Customizing and Organizing Reports

Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes default reports for many common business needs. However, most organizations customize the default reports and add custom reports for specific needs. To customize reports, you need to understand:

Report Ownership

System reports are available to all users. Reports owned by individual users can be shared with specific colleagues or teams, or can be made available to the organization so that all users can use them.

Report Types

Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports two types of report:

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services report. These use SQL queries and filtered views to retrieve report data. Filtered views restrict the data to what is available to the security role of the person running the report. All the default reports that are shipped with Microsoft Dynamics CRM are SQL-based reports.
Fetch-based Reporting Services report. These reports use FetchXML queries that are proprietary to Microsoft Dynamics CRM instead of filtered views to retrieve data for reports. Reports that are created using the Report Wizard in Microsoft Dynamics CRM are Fetch-based reports.

The other reports can be:

Links to webpages
Static files
Dynamic Microsoft Office Excel files that read data from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database

For each report, you can edit the following properties:

File name or URL
Display name
Description
Information about where the report displays in the user interface

Data Security

All reports read Microsoft Dynamics CRM data from filtered views, which filter the data based on the user's security role. Reports only display data that the person running the report has permission to view.

Options for Creating New Reports

To create a new report, users with appropriate permissions can:

Add a file or a link to a webpage as a report.
Run the Report Wizard to create a new Reporting Services report. The Report Wizard can create table and chart reports, including drill-through reports and top N reports.
Write a new Fetch-based Reporting Services report. To author custom fetch-based reports, you must install Microsoft Dynamics CRM Report Authoring Extension. More information: Create a Custom Fetch-Based Reporting Services Report.

You can also use the following built-in reporting tools:

Export Data to Excel

Create Customer-Ready Documents and Messages

Options for Modifying Existing Reports

For existing reports, users with appropriate permissions can:

Organize reports into categories to control which views in the Reports area display each report.

Determine where a report is visible in the user interface, and edit other properties of the report.

Edit a report created with the Report Wizard.

Edit a default report. For example, if you customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you might need to modify labels or add or remove fields in default reports. More information: Edit a Default Report or create a SQL-based Reporting Services report, Create Reports for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Using SQL Server Reporting Services
Edit the default filter for a default report, a report created with the Report Wizard, or other Reporting Services reports.
Create a one-time snapshot for a Reporting Services report or schedule a Reporting Services report to run at set intervals.
Share a personal report with other users, or make it available to everyone in your organization.
Publish a report so that it is available for use with external applications such as Microsoft SharePoint or custom programs.

Reports in Solutions

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, reports are solution aware. Adding a report as a component to a solution makes it become a single unit of software that extends Microsoft Dynamics CRM functionality and the user interface. Only reports that are organization-owned or visible to the organization can be added to solutions.

Note

To find if a report is viewable to the organization: In the Records group, click Edit. Then, on the Administration tab, see if Viewable By is set to Organization.

Snapshots of reports cannot be added, imported, or exported as part of a solution. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, reports, sub reports, report category, report display area, and report-related record type are considered as components of a report set. When you import a solution update in a non-overwrite mode, any updates by the solution to a report will be ignored if any component of the report set has been customized.