Step 9: Plan and Create Reports
Once you have begun to accept registrations, plan and create reports to access data about registrants.
Tip: Use summary reports
Summary reports provide a useful overview of the numbers of registrants who are coming to your event. In addition to the summary reports displayed on the Registrations tab, you can use the Agenda Summary Reports, Completed Registrations by Answer, Payments and Refunds by Type and Day, and the Room Block Report to get an idea of which options the registrants have chosen on the form.
Tip: Copy system reports
Check the system reports before you create your own custom reports. Often, you will be able to use a built-in system report to access data in the way you want. If you find a system report that comes close to meeting your reporting needs, you can use the Copy Existing Report wizard to make a copy. You can customize the report to add or subtract data fields and filter data according to your requirements.
Plan and Test when creating custom reports
If you need to create a custom report, plan on paper what the report should show. To create the report:
- Choose a report type that fits the data you need to display.
- Modify the Columns first.
- Then create data Filters.
- After customizing these elements, click Run Report to view the report. Check the report to see if it matches your requirements.
- Continue to test the report and re-run it after each change to see the effects of your modifications.
- Be sure to give your report an accurate description to help you remember why you created the report. This will also communicate to other users why they might click a given report.
Use Groups and Subtotals to make your reports more useful
The Groups feature can be used to group together records that have something important in common. For instance, you could choose to summarize an Attendee List by Organization. This would put all registrants who work for a given company in the same place on the report.
Subtotals enable you to display the sum, average, maximum, or minimum of any numeric column of the report. If you expect the report to handle a large number of records, it's a good idea to enable the feature that displays the number of records next to each group as well as the total number of records at the bottom of the report.
Remember that Groups and Subtotals are only available when the report is in Printable HTML or Acrobat PDF format.
Once you've planned and created your reports, continue to Step 10: Post-event Tasks.
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