Organize and lay out your report data

 

Applies To: Dynamics 365 (online), Dynamics 365 (on-premises), Dynamics CRM 2013, Dynamics CRM 2015, Dynamics CRM Online, Dynamics CRM 2016

When you create a report, you have to decide which columns to include, the order in which they are displayed, and whether to group data into subcategories. By grouping and summarizing the data, you make it easier to see the patterns.

For example, your report could use one level of grouping to group opportunities by salesperson, or add a second level of grouping to show each quarter's opportunities, or add a third level to show the percentage won and lost in each quarter.

To use a chart in your report, if your report has no grouping, you must select at least one numeric column. If your report uses grouping, you must select at least one numeric column with a summary type defined.

  1. Define how to organize the report:

    • To group items so that they are organized together in the report by date or other common properties:

      1. For each grouping level you need, click or tap Click here to add a grouping.

      2. Define the grouping:

        • Record type. You can select records from the primary record type you selected, and from any related record types. If you selected a secondary record type, you can also select records from the secondary record type and its related records types.

        • Column. The name of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 field that contains the data to define the grouping.

        • Time interval. For datetime fields, group the data by Month, Day, Week, or Year.

        • Sort order. Sort order for displaying the groups.

        • Column width. Width of the column heading in pixels.

        • Summary type. You can group records by a count of matching records.

      3. To reorder the grouping levels, use the up and down arrows in the Common Tasks section.

      4. Click or tap OK.

    • To define the sort order within each group, click or tap Configure Sorting, select a column and sort order, and then click or tap OK.

    • To limit reports to groups with the highest or lowest values, click or tap Set Top or Bottom Number:

      1. Select Top or Bottom.

      2. Select the number of groups to display.

      3. Click or tap OK.

  2. Define which columns to display in the report. You can display columns that show data from a record, or columns that show summary information:

    1. For each column you want to include, click or tap Click here to add a column:

      • Record type. You can select records from the primary record type you selected, and from any related record types. If you selected a secondary record type, you can also select records from the secondary record type and its related records types.

      • Column. The name of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 field that contains the data to display or summarize.

      • Data type. The data type of the column, one of: primarykey, nvarchar, picklist, bit, decimal, int, float, money, ntext, datetime, owner, lookup.

      • Name. The name used in the database.

      • Column width. The width in pixels of the column.

      • Summary type. The specific type of summaries available depends on the data type of the column.

        None: lookup, datetime, owner, picklist, bit, ntext

        Average, Maximum, Minimum, Percent of Total, Sum: all numeric record types (decimal, int, float, money)

      • Include unformatted value column. Typically, in a report, the underlying data is formatted as plain text. When you export the report to Excel, you can’t change the format of the cell that contains the exported data (plain text) to a different format. This causes problems with calculations. To avoid this, you can select the Include unformatted value column check box for fields of type Date Only, Date and Time, Whole Number, Decimal, Currency, or Floating Point Number. This adds a column, which contains the unformatted value of the fields, to the report.

      • Use the left and right arrows to reorganize the columns.

    2. Click or tap OK.

  3. Click or tap Next.

See Also

Create, edit, or copy a report using the Report Wizard