Reports & Report Queue

How the module progresses

1. Run one simple report (#2033) and learn the two halves of every report screen.
2. Find and view it in the Report Queue (#1558).
3. Make a report run itself — recurring #2120.
4. Target recurring reports at the right installations with report flags.
5. Run reports from inside Data Entry (#559).

1. Your first report — Customer Information Report (#2033)

Task: produce a customer dossier for one installation, using only the essential parameters.

The screen has two halves. The top half belongs to this report: what to report on. The bottom half is identical on every SBN report: how and when to deliver it — learn it once and you know it everywhere.

Steps (simple run):

1. Open #2033 from the menu (or GoTo).
2. Top half — enter the installation's CID (wildcards allowed: % many characters, _ one).
3. Top half — in the Include list, tick the blocks to print: Action Plan List, Action Plan, Text, Agencies, Contacts, Zones, Zonetest, Detectors, Schedules, Zones Summary, Contact Summary, Temp Comments. An unticked block is left out of the print entirely. Leave the Report Flgs grid and every other selection field blank for now — blank always means "don't filter".
4. Bottom half — delivery: file output, or Email to one of the installation's contacts — training email lands in the captive training mailbox, so nothing leaves the environment; leave Printer Queue and Fax empty. Blank Attachment Type = PDF. Type a Comment — it shows in the Report Queue and is how you will recognize your job.
5. Click Save on the toolbar. The Queue No and Status fields fill in — the job is submitted. The form has no Print or Preview button; viewing happens in the Report Queue (section 2).

Bottom-half fields to know at this stage (the rest come in later sections):

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): run #2033 for NORTHERN LIGHTS JEWELLERS (TRA-00001), Include = Contacts and Zones only, Comment = your trainee ID. The zones block reflects exactly what data entry produced: an installation with no zones prints none — the report is a completeness check.

Guided practice: re-run #2033 for an installation you created yourself, with a different Include selection.

Independent practice: run it for a neighbour's installation, all blocks ticked, and use the output to verify their data entry.

2. Find and view your report — Report Queue (#1558)

Task: find a job you submitted, follow its progress, view the output, and un-stick a job that failed or was held.

When you use it: after every Save on a report form, and whenever someone says a report "didn't come out".

Steps:

1. Open #1558. It opens showing your own outstanding jobs (User = you, Mode = Outstanding). Refresh updates the statuses.
2. Find your job — the queue number from the report form and your Comment identify it.
3. Read the status: RDY waiting its turn · WAI delayed (Delay Job Until or a priority hold window) · ACT running · DON finished · FAI failed · HLD held.
4. When it reaches Done: double-click the row (Get Record), then Display — SBN fetches the output through the APIEngine and opens it in preview. (Sites without an APIEngine fall back to the workstation's Report Output directory in Client Options.)
5. To change a job that has not run yet: Get Record → Change → edit the bottom pane → Save. Changing another user's job needs extra authorization (action 1558/18) — expect "not authorized" otherwise.
6. A failed job: select it → Reset Failed → it re-queues as Ready.
7. A held job: Release/Hold toggles it.

Why jobs go on hold: a job is held when its page count reaches the Print Hold Size, when the hold size is 0, or when it has nowhere to deliver. A held job never prints, emails or faxes until released — and email/fax only go out when the hold size is above 0 and the output fits inside it.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): display the job from section 1. Then submit #2033 again with Print Hold Size 0, watch it land as Held, and release it.

Guided practice: switch to the All view, find a neighbour's job, and confirm you cannot change it.

Independent practice: submit a job with Delay Job Until 30 minutes from now, confirm it sits at WAI, change the delay to now, and watch it run.

3. A report that runs itself — recurring Alarm History Report (#2120)

Task: set up an alarm-history report that produces itself every morning with no operator involved.

When you use it: daily or weekly customer-facing history reports — anything on a schedule.

Steps:

1. Open #2120 (menu title: Alarm Log History (External)).
2. Fill the content parameters: Layout (1–9 — agree the house layout with the customer), installation or CID range, and tick at least one of Include Open/Close Log / Include Alarm Log — the report will not save without one.
3. Press Recurring on the toolbar. The screen changes: recurring time, weekday checkboxes and day-of-month appear, and the absolute date fields blank out and lock — a recurring master runs on relative dates.
4. Set the period with the small Month/Day offset boxes beside the date fields: -1 = the current day/month, -2 = the previous, and so on; values above 1000 pin an absolute calendar value. For "the previous day", use -2 on both dates.
5. Set the recurring time (e.g. 07:30) and tick the weekdays it should fire. Day-of-month is for monthly patterns — leave it blank otherwise.
6. Bottom half: delivery as usual (file output in training), plus a Comment naming the schedule.
7. Save. The master appears under the queue's Recurring view. It never runs itself — at each fire time the system copies it into a normal job, which then behaves exactly like a section 1 submission.

Two behaviours to know:

1. A fire window missed by more than about two hours is skipped, not caught up — if the server was down overnight, that morning's report simply doesn't exist; produce it manually with Copy on the master.
2. The same procedure with time and days left empty creates a Template instead: it sits in the Template view and runs only when you Copy it — a saved parameter set for on-demand use.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): create a daily 07:30 recurring #2120 covering the previous day, file output, Comment DAILY HISTORY <trainee ID>. Verify it under Recurring, then Copy it once — the instance appears under Outstanding; Display it and confirm the period's alarms appear.

Guided practice: create a Template of #2033 (section 1 parameters, no time/days) and run it twice via Copy.

Independent practice: build the customer's real morning report to their spec (layout, period offsets, time) and demonstrate it fires correctly by copying an instance.

4. Target the right installations — report flags

Task: make one recurring report serve exactly the installations that are meant to get it.

How it works: every installation carries a 10-position Rep Flag string on the Data Entry Basics tab. Each Print Flag row in a report's Report Flgs grid tests one position of that string; the legal values per position are maintained in #1555. A blank row means "don't filter on this position" — so an all-blank grid selects every installation.

Steps:

1. Check (or have the customer's administrator define) the flag values for the position you'll use in #1555 — e.g. position 2, value W = "gets the weekly history report". (Defining new values is admin-level config.)
2. In Data Entry Basics, set Rep Flag position 2 to W on each installation that should receive the report.
3. On the recurring report master, set Print Flag 2 = W. Save.
4. Every spawned instance now selects only installations whose Rep Flag position 2 is W. The flags copy unchanged to each instance — set them once on the master.

Rules:

1. Leave all flags blank when selecting by Mail Groups — the two selection methods don't combine.
2. #2120 extra: Rep Flag position 10 set to M or F on an installation auto-routes that installation's report pages by eMail or Fax.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): set position-2 W on two TRAIN installations, run #2033 with Print Flag 2 = W, and verify the output contains exactly those two installations.

Guided practice: add the same flag filter to the recurring master from section 3, Copy an instance, and verify the selection held.

Independent practice: given the request "only commercial accounts in the weekly report", choose a flag position and value, implement it end to end, and prove it with an instance.

5. Reports from Data Entry (#559)

Task: run a report for the installation you are already viewing, without leaving Data Entry.

Steps:

1. In #559, load the installation first — with no installation loaded the Reports button does nothing at all.
2. Press Reports (Shift+F7) on the toolbar. A dropdown lists the available reports — including #2033, #2120 and the Change Log report (#1994).
3. Pick one. The normal parameter screen opens with three presets: Exclude Cover Page is ticked, the Email picklist offers this installation's contacts, and the email subject is prefilled.
4. Type the CID yourself — it is not carried over from the installation on screen.
5. Save, and collect the output in #1558 as usual.

Worked example (Branch TRAIN): from your own installation, run #2120 covering today's alarms on the installation and email it to one of the installation's contacts — delivery lands in the captive training mailbox. Check the Email Status fields on the job in #1558.

Guided practice: run the Change Log report (#1994) for your own installation and match it against the Change Log tab.

Independent practice: produce a neighbour's full dossier (#2033) starting from 559, and compare the experience with the section 1 menu route.

6. Quick reference

Job statuses (all 11):

Report Queue actions: Get Record (open) · Change · Outstanding / All / Own / Done / Active views · Release/Hold · Search · Copy (run a template or force a recurring instance) · Template view · Recurring view · Reset Failed · Display (view output) · Refresh · Delete.

Bottom-half glossary (fields not covered above): Wide (landscape/condensed paper) · Use Defined Printer (workstation default overrides Printer Queue) · Zip Attachment (zip the emailed file) · Serial (which report-service instance runs it) · Report Group (limits how many run at once) · Run On Secondary (execute on the secondary report server) · Template picklist (load a saved parameter set as a new job).

Which report answers which question: installation dossier / data-entry completeness → #2033 · what happened on the installation, customer-safe → #2120 (9 layouts) · who changed what in the installation → #1994 Change Log.