Newly released in FR08, we have a templated screen that we use for all reports in the system.  


There are three key elements to draw your attention to and we'll describe each part separately:

  • Date Range selections
  • Preview button
  • PDF Preview


Date Range Selections


The Date Range selection at the top allow you to quickly select easy date ranges for the period of the reporting windows.  The idea is that whatever dates you pick here will be the only data shown in the report.  


The logic is based on whole and complete days.  Whatever dates are in the two calendars are included in that date range.


From your selection, the From Date and To Date calendars at the bottom will reflect the dates you picked.  Internally, the From Date will always be at the time of 00:00:00 (24h) / 12:00:00 am (12h).  Likewise, the To Date is always based on 23:59:59 (24h) / 11:59:59 pm (12h).  That time portion is based on your Local Time according to the time zone settings you have setup for your account (check out links in the See Also section at the bottom of this article).  


You will note that the From Date and To Date are grayed out most of the time.  If you want to edit a Custom Range of date selections: 

  1. Select the date range that nearest matches your desired date range.
  2. Select the Custom Range option.  The two Calendars will now let you pick your preferred dates.  


Some reports are based on the range of dates you pick.  While,  others are based on a "point in time" and for those reports, only the To Date matters.


Here's an overview of what each of those selections mean and how the date ranges work.

  • Today - This is today's calendar date.
  • Yesterday - This is yesterday's calendar date.
  • This Week - This is based on Sunday of this week, up to and including today.
  • Last 7 Days - This is based on the last 7 days, up to and including today.
  • Past 7 Days - This is based on starting 8 days ago, up to and including yesterday.  Today is not included.
  • Last Week - This is last Sunday through last Saturday.
  • This Month - This is the 1st of this month, up to and including today.
  • Last Month - This is the 1st of the prior month, up to and including the last date of the prior month.
  • Last 30 Days - This is the 30 days ago up to and including today.
  • This Quarter -  This includes the 1st date of the Quarter up to and including today. (See description of Quarters, below).
  • Last Quarter - This includes the 1st date of the prior Quarter up to and including the last date of the prior Quarter.
  • This Year - This is January 1st up to and including today.
  • Last Year - This is January 1st of the last calendar year up to and including December 31st of the last calendar year.
  • Custom Range - This is a range of dates you want to specifically select.   


Quarters

Quarters in arbinon.com are based on the calendar quarter.  

  • January, February, March - Quarter 1
  • April, May, June - Quarter 2
  • July, August, September - Quarter 3
  • October, November, December - Quarter 4


Preview Button

This one isn't hard to explain.

There's a Preview button.   Click it.  That will generate the PDF Report and preview it on the screen.


PDF Preview

The PDF Preview has a rich set of functionality for you to get the most out of your reporting experience.


Moving left to right on the toolbar:

  • "Hamburger" menu - This menu opens a fly-over with a list of thumbnails for each of the pages in the report, making it easy to locate specific pages of the report quickly.
  • PDF File name - Every preview is generated with a unique filename.  This is because it needs to be physically generated on the server and then downloaded to your browser for display.  Therefore it needs to be a unique code to keep your data safe.
  • Page Number - This is an editable number which represents the current page number.  You can type in a page number (up to the total page count) and the viewer will advance you to that page of the report.
  • Minus / % / Plus Zoom Control - This is fairly self explanatory, you can make it bigger or smaller depending on your preferences and screen size.
  • Fit to Width / Fit to Height - This is a toggle to have the viewer resize the report so it is better viewed resized to fit the width or height of the report page within the boundaries of the viewer.
  • Rotate counterclockwise - If for some wonderful reason, you would prefer to view the report rotated, you have this option available.  We are not really designing our reports for that purpose, but, the viewer supports it anyhow.
  • Download - This button will download the report to your local default downloads folder based on your browser's settings. It will download based on the file name shown in the title bar.  
    • Because these file names are random, what we find is a good cheat is to change your Mac OS or Windows folder view to sort by last modify date and the latest one you downloaded will be at the top.
  • Print PDF - This will open your MacOS / Windows printer selection dialog box and you can select whichever kind of printer and selections you like from there.  
  • Dot dot dot - This is an additional menu with a few additional view and technical options. One is kind of handy and it will show your report in a 2-page wide layout which shows more pages on the viewer at a time.


See Also: