What is saved report history?

Divemaster

I see this box checked by default when changing a report, titled Save Report History. What is this a copy of the actual report saved somewhere or a copy of the report parameters saved somewhere? And where do I go to look at the Saved Report History? Can I delete the Saved Report History? I have always run many reports, bit don't really want to save the reports or parameters used to save past reports.

Jim_Harman

The decision to save an old report should depend on whether you intend to run it again with the same settings.

The history might be useful if you have set specific Categories, Accounts, or date ranges for example and you want to be able to recall the report. You might also want to save the history if you are experimenting with different settings and you want to be able to go back to an earlier version.

Note that you are saving the SETTINGS for the report, not the data, so if your historical data changes, the saved report will also change. If you want to save the report as run on a particular date, you should save a PDF copy of the report. 

Sherlock

If you haven't already, I suggest you review the built-in documentation on the topic: press F1

Divemaster

Thanks, I see that I have a lot of history as I modify one report to make another with different name. Should a person delete those old reports to keep things cleaner? It doesn't tell you the date report was generated, I would assume the newest is at bottom of history list? However I played around and deleted the first in list and report went completely away. Could play around and delete reports in middle of long list and report stared in my list of available reports. Wasn't a big deal losing reports as I had backup on USB. I just like to keep things clean and get rid of junk.

Sherlock

Divemaster said:

Thanks, I see that I have a lot of history as I modify one report to make another with different name. Should a person delete those old reports to keep things cleaner? It doesn't tell you the date report was generated, I would assume the newest is at bottom of history list? However I played around and deleted the first in list and report went completely away. Could play around and delete reports in middle of long list and report stared in my list of available reports. Wasn't a big deal losing reports as I had backup on USB. I just like to keep things clean and get rid of junk.

It's really up to you.  If you don't find the history to be useful, you may save each report without its history or you may delete entries one at a time.  They really don't consume much space.

Jim_Harman

The decision to save an old report should depend on whether you intend to run it again with the same settings.

The history might be useful if you have set specific Categories, Accounts, or date ranges for example and you want to be able to recall the report. You might also want to save the history if you are experimenting with different settings and you want to be able to go back to an earlier version.

Note that you are saving the SETTINGS for the report, not the data, so if your historical data changes, the saved report will also change. If you want to save the report as run on a particular date, you should save a PDF copy of the report. 

Divemaster

Thanks, it took awhile but figured that out. All these years I just never looked that close at reports and saved history.

Divemaster

Yes Sherlock, that is what I did and cleaned up my reports as I was doing it. Also, cleaned up accounts and categories. All must be well as it passed a super validate.