Getting the most from your Dolphin reports

Transcription

1 Dolphin Dynamics Getting the most from your Dolphin reports Copyright 2016 Dolphin Dynamics Ltd. The information contained herein is the property of Dolphin Dynamics Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser s personal use without the written permission of Dolphin Dynamics Ltd. Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Upper Richmond Road London, SW15 2SL

2 Introduction This document is intended to provide users of the Dolphin Travel Platform an introduction into the many ways that reports can be generated from the system. There are many other features of the Reporting Module that can help to manage your business more effectively: Save your own versions of the defaults reports with frequently used criteria Export the data to a CSV format file for external manipulation i.e. to create graphs Schedule reports to auto-generate at specified times/frequencies Hide reports that are not-relevant to your business or to a user NOTE: This guide details, primarily, the functionality available for reports within the Booking Management Module however it will also introduce the facility to query the database directly through an external tool such as Microsoft SQL. What can you do in the Reporting Module Activity within the Reporting Module is split into two main areas: Standard Reports the control level that the user has in Standard Reports, is limited to entering filter criteria, displaying line/summary detail and generating to screen/printer/ and so is usually given to basic user security accounts Advanced Reports the control level that the user has in Advanced Reports, is far greater as it allows many additional features beyond the basic user security level. Access to the Reporting Module is controlled by settings within each user s security profile. Each user will be default can access the Standard Reports and will enable the user to run a number of reports with a fixed set of criteria. Users with access to the Advanced Reports area will be able to add/amend/delete the criteria set per report. Figure 1: Standard and Advanced Reports windows Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Confidential 2

3 Reports Profile Sometimes it may be necessary to restrict the reports that a user can generate. For example, users in the Reservations Team may not need to see the Product Inventory Report or perhaps a user in the Product Team does not need to see the margin achieved on bookings. Therefore, each user profile can be assigned with a Reports Profile which controls the reports that they can generate. Figure 2: User Security with Reports Profile Assigned Access to the Advanced Reports Module will also allow a user to use the following functionality (assuming further security permissions are activated): Create and Use Export Templates for the report Set up and control the scheduler tool for automatic generation of the report Controlling Filters As shown in Figure 1, the user will be presented with a brief description of each report as they click on it. This will enable the user to be able to easily identify the appropriate report to use to output the data required. Users that have the Advanced Reports security setting will be able to add and delete the filter criteria as well as create criteria groupings for more advanced querying. Standard Reports does not permit the user to control the filters in this way as it is expected that users with access levels to Standard Reports only should be able to run reports but in a more governed manner. Report Output Even though the reports use a template, there are a number of ways that the user can control the output thereby providing a selection of differing output designs: Edit Subtotals Clicking this button will allow the user to change the way that the report subtotals. This will enable the same report to be viewed from a number of different perspectives. For example, the Folder Activity Report can be set up so that it will display the same data but for different parts of the business, the output can be more appropriate: Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Confidential 3

4 Reservations Team Manager: The report can be subtotalled by Folder Owner or Folder Owner Team which will enable them to identify how productive each team/booking user has been. Figure 3: Folder Activity Report By Consultant Product Manager: The report can be subtotalled by the destination thereby showing which destinations/countries have been selling well and which have not. The report can then be used to identify where more aggressive marketing/special offers may need to be created. Figure 4: Folder Activity Report by Destination (Subtotals Only) Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Confidential 4

5 Accounts/Finance: The report can be subtotalled by Folder Balance Date which would enable the user to identify where pricing may need to be managed to promote sales or potentially further increase margin. Figure 5: Folder Activity Report By Balance Due Date Other reports that can be created using the default templates: A report to show booked items whereby a supplier invoice has never been received and the booking has travelled. This would allow the user to sweep up those expected costs into additional margin achieved. A report to show the top 10 vendors used for bookings within a specific date range. The report would then provide the user with the information required to further negotiate on rates etc with the suppliers. Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Confidential 5

6 A report to show the conversion rate between cost quotes and confirmed folders. This will reference the new Init Enquiry field added to the Travel Folder display recently to correctly calculate the true conversion rate. Previously, the only way to get the conversion rate was to run reports to give the number of cost quote folders created and the number of confirmed folders created then divide one by the other. A report to show which clients owe money to you and how old the debt is, split by debt periods configured within the client profile. Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Confidential 6

7 It is important to note that reports where the detail level is displayed and the travel folder number is one of the columns, the user can seamlessly open any folder directly from the report without the need to perform a separate search process. NOTE: The report will need to be displayed to the window (on-screen) rather than to or printer for this functionality to work. Changing the Sort Order The reports are configured to display the data in a default order i.e. Folder Creation Date, Ticket Number or Transaction Number however it may be required that the data be sorted using a different field. The user has the ability within Advanced Reports to choose the hierarchy of fields to sort upon. For example, the report could sort on departure date, outstanding balance value and then booking owner. Figure 6: Configuring the Sort Order ing Reports As it is sometimes necessary to send reports around your business, maybe to a supplier or to a customer, the Reports Module uses the same functionality to do this as it does in sending Supplier Requests or Customer Booking Confirmations. The user can select to output the report to a connected printer, to the Window (to preview) or via an . Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Confidential 7

8 Figure 7: Report Output Selection Menu When the button is clicked, the user can then enter the addresses of the recipient(s) as well as adding the text to be included in the body of the . This functionality also allows other attachments to be included therefore if the report was to be distributed amongst a team of Marketing Specialists, for example, the originator of the report could include the original special offer flyer that has resulted in the number of sales achieved. Exporting Reports The queries to the database that allow the reports to be produced may contain far more fields than can be displayed on a normal page width. Therefore if a report requires additional fields than are currently displayed in the default output design, a user with the Report Export security setting activated can build their own output design from the columns (fields) available within the database query. Figure 8: Report Export Column Selection This allows users to expand upon the number of output possibilities immensely without the need for bespoke reports to be created provided that the fields required are present in the initial database query*. Whilst Dolphin Dynamics offers a bespoke reports design service, the ability to create your own reports using the default reports as templates provides a valuable process for extracting the data required without needing to have a brand new report built from scratch. Only where a specific design or new fields that are not contained within the existing report queries, will bespoke reports be essential. NOTE: A database query is the request that the system makes to the database to return the values contained within specified fields. Scheduling Reports Reports can be generated on an ad-hoc basis by the user selecting the report, entering the appropriate criteria and then clicking the Print button to send to window/ /printer however it is also possible to configure the system to automatically generate reports according to a defined schedule. Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Confidential 8

9 Alternatively, should your business need to send out client statement of accounts on a regular frequency, this can be configured to do so automatically. These can be sent to the address stored within the client profile thereby further reducing the need to forward on or put in an envelope to send via regular post which will reduce costs. Figure 9: Report Scheduler Configuration Direct SQL Querying The Dolphin database does allow direct querying via an ODBC connection which will allow a user to build their own reports however this requires a high level of SQL commands and will not be covered within this guide. Next Steps Hopefully this document will inspire you to use the Reporting Module more effectively however, if you need help getting there, we can offer training or consultancy services, and if you want to create something entirely bespoke, we can offer a time and materials customisation service. There are some configuration settings that will need checking before you start so whichever of these options you choose please give call or to the Support Desk. Support@dolphind.com Telephone: Dolphin Dynamics Ltd Confidential 9