Create a Custom Report with Counts

Overview

When building custom reports, many individuals want to make a report which shows a count of items by a common field(s). For instance, you might want to see how many records there are of high priority tickets created by a particular person or department. Counts refer to a field column in reports that have a numeric value that can be tallied, such as number of tickets, projects, milestones, people, etc. As with all fields, there are different count fields depending on the report source.

The field name always follows the format of X Count.

For example:

  • In custom ticketing report, there is the Ticket Count field.
  • In a custom knowledge base report, there is the Article Count field
  • In the custom project report, there is Project Count field.

 

What materials do I need?

  • Internet access
  • Web Browser
  • TDNext access
  • Access to desired application

Where to Find This

This feature appears in TDNext interface and is within the following report sources Accounts, Actual Hours, Asset, Configuration Items, Contracts, Expenses, Issue, Knowledge Base, Location, People, Plan, Project and Requests, Risk, Service, Survey Response, Tasks, Ticket, and Ticket Tasks report sources. The reports that a person has access to can be found in the left navigation within the application the report was created in.

Create a Custom Report with Counts

For this example, we'll walk through the steps to create a report with a ticket count by department.

  1. Login to ESM TDNext.
  2. Click the Applications menu.
  3. Click the desired application (i.e. UAA IT)
  4. Click the + Report menu.
  5. Click Report.
  6. On the What type of report would you like to create? page, click Ticket Report.
  7. In the New Ticket Report form complete the following.
    1. In the Name field enter a descriptive name of the report (e.g. 'Ticket Count by Department').
    2. In the Describe your report textarea, enter a brief description regarding the purpose of the report.
    3. Under the Select the columns you would like to see section, select the following fields
      • Acct/Dept
      • Ticket Count

      For a count report to work, you cannot include a field whose value will be unique on every single item. If you do, you will see a row for every item with a count of one. For exmple, Item ID would not be a good field to include in a count report as it is always unique.

    4. Remove all other fields displayed.
    5. Further customize the report by adjusting the record filtering, sort order, and more. See the Customizing Reports article for more details.
    6. Specify the report folder. See Stay Organized with Report Folders for more details.
  8. At the top of the screen, click Save and Run.

 

Gotchas & Pitfalls

  • It should be noted that charts do not group the data chosen for name/value differently than the actual report data table. Charts work well for a two-column approach, if three or more columns are selected in your report, the charts may show duplicated data.
  • You cannot include a field whose value will be unique on every single item. If you do, you will see a row for every item with a count of one. Item ID, for example, would not be a good field to include in a count report as is always unique.

 

Need additional help or have issues

For support, requests may be submitted anytime using the appropriate Enterprise Service Management form. Requests generate a Ticket which will be worked in order received and urgency by IT Employees with the knowledge and permissions to assist with the request.

For immediate assistance please review the Contact Us page for the appropriate support group.

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