Shortcut-to-a-Report Qualification

The results of an existing report can be used as a filter for another report. You can use the first report itself as a filter inside a new report. This type of filter is called a shortcut-to-a-report qualification.

For example, you have a Credit/Debit Card Activity report. Without a filter, this report shows all activity on credit and debit cards. You can use your Credit/Debit Cards- Swiped & Keyed report as a filter within the Credit/Debit Card Activity report. With this filter, the Credit/Debit Card Activity report now displays activity on only those credit and debit cards that had both swiped and manually keyed activity.

You can also use a report as a filter and then add additional qualifications to expand the overall filter definition. For example, you can take the result set of one report showing all transactions with a cash tender, place that result set as a filter into a new report, and add a new filter qualification for Transactions over $50. The new report displays transactions that have a cash tender and are over $50.

This approach shows you the value of creating some basic, relatively simple reports in your project. Then you can make use of these basic reports within shortcut-to-a-report filters to make the filter creation process quicker.

Notes:

To be used as a shortcut-to-a-report qualification, a report cannot contain any Custom groups
Be aware that a report's view definition does not affect how the report is used in a shortcut-to-a-report qualification. A report's data definition is the query that is sent to your database to retrieve information for the report, whereas the report's view definition determines how much of the retrieved information is displayed in the report. When you use a report as a filter, the report's entire data definition is considered; any view definitions do not influence the filter conditions.

To use a report as a filter in a shortcut-to-a-report qualification:

From the Admin menu, select Filters. This displays the Shared Filters page. Or, from the Admin menu, choose Filter. From the Filters page, click the Create Filter icon.
Click the Create Filter icon. This displays the New Filter page.
In the pane on the left, navigate to the report you want to use as a filter.
Right-click the report and select Add to Filter or drag the report to the right to add to the filter panel.
Select Save or Save As. This displays the Save As dialog box.
Navigate to the folder where you want to save the filter. Enter a Name and Description for the filter, and click OK. Your new filter is saved.
The filter you created can now be added to a report. For steps, see Adding a stand-alone filter to a report.

_____________________________