User guide

How to use Advanced Report Builder, screen by screen.

Running a report

Reports > Reports, then Run on any row.

The result opens with the row count, whose rights it was read with, and the table. Two buttons download it as a spreadsheet or a CSV; Refresh runs it again against current data.

Two people, two answers

A saved report is a saved question, not a saved answer. Running one reads through your own access rights, so you and a colleague can legitimately get different numbers of rows from the same definition. That is correct, and it is why a shared report is never a way round an access rule.

Truncation

If the row limit was reached, the result says so. A reader shown twelve rows will otherwise state twelve as a fact.

Spreadsheets

Numbers are written as numbers, so you can add them up.
The header row is frozen and columns are sized.
Totals appear under the columns that asked for one.
Text cells beginning =, +, - or @ are prefixed with an apostrophe. Excel executes those, and a customer named =cmd|... is a real attack.

The on-screen and emailed table formats numbers for reading - 41,750.00 - while the file gets the raw number. A spreadsheet handed formatted text cannot add it up.

Scheduled reports

If a report is scheduled, it arrives by email at the chosen time as a spreadsheet, a CSV, or an inline table. The email body always names the person whose rights it was read with.

Long reports show the first 25 rows inline and say so; the attachment has all of them.

Writing a good report

Name it for the question, not the model. "Overdue invoices by customer" beats "account.move report".
Use labels. Amount due reads better than amount_residual, and it is what appears in the spreadsheet and in Power BI if you publish it.
One hop for names. partner_id.country_id gives "France" instead of an id.
Set the row limit to what a person will read. It is a cost control as much as a safety one.

What it cannot do

No charts. Odoo's graph and pivot views already do that well; this is for the tabular report you need to send somebody.
No expressions or computed columns. A column names a field.
No writing. It reads.

Spreadsheets

Numbers are written as numbers, so you can add them up.

The header row is frozen and columns are sized.

Totals appear under the columns that asked for one.

Text cells beginning =, +, - or @ are prefixed with an apostrophe. Excel executes those, and a customer named =cmd|... is a real attack.

The on-screen and emailed table formats numbers for reading - 41,750.00 - while the file gets the raw number. A spreadsheet handed formatted text cannot add it up.

Writing a good report

Name it for the question, not the model. "Overdue invoices by customer" beats "account.move report".

Use labels. Amount due reads better than amount_residual, and it is what appears in the spreadsheet and in Power BI if you publish it.

One hop for names. partner_id.country_id gives "France" instead of an id.

Set the row limit to what a person will read. It is a cost control as much as a safety one.