How can I make it easier for users to generate the reports they need?

Question

I am working with an organisation that uses CiviCRM to record information about their clients. They need to generate reports on a quarterly basis that summarise their work with clients. The reports need to segment the data by factors such as age range, gender, ethnicity, postcode etc.

None of the standard reports generate the information that they need so they use advanced search to obtain the figures for the reports. This gives them the information they need however it can be quite tricky to set up the appropriate searches. They also need to run the search several times for each age/gender/ethnicity etc.

Some examples of the types of reports they need (all figures are for the last quarter):

• number of clients referred - split by ward
• number of clients supported - split by ethnicity and gender
• number of clients supported - split by age range (e.g. 16-17, 18-19, 20-25, etc.)
• number of hours of support provided
• number of sessions delivered per ward

How could reporting be made easier for them?

Answer 1

Another alternative is writing a custom report. It's not all that difficult, though it is writing PHP code. Even if you need to hire out for it, you'll have exactly what you need.

The details on how to create a report template extension are here: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Create+a+Report-Template+Extension

Most likely, you'll just need to take an existing report and make changes such as:

• adding an order_by option in the __construct() function for the fields that you want subheadings for
• adding a new table in the __construct() function and creating the proper joins in the from() function
• doing some changes to how things appear by doing something in the alter_display() function
• adding statistics for fields in the __construct() function and defining them in the select() function

Answer 2

We have had great success using Jasper Reporting with CiviCRM.

It does require knowledge of the underlying CiviCRM database, and writing SQL against it, but the formatting capabilities are powerful and fairly easy to use.

Once a report is created, it can easily be added to the CiviCRM menu.

More details here: https://civicrm.org/blogs/lcarter/civicrm-and-jasper-reports

Answer 3

Since they're using Drupal, you may want to check out Forena Reports. There will be a session on using Forena Reports with CiviCRM at CiviCon Denver in three weeks.

Answer 4

If they are doing it all by using variations on advanced searches you could make a a custom searchand then (if you are in Joomla, but you can do the same kind of thing in Drupal or WP) make a module with the direct links to each one or give them a drop down.