The Custom Report page allows authorised users to create, modify, delete, rename and run custom reports on the reporting database; users will only be able to view data that they would normally be able to see by role - for instance, a Fee Earner will only be able to view his or her own cases.

You can use this tool to build up a set of useful reports, or perform more advanced data mining on case data. These reports can subsequently be run many times, or over various time periods.

Each report comprises a set of search parameters (including the data fields that are to be searched, and the relationships between them), and the display format required (i.e. the column order and field names to be displayed on the final report).

Two types of report are supported:

• Preset reports: where the report always runs using the preset search data created at design time.
• Dynamic reports: where the report runs by first prompting the user for search criteria. When a Dynamic report is selected, a set of additional data-entry fields will appear at the bottom of the page. These data entry fields allow you to enter additional data to narrow-down the number of data rows returned by the report.

For example, a preset report could be used to list all new cases for the current month. A dynamic report could be used to list all cases relating to a specific client, based on user-supplied data when the report in run.

Each report may be given a time window over which search, but you can also add an additional layer of filtering using the From: and To: time entry fields in the usual Icon time format. The effect of any absolute or relative times entered in these fields is to limit the search results to those events that were actually stored in the database between the nominated times.

The key actions available are:

Add  - creates a new report.

Modify - enables details to be changed for a selected report, as long as you have permissions to change it.

Rename - enables the name of a selected report to be changed (up to 45 characters), provided that you have permissions to change the report.

Delete - deletes the selected report if you have permissions to delete it.

Run - runs an existing report selected from the list box.

When you create a new report you will need to design the fields (report columns) that are to be returned, and the search criteria used to recover the data, using the Modify page.