The reports you have
The seven report screens in your workspace and the PDF report you can generate: what each one counts, which ones carry filters, and why their figures are not meant to be added together.
The Reports module gives you seven report screens and one PDF generator. Each screen answers a different question and counts something slightly different, so the first thing worth knowing is which is which.
Reports home
The home page opens with a filter bar (a from date, a to date and a programme), six figures across the top, three charts, and then one card for every report. Each card carries a View report button and a Download CSV button, so every report can be read on screen or taken away as a file.
- Individuals registered, meaning how many individuals were added to your register.
- Unique individuals reached, meaning each person counted once, however many activities they took part in.
- Services delivered, meaning every attendance record, so a person who attended ten sessions counts ten times.
- Active programmes and Active projects, meaning those whose status is Active.
- Activities in period, meaning the activities that fall inside the dates you chose.
The three charts show reach over time by month, reach per programme, and the gender split of the people reached. They follow the same filter bar as the figures. A later topic in this chapter covers the downloads on their own.
Beneficiaries by status
This screen gives you one row for each status, with a count and the share of the register as a percentage, ordered with the largest group first.
Because it groups the register itself, each person appears exactly once. This is the one screen in the module that is genuinely a count of people. Each row links through to the register filtered to that status, so you can always see who sits behind a number.
Beneficiaries per program
This screen gives you one row for each programme, with six columns: Total enrolled, Completed, Present, Absent, Late and Excused. Two different things are being counted in those six columns, and the difference matters.
| Columns | What they count |
|---|---|
| Total enrolled and Completed | Enrolment records: one for each person on each activity. |
| Present, Absent, Late and Excused | Session attendance records: one for each person at each session. |
So on a programme that ran many sessions, the last four columns can be far larger than the first two. Somebody who attended ten sessions of one activity is one enrolment and ten attendance records.
This screen also respects record level visibility. The totals include only the projects you are allowed to see, so two colleagues with different access can correctly see different totals for the same programme.
Attendance rate per activity
This screen gives you one row for each activity, with Present, Late, Absent and Excused, a Total, and a rate. The rate is present plus late, divided by the total.
Activities with no attendance records at all are left out of the report entirely, so an activity you expected to see and cannot find is usually one where nobody has been marked yet. Rows are ordered with the most recent activity first.
Programme M&E
This screen gives you one row per programme with its unique reach, the services delivered and the services per person, plus three totals across the top. It carries the shared filter bar, so the rows cover the period and the programme you chose.
Project summary
This screen gives you one row per project with its donor, budget, dates and reach against target. Its filter bar adds a status box to the usual from date, to date and programme.
Beneficiary participation
This screen lists one row per individual reached in the period, with the activities they attended and the services they received, twenty five to a page. Its filter bar adds a gender box. Because it names people, opening it is recorded in the workspace read log in the same way as an export.
Generating a PDF report
Generate report builds a branded PDF over a window and a scope you choose, either all programmes or one programme, with the sections you tick: programmes, activities, attendance, beneficiaries and indicators. A section you leave out is not computed at all. You can pick the report language and optionally enter an email address to receive a copy; the file downloads either way. Generating a report is logged as an export because it carries individual level reach.
Writing the report narrative
The figures say what happened; the narrative says what it meant. From Generate report, follow "Write or edit the narrative" to write an opening section for the PDF, for one programme or for the organisation as a whole. It is kept against that programme and that reporting period, so regenerating the same report picks the same text up again, and you can write it in any of the languages your workspace uses. Writing one is optional: "Skip" takes you straight back to the PDF.
Reading the numbers
Two kinds of screen count people once each: Beneficiaries by status, which groups the register itself, and the unique reach figures on Reports home, Programme M&E and Beneficiary participation, which count each person once however many activities they attended. Everything else on these screens counts enrolments, attendance records or services.
The practical rule that follows is a short one: do not add a column from one report to a column from another. They are not the same unit, and the sum means nothing.