacy-report guidance.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Microsoft Outlook Security Update causes security prompts to appear when sending emails automatically.

  Explains why Outlook security prompts appear during automatic email runs and suggests saving messages to the mailbox before sending them individually.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to create and use styles.

  Create, edit, and delete document-specific styles, then choose whether font changes apply only to an object or to every object using that style.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Dynamic Help.

  Use the Dynamic Help pane in Report Designer to add or amend text, variables, images, filters, criteria, sorts, and email settings.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - The Reset Settings Option.

  Restore the Report Designer workspace to its default view, using Reset Default View in newer versions or the reset option in older versions.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Using Active Complete.

  Use Active Complete to automatically add variable titles and numeric totals, choosing their placement, grouping, and layout settings.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to group or ungroup multiple items on a report.

  Select multiple report objects to group them so they move and resize together, or ungroup individual objects or the whole group.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add or remove text and variables.

  Add text and database variables to reports or layouts, remove unwanted objects, and save the amended document as a new copy.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add a sort to your reports or layouts.

  Add, edit, remove, and reorder report sorts, using a variable or expression; existing grouping takes precedence over added sorts.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to change the border of an object.

  Change object border style, colour, width, padding, and visible edges, and define custom colours for report objects.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to change the font and colour properties of an object.

  Change selected object fonts, sizes, effects, alignment, and text colour, with the choice to update their shared style or only the selection.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add lines and boxes to reports, layouts, letters and labels.

  Draw lines and boxes on reports or layouts, then adjust appearance, printing, alignment, and other object properties.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Numeric Formatting.

  Adjust numeric display options such as decimal places, currency, sign, fill format, and aggregation functions.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to change the background of an object.

  Choose solid, patterned, gradient, or image backgrounds for report objects and define custom colours.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to amend date or time object properties.

  Change date and time object formats in the Properties pane, including day, month, year, hour, and separator formats.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to amend the thousands separator for numeric values.

  Remove a thousands separator through numeric formatting; if it remains, convert the value to text with CString in an expression.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Using + to combine values into one field.

  Combine text and field values into one expression with +; convert numeric fields to strings with CString before concatenating.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to show how many records are on a report.

  Add a non-transactional variable to the Report Footer and set Function to Count and Evaluate Section to display the number of records.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Standard Reports within Sage 200.

  A module-by-module catalogue of standard Sage 200 reports, including Sales and Purchase Ledger, Nominal Ledger, Stock, and order processing.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add an image / logo to a Report or Layout within Sage Report Designer.

  Insert an embedded or linked image, such as a company logo, into a report or layout and adjust its placement and image properties.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to edit, rename and save a report in Sage 200 Professional.

  Open a report in Report Designer, change its name and description, and save a customised copy in the appropriate reporting folder.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to align text, variables, lines and boxes.

  Select report objects to align, centre, or make the same size using Report Designer formatting commands.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to format Report Designer for exporting into Excel.

  Prepare a report for Excel export by selecting included sections, removing unnecessary objects, and aligning fields so they do not overlap.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to replace the Foreign Revaluation Posting Report.

  Replace the standard Foreign Revaluation Posting Report by locating the reports folder, renaming the existing report, and saving the customised report there.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to run reports as CSV or Delimited files.

  Explains standard CSV and length-delimited CSV exports, including how to set delimiters, qualifiers, fixed lengths, and included sections.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Emailing multiple records with the same e-mail address produces a single e-mail with multiple attachments.

  Explains why records sharing an email address may become one message with multiple attachments and gives an expression-based workaround.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Gradient colour property on a box does not output correctly to PDF.

  Documents an issue where gradient-colour boxes render incorrectly in PDF output and suggests replacing the box with an embedded image.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Drilldown / hyperlink functionality.

  Add report or web-page drill-downs to supported objects and optionally pass criteria or values from the current report to the destination.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Coded Variables.

  A reference list of coded Report Designer variables and their values for use in filters, expressions, and conditional formatting.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Using Reset Section and Evaluate Section to ensure totals calculate correctly.

  Use Reset Section to control when totals restart and Evaluate Section to prevent repeated values from inflating report totals.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Report Designer document structure.

  Explains report sections, including report and page headers, details, group headers and footers, and where each appears in generated output.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add section headers and footers.

  Add, configure, hide, delete, or move report and page sections, and create group headers and footers for subtotals.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add watermarks.

  Add text or image watermarks that appear on each page when previewing, printing, or exporting to supported formats such as PDF.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to activate Auto Grow and Word Wrap.

  Enable Auto Grow to expand a field and Word Wrap to carry long text onto another line; both may be needed to expand the field vertically.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to apply conditional formatting to a variable.

  Apply basic filter-based or advanced expression-based conditional formatting to variables, then set the properties to apply when conditions are met.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Expression Snippets Manager.

  Save reusable expressions and filters as snippets, organise them into groups, and insert, edit, or delete them later.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Printer Offsets.

  Adjust printer-specific left and top offsets to correct dot-matrix alignment; offsets on other printer types may cause problems.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Default General Options.

  Describes Report Designer defaults such as measurement units, grid behaviour, tooltips, Active Complete, and reset settings.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to save reports, layouts, letters or labels to file.

  Export a report, layout, letter, or label to formats such as PDF, Excel, CSV, HTML, image, or Sage data report.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Glossary of Terms.

  Defines common Report Designer terms, including criteria, filters, expressions, sections, snippets, styles, variables, and watermarks.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to amend the size and position properties of an object.

  Adjust an objects position, dimensions, linked anchors, measurement units, Auto Grow, and Word Wrap through the Properties pane.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add a template.

  Add an existing template as a background to a report or layout, remove it, and save the amended document.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to apply secure PDF settings.

  Set PDF passwords and restrictions on printing, editing, copying, or commenting, then export the document as a secured PDF.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add a Pay Now button to your layout.

  For older Sage 200 Professional versions, add an Opayo Pay Now image to invoice or statement layouts using the supplied payment expression.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - Common filters and expressions.

  A collection of common Report Designer filters and expressions for accounts, products, sales orders, calculations, and date handling.

• Sage 200 Report Designer - How to add totals to a report.

  Add report-footer totals, group subtotals, or running totals by setting the variables Sum, Reset Section, and cumulative properties.