Have you ever wondered what the alphanumeric code means to the right of the report name? Did you know that is has significant meaning?
When a report is created, it is given a five or six character alphanumeric code. Each character of the code has an important meaning. The first character is always a letter and it represents the report category. There are four different report categories:
- Administration – Duplicates, Portal Users, Contact Efficiency
- Giving – Contributions, Pledges, Receipts, Top Contributors
- Ministry – Attendance, Participant Assignments, Staff Assignments, Jobs, WebLink Forms
- People – Member Status, Contact Items, Attributes, Notes
The numbers that follow the report category help us to group similar reports together. Under each report category, there are multiple report groups. The report groups span over a range of numbers. For example report group A1030 – A1049 contain Administration reports specific to Individuals In Groups. At 1050, the next report group starts, which is Portal Users. By organizing the reports into groups, it allows all of the reports with similar subjects to be together and hopefully easier to search. If you find a report you like such as G1052 you can type in G105 in the search box and look at reports that are similar in design or function. Another example would be report M1400: Assignment Roster. If you like what this report is providing but need something a little difference you could just type in M140 or even M14. The fifth character of the code (if there is one) is always a letter. It can be E, P, or L.
The letter at the end character represents the output type of the report. If the code does not have a letter at the end, then the default output type is PDF.
The idea behind the report code is that at a glance the user can look at the code and tell the report category, report group, and output of the report. Since not everyone can remember all of the report categories or report groups, the user can run report A9005-FT Report Code Quick Reference Guide from the Report Library. This report breaks down all of the report groups into the number ranges, so the user can quickly see the report group and category for a certain report code.