Guidelines for creating ICRW reports

Interactive Custom Report Writer (ICRW) reports provide analytic insights into data and dimension structures, such as operational departments. The following guidelines for creating ICRW reports are recommended to ensure your success in building ICRW reports with efficient ease.

The Interactive Custom Report Writer (ICRW) is available by subscription. Once your company is subscribed, you can create a variety of interactive custom reports. For information on how to acquire an ICRW subscription, contact your Sage Intacct account representative.

To enable ICRW in a console environment, you must have ICRW actively running with the correct permissions set for the console and each entity.

Recommended guidelines for creating ICRW reports

The following guidelines streamline building a new ICRW report that accurately presents your data you. It's important to follow the steps in the order in which they’re presented to ensure accurate results in your report.

1. Develop in Table view first

Work only in a Table view as you begin developing a report. It's important that you first understand and confirm the accuracy of the raw data in ordinary rows and columns. Table view is the best tool for this purpose.

It's important to first validate the data in Table view, because a Pivot Table acts as a lens between you and the data. Wait until step 7 in this process to add a Pivot Table view.

2. Start small

Start with a limited set of data to demonstrate the key functionality of the report. It's easier to understand a small set of data and faster for testing. Make sure the initial, small subset of data is accurate before continuing with the next step.

3. Do not hide or exclude columns in Table view

It's important not to hide or exclude any columns from the Table view at this stage in the process. Do not hide columns using Column Properties either. Excluding and hiding columns can distort the data results, making it difficult to confirm the validity of the report.

Be sure that the Table view shows all the columns on the Define tab until you've verified the report data is accurate. The Table view must reflect the data based on the columns in the Define tab for you to be able to verify the accuracy of the report.

For information on inaccuracies that can result from hiding or excluding columns, see the Hidden effects of Hide and Exclude.

4. Include totals, subtotals, and conditional formats

This step is optional. If you want to include subtotals, grand totals, or conditional formatting in your report, this is a good time to add these features. The additions return results faster while the data set is small.

5. Expand filters to include more data

This step is optional. You can expand the filters to include a larger portion of the data now. You only need enough data to confirm the accuracy of the results with a meaningful set of rows.

6. Include additional columns

This step is optional. You can add a few more required columns, 2 or 3 at a time now. Confirm the validity of the report after each addition. At this stage, you want a large enough set of rows and columns to confirm the accuracy of the report.

7. Verify Table view data, then build a Pivot Table

This step is optional. After you’ve verified that the subset of data is correct in the Table view (completing steps 1-6), you can build a Pivot Table view, if desired.

It’s important to wait until the data in the Table view is accurate before you build a Pivot Table view. Incorrect results can be hidden by a Pivot Table view. It's easier to discover incorrect results in a Table view and thus easier to correct.

8. Verify Pivot Table data

If you have built a Pivot Table view and the results in that view do not look right, return to the Table view to diagnose the problem. Never try to diagnose inaccurate results through the lens of a Pivot Table view. Always go back to the Table view to diagnose the raw results.

9. Confirm report accuracy, then hide or exclude columns as needed

After successfully completing steps 1-8, confirm the final accuracy of the report. When you’ve verified the accuracy of the report, you can exclude or hide columns as desired.