How Filters Work

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Lynx allows you to produce literally thousands of different reports based on your own personal criteria. This is a very powerful feature because it allows you to customize the data in virtually any report in the system to fit your needs. The way this is accomplished is by the use of what are known as "filters".

Here's how these filters work and how they can work for you.

Reports are basically composed of two things:

1. The FORMAT . . . . which is what the report looks like when it's printed. This is (for the most part) predetermined and not changeable by you.
2. The CONTENT . . . which is the data to be included in the report. This is changeable by you by using the "filters".

After you select a report to print, you will usually get a "Format" window like this. This is where you have the option of telling the system what data to include in the report. This is done using the filters that are located in the grid at the bottom part of the window.

 

Using the filters is a two step process:

1. Check the box next to the data you want to filter.
2. Include a "FROM" value and a "THRU" value to define the range of data to be included in the report.

Here's the key point . . . When checked, only records that meet the criteria specified in the FROM and THRU fields will be included in the report.

You can use multiple filters in the same report. But remember that filters work in combination with each other. That is, ALL of the filter criteria MUST be met for the data to be included in the report. For instance, if you're using four filters, then each record must meet the criteria of all four filters (not just one or two or three out of four ). If they don't meet all four, the data will not be included.

If you're not getting any data to come out on your report, it's probably because you're using too many filters. Start over by un-checking all of the boxes and work from there.   

 

Here's an example of how filters work:

Let's say you want to print a Customer Summary Report but you only want to see those customers between account number 1000 and 2000. In addition, you only want to see active accounts. The filters would look like this:

 

In other words, what the filters are telling the system is to find (and print) only those customers with account numbers between 1000 and 2000 but only if they are active.

• If the account number is between 1000 and 2000 but they are not active, they will not print.
• If the account is active but the account number is not between 1000 and 2000, they will not print.
• Both conditions must be true for the data to be included in the report.

Since nothing else is checked, no other criteria will be used to filter the data to be included in this report..

If you DO NOT check any box (in other words, no filters), then all of the data will print. In the example above, this means ALL of your customers will print if you don't check anything.