Every so often (including today), a client asks me for what I call a "Bookings" report - they want to know the dollar value of orders entered for a date range, whether or not shipped.

One would think this would be a standard report, but it isn't. I can understand that it might be tricky to include on the same report open orders (which are only in Current) and completed orders (which may have been cleared to History), but I can create this report using GridView, so it should be doable. And it should be really easy if Current has not been cleared for the desired date range.

Thanks

Steve

Thank you Steve,

We will let our R&D team know this has been requested.

Hi,

Sorry, but there is another side to this type of request. And please do not spend one more minute thinking about how to do this as a standard report.

The real issue is that serious consideration to migrate Standard reports into being views (like Gridview) is what needs to happen here. And don't beat up the users by hammering them with Lanpak charges for opening up multiple views. (Lanpak counts on Gridviews are that are necessary because the Standard Reports are just plain weak, should be a crime)

The bottom line is that this type of paper reporting became obsolete well over 5 years ago. Real time queries are today's answers to operational reporting using Gridviews, as Steve has suggested.

And while we are discussing the subject, this booking information is missing truckloads of normally required information. Any bookings query worth its salt would include daily bookings, with comparative columns for week to date, and month to date, and with columns for shipments and invoicing with comparatives to booked orders, that would balance off to the total backorders. (all within Gridview) And you decide whether you want to summarize by possibly by item categories or top selling sku's, with further drill down capabilities to isolate and deal with any exceptions.

We for one would not consider this request a standard report. Not for a minute. Please let the R & D group know that we think this report request is a waste of their time and resources. Focus on useful stuff like how to correct the current OE processing so that you can auto-invoice shipped quantities (instead of only being able to auto-invoice the quantities ordered).

Brian

Hi Brian

If your main argument is that it is a waste of Softrak’s resources to create a new standard report that is commonly requested, then I don’t agree. Softrak is capable of multi-tasking, especially since they have a programmer dedicated to report maintenance.

And let’s be honest- even if GridView were free, we both know that not one in a hundred users could design such a report in GridView. Users should not be beholden to their consultants for common requests. I’m sure Softrak could make the report flexible enough to meet most needs - your clients excepted.

Steve