Update: You can download the Report Builder from Microsoft.

Reporting is a key feature in any software package today. But really, reports are a means to an end. The result that you're ultimately looking to accomplish is to view data in a particular manner. Reports are the 'pre-defined' manner in which a software designer gives you the ability to view your data.

But what if you don't have a software designer? The 'classic' solution to this problem is to hire one, or go back to your software vendor and request a specific report.

Now, fast forward to 2008. With Quantify, we of course know about the 60+ reports that you're going to want to see, and we've included them. But even then, our report might not be what you want. What if you want your logo in the upper left corner. Or, say you don't want the address formatted like we have it? We've solved this by providing a 'report designer'. Each report that's contained within Quantify is a document that lives in your \Reports\ folder. When you run a report, Quantify grabs this file and tosses the appropriate data at it. The report contains definitions of the fields and at runtime these fields map themselves to the appropriate data. The report is rendered to the screen.

So, if you want to change the report, it's a simple task of modifying the report definition. To do this, you use the 'Report Designer' and open the report file to modify it. Think of this as the same as editing a word document with Microsoft Word, only there's no data in the document. The report file contains a definition of what the data looks like and where it's going to go, not the actual data itself.

What can you do with this report designer? Well, the short and easy answer is *everything*. We use the same designer to create the reports, so it's all available to you to use free of charge, included with each installation of Quantify. Within the report designer you'll see a list of fields for the report data. These fields can be dragged and dropped onto the report surface to add them to the list. Note that if there are many items (such as a customer summary shown above) the list simply repeats itself. You can even add new controls to our reports. Below is the toolbar of available controls.

These reports are bound to our software, but if you'd like you can use this same designer to attach directly to SQL Server and create any report you'd like.

One thing that you can be guaranteed to see in any falsework (scaffold, shoring, or formwork) company is a partial return. Partial returns happen when you ship a bunch of stuff to a jobsite and you only get some of it back. The rest either stays on rent or gets returned somewhere else. This could be in the form of multiple small deliveries in the early stages of the job, then at some point in the middle you’ll get half of it back.

Keeping track of partial returns can get complex if you’re tracking these parts on paper or via an Excel spreadsheet. Quantify saves you a lot of pain in this area, but there is one concept that’s important to know in order to understand how it works.

The concept is called FIFO, which is an acronym that’s short for First In First Out. In Quantify, the quantities on the partial return post against the first shipment that was sent out. You create a FIFO return simply by creating a shipment and setting your source to a jobsite. The ‘return’ groupbox becomes active and you can enter a rent stop date for the parts on the return, which tells the invoice generator to stop rent on a date that’s different than the actual return.

 
FIFO returns are actually optional in Quantify because there are cases, such as when you’re billing by scaffold tag, that you don’t want to FIFO return. To accomplish this you create a non-FIFO return instead of a normal shipment, by clicking on the return button on the shipment toolbar.

In the case of non-FIFO this one delivery will go off rent, probably in the middle of a bunch of other shipments, while leaving the other shipments alone.

Jobs can have mixed FIFO and non-FIFO returns. Quantify memorizes what returns have been posted to what deliveries, all at the time the invoices are generated.

Booth 513: Come see us at the SIA Trade Show July 23 - 25, 2008