The Consultant's Corner: Reporting with Laserfiche

Welcome to this month’s issue of the Consultant’s Corner, focused on using Laserfiche as a reporting tool. Cities Digital’s Consultant, Kyle Knebel, System Architect and Trainer addresses a variety of questions surrounding how Laserfiche can be an effective tool for generating reports.

In today’s fast-paced digital environment, operational efficiency is key to business success. Laserfiche Reporting gives organizations the ability to be proactive, identifying inefficiencies and planning for the future. Laserfiche’s extensive reporting capabilities are helping organizations drive business innovation through the use of reporting tools, performance analytics, and customizable dashboards. Understanding Laserfiche’s reporting tools and how organizations can benefit is a great place to begin our conversation with Kyle.

Can you explain the most beneficial reporting features available with Laserfiche?

Laserfiche is full of reporting features and capabilities. Kyle lists some of the most beneficial features available to Laserfiche users.

• Repository Searches

• Permissions Reports

*Example of a “User Effective Access Rights Report”, which was run against documents in a folder:

• Metadata reports

• Workflow/Business Process Reporting

• Forms reporting

• Records Management / File Plans

• Audit Trail reporting

What advantages does reporting in Laserfiche provide to organizations?

There are many ways that leveraging Laserfiche Reporting can improve the operations of an organization. Kyle explains that “Reporting can provide Laserfiche System Administrators, users, management staff, as well as executives, with information about the repository, its history, system health, and overall business process metrics happening in the Laserfiche system.”

What modules are needed to use reporting in Laserfiche?

Laserfiche offers reporting capabilities in nearly all of its modules, equipping organizations for success at many levels. Kyle briefly details Laserfiche modules and some of the reporting options available within each of them.

• Laserfiche Web Client 10.2 and Laserfiche Windows Client 10.3 can provide metadata and permissions reporting.

• Laserfiche Forms Essentials or Professional allows for the creation of custom reports regarding Forms Business Processes.

• Laserfiche Audit Trail allows managers to generate reports about document history, user activity, and system configuration changes.

• Laserfiche Records Management Edition allows records managers to generate File Plan reports, records ready for cutoff or disposition, and vital records review.

• Laserfiche Workflow and Workflow Web allow for reporting on individual or aggregate workflow performance, as well as instance history.

How granular are the reporting features within Laserfiche?

Laserfiche reporting appeals to users at all levels because of the extensive versatility offered with its components. Kyle shares that, “Laserfiche reporting, no matter the product, allows for a wide range of selectable metrics. Almost all reporting tools provide a means for filtering the results by various criteria like date, user, application, metadata, and more.”

Is it possible to generate reports automatically in Laserfiche? Please provide some examples.

The simple answer is, yes. In general, automation is a priority for many Laserfiche users and finding ways to use the reporting tools Laserfiche offers more effectively increases efficiency. Kyle outlines a few examples of how Laserfiche automates reports. 1.

• Laserfiche Forms - According to Kyle, “Laserfiche Forms is one product where it is possible to configure a report that runs automatically. It’s a new feature called ‘Schedule a Report' that is now available in Forms 10.3. Snapshots are generated from a custom report, which can be set to run on a schedule and can even be automatically emailed.”

• Laserfiche Web Client - He says, “The Laserfiche Web Client quick access list allows records managers to ‘automatically’ generate reports of records eligible for cutoff or for disposition, and vital records that are ready for review. The reports are pre-configured, the records manager just has to click a button.”

• Workflow Designer - “Workflow Designer allows for the creation and saving of reports,” Kyle suggests, “although it has no facility to automatically run them. It is called a Workflow Statistics report. They can be generated from the Windows Workflow Designer under the file menu at Workflow>Create Workflow Statistics Report. The same report is found when you select Search, then you can define the criteria and Save it as a custom search.”

Web:

Designer:

Laserfiche reporting gives users the ability to recognize operational inefficiencies and improve business processes. What types of reports could be used to identify bottlenecks and hidden opportunities?

When it comes to identifying reports specifically aimed at detecting inefficiencies, Kyle explains. “Page reports and Entry reports within Laserfiche Audit trail are commonly used reports, especially when viewed as a chart. These reports can highlight where users or groups are producing high levels of intake, or where low document/page intake levels are found. The report could show that at certain times of the day there are different levels of activity, possibly highlighting operational or training issues.”

If an organization is running a report regularly, is it possible to create a template of that report and even share it with others?

Laserfiche has options for users to configure reports that can be saved and shared. Kyle says, “For those using Laserfiche Audit Trail, configured reports can be saved and shared with other permitted users. These users don’t even have to be licensed Laserfiche users, but simply a member of a Windows Active Directory domain.

For custom reports built in Laserfiche Forms, ‘the sky is the limit’ or so they say! Any custom report can be scheduled and a copy can be emailed to any recipient, or list of recipients if desired.”

How are reports displayed and do you need to have a Laserfiche license to view a report?

Reports are displayed typically in tables, graphs or spreadsheets. Kyle states that “Some reporting, like permissions and metadata reporting in the Laserfiche Windows/Web Client, do require a Laserfiche License.” He says, “ However, many of these reports can be emailed to recipients who do not have a Laserfiche license. Reports within Forms are configured by a licensed user but can be emailed to anyone. Laserfiche Audit Trail can be configured to provide access to specified users on the company domain, without needing a Laserfiche license.”

In your experience, what are the most common reports that customers are using?

Kyle provided a list of some of the most common reports that Laserfiche Customers are using they include:

• Audit Trail: session reports (who has logged into Laserfiche over the last week, month, year)

• Audit Trail: document’s created/pages scanned reports (productivity reports by user or department or date)

• Audit Trail: metadata updated to a specific value

• Forms: Operational reports (Key Performance Indicators)

• Forms: business Process reporting (delays in processing, phase/stage reporting)

• Records Management: 5 key reports (Ready for Cutoff, Closed or Frozen, Ready for Disposition, Event, Vital Record review)

• Workflow: Instance reporting (Terminated today/Terminated this week)

What are the recommended best practices for generating reports in Laserfiche?

Kyle offers three best practice recommendations for generating reports in Laserfiche.

1. Think about the future – “ Incorporate future reporting needs into business process design and make reports part of your go-live requirement.”

2. Start early – “Develop meaningful reporting early in a project’s lifespan.”

3. Evaluate the audience – “Create reports for different consumers, like End Users, Managers, or Executive level staff.”

Laserfiche reporting offers organizations the ability to create data-driven business solutions based on factual charts and visualizations. Using Laserfiche reporting can positively impact organizational efficiency and promote future innovations. If you need help generating reports with Laserfiche, contact the Cities Digital Consulting Team.