Overview
Fieldwire offers three types of reports that are available for Pro and Business users in the 'Tasks' tab of Fieldwire. The goal of these reporting options is to export Task data so you can capture and document your entire project. Generating Task reports is a step-by-step process that ends with receiving a URL in an email from support@fieldwire.com. Currently, there are three ways for users to generate single-project task reports:
- PDF Summary - This is more of a bullet point list (good for simple punch lists).
- Detailed PDF Report - A detailed report that has all of the project's content: images, annotations, etc. (good for daily Foreman meetings).
- Complete CSV (Excel) Export - An excel data dump that has all the information from your project (good for documentation purposes when a project ends - alternatively, good if you want to run custom analytics or reports for your crew).
Along with choosing the kind of report you would like to generate, you designate who will receive the report. You can send the report to any email address - the recipient does not need to have a Fieldwire account or be invited to your project. Also, you can schedule your reports to be sent out weekly or monthly.
Tip: You’ll be able to leverage Custom Task Statuses in your task reports if your project uses these for task tracking. Take a look at this article for additional information.
Note: Fieldwire also offers Account Reports for Pro and Business users - 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 check out this article.
Table of Contents
- The Generate Report Button
- PDF Summary Report
- PDF Detailed Report
- Complete CSV (Excel) Export
- How to generate a report
- How plans and files will display on reports
- What does the 'Report Generation Failed' pop-up mean?
- 'Schedule Reports' options
The Generate Reports Button
By clicking on the button to Generate reports in the Tasks tab, you'll see a pop-up appear. This pop-up will show you your list of report templates. In each new project, you are automatically provided two report templates, "All tasks (Summary)" and "Open tasks (Detailed)". In addition to these report templates, you have the ability to create your own task report templates by clicking the blue "+New report" button shown in the screenshot below.
When you hover over each task report template, you will see three buttons. The envelope button allows you to email the report. The middle icon allows you to duplicate the report template. The red trashcan button allows you to delete the task report template. These buttons each serve their own purpose, but each one is meant to speed up their respective processes: creation, distribution, and deletion.
Note: Once you delete a task report template, it cannot be recovered. It is permanently deleted and you will need to recreate the template.
PDF Summary Report
The PDF Summary report offers a quick overview of the project status, assignee, and if the task is pinned on a plan. It provides you with a list of the tasks on the project to easily and quickly see which tasks are open and which tasks are closed to keep your client in the loop without them needing access to Fieldwire.
Tip: Use the filtering options to ensure you are viewing the relevant information.
PDF Detailed Report
A highly customizable and detailed report that can include task photos, checklists, as well as other attachments and can be filtered by assignee, category, time, etc. This is particularly useful if your client doesn't want a simple overview of the project, but rather an in-depth report. This has particularly good use cases for updates on punchlists, progress photos, and walkthroughs.
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 stating this information. 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.
Tip: Use the auto-scheduled emails to automatically send reports to key stakeholders on a weekly or monthly basis.
Complete CSV (Excel) Export
An excel data dump that has all the information from your project (good for documentation purposes when a project ends - alternatively, good if you want to run custom analytics or reports for your crew).
Use cases: Documentation purposes at project end or transferring information between projects.
Tip: You can use the downloaded CSV to run custom analysis in a third party software like Excel.
How to generate a report
Step 1:
Go to the "Tasks" tab and choose "Generate reports".
Step 2:
Select the kind of report you would like to generate.
Reports tab
Step 3:
Select 'Sort by' and 'Filter by' options to ensure you are including the relevant information in the report.
Step 4:
If there is any information on the report that you do not want to share with your recipients, we recommend using a PDF editing software to remove the extra text. Please note: You will need to download the report, make your edits in the editing software, and then send the report directly from your work or personal email.
If you'd like to email a copy of the report to several individuals at once, you can add their emails under 'Recipients', then select 'Share' and 'Email'.
Alternatively, select the 'Download' option to download the report directly in your Browser.
Tip: The recipient does not need to have a Fieldwire account or be invited to your project to be added as a 'Recipient'.
Step 4:
If you opt to email the report, the 'Recipients' will receive an AWS link in an email from Fieldwire. Click on the link to download the report.
Step 5:
Open the downloaded report on your local device using a PDF viewer or a CSV viewing software - depending on the type of report.
How plans and files will display on reports
You can choose to include plans within the reports for additional documentation. These plans will be displayed as an image and not as PDFs, but they will show the task pin icons. You can choose to include plans as thumbnails for space economy, or full-size for visibility.
We also allow you to export your marked-up plans as PDFs. You will need Adobe Reader to view them properly. The export will allow you to view the marked-up final sheet, interact with the markups and even show you who created the initial markups. However, these markups do not include task pins. In other words, plan sheet markups will show on the export, but not task pin icons.
To learn more about exporting plans in PDF please go over the article 'How do I export my plans as PDFs.'
If you attach a file to a task and run a report of the tasks, the file will be included in the report if it is smaller than 2.5 Mb. If the file is larger than 2.5 Mb, it will be accessible via a hyperlink in the report.
For example:
- This Report mentions a Spec File. It is <2.5mb so the full file is included at the end of the report.
- This Report mentions another File. It is >2.5mb so only the file hyperlink is included.
Example of the Summary report:
Example of the Detailed report:
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:
| Reason: | Resolution: | How-To: |
|
A report template is generated more than ten times in a row under an hour; each report has new filters applied to it. |
Clone the report template, and adjust the filters on the cloned report. |
|
|
Several users generate the same report template at the same time. |
Add more emails under the Recipients section. |
Typically, you should not hit this limit. Just keep in mind what specifically you'd like to report on, and to leverage the 'Recipients' field to send the report to the appropriate stakeholders.
'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 one or more days, if selecting 'Weekly', or a day of the month if selecting 'Monthly':
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
- Practical Guide: How to configure tasks for great reports
- Can I send a report from my mobile device?
- How do I Sort and Filter Reports
Tutorial video on generating reports
How to create punch list reports in Fieldwire