Your staffers have entered time, submitted expenses, and invoiced clients. Now, use BigTime’s Report Center to configure this data into reports and get meaningful insights about staff and firm performance. You can navigate to the Report Center by clicking ANALYTICS…REPORT CENTER from your main navigation menu.
The Report Center is the main hub for reporting activity. There are two versions of the Report Center, both with their own capabilities and organization styles.
To skip to each Report Center section more easily, click one of the links below to navigate to each one:
By default, your BigTime account will display a current of the Report Center. If you’d like to use an updated opt-in version, which includes search capability and report folders, you can do so by navigating to MY COMPANY…ACTIVE FEATURES and toggling the REPORT CENTER (NEW) switch to ON.
NOTE: System admins can access all reporting features, both pre-built and custom reports. They’ll also be able to opt into the updated Report Center view in ACTIVE FEATURES for their whole firm.
Takeaways
- Use pre-built reports. These templates are designed to help you get started creating reports more quickly.
- Create custom reports. Generate a report that only shows the data you want to see.
- Restrict report access. Use report permission settings, security groups, and customized user access rights to determine who can access your firm’s reports.
A Walkthrough of The Current Report Center
This overview article will explain how to navigate and use both versions of the Report Center. We’ll start with the most current version.
The Report-Type Tiles
The top of your window in the current Report Center will look like this:
Note: Your screen may look slightly different, depending on your BigTime subscription level.
The four tiles at the top of the Report Center window are the primary report categories in BigTime: Time Tracking, Invoicing, Payroll, and Task Lists. We briefly explain each category below.
- Time tracking reports analyze timesheet data from multiple perspectives.
- Invoice reports summarize unbilled time and expenses. They also provide data on invoice amounts, statuses, billed time/expenses, and outstanding balances.
- Payroll invoice reports reveal staff utilization. They also provide a general summary of staffer input and billable time over a specific period; this —information that’s used for computing payroll.
- Task list reports keep projects organized. They show completed and pending tasks assigned to specific staffers.
Click on a tile and you’ll be directed to the reports for that category. Each category has a featured report and related reports. The INVOICING tile, for example, generates a featured report in the middle of the window, along with several related reports at the bottom of the window under “other invoicing reports.”
TIP: Find related reports for each category under the featured report. Get descriptions of these reports by moving your cursor over the “i” icon to the left of the report name.
Create Your Own Report
If you don’t find what you need from our pre-built reports, try creating your own report. Click on the magnifying glass to begin the process.
You’ll see a hyperlink in the middle of the window to CREATE YOUR REPORT. Click on this hyperlink to begin the process. Click here to learn more.
All Reports
ALL REPORTS at the bottom of the Report Center categorize the available reports from the four report tiles. You can publish the reports you create and existing reports you customize to any All Reports category.
A Walkthrough of The Updated Opt-In Report Center
If you have REPORT CENTER (NEW) toggled ON in your ACTIVE FEATURES window, your Report Center view will look different from the pre existing version. Once you’ve activated this new Report Center view, it will become the norm for all staffers who use your firm’s BigTime account.
Below, we’ll explain how this updated version works and how you can use it.
Search For Reports
The updated version of the Report Center includes a search function to help you find the right type of report more easily. You’ll see a search bar at the top of your screen. When you type terms or phrases into this search bar, BigTime will scan through all report templates to find ones most relevant to your search query.
You’ll see both the name of each report and the name of the report folder it’s located in. Selecting one of these search results will take you to the report customization page, which will automatically display fields included in that report template.
Create a Custom Report
To the right of the search bar, you’ll find a button labeled CREATE REPORT.
Clicking this button will open a pop-up module where you can begin to create a custom report.
You’ll first be prompted to choose a report type. Clicking the PLUS SIGN (+) to the right of any of these folders will expand them to show all reports in that folder. Each of these report types will allow you to choose certain types of fields. To learn more about each type of report you see here, read the Report Type glossary in BigTime’s Knowledge Base.
Select a report type and click NEXT. You’ll be taken to the Report Wizard, where you can make further customizations.
Popular Report Types
Lower down on the main Report Center landing page, you’ll see a section labeled POPULAR REPORT TYPES.
The six tiles displayed here are the report types most commonly used by other firms in BigTime. You can click the VIEW REPORT button on any of these tiles to create a report using one of these pre-built templates.
All Report Folders
Below the POPULAR REPORT TYPES section, you’ll see a section called ALL REPORTS. This section displays a list of report folders, each with a different category name.
You can expand these folders to see the reports in each category by clicking on the PLUS SIGN (+) icons. Again, if you want to learn more about what each of these reports can show you, take a look at the Report Type glossary.
If you’ve previously used the other current Report Center to create reports and sort them into folders, you don’t need to worry about losing those folders if you activate the updated Report Center. Those folders, and the reports contained in them, will still appear in the Report Center. For instance, in the screenshots below, you’ll see the “Invoicing/Pre Billing Reports” and “Budgeting/Planning Reports” folders (outlined in red) appear in both versions of the Report Center. This is because reports were created in both of these folders first in the current Report Center, and thus were carried over when switching to the updated opt-in Report Center.
Explore Report Center Resources
Finally, at the bottom of the updated Report Center landing page, you’ll see a blue tile with a button labeled EXPLORE MORE REPORT CENTER RESOURCES. Clicking this button will navigate you to the Reporting section of BigTime’s Knowledge Base, where you can read articles explaining the capabilities and functions of the Report Center.
Want to learn more? If you’re a BigTime firm admin, you can access additional courses and videos in BigTime Academy designed to guide you on your BigTime journey. Take a look at the course below to learn more about our new opt-in Report Center.
BigTime Academy Course: New Report Center