Duplicating Reports To Save Time

Duplicating Reports To Save Time

If you need to create several Reports in Action Network capturing similar information it can save a lot of time to simply duplicate and amend Reports rather than creating a new one each time. In this guide, we'll go through how to quickly duplicate reports to save time.
This guide assumes you're already comfortable with setting up Reports and using the Query Builder, and that you have an existing Report set up that you're able to duplicate. If you'd like more help with this why not check out these guides first?
  1. Using The Action Network Query Builder
  2. Useful Queries To Make Campaigning Easier
  3. How To Set Drag & Drop For Email, And Query Mode For Reports As Your Default

Duplicating & Amending Reports

1. First head to People in the Start Organising menu bar, move your cursor over the Reports menu option and click on the list icon to the right.


2. On the following page look for the Report you want to duplicate. In this example I'll be creating Reports to show Action Network administrators for each of the regional parties and Wales. I've already created a Report which targets North West Green Party administrators.


3. To the right of the report name you will see a couple of icons. The first list icon will take you to the results of your report, the two overlapping squares represent the duplicate function, the square with a pencil icon is the edit button and the eye icon is the hide button. As we're duplicating this Report we just need to click on the two overlapping squares.



4. You'll be taken to the Report builder, and will see that the Report name has been set to Copy of the original Report name. Give it a name that reflects the purpose of this report.



5. Once you've given your Report a unique name, scroll down to the Query Builder. You'll see that the Query matched exactly that of your original Report.



6. In this example as I'm creating Reports targeting the different regions, and Wales, I'll simply amend the value of the Regional_Party filter. Here I'll start with Wales.



7. Now that the filter has been amended we can click on the button marked SAVE & SELECT DATA.



8. As we're duplicating a Report there's no need to amend the Fields on the following page, so you can simply click the button marked SAVE & GET RESULTS.



9. Your Report will now recalculate before displaying the refreshed results.



Duplicating Reports From The Results Page

You'll notice on the Results page there's a button marked Duplicate This Report under the Report title. You can also use this button to create a duplicate Report, so you don't need to go back to the list of Reports each time. Clicking this button will take you straight to Step 4 in the above guide.



Your Report URL

When you create a Report in Action Network from scratch the URL of your report will be taken from your Report name. So the URL for the original Report used above would be https://actionnetwork.org/reports/north-west-green-party-action-network-admins. When duplicating a Report the URL is also copied, so the report for Wales would have the URL https://actionnetwork.org/reports/north-west-green-party-action-network-admins-2. This doesn't affect the report at all, but may cause confusion if sharing the Report link with somebody else.

How Can I Use Duplicated Reports?

Given the number of Fields, Tags, and targeting options available there are myriad uses of duplicated Reports. Here are just a few:
  1. Creating Ward Lists: Filter on the Ward Field Value and create a report for each Ward within your local party boundary.
  2. Create Reports For Each Member Status: Using the Membership_Status field break down your membership numbers into Current, Pending & Grace. You can even create a report of Cancelled members.
  3. Split Your Reports Into Subscribed/Unsubscribed Activists: Using the Email Subscription Status checkboxes at the bottom of the Query builder you can create one report to show Subscribed activists, and a duplicate which shows all of those Unsubscribed.
  4. Swap Include For Exclude: Perhaps you have a Query that targets everyone with a local_party value that matches your local party name. Change the Include to Exclude to get a report which shows everyone who isn't in your local party area.

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