PowerUp Challenge: Fourth Standard Reports Task

@Crystal Bruce Another wonderful feature! I always have to provide CSV files of my reports to the finance team for reconciliation weekly and monthly!?

@Crystal Bruce I like CSV as having a spreadsheet format allows me to colour in the cells so I know where I am up to with a report!!

@Crystal Bruce I run monthly reports for Finance and of course they want it in .xlxs format. My predecessor told me I needed to run it Microsoft Excel (97-2003) Data-Only format and then I still needed to edit the file. So much simpler to just export to .csv!!

@Crystal Bruce csv option far surpasses PDF format. also allows for easier use and integration with power query and lets the user control the formatting needed for the report.

@Crystal Bruce love the ability to choose the output! CSV works best for me, but there are others I would prefer to send as a PDF so the data is viewed as I would like it presented.

@Crystal Bruce First of all, the report that I tested ran WAY faster than it does in DBV! Just over two minutes instead of a good 20-30! It is a pledge status report which I love being able to pull into a correctly formatted csv that doesn't need a lot of manual work to make usable. I do wish for two things:

1. the ability to add columns I want especially the Sort Name instead of the Name so that I can sort correctly in the CSV by name.
   
2. In the Pledge Status report the ability to exclude pledges that had $0 balance at the beginning of the period. Currently I have to include all pledges because we have some active very long term pledges 10+ years and I want to see the pledge whose final payment was paid during the prior month. So, I have thousands of lines of pledge data for pledges that were already paid off prior to last month that show up in the csv with $0.00 all the way across the report.
   
   That said this is significantly easier to manage in this csv than in the DBV produced csv as I can easily sort/filter and remove the lines that don't need to be there. Still a vast improvement, but these tweaks would make the report pretty perfect.
   

@Crystal Bruce this is way more intuitive. As I said on task 1 I am a database girl through and through but this will help my other coworkers who have not had as much training or experience with exporting data.

@Crystal Bruce The CSV output is so much cleaner than the equivalent in database view. Generally, I would have to spend time reformating and playing with the csv just to make it usable. Now, I can easily create pivot tables from the data, add pieces etc. I'm absolutely a fan.

@Crystal Bruce Exporting this report to a CSV is a massive upgrade and allows me to work in preferred file formats from the start saving me time within my day.

@Crystal Bruce
??? this!!! For some of our reporting and reconciliations and would have to update total giving from one report to another Excel file. Now I can copy and paste data from a cell and not have to type/retype/doublecheck for accuracy.

@Crystal Bruce This is one of the most useful improvements. Being able to set up a scheduled report, download it into a Google drive folder where I can easily incorporate the data into a spreadsheet and organize the data according to our custom specs is brilliant! This one has the most potential in terms of reducing friction in our workflow.

@Crystal Bruce Highly useful for analyzing data.

@Crystal Bruce
The CSV really is the hidden gem here. Gold stars all around, and even more if there wan an option for Excel or some way to show calculations. I like raw data - most of the fundraising team does not.

@Crystal Bruce CSV is always the preferred export for me. I am always formatting the data afterwards for specific uses.

@Crystal Bruce I like CSV files for sorting by various columns which is not offered within the report itself. So, this type of exported data is very useful for segmenting, grouping, etc.