Printing any list: the Reports menuطباعة أي قائمة: قائمة Reports

Report screens such as the Trial balance come with ready-made layouts. Lists (journal vouchers, receipts and payments, items, invoices, stock movements and many more) have a tool of their own: a Reports drop-down on the list's ribbon that turns the list you are looking at into a printout you name, keep and print again whenever you need it.

For the layouts of report and document screens, see Changing how a printed page looks: the Report designer.

1. Where to find it

Reports sits on the ribbon of many list screens; on the Journal vouchers list it comes after Advanced print and Search. It shows for users whose role holds the Report designer right (see Users, roles and rights).

Until a report has been saved from that list, the drop-down holds a single entry, Report designer, which creates one. Each report you save is then added to the menu above Report designer, which stays the last entry.

Each list keeps its own set. A report made on the item list appears only in the item list's menu, and journal vouchers, receipts, payments and the other voucher lists each keep a set of their own.

2. Creating a report from a list

1. Arrange the list first. Show the columns you want, in the order you want, and narrow the rows down to what you want to print. The report is built from the list as it is on screen.
2. Open Reports and choose Report designer. The designer opens with a report already built from the list, on a tab carrying the list's internal name (Transaction for Journal vouchers): the list's columns run across the page, with their headings above.
3. Adjust what you need: a title, column widths, a logo.
4. Save asks for the report's name in a small Report Name window, and the report is kept under the name you give there. Give it a short, clear name, and keep dots out of it, the same habit as for printed layouts. A name that is already in the menu is replaced without a question, so choose a new one.
5. Once it is saved, the designer closes and the report is added to the Reports menu.

In the designer the report already carries the list's sort order: here, under Group And Sort, the vouchers are sorted by Date, Descending. The Report group holds Save only, since a new list report gets its name when you first save it.

3. Using a saved report

Each saved report in the menu opens a small submenu with four entries:

• Preview builds the report from the list as it stands now, in the layout you saved, and shows it ready to print. So set the list first (this month's vouchers, one warehouse's items), then choose Preview.
• Edit reopens the report in the designer. Save there writes over the saved report. To keep the old version as well, create a second report with Report designer instead.
• Rename gives the report a new name.
• Delete asks you to confirm, then removes the report from the menu.

4. Where these reports are kept: this computer

Reports made from the Reports menu are saved on the computer where you create them, inside that computer's Libra installation. That has three consequences:

• Other computers keep their own menus. Create the report again on each computer that needs it, or ask whoever manages your installation to copy it across.
• They belong to the computer, not to a company. Every user on that computer who has the menu sees them, in every company, and a report made on one company's item list works on another company's item list too.
• Your company backups leave them out. Ask for this computer's Libra reports to be included in its own backup, and copied before a Libra update.

5. Tips

• Arrange, then create. Preview always builds from the list as it stands, so keep the list arranged the same way when you reuse a report.
• One report per purpose. Two small reports (for example Vouchers by user and Vouchers by account) are easier to keep right than one report you keep rearranging.
• Ad hoc reports print the same way. An ad hoc report's page carries the same Reports menu: see Ad hoc reports: ready-made queries in a grid.
• Looking for the layout of an invoice or a report screen? That is a different tool, the Report designer button next to Report selection: see Changing how a printed page looks: the Report designer.