Welcome to Custom Report Writer—CRW

Custom Report Writer (CRW) allows you to create custom reports with specialized sets of information based on your company data. CRW is part of the core Sage Intacct subscription, and can be used when your reporting requirements exceed the options offered in standard application reports.

You can add CRW reports to dashboards after they’ve been memorized, or add them to an application menu to share with others.

To add or edit a Custom Report Writer (CRW) report, you must have permission for either Customization Services or Platform Services.

Why use Custom Report Writer?

Custom Report Writer (CRW) reports offer enhanced insights to your company data. CRW reports are perfect for executive briefings and can be output as documents or added to dashboards.

CRW reports and dimension structures, such as operational departments, are based on individual records and fields that can be grouped together. An important difference of financial reports is that financial reports are based on account groupings, such as assets and liabilities.

CRW reports offer the following capabilities:

  • Report on fields from almost any record or transaction, as well as related data.
  • Customize reports to align with your business needs.
  • Run and export to a selection of formats.
  • Add the reports to dashboards.

You create CRW reports using the Custom Report Writer Wizard (CRWZ). The CRWZ utility walks you through the process of creating a customized report in easy to follow steps.

This short video shows you how easy it is to build reports with the Custom Report Writer Wizard:
Create a custom report.

Custom Report Writer Wizard

Custom Report Writer Wizard (CRWZ) is the intuitive utility that walks you through the process of creating a Custom Report Writer (CRW) report in easy to follow steps.

The steps for creating a CRW report can vary depending on the selections that you make in the Wizard.

The typical steps for creating a report with the Wizard are as follows:

  1. Select a primary data source.
  2. Add columns to the report.
  3. Add calculated columns.
  4. Specify the column order.
  5. Add column totals.
  6. Sort columns.
  7. Filter the report.
  8. Enable grouping.
  9. Group columns.
  10. Set report period and title.
  11. Define chart output.
  12. Include runtime prompts.
  13. Save and add the report to a menu or dashboard.

Types of CRW reports

You create the reports that are listed on the Custom reports page. Custom Report Writer does not have a report library with prebuilt CRW reports. You can create CRW reports based on standard reports to meet your company needs.

Your CRW reports can include financial or nonfinancial data, or a combination of both, unlike financial and standard reports. You can export the information in a CRW report for use in applications.

  • Customer aging at line levels
  • Sales or customers by territory
  • Customized aging reports
  • Purchase approval history

For examples of CRW reports, see sample custom reports.

Object descriptions clarify the function of data sources. The object glossary describes the data in each of the reporting areas. Choose the data source best suited for your report.

How to access CRW reports

CRW reports can be accessed through either the Reports center or an application, if you added the report to the application menu. You can also access CRW reports through the Customization or Platform Services page.

To create a new report, do the following:

  1. Go to Reports > All > Advanced.
  2. Select Add (circle) next to Custom reports.

To access a CRW report, do the following:

  1. Go to the application menu, such as Accounts Payable > All > Custom reports.
  2. Select a report from the list.

To create a new report, do the following:

  1. Go to Customization Services or Platform Services.
  2. Select Add (circle) next to Custom reports (Customization Services) or Reports (Platform Services).

To see a list of existing reports: Select Custom reports or Reports.

View your custom report permissions

A CRW report only shows permissions explicitly enabled by an admin. There are other permissions that are switched on by other applications, called derived permissions.

You can see a complete list of all your permissions with a Permissions and Roles report.

  1. Go to Company > Users.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Select View permissions next to your user name.

    • Select View permissions and roles, for a consolidated report of all the users' permissions and roles.

For more information, see User permissions reports. Optionally, get started with CRW by adding a report.

CRW report output options

You can preview reports in HTML, then specify the output format when you run a custom report.

You can view and output a custom report in several ways. Some output formats, such as graphs, have prerequisite steps. For more information, see Create graphs from CRW reports.

Custom report output formats
Format Description

HTML

HTML is the most common format. The report is displayed in a new window in your browser and retains the ability to drill down on select fields.

Printable

The printable view option displays the report in an Adobe® Acrobat file. This option is good if you want to print the report or share it in a locked format. You cannot drill down on any fields in a printable report.

Word

When you choose to view your report in Word, you receive a prompt to download or open a dynamically created Microsoft® Word document. Choose the Word format if you want to incorporate the data into a text authoring tool.

Graph

Choosing a graph generates a chart that's displayed in a new browser window. The chart format is based on the parameters that you chose in the Define Chart Output step of the custom report writer. A print button is included in the chart to make printing the chart quick and easy. A chart can be useful when you want a visual snapshot of your report.

CSV

CSV stands for Comma-Separated Values. The CSV format is often used to get data in and out of flat file databases and can be a useful development tool. It's heavily dependent on the order of the fields.

Excel

Excel is becoming an industry standard for analyzing tables of data. Exporting to Excel provides you with an organized accessible format for additional number crunching.1.
Text When you export a report to text, the report information appears on the page instead of being presented as a file you download. Use the Copy and Paste feature on your local machine to copy the text and save it as the file type you choose.

XSD

XSD stands for XML Schema Definition. It specifies how to describe the elements in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document. This description can be used to verify that each item in a document adheres to the description of the element for the content. An XSD represents the interrelationship between the attributes and elements of an XML object. Although this file does not contain the actual report data, your report in this way can help in developing integration tools for external systems.

XML

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and is the main format used for communicating data between the data server, the web server, and your interface. The XML version of your report can be used to communicate structured data to an intranet page or another application that uses XML.
Custom reports can be memorized and scheduled like other reports.

Regional availability

Custom Report Writer (CRW) is generally available in:

All regions