To add the Report Designer permission to a user role:

Once the permission for the user role has been checked, and you are assigned that role, you can now access the Web Report Designer.
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​In Administration:

Below is what your web-based Report Designer will look like. Underneath, we break down each function's name and what it does!

There are a total of 16 report types that you can customize the Web Report Designer! They are listed below from A to Z!

⚠️ If you want to customize these reports, you need to have specific user role permissions that are connected with the report.

A Report Band represents a specific area on the Design Surface that is used to define how to render the report controls that belong to it.

Below is a detailed example of all Report Band class types and a Band description:

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You can select a band and click on the band's tab title to collapse or expand the band.

Here is how Report Bands selections are displayed in Web Report Designer:

Except for Top and Bottom Margin Bands, each Report Band has a special Tasks menu to control the band’s behavior.

The Top Margin Band is located on the top of the Web Report Designer Design Session and on every report page.

The Top Margin Band is used to control the margin whitespace at the top of the report.

If the Report Header Band is added to the Design Surface, it is located at the beginning of the report. (If adding at the Report Level)

The Page Header Band is located at the top of every page, below the TopMarginBand or ReportHeaderBand.

The Group Header band is located at the beginning of every group, or at the top of the group in case it is split across pages.

As the name suggests, GroupHeader Bands are designed to group data fields.

The Detail Band is located on a page between all other bands.

The Detail Report Band is a band that can be set to display different data member content and house its own report bands.

The Group Footer band is located at the end of every group, or on the bottom of the group in case it is split across pages.

The Report Footer Band is located at the end of a report.

The Page Footer Band is located at the bottom of every page, below the BottomMarginBand or ReportFooterBand.

The Bottom Margin Band is located on the bottom of the Web Report Designer Design Session and on every report page.

A Sub-Band is a report band that provides a functional copy of the source band. It can be used to display different objects.

These Data Member options contain "spReport" in its naming convention.

🧠 Remember, Data Members will determine the fields that can be displayed for a Report Band.
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​Tip: Hover over the Data Member with your mouse to display the full name of that Data Member

Using a Calculated Field (aka Calc Field) allows you to apply complex expressions to one or more data fields that are obtained from the report’s underlying data source in Aspire. Moreover, you can both group and sort your report data based on a calculated field’s value.

In order to create a Calculated Field, you need to select the Fields Panel:

To create how the field is calculated, click the three dots in the Expression field.

In the Expression Editor, build your needed expression. You can use data fields, report parameters, predefined constants as well as various date-time, logical, math and string functions. Below are examples:
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To help build your expressions, below is a guide with examples to show how data fields can be calculated in relationship to each other.

Best practice for Report Designer is to use camelCase style but making sure you capitalize the first letter of the first word for clarity. camelCase: Starts off with a lowercase letter and with a capital letter in each corresponding word.

Example: CamelCase
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There is an alternative called upper camel case (initial uppercase letter, also known as Pascal case)
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The Decimal, Double, and Float variable types are different in the way that they store the numerical values. For example, a Double has twice the precision of a Float type (Numeric precision refers to the maximum number of digits that are present in the number). This means a Double is a stronger type if you are looking for precision-based accuracy with numerical data.

🧠 Whether you are adding, deleting, or sorting rules, remember that you can use the Undo and Redo buttons on the Toolbar.

The example provided in the image shows you that the BlankSpaceHide Formatting Rule is selected.

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Using the carrot icon, we can expand that specific Formatting Rule’s sub menu which provides you many customization options.
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What is the main use of a Formatting Rule?

Setting the rule to True or False is what will trigger the behavior pattern based on the Condition field’s expression.

Expand the Formatting Rules section using the carrot icon on the left. This will display all the Formatting Rules created.

If you click on each rule, you will see a pencil icon to the left to edit the rule and a trash icon to the right to delete the rule.

⚠️ Caution: Deleting a rule (trashcan) will remove it from your list without prompting a confirmation window. If you accidently delete a rule, then you can use the Undo button on the Toolbar.

The same applies for deleted Calculated Fields on the Fields Panel.

Other Suppression Examples:

The Filter String Editor provides a visual interface for constructing filter criteria with an unlimited number of filter conditions combined by logical operators.

The image below shows you that the ContractServices (Detail Report) Band was selected.

❗ Remember, when selecting at a DetailReport Band level, Report Designer will capture all bands within the Detail Report. This means that a DetailReport Band Class can have its own ReportHeader, GroupHeader, Detail, GroupFooter, ReportFooter Bands.

To add a condition, you will need to select the + icon:

Remember, the Data Member you selected for the Filter String will display different fields.

Select the required data field from Aspire’s Data Member.

Now we're selecting an operator of Does not equal. The below image shows you the types of comparison operators you can select when building the filter.

Below shows a value box that allows you to insert an operand value

In this example, we've set a filter to say "and Service Extended Price does not equal $0"

Explanation of additional filters:

There are two options to consider when saving a report.

When using this method, you will be able to keep your existing layout, and it will not create new versions of the document. Your report will lose the ability to revert any of the changes you have made.
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​To do this:

When using this method, a new version of your layout will be created. Previous versions of your report can be accessed, yet it is not great for minor changes.

​To do this:

You may not learn everything there is to know about Web Report Designer in this article, but we want to also share links to additional documentation hosted by our backend report developer: DevExpress, and share a downloadable sheet for Written Expressions.
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There are specific fields for each layout type. Review the spreadsheet here to see what fields are available to be customized.

If using Google Sheets,

Click the button below to make a copy of the Available Fields for Report Designer.

If using Excel,

Select File ▶️ Download ▶️ Excel.