Sorting and Grouping Data on Project Reports
Project reports provide better analysis if you use the Sorting/Grouping tab to organize the data correctly.
Sorting/Grouping by Project Number
For project reports with sorting and grouping options, you must select Project Number as a sorting and grouping criterion to see data for individual projects. By default, the first three levels of the work breakdown structure (WBS)--project, phase, and task--are selected on the Sorting/Grouping tab for all project reports except the Project Earnings report.
If you do not select Project Number as a sorting and grouping criterion, the report displays the group you do select, and all appropriate projects' details are grouped in the first row on the report.
When Not to Use Project Number as a Sort Criterion
Do not select the Project Number sort criterion if you want to see a higher-level summary report based on some other characteristic.
For example, to see how the principals of each organization are doing with their budgets, do the following:
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Display the Options dialog box for the Project Summary report, and click the Sorting/Grouping tab.
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Clear the Sort check box for Project Number, Phase Number, and Task Number.
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Select Organization and move it up to be the first-level sort.
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Select Principal-in-Charge Name and move it up to be the second-level sort.
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Make sure that no other sorting or grouping criteria are selected.
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Apply your changes and generate the report.
This Project Summary report displays a single line of data for each principal within each organization.
You can also clear the Sort check box for Project Number if you want to display all phase or task detail but not display project totals. For example, if the first task of every project is Administrative, the second task is Design, the third task is Engineering, and the fourth task is Architecture, you could focus on how well a task group is meeting profit-based goals, rather than on individual projects.
In this example, do the following:
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Open the Office Earnings report.
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Clear Sort for Project Number and Phase Number on the Sorting/Grouping tab, keep Task Number as the first-level sort, and clear Sort for any other criteria.
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Apply your changes and generate the report.
This Office Earnings report will then print one group for each of the four types of tasks.
To display detail and totals by organization on the same report, you could select Organization as the first-level sort, with Task Number as the second-level sort.
If You Clear Project, Phase, or Task on the Sorting/Grouping Tab
If you do not sort and group by project, phase, or task, we recommend that you also do not select project, phase, or task columns on the Columns tab. If you do, the report could display confusing results.
Project Level
If the sorting and grouping criterion is project-related and can be specified at any level of the work breakdown structure (WBS), use the Project Level column in the grid to specify the WBS level on which you want Vision to base the sorting and grouping. By default, Vision uses the WBS1 level.
For example, Principal Number appears only once in the list of sorting and grouping criterion for the Project Earnings report, but you can assign principals at each of the WBS levels. If you select Principal Number as a sorting criterion and you want to sort by the principal assigned at the project level of the WBS, select Project in Project Level. If you want to sort by the principals assigned at the phase level, select Phase in Project Level.
Totals for Compensation Fields and User-Defined Fields
If Vision is configured to allow entry of compensation amounts for a project at any level of the WBS, totals for compensation columns on a project report only include compensation amounts entered at the lowest level of the WBS selected for grouping on that report. For example, if the compensation amounts for a project are entered at the phase level only but you group the report data at the task level (the lowest WBS level), the report will not include the compensation amounts entered at the phase level.
If Vision is configured to require entry of compensation amounts at the lowest WBS level, this does not occur because Vision automatically calculates compensation amounts for higher WBS levels based on the amounts entered at the lowest level.
Similarly, totals for user-defined fields on a project report only include amounts entered in those fields at the lowest level of the WBS selected for grouping. The report does not include amounts entered at higher WBS levels.