Reports, record searches, and queries all help you answer questions about your data, but they serve different purposes. A report is a ready-made view in an application, such as a revenue summary. A record search finds one type of record from an application's overview page. A query is a question you build by choosing record types, fields, and criteria. Saved reports and saved searches let you keep a configured report or search for yourself or your team.
Reports
Applications that include reports have a Reports page. In Membership, choose Reports in the side menu. The page has three tabs:
Built In Reports: reports included with the application, with each report's name and short description. Membership includesMembership Revenue Summary("All membership revenue"). Finance includes anAR Aging Report, aDeferral Waterfall Report, aSubledger Entries Report, and aTrial Balance Report. Events also includes a Revenue Summary Report.Your Reports: saved reports marked personal.Team Reports: saved reports shared with the team.
Tabs with reports show a count, such as Your Reports (3). You only see reports for the application you are using, so a report saved in one application does not appear in another.
In the current product, analytics in Platform means the pre-built overview dashboards and the standard report catalog. If you have seen older Rhythm reporting descriptions that mention ExpressView, Advanced Report, or Dashboard, treat them as out of date. They are not separate end-user features in the current product. You cannot build a fully custom visual dashboard today. If the built-in dashboards and reports do not show what you need, use a query instead.
Built-in reports come with the application. You cannot add a new built-in report or create a brand-new pre-configured report of your own. That includes grouped or pivot-style summaries, because the built-in report feature does not let you create them. You can change how an existing built-in report runs. When you open a report, it runs with its default settings and shows the report toolbar: Customize, Save Report, Reset Report Parameters, Download Raw Data, Open Query, Print, and Refresh.
Customizechanges the report's settings, such as dates or filters, then runs the report again. The available settings depend on the report.- If you leave the page, Rhythm does not keep your changes. Use
Save Reportto save them as a saved report with a name and optional description. Open Querytakes you to the query tools, where you can work with the data behind the report as a query. You need permission to run queries there. Some reports do not offerOpen Querybecause the query behind that report belongs to a different application.Download Raw Datadownloads the report's underlying data as a file. If the download is raw exported data instead of a formatted spreadsheet, such as a JSON file from a data export, you may need a technical tool to open or transform it. Office software is not always enough.
A saved report opens the built-in report with the settings you captured when you saved it. Rhythm does not compare those settings with the current version of the report, so after an application update, a saved report can open with missing or outdated settings. Check the settings before you rely on its figures. If the built-in report no longer exists, the saved report still appears in the list, but nothing happens when you open it. A generated report file keeps the styling that was current when Rhythm created it. If the report's styling changes later, a file generated before that change does not update, so regenerate the report to see the new styling.
The waterfall report is the exception for raw data downloads. View it in Console under Finance & Billing › Reports instead of expecting it through a raw export.
Record Search and Saved Searches
Each application's overview page includes a search panel for that application's main record type. The panel is headed Search Records unless the application uses a different name. The application controls which criteria you can fill in and which columns appear in the results.
- Fill in the criteria and select
Search. Results show<N> results, andReset Searchclears the criteria. Save this Searchsaves the criteria as a personal or team saved search.Select a saved searchlists saved searches underPersonalandTeam. When you choose one, Rhythm fills in the criteria but does not run the search. SelectSearchto run it.- If the results are too large, a notice tells you that only partial results are shown and that the totals reflect those partial results.
- Where bulk operations are switched on,
Bulk Changeslets you change or delete the records you found. See How Bulk Changes Work.
Your browser remembers your last criteria for that organization and record type, then fills in the form the next time you open it. This happens even after you sign out, so anyone using the same browser sees those criteria.
When task management is switched on, views in the Task Manager work the same way. Open it from your name in the top bar › Task Manager. Save View opens Save Filter, where you name the view and choose Personal or Team. Saved views appear under Personal Views and Team Views, and only in the Task Manager.
Personal Versus Team
Every save dialog asks the same question, for example: "Is this a personal search to be accessible only by you, or should your entire team be able to use it?" Choose Personal, which is selected by default, or Team.
- Team items appear for every colleague in the application or Task Manager. Anyone who can use a team item can also change or delete it.
- Personal saved searches and views are available only to the person who saved them. If a colleague cannot find your saved search, save it for the team instead.
- Saved reports appear on
Your ReportsorTeam Reports, based on the choice made when saving. - You cannot switch an existing item between personal and team. When you overwrite it, Rhythm hides the question and keeps the original choice. To change it, save a new item with the other choice and delete the old one.
- Names do not have to be unique, so use clear names for shared items.
Reports, Searches, and Queries Compared
| Report | Record search | Query | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who defines it | The application | The application defines the criteria; you fill them in | You |
| Where it lives | The application's Reports page | The application's overview page | The query tools |
| What you can keep | A saved report, either personal or team | A saved search, either personal or team | A saved query in folders |
| Best for | Standard summaries provided by the application | Quickly finding records of one type | Your own questions, custom fields, exports, and scheduled delivery |
If a built-in report does not show what you need, such as a comparison or extra fields, use Open Query or build a query. See Queries and Saved Queries Explained. To receive results by email on a schedule, see Query Delivery Schedules. To find any single record from anywhere in the Console, see How Global Search Works and What Is Indexed.
To build a custom report, build a new query and choose the filter criteria and output fields you want. There is no separate report-authoring tool beyond queries. Rhythm does not offer a general business-intelligence-style report builder, so use a query when you need an entirely new report type, not just a variation of an existing one. A query does not give unrestricted access to every underlying table. It lets you pull the fields and related data exposed by that query type, but you cannot assume it reaches everything behind the scenes. For that reason, standard reporting, including standard per-application reports, may not provide one raw, cross-application dataset detailed enough for some financial reconciliation work. You may need to combine information from more than one report or application yourself.
Queries can also cross application boundaries. In addition to customizing a built-in report, you can build a query in any application, and many queries let you pull in related data from other applications. For example, there is no dedicated report for an organization roster. Build a query with the fields you need, save it, and reuse or adjust that saved query the next time you need a roster. Login activity has its own query type, so build it from the Contact Activities query instead of looking for a login-count field somewhere else. A contact's portal login count, wherever you see it, is expected to match the login count on that contact's Security tab. If the two disagree, treat that as a data problem to raise with Support rather than two independent figures. Membership keeps up to five years of monthly snapshot history, which is enough to build cohort and retention analysis across several years without extra setup.
If a query cannot tell you exactly which field changed on a record, you can still investigate a recent change with system fields. Include Sys Last Modified At and Last Modified By in your output to see when the record changed and who changed it, even though those fields do not identify the changed field. For a fuller history, the Audit Log Browser under Security & Settings goes further than a query can. Give it the application, the service, and the record's ID to trace exactly when a record such as a membership application was created and by what process, or to find that an invoice's missing order was deleted shortly after it was created. That explains why searching for the order number returns nothing even though the invoice still exists.
Custom report and query output can also mix up similar-sounding fields. A payment method shown at the order level and a payment method on the underlying payment transaction are not always the same value, especially for a renewal paid after a billing run. Check which value the report or query field reflects before you rely on it matching what you see on the order.
If a report you expect regularly, such as a daily report, does not arrive, first identify what kind of item it is. A built-in or saved report opens on a Reports page, while a query arrives by delivery schedule. Each one has different places to check and different ways to recover a missing one.
Limits and Exceptions
- Rhythm does not have a built-in way to count downloads from a document library or file cabinet. If you need to track that engagement, use an external tool such as Google Analytics on the page where the documents are offered.
- Reports and saved searches are Console tools. Portal members cannot access them.
- Reports and saved searches do not have their own permissions beyond access to the application's Console. Bulk changes and queries check their own permissions.
- A very long list of saved reports or saved searches can be cut short without showing a notice.
- When you delete a saved report or saved search, Rhythm asks for confirmation, and you cannot undo the deletion.
- If saved reports fail to load, the page shows
Unable to load saved reportsand stays on its loading panel. Reload the page.