TOPIC: More robust reporting and accessible from front end

This is a plug for better reporting in DT Register. I made similar suggestions on one of the training webinars but I don't think Nathan thought it was important.

These are some suggestions:
While the export CSV option is useful and the fact that you can save your settings from session to session helpful I still think there is a need for 'saved' reports.

For example in some events there are different people/groups handling billing, customer service and event management in general. As a result for us we run 2,3 different reports

1. For the accountant which only has payment, transaction, basic contact info
2. Support/Setup that has group info, meal choices, personal preferences, comments, etc. This has no information from report #1
3. Comprehensive report that has #1 and #2 combined, maybe with a couple of fields removed.

We run these reports everyday. So what is saved from session to session does not help and we have to check/uncheck options each time. It would be so helpful if we could save #1, #2 and #3 as custom reports.

What would also be an extremely helpful enhancement would be to have this done from the front end. To have the accountant run a report (and have to manouver the entire Joomla! backend is an exercise in frustration).

So a more general architectural suggestion would be to decouple DT Register management from the Joomla! back end. Please consider, as once you install the component, there is no real need for event administrators to know anything about Joomla! administration. In my opinion everything from an event management perspective can be done from the front end using Joomla!'s front end groups setup. Yes this is a paradigm shift but just think about it for a moment.

These are just some suggestions to an otherwise very competent project.

Thanks,

-- Richard

I'd like to add my request for saved reports. With my group, several people need reports of different portions of the data. Some are definitely non-techies who would like an easy way to get "their" report without having to weed through others.

Thanks!

interesting that, I thirdy this, actually the same boat we are in, the accountant is lost because we use Simply accounting and he is not web savvy to use the back end nor does the CSV export utility do everything we require. We are using Simply Accounting and we need a way, if not integration, at least a way to be intuitive for the the accountant to have more customizable records and created the accounting entries accordingly. Also the program manager needs a class list and she doesn't like Excel nor the limitations therein.

Let me add my support for a front end for DTRegister. We have several groups setting up events that right now, only an admin can enter. That's a colossal pain for the admin so that's a yea baby from me!
The second part is the reporting from the registration. You need a report for the front end that will pull up to the minute (give or take) reports for who is registered for what, paid, etc. We often have public events where people register all the time up to the event and trying to manage sending csv reports to people here an there around GA is just not feasible.
Just providing front end access to the current Reports would be a major leap forward for us.
The component is very stable for us but lacks a couple of big things that would make it unbeatable.
I get the economics of building it in but why not add it as a plugin like google calendars? That would make it a win win for all of us.

STUCKSHUTTER - frontend management for DT Register has been available for a long time now... including the CSV Export tool. There is little remaining that is only accessible on the backend admin. The built-in permissions structure allows you to set which user groups (or individual users) have access to each part of DT Register... and they can only have access (if set this way) to events, records, locations, etc that they are the named owner of. I'm assuming you are using a very old version or maybe still in Joomla 1.5.

I'll add my vote for some sort of reporting feature for DT Register, Front end or Back End. The CSV export does give us the data, but we have to manipulate and reorder it each time we want a report. A simple report of registrants, payments, and a few other options would be a great help.

Thanks for a good component.

Sam Drew