PM3Cloud allows organisations to set up and run their own personalised reports. You are able to define the layout of the report with the new drag and drop, building-block based Home > Report Designer tab. Here you may drag in prebuilt “Reportlets” to create your desired layout; a number of key reportlets are available to begin with (#9519), and we plan to continue adding to this collection of available reportlets over time.
In the initial release, users are limited to a one page layout per report; we will look into allowing for multi-page layouts in a future release. It is also worth noting that Portfolio, Programme and BCP reports are not fully supported at this release (again slated for an upcoming release) and will, if ran at present, behave identically to running a project level report, without any fancy per-plan groupings.
Reportlets are accessed from the toolbox on the right. The toolbox may be pinned in place by clicking the small pin above the TOOLBOX label. Reportlets can be dragged into the grid (the dimensions of which – among other settings – are configured in the “Report Settings” dialog, button situated above the toolbox) and rezised in-grid to meet your needs.
Most reportlets will try to match exactly the dimensions you have specified in-grid; table-type reportlets however will grow vertically in order to display all of their data. You can restrict the maximum number of rows via the cog menu in the top right of a table reportlet:
Once you are happy with your layout you can publish your report (Publish icon in the Toolbar) . This process constructs the template for the report and makes it visible in the Plan > Reports tab. Once the report is published, you can no longer edit it in the Report Designer unless you unpublish it (Publish icon in the Toolbar). This hides the report from the Plan > Reports tab so it cannot be used whilst being edited.
There is also a Preview link button in the Toolbar. This generates the report using the default Plan or Portfolio that has been previously registered in the Settings Cog. This allows you to check what the report looks like. Note that the Preview process also publishes the report, so it becomes visible in the Plan > Reports page. To avoid a preview report being accidentally used by your users, we recommend creating a Report Group called Beta or Preview which is where you can store reports which are not ready to be used by your project managers. You create a Report Group in Report Settings (button top right) then Add New after having typed in the new Group name.
After you have published your report, you can then run it from the Plan > Reports > Custom Reports screen. You can configure your custom reports much more deeply than the existing legacy reports - you can configure filters on a per reportlet level - and as such when you create a configuration using the dialog it now saves that configuration so you can reuse it in the future. You can also choose a format for your report as part of the configuration. To run a configuration, simply highlight the configuration row and either double click it, use the right mouse context menu, or use the tool ribbon buttons; i.e. the same behaviour as on the existing reports screen.
You can also set up report schedules in the same manner. Both in-situ and scheduled custom reports support MS Teams integration, so you can export your reports to MS Teams. Read more about this in the MS Teams integration section further down.
Report Privacy and Scope
- Any user with a Write Licence (e.g Admin, Creator) and UI Group access to the Home > Reports Designer page can create reports.
Report Settings allows you to define the privacy and scope of a report.
- Private – only the report owner can view, edit, run or delete the report.
- Read Only
- Any user can run the report from the Plan/Portfolio Custom Reports page. o Any user with access to the Report Designer can view the layout of the report.
- Only the report owner can edit or delete the report.
- Public
- Any user can run the report from the Plan/Portfolio Custom Reports page.
- o Any user with a Write Licence and access to the Report Designer can view the layout of the report. o Only the report owner can delete the report or change the report access
Deleting a report
- This is done in the Report Settings – see button at top right of Reports Designer page.
General Guidelines for report layout
- Many table reportlets have variable heights because they depend on the number of rows. For example, they may depend on the number of milestones or risks in the plan.
- So don’t place variable length tables adjacent on the same canvas row. Instead, put each such report on a separate canvas row so they will appear one after the other.
- Make such reportlets range the full width of the page.
- You can make such reportlets fixed height, by setting the maximum number of rows. This is the maxrows property. So if 2 table reportlets have maxrows=5, then they can go adjacent on the same canvas row, since they will be the same height.
- Generic reportlets are smaller and usually you do want them adjacent – they are usually too narrow to occupy a whole canvas row sensibly.
- If you try to squash a reportlet into a space which is too small for its height, you will see a small red alert triangle. This is just a warning which you can ignore if you want.
- If a reportlet is too small on the canvas, fields will be truncated. In that case, just make the reportlet bigger on the canvas by dragging the appropriate edge.
- Logo reportlet - your logo file size needs to be compatible with the space you allocate for the reportlet. Some experimentation may required initially. You need to send your logo to support@bestoutcome.com and we will register it for you. You only need to do this once after which it becomes available for any report you design after that.