Issue 3.0: Reducing Report Clutter
Reports are an essential part of QuickBase, a handy way to see your data in any format you like. But there is a tendency for reports to build up, as people create temporary or redundant reports.
This report clutter can make reports seem less like a useful tool and more like a baffling nuisance. You know the feeling of looking through a massive list of reports, searching in vain for the one that meets your needs? Fortunately, there are some easy solutions you can use to keep your list of reports clean and easy to use.
Prevent Users from Saving Shared Reports
The simplest way to prevent reports from building up is to restrict users from creating shared reports. This can be done by opening the Share menu and choosing Manage Roles. This feature allows you to restrict the ability of each type of user to create shared reports in a given table (users can still create and save personal reports). Simply click a Permissions link and then uncheck the box marked Save Shared Reports under the table to which you want to restrict access. Limiting which users can create reports is an excellent way to eliminate report clutter.
Hide Reports from Some Roles
You may find yourself in a situation in which you have a large number of reports for one table, but each user only needs to use some of these reports. In this case, opening the Share menu and choosing Roles and Reports Matrix will bring you a screen in which you can choose to hide individual reports from different roles.
While this can cut down on visual clutter, it is important to note that
it does not actually remove any reports, nor is it a security feature: although reports will disappear from users’ menus, they will still be able to access them if provided with a link. Still, the Roles and Reports matrix is a
handy way to reduce report clutter.
Include Usage in Name
Often, users will hastily create temporary reports and then forget about them. The best way to prevent this is to give reports specific, utilitarian names.
For instance, if you are creating a report that you will only need for the next half-hour, you might want to call it something like “John’s Temporary Business Schedule.” That way you won’t mistake it for something you need to keep. Likewise, if you are creating a report that you will only need to use once a year, you could call it “Jane’s Annual Financial Records.” These useful titles will allow you to easily sift out the bad from the good.
Depending on the size of your office, you may want to institute a policy requiring that all report names conform to a specific format or follow a specific naming convention, such as Name-Report Type (table, calendar, cross-tab, etc) - Initials.
Use Last Used Dates
These past few suggestions all work well as preventative measures, but you’re probably still wondering what to do with the report clutter that you have already accumulated. An easy way to weed through your reports and remove unwanted or unused ones is with the Last Used date feature.
Open a table menu and select Customize, then Reports. You will be presented with a list of all the reports in your table. Take a look at the Last Used column. This feature displays the date on which a given report was last accessed. With any luck, you should see a handful of reports that haven’t been opened in months, years, or at all. It’s a pretty safe bet that those are candidates for deletion. After that, choose Customize, Personal Reports, and do the same thing with all the personal reports that you haven’t touched in ages.
If you have any other strategies for reducing report clutter, let us know!
