Special reports: a printed layout for one companyالتقارير الخاصة: تصميم مطبوع لشركة واحدة

Several companies can run on one Libra installation, and out of the box they all print from the same standard layouts. When one company needs its own invoice, voucher or report layout (its own logo, its own paper size, its own wording) without changing what the other companies print, that layout goes into Special reports. This guide explains how Libra picks a layout, what changes once a company has its own, and what to ask for when you need one.

How to edit a layout itself is in Changing how a printed page looks: the Report designer.

1. How Libra picks a layout

Each time a report or document screen opens, Libra fills Report selection by looking in three places, in this order:

1. layouts kept for this company only;
2. layouts kept for the whole installation, shared by every company;
3. the standard layouts shipped with Libra.

The first place that has a folder for that report wins outright, even an empty one (see section 5). Libra does not merge the three: the list shows the layouts from that one place and nothing else. The first two places are both inside Special reports; the third is the standard set.

2. What changes once a company has its own layouts

As soon as a company has its own layouts for a report, Report selection shows only those for that company, in that language. The standard layouts disappear from its list. Other companies are unaffected and keep seeing the standard list.

So a company-specific set should contain every layout people still need: a copy of each standard layout they use, plus the new one. When users of one company say «the other layouts disappeared», this is almost always the reason.

3. Worked example: the Trial balance

With the standard set, the Trial balance lists five layouts in Report selection: _TrialBalance2, TrialBalance, TrialBalanceBold, TrialBalanceBold1 and TrialBalanceWithoutOpening. The first one is selected when the screen opens.

Here two layouts were installed in Special reports for one company, in English: Company trial balance and Company trial balance bold. That company's English users now see those two names and nothing else, with Company trial balance selected when the screen opens. The five standard names are gone from their list, because they were not copied into the set. Users of every other company still see the five, and so do this company's Arabic users until an Arabic set is added.

One more detail: a report whose options change its shape keeps a separate set for each shape. The Trial balance in two currencies, or with balances only, reads its own set of layouts, so a company layout made for the usual shape leaves the other shapes on the standard list.

4. Where special layouts are kept, and who installs them

Special layouts are kept in the Special reports folder of the Libra installation, next to the folder holding the standard layouts. Inside it there is a folder for each company, then one for each report, then one for each language. If your installation uses a shared report folder on the network, set in Setup system parameters in the Common reports path box (see System parameters), Special reports sits in that shared folder instead.

Installing, replacing or removing a special layout is a file task, best done with Libra closed, by whoever manages your installation or by IDS support. To ask for one, give them:

• the company;
• the report, and which of its options you print with (for example two currencies);
• the language or languages your users log in with;
• the standard layouts to keep in the list beside the new one.

Once it is installed, a user with the Report designer right can open the company layout from Report selection and edit it as in Changing how a printed page looks: the Report designer. The change stays in the company's own set, and the standard layouts are left alone.

5. Things to know before relying on it

• Each computer reads its own folder unless the folder is shared. A layout installed on one computer is seen on another only when both use the same shared report folder. The Common reports path is set on each computer, for each Windows user, so check it everywhere you print.
• Layouts are kept per language. An English set changes nothing for an Arabic login. Add a set for each language the company logs in with.
• Names without dots. The list cuts a name at its first dot, and the shortened name then fails with Missing report.
• Keep a backup before every update. Keep your own layouts in Special reports, never saved over the standard files, and ask for a copy of the Special reports folder before each Libra update. A company's copy is its own file, so an improvement to a standard layout in a new version reaches it only when the copy is refreshed. Ask for a comparison after each update.
• Going back to the standard list means removing the company folder for that report completely. An emptied folder still counts, and leaves the list empty.
• A company copied or restored under a new name: ask whoever manages the installation to check that its special layouts came with it.

6. Special series is a different thing

The Special series screen has a Link to specific report box (see Document numbering). That box belongs to numbering: it ties a numbered range of documents to the layout that prints them. It is set inside Libra, and it does not decide where layouts are kept or which ones a company sees in Report selection.

Printouts made from a list screen are a third thing again, and they are kept on each computer: see Printing any list: the Reports menu.