Another new and exciting feature in TransActPOS is the Data View. This option in reports allows you to view the report data in a brand new way. Note, this is not available for all reports yet. If you want to see if it is available for the report, check the designated report help page to see if it is available to use. If it is, you will see the following image along the top of the help page.
As TransActPOS is updated, more and more reports will be Data View ready. In order to use this, go into the report and click Generate (after selecting the desired options for the report). After the report has been generated, normally, you could only preview, print, or send the report to a file. Now, there is a button available that says Data View. Clicking it will bring up the Data Export Field Selection screen.
From here, you can check the fields you wish to see on the Data View screen. Using either the check boxes to the left of the description of each field or the check all/uncheck all buttons on the right, make your selections for the Data View. Note in the top right corner, this screen lets you know how many fields have been selected and that 30 is the maximum number allowed. Once you have selected your desired fields, click OK. The next screen you will see is the Data Viewer for the designated report. This viewer will show all the data (selected in the previous screen) for the given report. This screen is completely resizable to meet your needs. This means you can make the screen as big or as little as you desire.
At the bottom of this window, you can see some basic instructions. If you click the individual columns (left click), it will sort the column. Generally, this will sort the column in alphabetical order, using 0-9 first then A-Z. If you right click the column header, you can filter it. This is very useful for long lists. The filter screen looks as follows.
The screen will look a little different, depending on the column you are filtering and if there are any current filters set. Using the drop down box that is highlighted by default, choose your filter type. You can choose equals (filters to exactly what you enter), greater than (filters higher/greater than what is entered), greater than or equal to, less than (filters lower/less than what is entered), less than or equal to, or between (filters to what is between to the two entered fields). If you check the "Not" box, you will filter the view to what is "not" the filter type. For example, if you select equals and checked the "not" box, the filter would show all items EXCEPT the value entered. A more in depth look will be in
this video. Once you have selected your desired filter, click the Set Filter button to set it. If you wish to filter further, right click on a different column.
If you right click on a different column, you get a window that seems a little different. Here, you can click on the Clear Current Filter box which will clear the current filter and substitute the new filter being made at the time. If you wish to add an additional filter, make sure the "And" button is selected when setting the new filter. If you want to show the previous filter OR the new filter, select the "Or" button. If you press the Reset Filter button, all filters will be wiped out and it will return you to the original Data Viewer with no filters selected.
Another beneficial feature to Data View is the Export option. Once you are at the Data Viewer screen, you can click the Export button in the bottom right to export the data to an Excel readable document. Choose the folder/location on your workstation for the file to be saved and remember where you saved it. Also, rename the file from the default "dataviewexport," as this will give the file a personality and allow you to identify the spreadsheet without opening it. If the "Save as type" isn't CSV, make sure that it is. Some reports have a lot of values and anything other than CSV will cut the report short. Once the spreadsheet is saved, you can open it and view it in Excel.
Once the file is opened in Excel, there are a number of helpful things you can do. Much like the Data Viewer built into TransActPOS, you can sort various columns and make them smaller/bigger. You can also total up a given range of values easily by highlighting them and clicking on the Subtotal button in the Data tab (Office 2010). This will save you the hassle of spending hours with a calculator when you can just click one button and be done.
