Custom Reporting

Last Update :

Custom Reports let your organization build reports once and reuse them again and again. A report is a saved set of choices — which members to include, which information to show, how to sort it, and how to output it. You can run a saved report any time, and the results always reflect your current membership.

To get started, choose Custom Reports from the Reports section of the main Admin menu. This opens your list of saved reports.

Your Reports List

The reports list is your home base. From here you can:

• Switch between a list view and a grid view.
• Search for a report by name, or filter the list by category using the pills along the top.
• Mark a report as a favorite, or pin the reports you use most so they stay at the top.
• Run, edit, copy, or delete a report from its row actions.

You can create a report three ways: start from scratch with Add New Report, start from a ready-made layout in the Templates library, or describe what you want in plain English with the Report Builder Assistant (described further below). You can also make a copy of any existing report and adjust it.

Building a Report

Clicking Add New Report opens the report builder. Unlike the older step-by-step wizard, everything is on a single page. A menu down the side lets you jump to any section, and the page saves your work as you go. Each section is optional — use as few or as many as you need.

1. Name and describe the report. Give the report a clear name and an optional description so you (and other admins) can recognize it later. The heading at the top of the page updates as you type.

2. Choose the information to show (columns). Pick the member information you want to appear in the results, such as name, contact details, member type, join date, and so on. Each item you choose becomes a column in the report.

3. Set your criteria (who to include). This is where you narrow the report down to the members you want. Criteria are grouped into sections so they are easy to find. They include, but are not limited to:

• Member Types & Status — include certain member types (Prospects, Lifetime Members, and so on), and choose active members, dropped members, or both.
• Committees / Projects — include members who belong to a particular committee or project.
• Email & Newsletter Lists — include members signed up for your newsletter or for a specific email list.
• Join, Renewed, and Drop Dates — include members based on when they joined, renewed, or were dropped. For any date range, you can set a start date, an end date, or both: fill in only the “from” date for everyone after that date, only the “to” date for everyone before it, or both to capture a range.
• Billing — include members by paid status or by their paid-through date.
• Location — include members by city, state, ZIP, county, or country.
• Member Security Level — include members with administrative access.
• Custom Fields — any custom fields your organization uses are available here as criteria too.

Additional sections — such as Business Categories, Employer, Volunteer Events, Certifications, Privacy preferences, and more — appear automatically when they apply to your organization.

As you add criteria, a summary bar shows your current selections as removable tags, and an estimated results indicator gives you a sense of how many members will match before you run the report.

Important: a member must meet every criterion you set in order to appear in the results. For example, if you choose a committee and a drop-date range, only members who are in that committee and were dropped within that range will appear.

4. Choose a sort order. Pick the information to sort by and whether to sort in ascending or descending order, so the results come out in the order you want.

5. Choose an output format. Decide how the finished report is delivered:

• On-screen table — view the results as a web page you can sort and search.
• Spreadsheet — download as a CSV or Excel file for use in a spreadsheet program. The CSV download offers options for separator, encoding, and a few other details when you need them.
• PDF documents — a printable table, a formatted member roster, or a member directory, with layout options such as page orientation and grouping.
• Mailing labels — printable Avery 5161 address labels.
• Email list — a clean, de-duplicated list of email addresses.

Running and Sharing a Report

When you run a report, the results appear on screen and you can download them in any of the available formats. You can also send the matching members straight into Broadcast Messaging to email them.

You can control who else can see and run a report by sharing it with specific individuals or with the members of a committee.

The Report Builder Assistant

If you would rather describe what you need than set it up by hand, open the Report Builder Assistant. Tell it what kind of report you want in plain English — for example, “active members in the Events committee who joined this year” — and it will assemble a draft report for you. It works as a conversation, so you can refine your request until the plan looks right. When you are happy with it, create the report in one click, or open it in the builder to fine-tune the details. A few advanced selections (such as choosing specific events or naming individual members) still need to be set in the builder afterward.

Templates, Categories, and Reuse

• Templates — start from a ready-made report layout instead of a blank page.
• Categories — organize your reports into groups and filter the list by category.
• Favorites & pinning — keep the reports you use most within easy reach.
• Copy a report — duplicate an existing report as a starting point for a new one.
• Export / import setup — save a report’s setup to a file and load it into another report, which is handy for reusing the same setup across reports.
• 

When a Report Isn’t Possible Here

Many organizations have specific reporting needs, and not every report can be built in the Custom Reports module yet. If you can’t put together the report you want here, try the general-purpose Gabi Assistant (your admin AI assistant). It has its own reporting abilities and can sometimes generate a report that the current version of Custom Reports can’t produce.