Report Form Add Functions
The Add Functions on the Report form comprise the "heart" of the creation of individual criteria statements. When a report form is presented, the Add button is highlighted and its function buttons are displayed in the row just below. The action menu items that are activated via the Add item in the Function menu bar are: Mandatory Group, Group, Gift Total, Dues Total, Use Total, and Saved Criteria. Each of these functions is a topic of its own, but each is briefly described below. For more in-depth exploration, see the individual topics suggested.
New Line
The New Line action allows you to begin the process of creating a new criteria statement, identifying the field, comparison and object(s) that will make up that statement. See the topic, Writing Criteria Statements.
Mandatory Group
The Mandatory Group action allows you to identify a subset of criteria statements that will apply to all rows that you want to select. A Mandatory Group will always be followed by two or more Groups. In order to be selected in this situation, a row must conform to the Mandatory Group AND to at least one of the following Groups. See the topic, Groups.
Group
The Group action allows you to identify a subset of criteria statements that define a set of data rows that you want to select. Groups are used when there are two or more "sets" of rows that you want to select, each Group having a different set of criteria statements that define the rows. In order to be selected, a row must conform to at least one of the Groups. See the topic, Groups.
Gift Total
The Gift Total action allows you to identify a subset of criteria statements that define a set of Gift Transactions belonging to the same constituent. One kind of Amount field from each of those Transactions will be added together, to calculate a Total Amount for each constituent, and store that calculation in the export worktable that is created by the run of the report. Total definitions or calculations are not used to "pass" or "fail" any data rows from the selection process, they simply compute the amount of the defined Total. Totals may be calculated using Gift Transactions or Dues Transactions, but not a combination. There are many options that you may set in regard to the calculation of a Total. Each report criteria may define as many as 15 different Totals. See the topic, Totals.
Note: This function does not apply to Event Reporting and therefore this item is not shown on the Event Report Form.
Dues Total
The Dues Total action is identical to the Gift Total function, except that it focuses on Dues Transactions, only, instead of Gift Transactions. See the topic, Totals.
Note: This function does not apply to Event Reporting and therefore this item is not shown on the Event Report Form.
Use Total
The Use Total action allows you to take a Total Amount that has been defined and calculated in the same report criteria, and then use it instead of a field name as the "subject" of a criteria statement. The object of the criteria statement may either be a money amount that you type in, or it may be another Total amount that is also defined and calculated in the same report criteria. When a Total is used in this way, they do participate in whether a row passes or fails the entire set of criteria. For example, a report might define a Total that calculates each constituent's Total Giving to the Annual Fund this year. Another Total might calculate the constituent's Total Giving to the Annual Fund last year. The Use Total function would allow you to construct a criteria statement that selects only those constituents whose Total for this year is less than their Total for last year. See the topic, Totals.
Note: This function does not apply to Event Reporting and therefore this menu item is not shown on the Event Report Form.
Saved Criteria
The Saved Criteria action allows you to retrieve a set of saved criteria and add those criteria statements to the current report. There are two kinds of saved criteria that may be retrieved and used in this way - criteria statements that were saved as a Group or criteria statements that were saved as Totals. When you activate the Add, Saved Criteria action item, you will be given a pop-up dialog form containing radio buttons for Add saved criteria and Add saved Total. Below those choices is a listing of the names of all saved sets of criteria, in accordance with the radio button that is active at the time. You may scroll to locate the desired name and highlight it and click Add to move it to the text box on the right, or type the name directly into the text box.
Note that when you are saving such sets of criteria statements, you will either save an entire Total definition as a unit, or an entire Group (either Mandatory or Optional) as unit. But when a saved Group is added into another report, it is added as a set of individual criteria statements, in the same order as they appeared in the original report from which they were saved.
When you add either a saved set of criteria statements or a saved Total, the system will add the set to the existing statements in the current report. Saved Totals will be shown following any existing non-total statements and following any existing Totals in the report (so that the system can appropriately assign the number of the new Total). When you add criteria that was saved as a group, it will be placed above the highlighted line in the criteria. If none were highlighted at the time, the set of lines will be placed at the end of the existing criteria statements, but preceding any Total definitions.