Some of you at least may be aware that there is a new version of Reports in beta testing (I’m not clear if it is yet out for general use).
Overall I like it - the ability to save more detailed filters and to get a link emailed when a big report is ready is very welcome.
But for some reason, in many of the beta CSV files that are output (like Sales…), they have added a “Total” line at the end of the file, with a few of the columns totaled.
So, if you don’t first navigate to the end of the file and delete the line, any sorting or pivot table work you do gets jacked up and with a potential to give you bad results.
There is no way to turn off this total line, and it’s kind of driving me nuts.
Do you think the total line is a good idea, or does it/will it also drive you nuts?
Haven’t noticed the total line yet in the beta reports, so I just ran one to check it out. When I do use the sales reports I do tend to total the columns, so for me it isn’t an issue, but I could see it being one if you are doing pivot tables or sorting.
What I don’t like about the totals is that they are not formulas, just a number. In the report I just ran I have the same total for several columns that are all zeros. That number is the count of the cells with zero in it, not the sum of the column. So this is where it will drive me nuts - no formulas and numbers that are not useful.
It’s always seemed to me to be faster/fewer clicks to use a pivot table to get your totals. 3 clicks to create the pivot table tab, then one click for each column to be totaled. But if you don’t know or remember their is a Total line in the data, your results will be incorrect.
Hi Jeff,
Can you give me a specific report to run to see what you’re referring to? We just moved our tasting room so we haven’t been using the reports as much as we would. I’m just getting used to them. I’m pretty happy with the daily activity report, but I did request that there be a journal entry feature to keep track of the weather, unusual factors that led to a slow day, a busy day, number of guests, etc., that is archived in the reports for future use. I’ve heard they thought that was a good idea so maybe it will come. There are obviously much higher priorities.
You do need to have the beta version of reports enabled. That means when you click reports you see “Welcome to Enhanced Reports…” at the top. If you do not see that, Vin65 would have to enable it.
I know that Order Detail, Orders by Pickup/Ship Date, and Event Tickets have the totals line, at least.
Yeah, that totals line has messed up my pivot tables many more times than I’d care to admit. Considering how often we need to do pivot tables to get essential data out of reporting, I’d love it to be off by default, or have a checkbox so we can “memorize” them properly.
The totals line has been an issue for my pivot tables too. Remembering to delete it adds one more step to an already lengthy process of getting the data I need.
I don’t have beta reports - thank goodness - since the totals would also drive me nuts, lead to errors and create more steps. We are new to Vin65 and thanks to you I discovered Pivot Tables. I suppose you could say I should get a life, but discovering them was like nirvana. They are so easy and allow slicing and dicing in all kinds of ways. I hope Vin65 removes the totals, especially since they aren’t even formulas.
I think that I would like totals as well as subtotals for departments and subdepartments. I thought that that was the reason to create these.
In my old software, I could have a sales report run for a given day and get my totals of number and amount of sale for each item. Then a subtotal for all subdepartment such as red wine. And then a total for all wine as a department.
Now we have to download an excel and fiddle with it to get totals for number of tastings, wine sales excluding food and tastings, as well as club member sign ups.
I am not having a good experience getting used to reports in Vin65.
I strongly urge getting comfortable with pivot tables. It will feel less like fiddling and more like getting to the answer easy and quick.
It takes me more time to navigate down several hundred rows and across columns - it was column AK right? Better go back and double check - to find a total, than it does to make a pivot table to get the answer straight away.
Or rather, it WAS faster until I had to scroll down every damn time to delete a totals row that wasn’t in old reports and nobody asked for.
@ElJefe - Good news. Our enhanced reports were built on technology that allows our Development Team to make some updates and improvements quickly. Based on your feedback, line totals will remain on previews and excel exports, but are now removed from the CSV.
