Sage ACT! 2011 Dashboard and Report Cookbook

Table of Contents

Sage ACT! 2011 Dashboard and Report Cookbook

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewer

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Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Exploring the ACT! Reports

Introduction

Using the ACT! Reports menu

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Learning a bit more about specific reports

A warning about the Other Report menu options

See also

Using the Reports view

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

The default order of the Report List

Adding the modification date to the Report List

Running a report from the Report view

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Limiting access to Report Data

Choosing a Report Output Option

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Editing Reports in the Reports view

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the sort order in the Report view

Deleting a Report

Keeping a list of Favorite reports

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the size of the Report view area

Finding the default location of the ACT! Reports

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

2. Filtering Data in Reports

Introduction

Filtering based on a contact field lookup

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There's more…

Filtering Contact reports

How to do it…

How it works…

There's More…

See also

Filtering based on a contact activity lookup

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Filtering Notes and History in reports

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Filtering activities in reports

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Filtering Groups reports

How to do it…

How it works…

Filtering Company reports

How to do it…

How it works…

Filtering Opportunity reports

How to do it…

How it works…

Presetting filters for most used option

How to do it…

How it works…

3. Creating a Quick Report

Introduction

Setting preferences for the quick reports

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Selecting and organizing the columns for a contact list quick report

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Printing the contact list quick report

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Printing the History tab quick report

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Printing the contact detail view quick report

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Exporting the Opportunities List View to Excel

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

4. Working with the Report Editor

Introduction

Converting ACT! 6 custom reports

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Choosing a template type and setting defaults

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding fields to template and basic formatting

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Field sizing

Naming field objects and individual field formatting

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Positioning fields and labels

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding a custom field and creating a basic script

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding sections for sorting and grouping

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Using sections for sub-totaling and totaling

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

5. Subreports and Scripting Techniques

Introduction

Formatting a List Type report

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There's more…

Adding subreports to a report

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Adding fields to the secondary contacts subreport

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Adding fields to the history subreport

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Scripting basics by example

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Reverse engineering a set of complex scripts

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

6. Labels and Envelopes

Introduction

Editing a standard envelope

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Adding a logo to an envelope

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Creating a custom envelope

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Creating an xx64 label template

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

7. Working with the ACT! Dashboards

Introduction

Getting familiar with the Dashboard layouts

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Accessing information from Dashboards

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Customizing Dashboard columns

Refreshing the Dashboards

Copying Dashboard information to other products

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Printing Dashboards

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Making Dashboards the default startup preference

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

8. Filtering Dashboards

Introduction

Filtering the Contacts Dashboards

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Filtering the Activity Dashboards

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a Customized Date

Working with the Contact History by Type component

Filtering the Opportunity Dashboards

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Filtering the Admin Dashboard

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the Dashboard Data

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding an Activity

Creating a New Opportunity

Deleting an Opportunity

9. Editing Existing Dashboards

Introduction

Cloning an existing Dashboard

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the Dashboard display type

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Changing the Dashboard default filters

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the Dashboard headers and footers

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the Dashboard legends

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the Dashboard totals

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the Dashboard scales and limits

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Setting a Dashboard target

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Modifying the closed sales to date component

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing the Dashboard data charts

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

10. Working with the Dashboard Designer

Introduction

Creating a new Dashboard

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding or removing columns and rows

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating wider components

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding components to the Dashboard

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Editing the new component

Adding additional components to the new Dashboard

Adding data charts to the Dashboard

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Customizing your data chart

Changing the order of the Dashboard components

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Making horizontal moves

Index

Sage ACT! 2011 Dashboard and Report Cookbook

Sage ACT! 2011 Dashboard and Report Cookbook

Copyright © 2011 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: February 2011

Production Reference: 1110211

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-849681-92-6

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by David Guettirrez (<bilbaorocker@yahoo.co.uk>)

Credits

Authors

Karen Fredricks

Roy Laudenslager

Reviewers

Keith Wilson

Pat Egen

Acquisition Editor

Stephanie Moss

Development Editor

Hyacintha D'Souza

Technical Editor

Erika Fernandes

Indexer

Monica Ajmera Mehta

Editorial Team Leader

Vinodhan Nair

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinator

Vishal Bodwani

Proofreader

Aaron Nash

Production Coordinator

Shantanu Zagade

Cover Work

Shantanu Zagade

About the Authors

Karen Fredricks began her life rather non-technically growing up in Kenya. She likes to say that she developed her sense of humor while dodging bombs in Beirut where she attended high school. She graduated from the University of Florida and holds degrees in English, Theatre, and Accounting. She settled in Boca Raton where she includes tennis, trips to the gym, and cheering for the Gators in her busy schedule.

A true CRM expert, she is the author of over 10 For Dummy books, including titles on ACT!, SugarCRM, Outlook, Business Contact Manager, Office Live, and Marketing with Microsoft Office 2007. This is her sixth book devoted to ACT!.

Her firm, Tech Benders, customizes popular contact management and CRM software to help businesses grow by being more productive, efficient, and profitable. Karen believes in working smarter in order to have the time to enjoy life and tries to install that philosophy in her clients.

She is thrilled to being working with Roy Laudenslager as the co-author of this book. He has provided his expertise to several of her previous books and his knowledge of the ACT! Report Writer is second to none.

It may not take a villager to write a book, but it does take a number of helpful people! I'd like to thank Stephanie Moss, my Acquisition Editor, who saw the need for an ACT! title on Reports and Dashboards. Hyacintha D'Souza had the task of making sure my writing would be easily understood by readers. Vishal Bodwani took care of the scheduling of the book. This is my first Packt book and they provided guidance in every step of the way.

Gary Kahn was always there to support me, offer an occasional back rub, and provide diversions to help keep me on track.

And to my daughters, Andrea and Alyssa: I love you both!

Roy Laudenslager has spent his entire career working on computers. He likes to say he barely missed the vacuum tube computers. He has repaired them, written numerous training manuals about them, and spent many years troubleshooting them. He began working for Symantec when they combined all their technical support in a new site in Eugene, Oregon. When they acquired the ACT! program, he was one of the first ACT! support agents. He was already familiar with the ACT! program having used the DOS version at another company. He spent the next 10 years, supporting the ACT! program for Symantec, then InterACT Commerce Corporation, and finally for Sage Software. By the time he left, he was the lead support agent for ACT! escalations. Escalations are the problems that the regular support agents are unable to solve; his job was to solve the unsolvable. He also trained new support staff on database field modifications, reports, and synchronization. His expertise in the area of synchronization lead to the Knowledge Base document that he wrote for setting up synchronization, making it possible to synchronize ACT! 3 through 6 reliably. After 10 years in ACT! technical support, he wanted to become an ACT! Consultant so he left Sage and joined Karen Fredricks as part of Tech Benders to allow him to do what he loved to do: work with ACT! users!

He has worked with the ACT! reports since ACT! for Windows 2.0 and is known around Sage as the ACT! report writer guru. He wrote the 12 new reports that first appeared in ACT! 2010/12.

In the early part of his career, he spent several years working as a technical writer and authored many training and reference manuals.

While working in technical support for Symantec and later Sage, he contributed one or more articles monthly to the Easy ACT! newsletter. This body of work took place over a seven-year period and represented over 100 articles.

Most recently he was the Technical Editor for the Dummy books on ACT! versions 7-11.

I want to thank Karen Fredricks for her invitation to participate in writing this book.

I also want to thank my contacts at Packt for the opportunity, the prodding to keep me working and for the editorial feedback.

About the Reviewer

Keith Wilson is a recognized worldwide ACT! expert with over 18 years of experience. Working with a variety of different businesses ranging from very small organizations right up to large corporations, his knowledge of the product and his insights into how to get the very best from the product are second to none.

Through Keith's own endeavors, his previous employer Balanced Solutions quickly became one of the most respected Sage ACT! Business Partners in the UK and implemented the software in over 250 companies.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank my father for giving me a great grounding for the 18 years I worked for him and the opportunities that he has given me,