Customise reports and layouts

Sage Report Designer contains several features designed to help you design reports and layouts in Sage 50 Accounts.

Below, you can find an introduction to the Report Designer desktop, and a summary of commonly used features.

To open Report Designer, we recommend selecting the report or layout you want to amend, then click Edit.

To view information about the different areas of the Report Designer desktop, hover your mouse pointer over the required area in the below image.

Menu	The menu bar allows you to control the report or layout and carry out most functions in Report Designer. Report designer - the menu bar.
Report explorer	The Report Explorer pane shows the structure of your report, including all the pages, sections and items. Report designer - the report explorer.
Properties	The Properties menu allows you to change the properties of a selected object, or the report or layout as a whole. Report designer - the properties pane.

Open and save your report or layout	When you create your own reports and layouts, we recommend that you edit an existing report or layout. This saves time compared to creating a report from scratch. Open and save your reports and layouts.
Rename a report	You can use Sage Report Designer to change your report name. This helps to locate your report when you want to run it.
Email settings	You can send reports and layouts by email through Microsoft Outlook or webmail. Add email settings to a document.

Change page setup options	You can use the Page Setup option in Report Designer to change settings, such as page size, orientation and margins. Amend the page setup options, paper size and default printer settings on reports.
Print adjustments	You can adjust the output to ensure that your report or layout prints correctly on a particular printer. Report designer - printer offsets.

Images	Add an image to your layout, for example your company logo. Report Designer - Add an image or logo to a document.
Text boxes	Add a text box to your report or layout, for example to display your payment terms or bank details.
Variables	You can add most fields held in Sage 50 Accounts and show them on your layout. Report Designer - Add a data field or variable to a document.
Expressions	Expressions are calculations that produce values on your report or layout. For example, adding two values together. Report Designer Expressions and Functions.
Lines and Boxes	Customise your layout further by adding lines and boxes. Report Designer - Add a line or a box to a document.

Moving and resizing objects	If required, you can move, resize or align an object you’ve added. Report Designer - move, align, resize and centre objects.
Conditional Formatting	You can format objects based on specific conditions, to do this use conditional formatting. Report Designer - Basic conditional formatting.
Sorts	You can use Report Designer to reorder the data on your reports and layouts to best suit your needs. Add a sort to a document.
Groups	You can create totals for, summarise, or separate the data into more manageable sections. For example, grouping and totalling data by account reference. Report Designer - Add a group to a document.
Header and footers	Within Report Designer, the design page of your report or layout is divided into sections. The section in which you place an item determines where it appears on the report or layout. Report Designer - Add section headers and footers.
Functions	You can return data based on variables with existing expressions using functions. Report Designer - Functions.

Filters	Use Sage Report Designer to filter the information that appears on a report or layout. Report Designer - Create or edit a filter on a document.
Remove information	Using Report Designer, you can remove content from your reports and layouts. Report Designer - Remove information from your Sage document.
Criteria	Add or edit the criteria applied to your layout. Report Designer - Add selection criteria to a document.

Object properties	When you select an object, the properties pane will change to show options specific to that object. For example, you can amend date or time object properties , or amend the numeric formatting.
Sub reports	A sub report is a separate self-contained report that you can insert into a larger, primary report. Report Designer - To add a sub report to a document.
Bar codes	Use the Bar Code box to enter a bar code reference. You can print the bar code reference onto your report. Report Designer - To add a bar code to a document.

Use our menu bar article or one of the following articles to help you customise your layouts:

You can also search our help centre for other reporting topics.