Reports Overview

Created by Migration Bot, Modified on Fri, 23 Oct at 2:30 PM by Migration Bot

Originally written by John Hardwick, last updated Apr 29, 2026, on the Swan Retail knowledge base (FRS).

This document details the run time options available when selecting a report from the menu.

It details the icons shown at the top of the viewing panel, how to navigate the report and options relating to exporting the data.

This is an essential read to anyone new to report generation within SwanFRS.

SwanFRS users Crystal reporting to produce audit and exports. Reports are embedded within the application and are either automatically produced at a key milestone or are generated on demand.

SwanFRS uses Windows print drivers and settings. This effectively means that you may use any printer available to produce your reports. Reports are designed around the A4 portrait setting unless otherwise stated.

This section details the standard reports available within SwanFRS, many of which offer run time selection criteria. The guides use the following icon to indicate the type of selection the run time selection prompt offers.

	A date or date / time is required.
	The operator may select one or more from a pre-populated pick list.
	The operator must select one item from the pick list provided.
	The operator is invited to key an alphanumeric data entry.
	The operator is invited to key a numeric entry.
	The operator can check a box to select the option.

This section advises of the crystal report name. To ensure you’re running the latest version ensure you have this report name set within the Report links routine

Crystal report name Accounts Not Posted 2

See Set Up Report links (1205 to 1213) for details.

Reports are generally sequenced showing data in a particulary order and produce group totals, the guides use the following indicators to show grouping and totals.

NUMBER This field indicates a report group

NUMBER This field indicates a report total.

The number indicates the level of the group / total.

When presented with a date and time range, to ensure the report includes all the data, it is recommended that the start time is set to 00:00:00. This ensures all transactions logged on the chosen date are included.

Not all reports listed may be available on your system. This may be due to access restrictions applied by your systems administrator, not available for your version of Crystal, or that the report has not been installed on your server. Please consult your application support contact if you need a report adding to your menu.

Reports are grouped in to sections

Audit Navigation

A sample report is shown below, to screen which may be sent to a printer or other output device.

Whilst displaying the report it is possible to alter/select the following settings.

Printing Icons	Comments
	Send a copy of the screen display to a Windows^® printer. Note all browsers other than IE and Edge create a PDF document from which a print can be obtained. IE and Edge can send a print directly to a linked printer. This is due to the browser rather than an issue in SwanFRS.
	Refresh the display/reset the parameters and options of the report.
	Return to the main report having ‘drilled down’ into a focused / lower level report. When not available this icon is greyed out.
	Click to export this audit, sending the audit to one of the output formats shown below
	Search for a keyword. Enter the text to be searched into the Find. box and then click the binoculars icon.
	Click to move to a previous page. When not available this icon is greyed out.
	Click to move to the next page. When not available this icon is greyed out.
	This element shows the current page number and the total number of pages in the audit. Clicking into the text box allows the operator to specify a page number (press return to move to the page) Clicking the down arrow offers the option to move directly to the first or last page.
	Click to change the audit resolution – defaulting to 100 the operator may click into the text box and specify a report resolution. Alternatively, the operator can click the down arrow to show a list of predefined resolutions.
	Where displayed, clicking this icon produces a selection panel from which the operator can select which will cause the audit to move to the relevant section of the output.
	Where displayed, clicking this icon produces a group panel from which the operator can select a report group which will cause the audit to move to the relevant section of the output.

Selection Criteria

When running a ‘report’ dependent upon the settings of the report you may be presented with a list of selection options. The example used below is sample of those produced when printing a performance report

Date Entry

To aid with the process of specifying a date, clicking the date icon opens a calendar from which to select a date.

Multiple Pick Lists

There may be a pick list from which to choose one or more items.

Click the > button to select the highlighted choice in the left hand box.
Click the >> button to select all items in the left hand side thus showing then in the right hand side box.
To remove highlight the item in the right hand box and select REMOVE button.
To remove all items from the right hand side (the selected items) click the REMOVE ALL button.

Single Pick Lists

A single option choice will present a pick-list from which a single choice may be made by clicking on the selected option.

Free format Text Entry

For this type of entry simply key in the choice.

Once the selection panels have been completed, to generate the audit click the OK button.

If a selection choice has been missed the system will prompt entry before generating the audit.

Control Page

SwanFRS reports generally produce a selection criteria control page (the last printed page of most reports), detailing the selection criteria specified at time of report production.

Printing Reports

Reports are rendered to screen. To send to a printer audit need to be sent to a PDF viewer and printed from this application.

Steps to install Adobe Acrobat DC

Install Adobe Acrobat DC. https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/
Check Printer Preferences in Control Panel, as whatever settings are set here will be the default for that printer in Acrobat.

Edge - 3 dots > Settings > Cookies and site permissions > Set 'Always download PDF files' to Active (To the right/Showing as blue)
Make sure Browser settings open in Acrobat automatically (Set 'Always download PDF files' to active in Microsoft Edge).

Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Devices and Printers > Right-click relevant printer > Printer Preferences > Set to preferred settings > Click Apply > Click Save

In some instances this step isn't required. For example when all the settings are already correct in the control panel, but part of the page is being cut off.

In this instance it was because 'Shrink oversized pages' was set, when it should be 'Actual size' that is set. Adjust this setting once within Adobe Acrobat and this will save for your next print.

Running the report does not mean that the report will be sent to a printer. The report shown to screen is just a representation of the report and is not sent to a printer unless the printericon is selected.

Having selected to physically print the report it will then be possible to select any windows^® printer visible to the PC.

Other Forms of Output

It is also possible to send reports to other forms of output device. To achieve this, click the icon. This produces the following page.

The file format option offers the following choices –

Crystal reports
PDF
Microsoft Excel (97-2003)
Microsoft Excel (97-2003) Data-Only
Microsoft Excel Workbook Data-Only (Office 365)
Microsoft Word (97-2003)
Microsoft Word (97-2003) – Editable
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Character Separated Values (CSV)
XML

Having chosen the output type, it will then be necessary to specify the file name and location for the report.

When sending reports to parties where the format of the output is critical, for example a purchase order, the Adobe Acrobat option generates a PDF output. This is a common output format which can be read, with the appropriate viewer, as intended by the report generator usually without the ability of the viewer to alter the display / report format.

Report Documents

When using the report guides, examples of the output are provided, these examples have been edited to show the sequence in which data is presented and to highlight totals (where applicable)

The guides use a blue numbered square to indicate the sort / group order (for example, 3 indicate it is the third element to be sorted. i.e., there are two levels of sequencing above this one. on the example this the box is a dark blue with a white number.)

A yellow numbered square is used to indicate a total (for Example 2 indicates the second level of total). In the report example the yellow is brighter and much easier to spot.

Drill Downs

Certain reports enable the ability to drill down into the data which was used to calculate the report.

As the cursor is moved around the display as it focused on a ‘drill down’ field the cursor will change to a pointing hand. (Dependent upon your PC’s setting).

When initially displayed, the report will show main report in the report navigation box.

When a drill down feature is used, this will change to the drill down selection (for example clicking on the word ‘Lounge sofas’ generates the following sub report).

Clicking the icon will return to the main report alternately clicking the audit title as shown below.

SwanFRS Navigation

SwanFRS produces twotypes of audit

Process related audits

These are produced at key stages during the processing of a sales order or stock and are either automatically produced or available via buttons on screen. These include sales order acknowledgements, purchase orders and stock tracking tags / labels.

Manually requested reports

These are user requested and reside within the Reports menu (or by keying the report name (or part of) into the menu keyword search).

These reports are selected via the Reports option on the main menu

Once selected the screen will show all reports available to the user.

It is possible to filter using a keyword or to list the reports by ‘folder’.

Standard report folders are, however new folders can be created and reports moved into these folders via the Set Up Report Submenus and Set Up Report Links routines.

Sales
Purchasing
Stock
Financial
Management
Service

For each report a narrative describes the report and a DETAILSbutton, where available, can be clicked to open a specific tab showing the details of the selected report.

To run the report click the Reports Name

Frequently used reports can be added to the Favourites menu or run by entering the report name into the keyword search on the main menu.

Images

The reporting application used in SwanFRS is not able to show images held on external https websites. These images will display in the application but will not replicate on a printout.

To mitigate it is possible to ‘screen scape’ https images thus holding them locally to the application which means they can be used in printouts.

Options

Where instructed to do so, SwanFRS will omit specific option answers when listing the composition of a stock item.

These settings are defined within the Set Up Application Parameters program.

Field	Description
BLOCK_BLANK_OPTION_ANSWER	Where ticked, SwanFRS and reports will omit any option answer with a blank response. This relates primarily to text options where the operator has not entered a narrative.
BLOCK_OPTION_ANSWER	Where set, SwanFRS and reports will omit any option answer matching the narrative set. For example, if this field is set to ‘Not Required’ any option answer or type in field containing this text will not be displayed on screen or be shown within the option composition of the stock item.