Scheduling Crystal Reports

Save Report to Schedule

After creating the report that is to be scheduled, choose file -> Save As -> Enterprise Folder
1. This should prompt you for a login
2. Save the report to the appropriate department

Central Management Console

Database Configuration

Log in to the Central Management Console
Navigate from the main screen to Folders, and find in the directory the report you want to schedule
Right click the report and select Database Configuration
1. Under this window, there should be a drop-down menu tilted “When viewing and scheduling report:”; Set this option to be “Use same database logon as when report is run”.
2. This will require you to enter the credentials for the SQL server.
Click Update at the bottom of this window.
1. The report should now have the proper credentials to access the SQL server when it is scheduled to send the report.

Scheduling the Report

Right Click the report and select Schedule.

Instance Title

Instance Title allows you to utilize the same report for multiple different scheduled deliveries. For example, if you had the same dataset but wanted to schedule different filters for the data, you could use multiple instance titles.

Recurrence

Recurrence is where the schedule is built in terms of interval and time.

For a daily report that goes out at 6:00pm, the settings would look like this:

Some important things to note are the End Date/Time will default to being 10 years from when the schedule began being made.
The Number of Retries allowed means that if the report fails to generate and resolve, it can fail up to 2 more times before Crystal will give up.
The retry interval means that from failure, Crystal will wait the specified time before attempting to generate the report again.

Schedule For

Set Schedule Only for Myself

Notification

Not currently in use

Database Logon

Username and Password should automatically be applied to this tab.

Prompts

Not currently in use

Filters

Filters are used when you want to change the subset of data that you are placing in the report. For example, in one instance you might have 3C data, but for another you might want 3N from the same overall dataset. These filters are specific to each instance, so you are able to create multiple subsets of data for each report.

Formats

Defaults to crystal reports, ensure that the file type is usable by the recipient.
For excel spreadsheets, ensure that a data only option has been chosen as this will retain formatting from the report.
PDF will export the report to a PDF file.
1. If you want to know how a generated report will look to the recipient, you can choose the export option in the crystal reports toolbar.

Destinations

Defaults to “Default Enterprise Location”
Here is what an example Email Destinations tab would look like:

Some important things to note:
1. From: SCRReports@st-claire.org – This will be the address that the recipient sees.
2. To: This is the person that will be the recipient.
3. CC: Allows a person to be copied onto the email.
4. BCC: Allows a person to be hidden but still copied.
5. Subject: This is constructed using the Add Placeholder drop-down menu. These parameters will automatically get replaced when the report is generated. (If an encrypted email is needed, begin the subject line with #SECURE# before building the rest of the subject with the placeholders).
6. Message: This would be the body of the email when it gets sent.
7. Add Attachment should be selected to attach the report.
8. For the file name, ensure that Specific Name is selected, along with adding the file extension. Under the Add Placeholder drop-down menu, select Name, Time, and Extension to properly construct the file’s name.

Printing

To print the report as scheduled, you would leave the Destinations tab as the default (Default Enterprise Location).
Choose Print Settings.
Select Print Crystal reports when scheduling.
Specify the printer using the drop-down menu.

Viewing Scheduled Reports

Within the central management console, find the clock with an exclamation point in the left toolbar.
Choose instance manager, and select view scheduled instances.
This instance manager will allow you to filter the scheduled instances by pending, successful, and failed statuses.