AutomationReports
A standing question, answered fresh. Define it once (what it runs over, what it keeps, how it groups, what it counts) and open it whenever the question comes up again. It always does.
Define the question. In the vocabulary of your records.
A report is five decisions: what it runs over, what it keeps, how it groups, how it counts, and how it renders. The definition is the artefact; everything else is the data’s job.
- Pick what it runs over: money, pipeline, engagement or people
- Filter on that record’s own fields, seven ways to compare
- Group by month, stage, source, fund, currency…
- Total it: a count, a sum, or an average
- Render as a table, a bar, a line, or one number
Open it in November. Still true, because it reads the records.
No copy drifts out of date, no totals get pasted forward, and the currency guard means no chart ever adds Canadian and US dollars into a number that means nothing.
- Saved as a definition, not as a copy of the data
- Opens fresh: March’s report is still true in November
- Money never cross-sums: currency grouped or pinned
- Unknown filter keys refuse to run rather than guess
- The number the board asks for, as its own saved report
Why it works this way. Three disciplines worth naming.
A definition, not an export
An export is true the day it ran. A definition reads the records every time it opens, which is the difference between a report and a keepsake.
The currency rule is a kindness
CA$5,000 plus US$5,000 is not $10,000. A money measure refuses to run across currencies unless you group by or pin one, so no chart ever quietly adds unlike things.
Only the fields we listed, all the way down
Every table, column and filter the builder can reach is one we wrote down in advance. Only the values you type ever get near the query. Flexibility inside a fence.
Workflows write rows too. And every run they write is readable.
Four things to run over: transactions, deals, engagements and contacts. Filter each on its own fields, group by something like month, stage, source or fund, and total it as a count, a sum or an average.
Not yet. Reports render on screen, and there is no scheduler or CSV button behind them. If month-end needs a file, the read API returns the raw rows and your spreadsheet does the rest. We would rather name that than have you find out at month-end.
No. A report reads exactly one entity. Cross-entity questions are two reports side by side, or the API.
Not in the builder yet. The four entities are fixed. Custom-object records are readable over the API, which is the honest route for now.
Entity transactions, filter to gifts, group by month, sum the amount with the currency pinned, render as a line. Saved once, so the board pack becomes opening a page.