Reports in xMatix

A report in xMatix is a saved query with presentation — which entity it reads, which related entities it joins, which columns it shows, and how rows are grouped, totalled and filtered — that runs live every time you open it. Nothing is copied or staged, so what you see is current as of that moment. Reports are built in the report wizard, shared through an explicit visibility list, and can be emailed on a schedule. This page covers the two screens a report user works in every day: the Reports library and the report viewer.

Overview

Every app's navigation has a Reports item. It opens the library: the grid reports you are allowed to see, filed in folders. Clicking a report's name opens it in the viewer, as a tab beside the library, where you can search, filter, group, total, preview, print and export the rows.

The library lists grid reports only. Pivot reports no longer exist: for a cross-tab, use a grid report with bucketing or a pivot-table widget on a dashboard. The separate Document Prints list and the banded report designer were removed; old Document Prints links open this library.

When to use it

• You need a list of records that a list view cannot give you — joined to related entities, grouped, with subtotals, or spread across periods.
• You want the same list every week, emailed to you or a team (subscriptions).
• You want a PDF or Excel copy of a list exactly as it shows on screen.
• You want the starting point for a dashboard: any grid report can seed one.

For the printed copy of a single record — an invoice, a quote — use the record's Print button instead.

The two pictures below show earlier versions of these screens, kept for reference. The library no longer has a Type column or document and pivot report buttons, and the viewer's toolbar is now the one described in the procedure.

How xMatix handles it

• Live query. Opening a report runs its query against current records. The viewer reads one page of rows at a time, so large reports open quickly.
• Visibility first. The library and the viewer show only reports that are active and either created by you or shared with you. A report someone else created and never shared is not listed at all. See Sharing & access.
• Live or Data Studio side. In ordinary apps the library shows Live reports, which read current records. Inside the Data Studio app it shows Data Studio reports, which read the analytics store. See Analytics in xMatix.
• Archived rows on request. When every entity a Live report reads has an archive rule, the viewer shows a Live / Archived switch, and Archived reads the archive instead of current records.
• Large entities. A Live report on an entity too large to run whole shows a line beside its filters such as Up to 90 days of sales orders run live; longer ranges …. The rest of that line says what happens to longer ranges on your tenant: they either come from the analytics copy (up to an hour old, with no archived records) or are too large to show. Narrow the date filter to stay live.
• Your arrangement is yours until you save it. Searching, filtering, grouping and Customize changes apply only to your screen. They are kept while you switch between tabs. Save view writes them into the report for everyone.

Prerequisites

• To open a report, it must be shared with you (or created by you). No separate capability is needed to view or export.
• To create, edit, clone, save a view of, or delete a report, you need the analytics administration capability (setup.metadata.analytics.manage, shown as Manage analytics setup). See Permissions.

Procedure

Step 1 — Find a report in the library

1. Open Reports from your app's navigation. The page header shows Reports with a count of the reports on this side, a Search all reports box, Refresh and New report.
2. Use the rail on the left to narrow the list:
   • Favourites — reports you starred.
   • My Reports — currently lists the same reports as All Reports; it does not filter by creator. Use the Created column to find your own.
   • Subscribed — reports you receive by email.
   • All Reports — everything you can see.
   • Below the scopes, the folders. The By Folder and By Role pills switch how folders are grouped: as a plain list, or under the role or persona each path starts with. Choosing a folder overrides the scope.
3. To search, type in Search all reports in the page header. It searches every report on this side, whatever scope or folder is selected, matching the name, description and folder. The search box on the table itself narrows only the list that is showing.
4. Sort by any column heading, or filter the Folder column. The table loads more rows as you scroll.

The table shows a star (add to or remove from favourites), Report (the name, with the description beneath it, or No description), Folder, Created and Modified (each with the date and who did it) and an actions column. Reports you opened recently also appear in the header's recent strip.

Step 2 — Open and read a report

1. Click the report's name. The viewer opens as a tab beside the library.
2. Above the table, the filters row shows any filters the author promoted (change a period or branch here without opening anything else), the bucketing controls, and the Live / Archived switch when the report has one.
3. The table's toolbar holds:
   • Search — narrows the rows on screen. Press / to jump to it.
   • Customize — opens the Customize report panel (Step 3). When column filters are applied, it shows how many, such as 2 filters.
   • The filter chips — one per applied column filter, each with a remove button, and a Clear for all.
   • When rows are grouped, a Grouped by chip (for example Grouped by Month › Partner account) that opens the grouping settings, with Collapse all or Expand all beside it.
   • The pager, on the right: 1–50 of 1,240, previous and next page, and Rows per page (25, 50, 100 or 200).
4. Grouped reports show a heading row per group, with subtotals when the author or you turned them on. A totals row under the table covers every row of the report, not just the page.

Step 3 — Customize what you see

1. Click Customize in the page header (or in the table toolbar). The Customize report panel docks on the right.
2. Work in its three tabs:
   • Columns — choose the sort (Report order, or a column and its direction), reorder columns (drag, or use the arrows), remove a column, and set a column's width (Auto, Narrow, Medium or Wide).
   • Fields — add fields from the report's entity and its joined entities, or add a calculated column from an expression.
   • Group & totals — Group rows by, Then by (up to three levels, through Add a level), Group dates by for a date column (Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year or Financial year), Subtotal on each group, and the Totals row: a count of the records and a Sum, Average, Minimum or Maximum for each numeric column.
3. The panel's footer reads You have changes to apply. Click Apply to show the changes in the report, or Discard to drop them. Report is up to date means nothing is pending.

Applying changes only your screen. To keep them for everyone, use Step 5.

Step 4 — Preview, print or export

• Preview (page header) opens the report, as it shows now with your filters, as a tab beside the report. The PDF is shown there, with Print, Download PDF, Excel and CSV in its panel.
• Export to Excel (page header) downloads the report as an Excel file straight away, without the preview tab. Preparing the Excel file… shows while it is built.

Step 5 — Save the view for everyone

1. Arrange the report — columns, filters, grouping, totals.
2. Open the More report actions menu (…) and choose Save view under View. It is available only when there is something unsaved.
3. The toast reads Report saved. The column arrangement, grouping, sort, filters and totals are now part of the report definition, and everyone who opens it next sees them.

Save view is a shared change, not a personal view. For a private variation, duplicate the report (Step 6) and save on the copy.

Step 6 — Duplicate (clone) a report

1. In the viewer, open … and choose Duplicate. The Clone Report dialog opens.
2. Name is pre-filled as the report's name followed by (Copy); Folder is pre-filled with the report's folder and suggests existing folders as you type.
3. Click Clone. The toast reads Report cloned successfully and the copy opens.

The copy has the same query, columns, filters and description, belongs to you, and starts visible to you alone.

Step 7 — Change, share or redesign a report

From the library row's actions column:

In the viewer, the … menu has the same report actions under Report: Edit and Open in designer (both reopen the wizard), Add to favourites / Remove from favourites, Duplicate, and Alerts and subscriptions, then Delete report at the foot.

Step 8 — Start a dashboard from a report

1. In the library, choose Create dashboard on the report's row.
2. In Create dashboard from report, check the Label (pre-filled as the report's name followed by dashboard) and the name derived from it.
3. Click Create. The report's totals become a KPI strip, its groupings become charts and its rows become a table, and the dashboard designer opens for you to adjust. See Create a dashboard.

Step 9 — Delete a report

1. In the viewer, open … → Delete report, or use Delete on the library row.
2. Confirm. The viewer's dialog is titled Delete Report and names the report.
3. The toast reads Report deleted and you return to the library.

Before deleting, check whether a dashboard uses the report as a tile source: those tiles lose their data.

Folders

Folders are names stored on the report, not a managed hierarchy. You set a report's folder in the wizard's details step or in Role and folder in the row's Edit dialog. A name that does not exist yet creates the folder. The library reads a path as who it is for, then what it is about: Sales Manager/CRM files the report under the Sales Manager persona with a CRM sub-folder, and a plain Sales is a flat folder. One report can be filed under several paths at once without being copied. The order of roles and folders in your rail is your own.

Example

A regional sales manager wants a weekly view of open sales orders by branch.

1. In Reports, they type open orders in Search all reports and open Open Sales Orders, a report their administrator shared with the Sales Manager role.
2. The filters row has a promoted Order Date filter; they set it to this quarter. The pager reads 1–50 of 312.
3. They click Customize, go to Group & totals, choose Group rows by Branch, tick Subtotal on each group, and tick Total Amount with Sum. They click Apply. The toolbar now shows Grouped by Branch.
4. They do not own the report, so instead of Save view they choose … → Duplicate, name the copy Open orders by branch — North and click Clone. The copy opens, private to them.
5. In the copy they apply the same grouping again and choose … → Save view. Report saved.
6. They click Preview and, in the preview tab, Download PDF to send to a colleague. Then … → Alerts and subscriptions to get the report every Monday.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox, as a user with the analytics administration capability:

1. Open Reports, find any report on sales orders, and add it to Favourites with the star. Confirm it appears under Favourites in the rail.
2. Open it and Duplicate it as Training — <your initials>.
3. In the copy, use Customize to group rows by a date column, set Group dates by to Month, and add a count to the Totals row. Apply, then Save view.
4. Close the tab, reopen the copy from the library, and check that the grouping and totals are still there.
5. Delete the copy.

Expected result: the copy opens grouped by month with a totals row after reopening; the original report is unchanged; after deletion the copy is gone from All Reports.

Quick reference

• Reports in any app's navigation opens the library; click a name to open the viewer.
• Search all reports (header) searches every report; the table search narrows the current list.
• My Reports is not filtered by creator — use the Created column.
• Customize → Apply changes your screen only; … → Save view changes the report for everyone.
• Preview = PDF with Print, Download PDF, Excel, CSV; Export to Excel downloads at once.
• Duplicate gives you a private copy to change freely.
• Share from the library row's Edit → Visibility.
• Live / Archived appears only when every entity the report reads has an archive rule.

Permissions

A user without the analytics administration capability still sees these buttons. When the server enforces the capability, the save or delete fails and an error shows — Failed to save report, Failed to clone report, Failed to delete report or the server's message. An administrator, unlike a report's creator, does not see unshared reports in the library; administrators manage access from the role, profile or team (see Sharing & access).

Configuration

Common problems

"A report my colleague sees is not in my library"

It has not been shared with you, it is inactive, or it is on the other side (Live or Data Studio) from the app you are in. Ask the report's creator, or an administrator, to add you, one of your roles, profiles or teams, or All users under Visibility.

"Report not found" when opening a link

The report was deleted, is no longer shared with you, or the link points to a report on another tenant. Click Back to Reports and search for it.

"My changes disappeared"

Apply in Customize changes only your screen. Reopening the report after its tab was closed starts from the saved definition. Use Save view to keep changes (or Duplicate first if the report is not yours to change).

"Save view is greyed out"

There is nothing unsaved. Make a change — reorder a column, apply a filter or grouping — and the option becomes available.

"Select the fixed sort field for the report."

A fixed sort is switched on in the report's settings, but no field is chosen. Pick the field, or switch the fixed sort off, then Apply.

"Couldn't export the report to Excel. Try again."

The export failed while it was being built. Refresh the report and try again. For a very large result, narrow the filters first, or use Preview and its CSV option.

"There is no Live / Archived switch"

At least one entity the report reads — including joined entities — has no archive rule, or the report is a Data Studio report. See Archived records.

The report says only part of the date range runs live

The report's main entity is too large to run whole. The line beside the filters says how many days run live and what happens to longer ranges. Narrow the date filter, or add a filter by owner or branch.

Common questions

Who can see a report I create?

Only you, until you share it. A new report — and a duplicate of an existing one — starts visible to its creator alone. Other users, including administrators browsing Reports, will not see it listed. Sharing is a deliberate act from the library row's Edit dialog: everyone, or selected roles, profiles and teams. The full model is in Sharing & access.

Does Save view change the report for everyone?

Yes. Save view writes your column, grouping, sort, filter and totals arrangement into the report definition itself, so it is the same as editing the report in the wizard. There is no per-user saved view for reports. If you want a variation without touching the shared report, Duplicate it and save your arrangement on the copy.

What is the difference between Preview and Export to Excel?

Preview builds a PDF of the report as it shows now — your filters, grouping and totals included — and opens it in a tab beside the report. From there you can print it or download it as PDF, Excel or CSV. Export to Excel skips the preview and downloads the Excel file at once. Both use what is on screen, not only the current page of rows.

What is the difference between deactivating and deleting a report?

An inactive report is hidden from every user's library, including its creator's, while its definition and sharing are kept. The Reports screen has no Active switch, so to withdraw a report from a group without deleting it, change its Visibility instead. Existing subscriptions are not paused by deactivation. Deleting removes the report permanently and ends its deliveries; dashboard tiles that use it lose their data.

Why does my report show fewer rows for a colleague than for me?

Usually because one of you has unsaved filters applied, the Live / Archived switch set differently, or is looking at a different report of the same name — the library allows duplicate names in different folders. If the counts differ with no filters set, compare the two reports' definitions.

Related topics

• Create a report
• Sharing & access
• Subscriptions
• Dashboards
• Document prints
• Archived records
• Troubleshooting analytics