Configuring reports

With the proper authorization, you can quickly create customized reports by using the Service Analytics utility. Reports are organized into categories where you can see the reports already defined for that category. The first row of each report is shown along with the availability setting for the report (Private or Shared). If you edit a cross-item, service portfolio, time tracking, and custom report to remove any column, the existing filters will be reset, so instead, hide the columns and the filters will remain unchanged.

For detailed instructions about creating reports in general, see Creating reports. Not all of the options described here are available for every report type. For more information about the available report types, see Types of reports.

The following topics are provided:

Best practices for creating reports

BMC recommends the following best practices when working with reports.

Build an advanced search and save the search results

Build an Advanced Search to include only the data that you need. The Advanced Search page contains a combination of fields where you can enter search strings and select criteria to create a search filter. For more information, see Using Advanced Search and saving searches.

Saved searches can be used in report definitions. Long searches that are used in a report may impact system performance. This issue is especially true for shared searches that may be run by several users at once or searches that run in the background by reports. Using saved searches allows you to create a query that returns exactly the data you want before you try to define a report saving your time and frustration. 

If no suitable search appears on the Report Settings page and you expected one to be listed, you may need to modify the Publishing Options for the applicable saved search (on the Advanced Search pages).

Use the Report Settings editor to create reports

 The Report Settings editor enables you to set up the report configurations, define filters, design report tables, drill down to details and so on. See Creating reports.

Change elements once and update everywhere

Many elements of report types are common across other report types. Understand them on one report and you understand them on all reports. See Defining filters for reports.

Use Ticket Management reports

Use the Ticket Management reports for reporting on status trends over time (Lifecycle Events). These reports use precalculated data and therefore are much faster than if you build a custom report. See Creating Ticket Management reports.

Schedule reports

FootPrints can run any saved report automatically at regularly scheduled times. The reports can be saved to a file on the server, emailed to a list of addresses, or both. For more information, see Scheduling auto-run reports.

Benefits of using reports

Reports help you solve important business needs and help you make informed decisions. Reports help you quickly answer the following questions:

Related topics

Editing reports

Deleting reports

Creating reports

Getting started quickly for administrators