Custom Reports
Buddy comes with several standard reports. However, each company and client have specific requirements.
That's why Buddy specialises in building custom reports.
If you are creating reports as a bureau (advisor), we recommend using the Report Pack feature: Managing Report Packs for Clients
Adding Custom Report
From the reports page, click on the Add New Report button on the top right.
Once you have created your report, click Save Report Template to permanently save it.
Report Types
There are multiple report types one can choose
-
Employee Data
These reports will utilise data from the employee profiles, such as personal, role, and salary details -
Payroll Data by Employee
These reports can be built to use data from payslips, including employee data, pay values and leave balances. -
Pay Item Summary
These reports will print each pay item within a payroll separately, generally used for account journaling. - Payroll Exception Report
-
Payment Data Report
These reports combine bank details and payroll data to create custom payment files. -
Pension
Reports relating to the pension contributions within a payroll -
Journal
Reports relating to accounting journals - Report Collection*
The type you choose determines the column values that you can query.
Report Groups
Report groups refer to the section in the Reports page in which you'd like the report to appear. This can be different than the report type.
Report Output Type
Reports can be exported in three different data formats:
- excel (.xlsx)
- csv (.csv)
- Fixed-spacing text file (.txt)
When utilising fixed text files, you'll be able to determine the number of characters for each column.
Advanced Options
Each report comes with additional advanced options:
- Exclude Header from Output File
- Exclude Totals from Output File
-
Leave Empty Cells Blank
This will no longer default the dash sign for empty values -
Include Empty Columns
Enable this if you don't want Buddy to hide any columns that have no values. -
Only Output Rows with Net Values
This applies only to payroll breakdown reports, where this option will hide any payslips with €0 net values - Capitalize All Output
- Add Report Header
- Add Report Footer
- Include total employee count in footer
Once the option for additional header/footer is selected, options to create multiple rows and columns will appear.
These can be filed in as the custom fields in the main report, as per instructions below.
File Extension
After choosing the output type, within the advanced settings, the file extension can be overridden. For example, you may be able to export a .csv report with a .txt extension.
Draft/Incomplete Payslips (Payroll-related reports)
Pre-set the default of whether to include or hide incomplete (draft) payslips.
Scheme Provider (Pension Reports)
Filter which providers this report will be applicable to. E.g. if you have employees on Nest and People Pensions schemes, you could create a custom report for People Pensions which automatically filters employees enrolled in their schemes.
Date Format
Select the preferred Date Format for any date values in your reports' output.
Filters
You can apply filters at the report-building level.
Reports will only show rows which qualify the conditions.
An example would be filtering for part-time only and issuing a report based on total cost and hours worked, to understand the cost per hour.
Multiple filters can be applied.
Sorting
You can define the sorting method preferred for each custom report.
Common sorting methods including first name, second name, department, role, or pay values (e.g. net pay).
Grouping
Custom reports can be grouped, with the option to provide a total for each grouping.
Common grouping elements including Department, Role, and Employment Type, or Pension Groups/Schemes for Pension-related reports.
How to Create Custom Columns
Within the Report Columns, you will generally find two sections: Column Name and Column Value.
Column Name
The column name refers to the header for each column. There are no limitations to what users can name their headers.
Column Value
The column value is generally a variable from Buddy's dataset.
To search for possible values, start by typing @ and then search for possible values. After selecting, they show up with a light orange background, as in the screenshot above.
Text fields can include direct text without value, which is useful, particularly useful for bank file formats that require fixed text
Combining Values
Other than single values, users can customise and combine values in a single column.
Value combining can allow for creative fields, such as calculating ratios of deductions and contributions with net or gross pay.
Concatenation
Text fields will automatically concatenate and allow multiple variables, for example:
@Name @Surname
Mathematical Operations
Numeric fields can use arithmetic operators to calculate formulae within the export:
-
- + (addition)
- - (substraction)
- * (multiplication)
- / (division)
- () (parenthesis)
Examples:
(@Gross Pay/@Net Pay)*100
Conditional Operations
You can perform if statements using conditional operations
- > (greater than)
- >= (greater than or equal to)
- == (equal to)
- <= (less than or equal to)
- < (less than)
Conditional operations would require the following format:
condition ? trueValue : falseValue
For example:
@CreditAmount > 0 ? "Journal Credit" : "Journal Debit"
This will show the text "Journal Credit" if the value is greater than 0, and "Journal Debit" if it is less than or equal to 0.
Logical Operators
You can add logical operators to Conditional Operations
- && (and)
@Department == "Sales" && @Amount > 2000 ? "High Earner" : "Standard"
Delete or Change Column Order
When adding or editing a report, you can change the order of columns or delete existing ones.
Click on the column lettering (e.g. A, B, etc), as shown in the screenshot below.
Then, click Move Up, Move Down, Move to (select column) or Delete Row, based on your desired action
Editing Existing Reports
You can find existing reports on the Reports page.
Then, click the icon on the right to Edit Report. This will take you to the report builder, where you can edit all settings as if you were creating a new report.