Overview
Reports help you answer important business
questions about your users, documents, and studies. For example,
you can:
-
Identify documents nearing their expiration date.
-
Prepare for an upcoming monitoring visit.
-
Measure how quickly your site responds to eSignature requests.
How to View Reports
To view a report, navigate to the Reports tab and click into a
report from the list view.
Opening Documents from Reports
If the report you are viewing contains documents, you can
access them by clicking on the document link or hovering over the
link and opening the document in a separate window using the
document flyout icon (see below) on the hovercard.
Exporting Reports
You can export report results in several different formats
from the Actions menu.
Sharing Reports
SiteVault uses limited Dynamic Access Control to manage user access and share reports. Some users may have automatic access to reports through Custom Sharing Rules based on the Report Administrators and Report Owners System-Provided Groups. You can also share a report with specific users or groups via manual assignment.
How to Share Reports
- From the report’s Actions menu, click Sharing Settings.
- On the Sharing Settings page, click Add.
- In the Add Manual Assignment dialog, select the desired role and the user or groups to add to it.
- Click Save. Assigned users or groups can immediately access the report.
To remove a user or group from a role, click Remove from the Actions menu for that user or group in the Access via Manual Assignment section. Note that Read-only users will never appear in the Users and Groups drop-down.
Sharing Roles
When sharing a report, you can assign users to Editor or Viewer roles. You must have an Editor or Owner role to assign users to roles for a given Report object record:
- Viewer: Viewers have read-only access to reports. They can only run and view the report, or make a copy of it. If the report has run-time input filters, viewers can enter filter criteria. When viewers want to make changes to a report, they can copy it and make their edits in the duplicate version.
- Editor: Editors can modify, share, and delete a report. They have all the same rights as the user who created the report.
- Owner: Owners have all of the permissions of editors and viewers. Only owners can assign other users or roles to be Owners, or edit the schedule of flash reports.
Creating Reports
Reports help you answer important business questions about documents, workflows, and object records in your vault. For example, a report could help you identify:
- Which users have overdue tasks
- How long the MLR review process usually takes in your vault
- Statuses of each site within a study
This section covers how to build a matrix or tabular report.
How to Create Reports
To create a new report:
- From the Reports tab, click Create > Report
- From the Create Report menu, select a Report Type to indicate the kind of data that your report should include. See details on report type.
- Click Continue.
- Optional: Enter a Name and Description for the report. If you skip this step, you can enter these details when saving the report.
- Make selections for the various report options.
- Click Continue to open the report builder. See report builder details for tabular or matrix reports.
- Click Run to view the results. If needed, you can return to the report builder and modify the report details.
- Click Save when you’re satisfied with the report.
After building the report, you may want to share or export it.
Basic Report Options
In the first screen of report creation, the options you select control the results that appear in your report and the format of the report.
Report Type
Report Type determines the “reporting objects” for the new report. For example, Document means that your report will only look at documents, whereas Product with Campaign means that your report looks at Product and Campaign records. Learn more about report types.
Document Type
By selecting a document type in the Create Report page, you:
- Limit the documents in the report to only those with the specified document type, subtype, or classification. You can also accomplish this by creating filters in the report builder.
- Limits the document fields available for selection as columns, filters, etc. Without a document type selected, all document fields are available. With a document type selected, only fields defined for the selected type and its subtypes or classifications are available.
Enabling Filter & Column Aliases
Selecting the Enable filter and column aliases checkbox allows you to set aliases that appear for columns (tabular only) and filters in the report viewer and in the exported report. This option also allows you to remove the Name column for each reporting object. Aliases are particularly useful for reports sent to regulatory agencies that expect specific naming conventions for columns and filters.
Including Previous Document Versions
By default, reports only include the latest version of a document, with one row for each document. Selecting the Include previous document versions checkbox includes all previous versions of a document.
Cross-version reports include:
- A separate row for each major and minor version you have access to which fits the report’s filters
- A sortable and filterable Version column that combines the major and minor version numbers (0.1, 0.2, 1.0, etc.)
- A filterable State Type field that shows the special state type (Steady, Superseded, etc.) for each document version
- Filterable Steady State Begin and Steady State End fields indicating the first and last date on which a document version was in its lifecycle’s Steady state
This option is available for the Document and [Object] with Document report types.
Note that reports show only documents and versions that the report viewer can access. If necessary, you can use the Is Latest Version boolean field to differentiate between the latest and previous versions of documents in the report.
Document Scope
If your vault uses the Document Archive feature, you can choose to report on either archived documents or active documents using the Document Scope selection. You will only see this option if your security profile includes the View Archive permission.
Document Scope is available for the Document report type.
Tabular Reports
In a tabular report, each row represents an individual record: a document, document version, study, product, etc. Reports with multiple reporting objects show rows grouped by the primary object. For example, a Product with Document report would show the WonderDrug product row followed by rows for each WonderDrug document, and then a row for the CholeCap product, etc.
Adding Columns
By default, new reports include a column showing the Name field for each reporting object. You can add columns to show additional fields. Some columns aren’t related to a specific field, for example, the Actions column, count column, and various workflow or task columns.
To add columns:
- Click Edit Column(s).
- In the Edit Column to Display dialog, fields are grouped and color-coded according to their related object (Product, Document, etc.).
- Choose fields from Available Columns and move them to Displayed Columns. Note that the Restore link here reverts the displayed columns to the last saved values.
- Click Save.
Row Character Limits
There is no maximum number of columns. Vault only allows up to 21,884 characters per row. In some cases, viewers may see the following error message when they attempt to run the report: “The total number of characters in some of the report rows exceeds the maximum. Remove some columns and run the report again. Certain field types (picklist, object references, and user references like Created By or Workflow Initiator) use a large number of characters (1,500). When creating or editing reports, be aware of how many of these fields you include; including more than ~10 could result in errors.
Setting Column Aliases
You can rename a column in the report viewer and exported report results by setting a column alias. This is only available if you select Enable filter and column aliases during report creation.
To set, remove, or change a column alias:
- Click the pencil icon in the column header.
- Enter an Alias. Remove the alias by clicking Clear.
- Click OK.
Adding Groups
Use groups to organize your documents by a specific field. You can create up to two levels of grouping, for example, you could group a document report by Product and then by Studies.
To add a group:
- Click the Group rows by drop-down menu and choose a field.
- Add a secondary grouping by clicking Add field to group by and choosing another grouping field.
- Click Save.
Defining Summary Calculations on Number Fields
If you group rows in a tabular report, you can choose to perform summary calculations on number fields. For example, you could show the average number of pages for a specific document type by grouping on Type and selecting the Avg calculation on the Pages column.
If you rearrange columns so that the number column is the first column, the report viewer cannot show an aggregate value on that column.
Sorting Results
By default, reports sort on the Name value for the primary reporting object, for example, Product Name in the Product with Document report type. You can set a different sort order.
To sort results for the primary reporting object:
- Click on a column header to sort by that column. Vault sorts (ascending) by this column’s value.
- To sort descending, click on the column header again. The column header shows an arrow indicating the current sort (up for ascending and down for descending).
- Click Save.
If you apply a grouping to report rows, you can set the sort order for the groups:
- In the Sort groups by drop-down list, choose a sort order.
- Click Save.
You can also sort on any field for an up object that the primary reporting object references.
Setting Column Width
By defining a column width in the report builder, Vault saves the setting and applies it when any user views the report. Users can also modify column widths when viewing, but these changes are not saved.
To set column widths:
- Move your cursor to the line between two columns.
- Drag the line to resize the columns.
- Click Save.
Reordering Report Objects
For reports with multiple up objects, you can change the order in which objects appear to emphasize those that are most important.
- Click Edit Columns.
- In the Edit Columns to Display dialog, click a bolded object label for a primary or up object in Displayed Columns. You cannot select down objects.
- Click the up and down arrow buttons to move the object.
- Click Ok to save your object arrangement.
You’ll see your report’s new order in the report builder, the report viewer, and report exports.
This option is available for the Object report type.
Matrix Reports
When building a matrix report, you select grouping fields for both the rows and columns. You also select a calculation for Vault to perform in the union of each row and column. For example, you could group rows by Subtype, group columns by Coordinator, and then average the MLR Review Time field value in the cells.
Selecting Grouping Fields
Select fields from the Group columns by and Group rows by drop-down lists.
Defining Summary Calculations
By default, a matrix report counts the number of records that match the criteria defined by the column and row fields. To use a different calculation, select a function from the picklist in the cell. When choosing a summary calculation other than Count, select a numeric field on which to perform the calculation, for example, average of values for MLR Review Time.
Special Columns
Most columns simply use document or object fields, but some columns are metrics specific to reports. These are only available in tabular reports.
Record Count Columns
Tabular reports offer “count” columns for each reporting object, for example, Document Count. You can display a count value as a Number or a Percent of Total. For example, in a report that groups documents by product, you could show the percentage of documents for each product, of the total documents in the report.
Action Columns
In some reports, you can add the Action column. This allows report viewers to access various actions from inside the report.
Actions that the report viewer does not have permission to access don’t appear in the Actions menu, but the Actions menu always appears unless the workflow is complete for Workflow reports or task is complete for Read & Understood reports.
Workflow Actions
In workflow reports, the Actions menu shows the same options as Active Workflows page or Active Workflow panel, for example, Add Participants for workflows or Reassign for tasks.
The configuration of the report determines which actions are visible: if the row in the report does not contain task-level information, the Actions menu only shows workflow options.
Distribution Actions
Distribution reports show different actions based on the type of distribution displayed. For example, for controlled copies, report viewers can update the status of the distribution to reflect recalls.
Workflow or Task Report Fields
The Workflow with Document and Workflow with [Object] report types provide additional fields that relate to document and object workflows and tasks. Note: This article refers to workflow tasks.
Reporting Object |
Field Name |
Description |
Workflow Task |
Action |
Allows report viewers to access workflow and task actions from inside the report for in-progress workflows. |
Task |
Task Assignment Date |
Date on which the task was assigned to a user; for Available tasks, this is the date on which a user accepts the task; Vault updates this date if a user reassigns the task. |
Task |
Task Cancelation Date |
Date on which the task was cancelled; this will be null if the task is not cancelled. |
Task |
Task Comment |
Comment added by task owner when completing the task |
Task |
Task Completion Date |
Date on which the user completed the task |
Task |
Task Creation Date |
Date on which Vault created the task; for the first tasks in a workflow, this should be the same date as the workflow start date. For many tasks, this will be the same as Task Assignment Date. |
Task |
Task Due Date |
Date on which the task is due, specified by the workflow owner |
Task |
Task Duration |
Amount of time between the task creation and task completion; this field will be blank for tasks that are not yet complete. |
Task |
Task Name |
Name entered for the task in the workflow configuration |
Task |
Task Owner |
User assigned to complete the task |
Task |
Task Queue Group |
List of users that received an Available task |
Task |
Task Reason Code / Capacity |
Reason Code / Capacity that user chose during task completion, if the task configuration required a reason code. Note that this data appears in two separate fields (Task Reason Code and Task Capacity) for object workflow reports. |
Task |
Task Status |
Current status of the task: Completed, Canceled, Assigned, or Available |
Task |
Task Verdict |
Verdict that user chose during task completion, if the task configuration required a verdict |
Task |
Task Verdict Reason |
The user’s explanation of the chosen verdict, if the task configuration allows or requires a verdict reason. Note that this field is only populated in Multi-Document Workflows. |
Task |
Task Verdict Comment |
Comments regarding the task verdict, if the task configuration allows or requires a verdict comment. Note that this field is only populated in Multi-Document Workflows. |
Task |
Task Instructions |
Custom task instructions that workflow owners provide for task owners. Note that this field is only available for the Workflow with Document report type. |
Workflow |
Workflow Cancelation Date |
Date on which the workflow was canceled, either by a user or automatically |
Workflow |
Workflow Completion Date |
Date on which the workflow completed; should be the same date as the last task completion in the workflow |
Workflow |
Workflow Doc Version |
Version that document was in when the workflow started |
Workflow |
Workflow Document Major Version Number |
Major version number of version that document was in when the workflow started |
Workflow |
Workflow Document Minor Version Number |
Minor version number of version that document was in when the workflow started |
Workflow |
Workflow Due Date |
Date on which the workflow is due, specified by the workflow owner or by configuration |
Workflow |
Workflow Duration |
Amount of time between the workflow start and workflow completion; this field will show the time between the report’s last run/refresh and the workflow start if the workflow is not complete. |
Workflow |
Workflow Group ID |
Identifier for the package (eTMF) if the workflow was bulk started on multiple documents using the Document Packages feature |
Workflow |
Workflow Owner |
User who initially started the workflow |
Workflow |
Workflow Process ID |
Unique identifier for the specific run of the workflow |
Workflow |
Workflow Start Date |
Date on which the workflow started |
Workflow |
Workflow Status |
Current status of the workflow: Complete, Cancelled, or Active |
Workflow |
Workflow Task ID |
Unique identifier for the specific task; in workflows that assign a task to multiple users, each of those tasks will have its own ID |
Workflow |
Workflow Type |
Type of workflow according to configuration: Read & Understood or Standard. This field is not available for object workflow reports. |
Formula fields allow you to define formulas in your reports. Similar to creating an object formula field, you can select from a full list of objects in the report.
Note that formula fields are currently available only on tabular reports. Conditional fields, and matrix reports are not currently supported.
You can add formula fields as columns in your report, and use formulas for grouping, sorting, and filtering.
To define a formula:
- Under Formula Fields, select Create Formula Field.
- Select an Object.
- Enter a Label.
- Select a Return Type.
- Enter a Maximum Length.
- Enter a Formula Expression. For more detailed instructions on writing the formula expression, see Creating Formulas in Vault.
- Click Check Syntax. Vault will let you know if your expression is valid.
- Click Save.
To edit or delete a formula field, click the formula label.
Conditional Fields
Conditional fields let you set up labels based on other field values. For example, the Status Group conditional field could look at Document Status for documents with different lifecycles and groups those statuses together: Complete label for Approved, Approved for Use, Approved for Distribution and In Progress for Pending Review, In Review, In Approval, etc. You can then use the conditional field for grouping or as a column in a tabular report. You cannot use conditional fields as filters on the report.
Conditional fields are available for all report types except Distribution, Binder, and Read & Understood.
To define conditions:
- Under Conditional Fields, select Create Conditional Field.
Enter a label for the conditional field.
- Click Create Category.
- Select a field, operator, and value. Note that equals must match on one field only, whereas In allows you to select multiple fields.
- Select a color for the label with the color palette. This colors columns, bars, and pie wedges in the dashboard.
- Optional: If needed, define multiple conditions by clicking Add condition. You can have up to five conditions in each category.
- Optional: If needed, define multiple categories by clicking Create Category.
- Fill in the Default Category. If none of the other conditions are satisfied, default category label and color will be used.
- Click Save.
Reports evaluate categories in order. If a record meets conditions in the first category, Vault applies the first category’s label. If a record doesn't meet the conditions, Vault evaluates the next category. The default category applies to records that don't meet any of the conditions.
About Report Types
Report Type determines the “reporting objects” for the new report. For example, Document means that your report looks at documents as records, whereas Study with Products means that your report looks at Product and Study records.
The report type also affects what fields are available as report columns, filters, etc. When a user creates a new report, the first step is selecting a report type for it.
Vault includes standard, default report types, which are not editable, but also allows Admins to create custom report types. Custom report types are the only way to create certain kinds of reports, including a report that displays only object data records without including documents, or a report that displays details for custom objects.
Standard Report Types
Report Type |
Description |
Primary Object |
Secondary Objects |
Document |
Shows documents as unique records and allows you to use document fields |
Document |
|
Workflow with Document |
Shows workflows or tasks as unique records and allows you to use document fields as well as workflow fields like Task Owner, Workflow Due Date, and Workflow Name. |
Workflow |
Document |
Workflow with Document |
Shows workflows or tasks as unique records and allows you to use document fields as well as workflow fields like Task Owner, Workflow Due Date, and Workflow Name. |
Workflow |
Document |
Workflow with [Object] |
Shows workflows or tasks as unique records and allows you to use specific object fields as well as workflow fields like Task Owner, Workflow Status, and Workflow Name. Note that Admins must create this report type for each particular object to display in your vault. |
Workflow |
[Object] |
[Object] with Document |
Shows Vault object records for a specific object as unique records and allows you to use document fields. These report types are available for each standard object (Product, Study, etc.) in your vault. |
[Object] |
Document |
Types with Multiple Up or Down Objects
You may have certain report types that include multiple up or down objects, such as a Product with Study Products and Documents report. In that report type, Products is the primary reporting object, with Study Product and Documents as down objects. Note that reporting with multiple up or down objects is only available for tabular reports.
An “up” object is an object related through a reference or parent relationship to the primary reporting object. A “down” object is a child object, simple join object, an object related through a reference relationship, or related documents.