Need help with modify report

Dec 23, 2005 3 Replies

Hi, all.



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.



Sorry for the length of this, but I need you to understand the sequence we go through before you'll understand the problem.


I have QBPro2006 (just upgraded from 2002). The problem I have is the same in both versions.



We use a lot of subcontractors (listed in the Vendor list -- I'll refer to them as a "sub") doing small jobs for our clients (usually only a few hours per job). On each job, the sub fills in a work order. We enter the work orders thus: Customers>Time Tracking>Time/Enter Single Activity including the work order number and, sometimes, a brief description in the Notes field. When we've entered all the work orders for the week, we do a report: Reports>Jobs Time & Mileage>Time by name



This gives us a report of the work done by all the subs for a time period (defaulting from last use, this is usually Last Week) with a section and subtotal for each sub and a grand total at the end and listing customer names and hours within each sub's section of the report. This is OK so far.



When we cut a check to the sub, we want to report to him what work orders it covers. To do this we double click on the total for that subcontractor and QBPro automatically creates a report "Time By Name Detail" for the same time period and for just that sub. We want to display the Notes field as a column to display the work order number and description next to each line. I know how to modify the report to select the Notes column. The problem is that it doesn't "stick" The next one goes back to the default without the Notes column. If I memorize it , it memorizes a version with filtering that just includes that specific sub. If we remove the filter, it lists all subs which is not what we want. We want to be able to double click on the subtotal of each sub in the "Time By Name" report and have it display a "Time By Name Detail" report for just that sub, for that time period, and with the Notes column showing.



We can do this manually for each sub every time but it gets to be a pain when you're doing dozens every week.



I'd like to see how to change the SYSTEM DEFAULT "Time By Name Detail" report. Is this possible??


Reports generated by drill down from a parent report can't be memorized in the manner you desire. Built in system default reports can't be changed because if they could then they would no longer be system defaults.

Can you imagine the nightmare many users would have if they can't revert back to a standard setting for each report.

One solution to your problem may be to memorize the report for each sub and make the report part of a group. Then print the group.

OK. Thanks for that. I kinda thought that might be the case. OTOH it does get me thinking: would it be possible to create, in effect, my own "Time By Name" that's a clone of the system default and my own "Time By Name Detail" that's like the system one, but with the extra column and would be generated by drill down from my custom parent report?

I've been using QB for some time, but I've never really delved into the depths of the program.

As I mentioned above "one solution", try it and see if the second solution works.

Most never really venture into the belly of the beast.

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