CREATING AND CUSTOMIZING MANAGEMENT REPORTS

INTRODUCTION

LegalSuite has a wide variety of Management reports that allow you to view critical data about your Matters, Clients and Employees at the push of a button. You can also customise these reports or create your own from scratch.

Management Reports are accessed via the Desktop screen and can be assembled in your program of choice i.e. the below example will be assembled on an Excel Spreadsheet.

Figure 1: Management Report Tab on the desktop

CHOOSING WHICH MATTERS TO ADD TO A REPORT

There are two ways to choose your matters in which you want to create a report:

1.    Filtering your Matters

Figure 1: Using Filter

or

2.    Using Query by Example (QBE) – there is an advanced whitepaper on QBE available online at www.legalsuite.co.za.

Figure3: Query By Example (QBE)

 

By using both filter and QBE together, you can choose exactly what matters to report on.  You will notice that when filtered, the amount of Matters will be in the Total field on the bottom left hand corner of the screen (the title of your Desktop screen name will also give you an indication of what Matters are being displayed).

 If you use QBE, however, the matters will be indicated on the bottom of that QBE screen and all the Matters will be tagged.

Figure4: Filtered Name of Screen

Figure5: Query By Example (QBE)

NB:  The Matters that are displayed on your Desktop will appear in the report.

 

CREATING A MANAGEMENT REPORT

Once the matters in which you want to report are showing, click on the Management Reports Tab and choose the Report Destination (ie. Word or Excel) and also choose the correct Category.

 

In this scenario, we are doing a conveyancing report on Jenny Oliver’s First Rand Bank Matters that were instructed this period.

 

Step 1 Filter by the user (e.g. Jenny Oliver) and document set (e.g. First Rand Bank Bonds).

 

Figure6: Filtering the matters

 

Step 2 Use QBE to find those matters which were instructed this period.

 

Figure6: Query By Example (QBE)

 

The Matters that you want in the Report are now displayed in the Matters Tab (and are tagged).

 

Step 3

 

Click on the Management Reports Tab.

 

Figure7: Filtered and QBE Matter Listing

 

Step 4

 

Choose your type of report.  In this example we use Matter Listing for Bond Matters, however, we are going to customize certain data and fields that are not available in this specific report.

 

Figure8: Management Report – Matter Listing (Listing of Bond Matters)

 

Click on “Print” to open the Matter Listing Report.

 

Step 5

 

Choose the fields in Matter Details and Conveyancing that will become columns in the report.

 

Figure9: Matter Details tab of Matter Listing Screen

 

Figure10: Conveyancing tab of Matter Listing Screen

 

Step 6

 

If you need more fields than those available, you can use the Custom Fields tab too add more columns to the report.

 

Figure11: Custom Fields tab of Matter Listing Screen

 

Step 1: Cutomising a Report        

 

Once you have completed those steps of choosing which Matters to add to a report, choose the Custom Fields tab and press “Insert” to add a column to the Report

 

Figure10: Column will be added Screen

 

Field

Description

Heading

This is the column heading, e.g. Mortgagors’ Telephone Number

Sorted

Sort the report by this column ie. The number represents the sort hierarchy of the columns (in what order the columns will appear).

Contents

The contents/field to be inserted into the column.  (Please see www.legalsuite.co.za for the whitepaper on Party Fields and Extra Screens to familiarize yourself with the fields that may be needed in this report)

Format

There are four types to choose from.  String is the most common to use because then any character can be inserted).

Justification

This is where the contents will sit within the column.

True Condition

This is for the more advanced users to only show this column if certain criteria is met.

Figure11: Fields completed in the Column will be added Screen

 

 

Figure12: Customized Field added to the Custom Fields Tab

 

The Options Tab makes provision for the Name of the Report and sub heading, as well as an option to insert page numbers and whether to assemble the document in landscape.

 

Figure13: Options Tab within the Matter Listing Report

 

Step 2: Saving the Report   

Save the Management Report by clicking on save, and give it a description, then click  OK

 

Figure14: Saving Report

 

A message will ask whether to make the report available to all employees or if it is meant for you only (in other words, you will be the only one able to see and access the report).  Choose whichever is applicable.

 

Figure15: Message to make report available.

 

 

Figure16: Information pertaining to the Report Saved

 

The Report will appear in the “Saved” category of the Management Report tab.

Figure17: List of Saved Reports

 

Step 3: Printing the Report

 

Choose the report and click  on the Management Reports tab and then  on the actual report.  The customized report will be created in Excel, Word or the Built-in Word processor – whichever output you have chosen.

 

Figure18: Example of report assembled in Excel

 

Figure18: Example of report assembled in Word

 

CONCLUSION

 

Management Reports are a very powerful feature of the program as they allow you to extract data and view it in the format and layout you want.