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Report Basics: Add and Edit Columns

Control what appears in your report results adding and adjusting columns in Bloomerang CRM

Add and edit columns to organize your report. The fastest way to manage columns is to describe your changes with conversational reporting. You can also manage columns manually.

Columns show information about report results. Sort or group the report by a column. Filter calculated columns to show specific information.

Tip: If you use conversational reporting to add or edit columns, you can still manually edit the columns at any time.

Add Columns

Add Columns with Conversational Reporting

To add a column with conversational reporting:

  1. Create or edit a report.

  2. In the How You'd Like to Adjust This Report text box, describe one or more columns you want to add. You can also describe whether to sort or group the report by a column, and you can describe a calculated column.
    ​
    Example: “Group the report by campaign and sort by the total amount given, highest to lowest.”

    Conversational reporting language to add group and sort a report

  3. Click Refine Report. Bloomerang CRM adds the column to your report.

Manually Add Columns

To manually add a column:

  1. Create or edit a report.

  2. Click Columns.

  3. In the Available Columns list, find the column to add. You can do either of the following:

    • Enter part of the column name in the Search Columns text box.Keyword search for a column

    • Click a category, such as Constituent, to show the columns in that category.Expand a column category

  4. Click Add next to each column you want. The column moves to the Active Columns list.

  5. Drag a column to move it.

  6. When you’re done adding columns, click Apply.

Edit Columns

Edit Columns with Conversational Reporting

Drag a column to move it.

To edit a column with conversational reporting:

  1. Create or edit a report.

  2. In the How You'd Like to Adjust This Report text box, describe edits for one or more columns.

  3. Click Refine Report. Bloomerang CRM makes those changes to your report.

  4. Click OK.

Manually Edit Columns

To manually edit a column:

  1. Create or edit a report.

  2. To rename the column:

    • Click the column.

    • Enter a new Column Name.

    • Click Apply.

  3. To change the column type:

    • Click the column.

    • Select the Type.

    • Click Apply.

  4. To remove a column from this report:

    • Hover over the column name.

    • Click More Options (the three vertical dots).
      ​More Options hover-over button (three vertical dots)

    • Select Delete.

  5. To change the type of data a column shows, click the column and select the data type. Examples:

    • For columns that show a monetary value, you can click Totals Row and change the value to Sum, Minimum, Maximum, or Average.Total Row setting for a transaction column

    • For columns that show address values, you can click Type and change it to Primary, Home, Vacation, or Work.
      ​Type setting for an address column

Sort by Column

You can sort reports by one column. Reports automatically sort based on the type of report:

  • Constituent: Sorts alphabetically by name

  • Transaction, Interaction, or Note: Sorts from latest to earliest date

  • Task: Sorts from earliest to latest date

To sort a report by a column:

  1. Create or edit a report.

  2. To use conversational language, in the How You'd Like to Adjust This Report text box, describe the sort order and click Refine Report.

  3. To manually sort, hover over the column and do one of the following:

    • To sort from the smallest to largest value (A to Z, 0 to infinity, and earliest to latest date), click the up arrow next to the column name.
      ​Up hover-over button

    • To sort from the largest to smallest value (Z to A, infinity to 0, and latest to earliest date), click the down arrow next to the column name.

Group by Column

When you add or edit a column, you can choose to group the report by that column. When a report is both grouped and sorted, results are sorted within each group.

Group by Column with Conversational Reporting

To group a report by column with conversational reporting:

  1. Create or edit a report.

  2. In the How You'd Like to Adjust This Report text box, describe how to group the report by a column:

    • If you're adding a column, ask something like, "Add the Giving Level column and group the report by that column.

    • If you're editing an existing column, ask something like, "Group this report by the Giving Level column."

  3. Click Refine Report. Bloomerang CRM groups your report.

Manually Group by Column

To manually group a report:

  1. Create or edit a report.

  2. Click the column.

  3. Click Group by Column.

  4. In the Sort By list, select one of these options:

    • By Value: Sorts alphabetically, numerically, or by rank.

    • By Number of Items in Group: How many results are in each group.

  5. In the Direction list, select Ascending or Descending.

  6. (Optional) To show a summary row instead of all the results, click Collapse Group to One Row.

  7. Click Apply.
    ​Column grouping settings

  8. Click Apply. The column automatically moves to the left and becomes the first column in your report. The number of items in each group appears in parenthesis.

Remove a Column Grouping

To remove a grouping:

  1. Edit a report.

  2. To use conversational reporting to remove the grouping:

    1. In the How You'd Like to Adjust This Report text box, describe the grouping to remove.

    2. Click Refine Report.

  3. To manually remove the grouping:

    1. Click the first column.

    2. Click Remove This Grouping.

Filter Calculated Columns

You can use calculated columns to compare or calculate numbers. You can set up calculated columns for currency or number fields. You can also filter a calculated column to show part of that information. When you add the columns, they are automatically named after the calculation options you select.

For example, in a constituent report, you might want to know how much individual constituents gave for each year of the past three years. To set up your constituent columns, you add three transaction columns that show the sum of specific transactions. Next, you filter each column to only show transactions for a specific year. For each constituent, you understand how their giving has grown over the years.Three calculated transaction columns for fiscal year

To filter calculated columns:

  1. Edit a report.

  2. Click the column name for a column associated with a number or currency field.

  3. Set up the filters for the column. For example:

    1. For the Show The filter, select Sum.

    2. For the Of The Field filter, select Amount.

    3. For the From filter, select Specific Transactions.

    4. Include the Date filter and enter the Start and End dates.

    5. In the Date filter, click Apply to save the filter settings.Column with filters for a summed amount for one year

  4. (Optional) Click Group By This Column.

  5. Click Apply.

Add Constituent Columns to Transaction Reports

To add constituent details like a phone number, email, or mailing address to a transaction report:

  1. Edit a report.

  2. Click Columns.

  3. In the Available Columns list, do one of the following:

    • Expand the Constituent category.

    • Enter part of a column name in the Search Columns box.

  4. Next to each constituent column you want to show in your report, click Add.Constituent category and one constituent column in the Available Columns list

  5. Click Apply.

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