Abtrac includes a wide range of built-in reports for analysing your projects, timesheets, billing, and business performance.
In most cases, you’ll find the information you need using Abtrac’s built-in reports, Search pages or Excel exports.
If you require specialised reporting or dashboards, the Abtrac API gives you complete flexibility to build reports from your Abtrac data. And if you think a report would benefit other users, we’d love to hear your suggestion.
Can I build custom reports in Abtrac?
A common question from new and prospective customers is whether Abtrac includes an in-app custom report builder.
The short answer is no – Abtrac doesn’t include an in-app custom report builder for creating entirely new report types. Instead, it provides several ways to get the reporting you need, from built-in reports, customisable Search pages and Excel exports, through to using the Abtrac API to build completely custom reports and dashboards from your Abtrac data.
What are my options for reporting with Abtrac?
Using Abtrac’s built-in reports
Abtrac includes a comprehensive library of reports covering areas such as:
- Timesheets
- Employee productivity
- Projects and project budgets
- Work in Progress (WIP)
- Invoicing
- Debtors
- Employee performance
- Management reporting
Most reports allow you to filter, sort and group data, making it easy to find the information you’re looking for.
Customise Search pages
Many of Abtrac’s Search pages can be tailored to display the information most relevant to you by showing or hiding columns, applying filters and changing the sort order. Examples include Search Clients, Search Jobs and Projects, and Planned Work.
These pages act as interactive dashboards, allowing you to quickly find, analyse and organise your data. They can also be exported to Excel, making them a flexible alternative for many reporting requirements.
While this isn’t a custom report builder, it does allow you to create personalised views of your data that suit your role, workflow or reporting needs.
For more information about the available columns and features on each Search page, see User Control Settings Grid Pages
Export data to Excel
Almost all reports and many screens within Abtrac can be exported to Microsoft Excel (.xlsx).
This allows you to:
- Create your own calculations and formulas.
- Build pivot tables and charts.
- Combine information from multiple reports.
- Produce reports in the format your business requires.
For many organisations, exporting to Excel provides all the flexibility they need for ad hoc reporting.
Build your own reports using the Abtrac API
If you require completely customised reporting, business intelligence dashboards or integration with other systems, the Abtrac API provides access to your data outside of Abtrac.
Using the API, you can build reports in tools such as Microsoft Power BI or other analytics platforms.
Common uses include:
- Executive dashboards.
- Custom KPI reporting.
- Combining Abtrac data with accounting, CRM or ERP systems.
- Organisation-specific reports and analytics.
These reports are created and maintained outside of Abtrac, rather than within the Abtrac application itself.
Need a report that isn’t available? Ask Abtrac.
Many reports currently included in Abtrac started as customer suggestions.
If there’s information you’d like to see that isn’t available in an existing report, please contact the Abtrac support team. If the requirement would benefit others using Abtrac , it may be considered for inclusion in a future release.
Often we’ll also be able to recommend an existing report, dashboard or export that already provides the information you’re looking for.
*Proposal Templates are document templates, not reports.
Proposal Templates (also known as Job Templates or Mail Merge Documents) use a document designer (called a report designer) to create client-facing documents such as fee proposals, letters of engagement and scope documents.
Although these templates use a visual editor, they are document templates, not a custom report designer, and cannot be used to create new analytical reports within Abtrac.
Abtrac KB # 2277