How to Sort and Filter Reports

Overview & background 

 

In the Tasks tab, you can generate reports if you are on a premium plan. You can run Reports for many functions, including Punch Lists, Inspections, etc. Reports can be used to share project information with your clients, owners, or individuals who are not on your Fieldwire projects. 

The 'Include', 'Sort by', and 'Filter by' options allow you to customize the information you want to include in your report. It is important to understand how to leverage the sort and filter options as these determine what information will be available on your report. 

 

Table of Content

• Report Types
  • PDF Summary
  • PDF Detailed Report
  • CSV
• 'Include' Options
• 'Sort by' options
• 'Task Filter' options
• 'Recipients' options
• Why is information missing from my report?
• Examples of cases where filters 'override' data
• How do I ensure the information appears in my report?
• What does the 'report Generation Failed' pop-up mean?
• 'Schedule Reports' options

 

Report Types

Fieldwire offers three report types you can leverage; each report type presents the task information in a unique way. Take a look at these articles that define each Report Type: 

• Introduction to Task Reports in Fieldwire

 

PDF Summary:

 

PDF Detailed Report:

CSV:

 

Click on the links below to view and/or download examples of each report type.

1. PDF Summary Report
2. PDF Detailed Report
3. CSV
4. Account Reports - These are .CSV reports that can consist of tasks from multiple projects across your account. (For more information about these reports and how to generate them, please see this article: Q&A: Can I generate a report that contains tasks from multiple projects?)

As an added note, when generating Detailed Reports, please be aware that there are limits to how many tasks, photos, and related forms that can be on these reports. If your report includes more than these limits, you'll see the "Report limit exceeded" message. In addition, if you try to email the report, you'll receive the same "Report limit exceeded" message in your email. As the message states, in order to generate the report successfully, you'll need to reduce the size of the report by splitting it into several parts using report task filters.

 

'Include' Options

Each of the Report Types offer the options to 'Include' certain pieces of content; the available options on what to include differ based on the Report Type you choose. This section defines the available 'Include' options: 

'Include' Option:	Definition:	Available on:
Created/Completed/Verified date	This indicates the date the task was created, and then moved into the 'Completed' or 'Verified' status.	PDF Detailed
Start/End Date	This will display the Start and End date of the tasks in the Report.	PDF Detailed
Cost/Manpower	This will display the 'Cost' and 'Manpower' fields (if you choose to include these).	PDF Detailed
Related Tasks	This will include any 'Related Tasks' associated with the tasks in your report query.	PDF Detailed
Related Forms	This will include any Forms associated with the tasks in your report query.	PDF Detailed
Checklists	If any tasks have Checklists, this will include the full checklist associated with that task in the Report.	PDF Detailed
Messages	This will include all Task Messages associated with the Tasks in your report query.	PDF Detailed
Photos	This will include all Photos associated with tasks in your report.	PDF Detailed
Files	This will include all Files associated with tasks in your report.	PDF Detailed
Plans	This will include all Plans associated with tasks in your report. Ex: the plans that your tasks are 'pinned' to.	PDF Summary, PDF Detailed
Full size plans	This can only be selected if "Plans" is selected as well. Full size plans will be included in the task report.	PDF Summary, PDF Detailed
Table of Contents	This provides a cover page of the tasks in the report.	PDF Detailed
Page numbers	Affixes a page number to the top of each report page.	PDF Summary, PDF Detailed
Section Headings	This is based on the first entry in your 'Sort By' option-- ex: the plan name.	PDF Detailed
One Task per page	Makes it so that only one task occupies each page of the report.	PDF Detailed
Plan Mini-Maps	Affixes a section of the associated plan within each Task.	PDF Detailed
Inline photos	When 'Photos' is also selected, this will display photos in a 'List' view, as opposed to from the default, 'left-to-right' view.	PDF Detailed
Deleted content	Displays any tasks that have been deleted in the Report. This is most effective in the .CSV report, as you can leverage the 'Task Importer' to recreate deleted tasks.	PDF Summary, PDF Detailed, CSV

 

'Sort by' options

Fieldwire reports allow you to sort and group the tasks you're reporting on by three different attributes in the 'Sort by' section of the Report popup. The first attribute you choose will be the primary groups your tasks will be sorted into on the report. The second attribute will be used to further sort the tasks within the first attribute grouping, and the third attribute will group like tasks within the groupings determined by your first two attributes.

For example, sorting by 'end date, category, and priority', in that order, it generates a report where my tasks are listed in order of most recent end date first, with tasks that have the same end date then listed in groups of like category. Within each day section and category sub-section, the tasks are grouped in order of priority, with P1 first, P2 second, and P3 third.

By contrast, when I sort a report by 'priority, category, and end date', in that order, it generates a report where my tasks are listed in order of highest priority first, with tasks that have the same priority then listed in groups of like category. Within each priority section and category sub-section, the tasks are grouped in order of end date, with the most recent listed first. 

Make sure that you and your team members are diligent in filling out those Task Attributes so that you can use them to generate exactly the report you want, at the end of the day.

There are three 'Sort by' sections for all reports.

 

The 3 'Sort by' options' 

 

They default to Category, Assignee, and Priority, though there are 8 sorting options for all reports within each 'Sort by' section.

 

All 8 sorting options

 

Troubleshooting Tip: If you select 'Task #' in the first 'Sort by' section other 'Sort by' options will not display. The reason is that each 'Sort by' option is dependent on the 'Sort by" option before it, and 'Task #' overrides all 'Sort by' options. 

With locations - if you have nested locations set up like this on your project:

Building 1 (A1) > Floor 1 (A2) > Reception (A3)

Building 2 (B1) > Floor 1 (B2) > Reception (B3)

Building 3 (C1) > Floor 1 (C2) > Reception (C3)

And 5 tasks with 5 locations:
Task 1 - Reception (C3)
Task 2 - Floor 1 (B2)
Task 3 - Building 3 (C1)
Task 4 - Floor 1 (A2)
Task 5 - Reception (B3)

The task order in the report would look like this: 
Task 4 - Building 1 (A1) > Floor 1 (A2)
Task 2 - Building 2 (B1) > Floor 1 (B2)
Task 5 - Building 2 (B1) > Floor 1 (B2) > Reception (B3)
Task 3 - Building 3 (C1)
Task 1 - Building 3 (C1) > Floor 1 (C2) > Reception (C3)

 

'Task Filter' options

You can select to display specific tasks and omit others. The six Task filters Fieldwire allows you to filter by:

1. Filter by Task Status
2. Filter by Categories
3. Filter by Assignee
4. Filter by tasks associated with certain plans
5. Filter by one or more specific nested locations
   -When the 'Include all tiers under selection' option is selected, the report query will pull all of the tasks associated with the tiered locations nested under that selection.
   - If you do not have 'Include all tiers under selection' selected, only the location itself is selected, meaning any tasks associated with the selected location will be included in your query. You can opt to select one or more disparate location tiers to pull a more pertinent report query. 
   - Locations are ordered in the context of other nested locations included in the report, as opposed to grouping locations together by similar names.
6. Filter by certain tags. 

 

Troubleshooting tip: Once you select a certain Filter, be sure that there is content for the filtering option you select. Meaning, once the filters are selected the criteria will automatically only search for the filters selected. If there is no content under the filters selected, then no content will display in the report.

 

Example: I select Assignee > Bob, Categories > Electrical, Status 'P1' and 'P2'. If Bob does not have Electrical tasks, but all Bob's Electrical tasks are 'P3', 'Completed' or 'Verified', then no data will display because only 'P1' and 'P2' tasks were selected.

 

'Time Filter' options

You can select the report options by time-related filters.

 

Time filters

 

Tip: You can input a date range based on custom date ranges relating to date ranges based on all time, days, weeks, months, or a specified date range. 

 

Default time filter options

  

 

 

Tip: Reports are great for quickly compiling a list of punch items or completed tasks. You can see how tasks have changed in recent days, and the report can act as a record of expenses and hours worked. For example, you can filter by tasks updated within the last day for a report on daily progress. Alternatively, filter for any tasks updated within the last week.

 

'Recipients' options

You can select specific recipients of the report by entering their email address. 

 

Where you input recipient email address(es)

 

 

Tip: Recipients can be Fieldwire users and external parties. You do not have to be on Fieldwire to receive a Fieldwire generated report.

 

Why is information missing from my report?

• Selecting too many filters or selecting filters that in combination will not produce any results

 

Examples of cases where filters 'override' data

Example 1:  You select Assignee > Bob, Categories > Electrical, Status 'P1' and 'P2'.

If Bob does have Electrical tasks, but all Bob's Electrical tasks are 'P3', 'Completed' or 'Verified', then no data will display, because only 'P1' and 'P2' tasks were selected.

 

Example 2: If you select 'Task #' in the first 'Sort by' section other 'Sort by' options will not display. The reason is that each 'Sort by' option is dependent on the 'Sort by" option before it, and 'Task #' overrides all 'Sort by' options. 

Solution: Make sure that the filters you choose to correspond with the data in your report. Meaning, if you select 1 Assignee with 1 Category, make sure that Assignee has tasks in that 1 category. 

 

How do I ensure the information appears in my report?

If you generate a report that is missing data or that does not generate any data at all, it can be helpful to eliminate certain Filters and re-send the report to see if that resolves the issue.

Filter setting adjustments:

• Remove or add Assignee(s)
• Increase or decrease the number of Categories
• Add or remove hashtag filters
• Add or Remove Task Status filters 
• Included all Locations

I kept the single Assignee and removed the 'Task filters' for Hashtags and Location and increased the number of Categories and Statuses. 

The report ended up generating data and populating the intended results.

Tip: You can always add Filters if the reports you are generating are too large. A recommendation would be to start more general and then increase the Filters that are relevant.

 

What does the 'Report Generation Failed' pop-up mean? 

If you attempt to email or download a report and you receive the message 'Report Generation Failed' it means that the report has been generated too many times in a one-hour window:

 

The limit is 10 reports, per report template, per hour.

The hour starts to count down when the first report has been generated. 

There might be a few different reasons as to why you might receive this message. This chart details a few common reasons as to why you may run into this message:

 

'Schedule Reports' options

You can select when to send the reports and even schedule the report to be automatically sent on a weekly or monthly basis.

The report will be sent at 5 am based on the project's specified time zone. In the drop-down for Schedule Report, you can select weekly or monthly and can specify the day (weekly) or date (monthly).

 

Step 1: Select 'Weekly' or 'Monthly'

 

 

Step 2: Choose a specific day 

 

Note: If the project is archived, automatic weekly/monthly reports will continue to be sent. The report can be deleted or you can disable the automatic send. 

To delete, go to Tasks > Generate Reports and click the Trash icon to the far right of the report you want to delete. 

To disable the automatic send, go to Tasks > Generate Reports and select the report you want to edit. Update the Weekly/Monthly setting to Share Now and click the X in the upper right to close the report and save. 

 

More information

• How do I generate reports in Fieldwire?
• Practical Guide: How to configure tasks for great reports