Report designer prototype
Made with Axure RP
The problem
One of the products I support in my current job as a Senior Technical Support Representative is Accounting CS, which provides accountants with a number of tools to add, view and track their data via reporting. One of the tools that is used often but tends to have many pain points is Report Designer. The Report Designer tool allows accountants to modify pre-made reports provided by Thomson Reuters, and create custom reports from scratch. One of the biggest pain points with Report Designer is getting the customer to the report that will get them what they need, or to a starting point that will require minimal customization when editing.
Our Solution
Our idea was to create a tool that directly pulls from the variables in the reports - based on parsing the database into a program coded by my coworker, and uses an accessible user interface that can utilize to narrow down the possible reports for their needs without having to generate each report. We wanted to create an experience for our users that was easier to decipher but provides more information than the current resource, a Help & How-To Center article that lists each report and gives a description and decided this would be best done with a tool that narrows results based on the selected variables.
The Wire frame
Step 1: Selecting Variables
I started by mocking up a wire frame to demonstrate how the process would work to our innovation and development teams.
This tool mimics the interface the accountants use within Accounting CS to provide a familiar experience without the need much instruction. Each tree represents a different section of the variables defined within Accounting CS and collapses completely to allow for the ability to quickly find the general area of report you want.
Step 2: Narrowing Results
After selecting a variable, it will be moved to the selected box, which then generates a list of reports containing that variable. It allows you to expand each report to view a description and a preview of the report on the right so you can see the layout and design of the report.
After selecting another variable without unselecting the current one, it will narrow the reports list to only reports containing all selected variables.
Summary
This tool should expedite the process for firms in deciding which reports they will need without the need for Technical Support and reduce the overall call volume surrounding Report Designer. It will also offer a better starting point for creating custom reports as they can find a similar report to launch their customization from based off the available variables.
I look forward to working with our development and innovation teams on implementing and designing this product to be something our customers can use for a better experience with a sometimes daunting subject. I will update this page when a final product has been released.