Basic principles of corporate report design
Reports produced in ERP systems; It directly determines both the external image and decision-making processes of the institution, from official documents such as invoices and delivery notes to income statements and cash flow summaries presented to the boards of directors. A successful report design; It should be connected to the correct data source (DataSet), be free from unnecessary visual clutter, fully comply with standard page sizes (A4, A5, Continuous Form) and should not shift in printing or laser printer prints.
Before starting the design process, it should be clarified which business need the report will meet, which filters it will work with (date range, branch, current code, etc.) and in which formats (PDF, Excel, Printer) the output will be consumed.
Report design layers and template components
The following table describes the basebands used in FastReport and modern ERP report design tools and the rules for their correct use:
| Band Name | Content and Function | Typical Area of Use | Design Rule and Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Report Title (Report) Title) | Cover/title area printed once at the very beginning of the report | Management summaries and corporate audit reports | Does not repeat on each page; appears at the top of the first page |
| Page Header | Corporate title repeated at the top of each page | Company logo, document number, date, current account information | Fixed height should be kept; table must contain column headers |
| Group Header | Sorting data according to a specific criterion (warehouse, VAT rate, etc.) | Grouping invoice items according to VAT rate | Relevant in the database query The field must be sequential with ORDER BY |
| Detail Field (Master Data) | Repeating row for each record coming from the database | Invoice and order items, stock transaction lines | Font size should be kept at 8-10 pt; text overflow must be resolved with 'WordWrap' |
| Group / Report Summary (Footer) | Area that calculates the final totals of groups and the report | Subtotals, VAT total, withholding and grand total payable | It should not only be a visual total, it should be calculated with functions such as Sum(Amount) |
| Page Footer | Footnote and page number printed at the bottom of each page | Bank IBAN information, legal footnotes, 'Page [Page#] / [TotalPages#]' | The printer should not extend beyond the margin (at least 5 mm) |
Variables, formula calculations and dynamic fields
Not every information to be shown on the report may come directly from the database table. Discount calculations in item lines should be calculated with the formulas `[Quantity] * [UnitPrice] * (1 - [DiscountRate] / 100)`; Currencies must be displayed with the `FormatFloat('#,##0.00 TL', [Amount])` formatting function.
By using the conditional coloring (Highlighting) feature, overdue receivables can be highlighted in red, and items whose stock level falls below the critical limit can be made conspicuous.
Barcode, QR code (QR) integration and export
Code128 or EAN13 barcode components should be added to logistics labels and delivery notes to ensure fast reading with handheld terminals. In e-Invoice and e-Delivery Note templates, a QR Code component in accordance with the Revenue Administration legislation must be added; UUID, invoice number, TIN, date and amount to be paid should be embedded in the QR code content.
After the design is completed, the template must be exported as PDF and Excel; It must be confirmed that the Turkish characters (ş, ğ, ı, İ, ö, ü) are not corrupted and the fonts are embedded into the PDF correctly.
Bu içerik genel bilgilendirme amaçlıdır. Mevzuat ve teknik sürüm bilgileri uygulama öncesinde resmi, güncel kaynaklardan doğrulanmalıdır.