Report Filters

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The Filters section of a report window lets you restrict the report to a subset of the items it might contain. For example, the window for printing work orders lets you specify filters which restrict the print-out to a subset of the existing work orders. You might ask to see only the work orders for a particular location, or work orders that were created in the past month.

The Filters section may begin with one or more checkboxes. For example, one common checkbox has the label Include Inactive records. Most reports are designed to ignore inactive records (e.g. very old closed work orders); however, by checkmarking the box, you can tell MainBoss to include such records in the reports. (For more on active and inactive records, see The Active Filter.)

After any such checkboxes is a drop-down list that lets you choose what type of information should be used as a filter. For example, if you are printing work orders and you only want to look at ones with a particular priority, you might choose Work Order Priority from the drop-down list.

Some entries in the drop-down list can be expanded. For example, suppose you are printing work orders. In the drop-down list, you'll see that the entry for Unit can be expanded. If you expand this entry, you'll be able to choose from properties of the unit. For example, if you choose a unit category, you could ask to see work orders on all units that belong to the chosen category.

Once you choose the information field on which you want to filter, MainBoss offers you options specific to the field you chose. For example, if you want to filter on a field that contains a date, MainBoss will offer you options pertaining to dates; if you want to filter on a field that contains a money value, MainBoss will offer you options pertaining to costs and prices. The general format is similar to the format for specifying table filters. For more information, see Table Filters.

Whenever you specify a filter, MainBoss creates a new drop-down box so you can specify additional filters. This lets you set up several filters at a time. For example, you might ask for all high-priority work orders on units in Building X that are scheduled to start in the next week.

When you create a filter, MainBoss adds an associated Drop button. This lets you delete the filter if and when you don't need it anymore.

If you specify one or more filters, you can create a customized report setting just like a customized table setting. This lets you set up reports with a standard set of filters, so that you don't have to specify the filters each time you want the reports. For more information on customization, see Customized Table Settings.

You can also use customization in other sections of report windows (e.g. Grouping) to select standard options for customized reports.