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Creating Custom Membership and Event Reports
Creating Custom Membership and Event Reports

How to pull the data you need out of your database through creating custom reports.

Melisa Smith avatar
Written by Melisa Smith
Updated over a week ago

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.


Creating Your Own Custom 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:

  1. Who is the report about?

  2. What information do I need about them?

As we run through the steps below, let's take a look at a specific example...

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.

1. Choose Your Report Type

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:

  1. Membership - for data from your member records

  2. Event Management - for wholistic reporting that can't be pulled from the event itself

  3. Event Attendance - for data about the people going to your events

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

  • Novi Tip: You can also copy an existing report if there's one with similar conditions and/or display columns.

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...

2. Set Your Conditions (WHO)

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

"Who do you need information about?"

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:

  • A - current (i.e. not expired > you'll add a condition for Membership Status = Current)

  • B - approved (i.e. not in Recent Signups awaiting approval > you'll add a condition for Approved = Yes)

  • C - in XYZ member type (you'll add a condition for Member Type (Designated) Name = XYZ)

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.

3. Set Your Display Columns (WHAT)

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

What information do you want to see in your report?

When working with the display columns you can:

  • click and choose a column from the drop-down to add to the report

  • click, hold, and drag to reorder the fields

  • or click the X next to an option to remove a column

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:

4. OPTIONAL: Group Your Data

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.

5. OPTIONAL: Sum/Average Numerical Fields

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.

6. OPTIONAL: Share Your Report with Non-Admin Users

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.

How admins can share a report with non-admin users

Step 1: Turn on the setting

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.

Step 2: Select which Group(s) can access the report

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:

  • The group of users you are sharing the report with must have a user account so they can log in to view the report.

  • These non-admin users will only be able to view and download the report from the frontend (they will not be able to make any edits to the conditions or display columns).

  • If a non-admin user that does not have access (i.e. is not in the group or is not logged in) tries to open the report data link, they will be redirected to the No Access/Restricted page.

  • If an admin user tries to open the frontend report link, they will be redirected to that same report on the backend (because they have permission to edit the report).

How non-admin users can view shared reports

Member Compass Reports Tab

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

Unique Report Links

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

  • non-admin users can bookmark specific reports for quick access to their favorites

  • admins can share the report link in an email message to the same group of users that have access to the shared report

  • admins can post the report link on a static page of the website that is only visible to the same group


The Result

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. 


Items of Note

Fields not directly tied to an event cannot be pulled in Custom Event Reports.

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. 

Detailed financial reporting will need to come from QuickBooks Online.

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 may see blank values in your report results.

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.

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