Overview
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To create a new report click the Create button located on your main navigation bar and select the Report option from the drop down menu. This will open the Initialise Report page.
Note: Only users with CREATE access to the reporting function will be able to create new reports.
Starting a new report
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The first step in creating a new report is the initialise report step. In this step you will select the type of report you wish to create, how you want to write the report and to select the source of the reports data.
How do you want to author the report?
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This question is for advanced users. If you have access to this option then you can select either Drag and Drop, Freehand SQL or one of two alternative authoring environments - BIRT and Jasper Reports. For most users it is recommended that you choose the drag and drop report creation method.
See [Advanced Authoring Options] for more information.
Where is the data for you report to be sourced from?
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Most importantly when creating a report you must select the data source and individual view. At this point you are specifying the exact subject area that you wish to query.
Firstly you must select the data source - this is the database in which your data is stored. For example a data source may be you HRIS system.
Once you have selected a source the available views for that source will be displayed. There may be many views in the same data source. Select the view that you wish to use.
To assist make the right selection you roll your cursor over the 
image to find out more about a data source or once you have selected a view click the "more information" link. Both of these will provide you with more information about either the data source or the view.
Note: Once you select a view and continue to the next phase of report building you cannot return to this page to change the view. This is because all the items associated with the view will be loaded for this report.
Setting a default view
If you use the same view on a regular basis you can set it as your default by clicking the default view check box.
Continue to build your report
Once you have selected the view for your report click either the next button at the top of the page or "click here to continue". Both of these will take you to the Report Data Page.
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