DocumentationWorkfront

Create a simple report

Last update: Fri May 09 2025 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
  • Topics:
  • Reports and Dashboards

CREATED FOR:

  • Beginner
  • User

This video explains how to create and customize project reports to effectively analyze data. ​ It begins by highlighting the importance of reports in tracking project progress, task completion, budget adherence, and identifying issues. The video demonstrates how to start with a project list report, adjust filters, views, and groupings, and create a custom report for convenience. ​ ​

The video emphasizes that custom reports retain their default settings, but temporary changes can be made when viewing them. ​ Reports are stored in the “My Reports” section, while shared reports appear in “Shared with Me.” ​ Frequently used reports can be pinned or marked as favorites for easy access. ​

video poster

https://video.tv.adobe.com/v/335153/?quality=12&learn=on

Transcript
Reports are the windows into your data. With custom reports, you’ll be able to answer questions like, How are my projects progressing? Which tasks are completed? Which tasks are in trouble? And are we staying within budget? Start by taking a look at this Project List report on the Projects page. The filter is set to My Projects. It’s using the standard view, and it’s grouped by completion date by month. You can easily change this report by changing the filter, view, or grouping. You can even move the columns around or sort on a particular column. But these changes are temporary, and selecting the filter, view, and grouping you want every time you need to see the information just isn’t practical. That’s an advantage of creating a custom report. Just select the report to see the information you want. Get started with custom report building by creating a custom project report that uses existing filters, views, and groupings, namely the My Projects filter, the standard view, and the completion date by month grouping. Start by clicking the main menu icon and choosing Reports. The Reports page is where you can access all sorts of custom reports. We’ll get into those later, but right now, you just want to create a simple custom report. Click New Report. These are work front object types. The five most common object types are listed here. Here is an alphabetized list of all other project types for which you can create reports. You need to choose the object type that corresponds with the type of report you want to create. So for example, if the report is meant to look at project information, you want to pick a project report. If you pick a user report, you won’t be able to see the project information you want. You want to pick a project report, so choose Project. Workfront recommends starting out by naming the report. This will help you focus on what you’re building. To give the report a name, click on Report Settings and put the name in Report Title. The filter and the grouping usually do a good job of suggesting a report title. You’re creating a simple project report using the My Projects filter and the completion date by month grouping. So this report is My Projects by Due Date. Use the description to provide more details about the report. You can explain that My Projects means current projects where the logged in user is on the project team and Due Date means it’s grouping by planned completion date by month. That’s all you need to do in the Report Settings for now, so click Dub. The Columns, or View tab, looks very much like the Customize View screen when you’re making a new view. In the Report Builder window, you have the option to apply an existing view, which is what you want to do for this report. The list of views contains all your project views, including the ones you’ve created. Now that you’ve selected the Standard view, you can make a few other changes if you want. Move the columns around with a drag and drop. You can sort on a particular column. You can sort on up to three columns, so indicate the order of the sorts. Don’t forget to select if the sort should be ascending or descending. Next, go to Groupings tab. Again, you can select an existing grouping, Completion Date by Month. Nothing more is needed here, so finally, go to Filters. Select My Projects from Apply an Existing Filter. Now you’re done. Click Save and Close. Every time you open a report, you’ll see the same filter, view, and grouping. They’re listed here as Report Defaults. Anyone viewing the report can change them, but this is temporary. The next time you choose the report, it will run the way that it was written. Reports live in the Reports area. The reports you create are in My Reports. When someone shares a report with you, click the Shared With Me section. And to see all reports in the system, including built-in reports, click here. If there’s a specific report that you’re using a lot, you might want to pin it or make it a favorite.

Key takeaways

  • Purpose of Reports: Reports help track project progress, task completion, budget adherence, and identify issues, making them essential for effective project management.
  • Custom Report Creation: Custom reports allow you to save specific filters, views, and groupings for easy access, eliminating the need to repeatedly adjust settings. ​
  • Steps to Build a Report: Select the appropriate object type, name the report, apply filters, views, and groupings, customize columns, and save the report. ​
  • Temporary vs.​ Default Settings: While viewers can temporarily change filters, views, and groupings, the report will always revert to its default settings upon reopening. ​
  • Organizing Reports: Custom reports are stored in “My Reports,” shared reports in “Shared with Me,” and frequently used reports can be pinned or marked as favorites for quick access. ​

“Create a simple report” activities

Activity 1: Create a simple task report

You want to track all of your active tasks in a single report. Create a Task report named “My Current Tasks” using the following:

  • Columns (View) = Standard
  • Groupings = Project
  • Filter = My Current Tasks
  • Description = Incomplete tasks on Current projects where I am the task owner, grouped by project.

Answer 1

  1. Go to the Main Menu and select Reports.

  2. Click the New Report drop-down menu and select Task Report.

  3. In Columns (View), click the Apply an Existing View menu and select Standard.

    An image of the screen to create columns in a task report

  4. In the Groupings tab, click the Apply an Existing Grouping menu and select Project.

    An image of the screen to create groupings in a task report

  5. In the Filters tab, click the Apply an Existing Filter menu and select My Current Tasks.

    An image of the screen to create filters in a task report

  6. Open Report Settings and name the report “My Current Tasks.”

  7. In the Description field, enter “Incomplete
    tasks on Current projects where I am the task
    owner, grouped by project.”

    An image of the report settings screen in a task report

  8. Save and Close your report.

recommendation-more-help
c9fbcf61-6d19-481e-a9ab-f54a0ae0ee8a