If you love data like we do here at Novi, and you want to be able to slice and dice your data any way you want, you'll love our custom report builder!

The Novi report builder was built to give you as many options as possible, but also to be simple enough to understand. Also, know that the Novi AMS team is always available to help in Intercom should you have questions when creating your reports.

The main thing to keep in mind about custom reports is that there are two main pieces, that apply to both membership reports and event reports:

A great example comes from an association admin who needed a report containing the primary contact information for companies of a certain member type. We've recreated the report using test data so you can see how intuitive the process is.

The very first step is to navigate to Reports > Custom Reports on the backend of your site. Then, based on the type of data you're looking for, select the appropriate type of report:

In our example, we're going to create a Membership Report.

When creating or editing a custom report, a pop-up modal will open where you can dial in the report settings. Once you've added the Name (required) and Report Category (optional), you can start building out your report...

You want to start by setting your conditions. In other words, answer the question:

This is where you will add rules or groups of rules to be able to pinpoint exactly which records should be included in your report. These rules can come from hundreds of conditions, including your member type information, custom fields, individual user information, general info about your members, and more!

Don't get confused by the conditions. Simply stop and think about what it is that you need. 

In our example, let's say that you need data about members who are:

Each of these conditions would be a rule underneath the conditions section, so in our example, you would use the conditions in the screenshot below.

Don't forget that you can add groups of conditions using AND and OR. Check out our tips sheet for some more helpful info on conditions.

Next, you'll set your display settings. In other words, answer the question:

When working with the display columns you can:

Novi Tip: You can type in keywords to search for conditions when creating reports. You don't have to scroll through the hundreds of options to find what you need. Once you start typing, the list will start filtering. 

Since our example is pulling primary contact info, we chose to display the columns listed below:

An optional step to take is to group your report data to organize it so that the results are shown grouped by similarity, allowing you to further break your data down and add an extra layer of customization. 

Great for grouping data together that has similarities such as being in the same city, having the same parent company, member type, etc.

You can also opt to sum or average numerical fields, such as unit count, to give you easy access to totals when viewing and exporting your data.

You can toggle this setting on to share your report with non-admin users, who will then have access to view the report data via their Member Compass.

These reports will "run" at the moment the user clicks on the report link, so they will always have the most up-to-date information. This means they should download and save the report if they want to reference it later or compare it to the same report on a different day.

To share a report with a non-admin user, open the custom report's settings modal (on the backend) > scroll down to the Report Share Settings section > and toggle the setting to ON.

Once "Share Report with Non-Admin Users" has been turned on within a custom report's settings modal, select one or more Groups from the "Share with these Groups" drop-down. Any users in the assigned Group(s) will have access to view and download this report. (If the group you need doesn't exist yet, you'll need to toggle this setting off, save & close the report, create a new group, and then come back to your report settings.)

Please Note:

Authorized non-admin users who have access to at least one shared report will see an additional menu item on the left side of their Member Compass: {Association Abbreviation} Reports

>> Learn more about what users can see in their Member Compass.

Each shared report will also have a unique frontend link, which could be useful in numerous ways, including:

Once the report's conditions and display settings are set, you're ready to view your data by clicking the Save & View button (bottom right of the modal). Then, you can print or export the specific report data for easy use and access.

In our example below, you'll see that we've pulled the company, the primary contact first name, last name, email, and phone number. 

The thing to remember about member record information and event attendee registration is that, for the most part, these live in separate places in the database. For example, if your member records have a Nickname custom field, you can not pull this custom field in a custom event report UNLESS the Nickname field was also attached to an event ticket. 

Some basic information can be pulled in custom reports, like open dues balance, but any other more detailed financial reporting will need to come from QuickBooks. They have a robust reporting component that will allow you to pull very detailed financial reports. Don't forget that you also have your Transactions tab with basic financial info that you can filter and export. If you need to combine Novi member info with a QuickBooks report, Excel can help you combine this information.

You will often see data missing in your results, like in the example above. This simply means that the data you've asked for does not exist for that particular record in the system. 

It could be that a user chose not to give their phone number, for example, or maybe there is not a primary contact assigned to a record. For any concerns, review the record in question to ensure that the data matches your report.