Changes Reports

Jump down to: || Introduction || Settings || Running || Copying || Notes ||

Introduction

A Changes Report compares  the current data returned by a report to the data returned by the same report at an earlier date and time.

It lists the additions, deletions, and changes between the two data sets.

You can set up any reports of the following types as Changes Reports:

Changes Reports are most useful when you need to send information to a vendor regularly: The vendor receives information about records that are new, those that have been removed, and those  that have changed since the last time they received the report.

Changes Report Settings

The option and its settings are available on the relevant report setup pages:

• Event Reports: Reports / Analyze > Setup

• Account Reports:  Reports Edit Report" style="display: inline; font-family: Lato, Verdana, Arial, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 7, 255); text-decoration: underline;"Account Settings > Reports

You start by selecting the Lock report to enable Changes Report options check box.

You can then set  labels for new records, removed records, and modified records.

You choose whether to display changed fields within the original row or a separate column.

If you choose the original row option you can choose whether to use bold text, [brackets], underlining, or color to identify the changes.

Note: Once you lock and export a Changes Report, you cannot unlock it, nor can you modify its Groups, Subtotals, Columns, or Filters

Running a Changes Report

The first time a change report is exported, a snapshot of that result set is stored.

When you next run that report after that, you are prompted to select one of the following options:

• Return all data

• Return all changes since one of the last times it was run

• Return a previous changeset

If the changes option is selected, and the results are exported, the data will be grouped into two  sections:

• Additions - records that are in the second data set but not in the first.

• Cancellations - records that are in the first data set, but not in the second. (Think of these as 'Removed Records',)

• Modifications - includes records that are in both the first and the second data sets, but have different values in the second.

When a Changes Report is run it is displayed in the Report Results window (unless it has been set up on the  edit report Display" style="display: inline; font-family: Lato, Verdana, Arial, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 7, 255); text-decoration: underline;"Display Format page to export directly to another format).

When the report is displayed in the Report Results window it does not show the Additions, Cancellations, and Modifications groupings (similar to the way reports with groups and subtotals work). There is an additional column (to the right of the Row column) called “Change Type”, that contains one of the following values:  “Additions", "Cancellations", "Modifications” (depending on the labels configured in Reports/Analyze > Setup) for each row.

When the Changes Report is exported, the groupings are applied. The following export formats are displayed with groupings:

• Printable HTML

• Acrobat® PDF

• Printable Excel®

Note: You should ignore Groups and Subtotals when running a Changes Report with the Return Changes Since option.

When a Changes Report is Copied

If you copy a report that has the “Lock report to enable Changes Report options” feature enabled, the new report will not have any result sets saved, since each result set is unique for a specific report id, account id, and event id.

You will therefore be unable to unlock the changes option and modify the filters/columns of the new report, since the Report: Columns and Filters tabs only get locked after you export the first result set from that report.

Notes

• If you don't lock the report until an export data set is saved, you can preview the report results before locking the report.

• The date interval filters Since Date Last Export and Before Date Last Export are not available for Changes Reports, since they no longer apply.
  If you try to convert a report that contains either of those date range filters to a Changes Report, the filters are removed .

• The list of export date/times applies only to the event of the current report, and not to Profile or Consolidation reports (which are at the Account level).
  For example, if report A is visible in all events and run from Event 1 and then from Event 2, the export dates are different in the two events, so the Changes Reports will differ.

• Changes Reports track changes to all columns displayed in a report. If you do not wish to display the changes for a given column, remove that column from the report display  selected report Columns" href="https://community.certain.com/kbase/reports/columns.htm" style="display: inline; font-family: Lato, Verdana, Arial, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 7, 255); text-decoration: underline;"Columns when setting up the Changes Report (i.e. before locking).

• If “Return all current data…” is selected, then the current report results are returned in the Report Results window exactly as with reports that are not Changes Reports.

• If “Return results from” is selected then the system simply returns and displays the data set stored for the selected export date/time.