Most clients have predictable reporting periods using monthly, quarterly, annual, fiscal annual, or 13 4-week periods. However, some clients have completely unpredictable reporting periods. Custom Date Ranges allow for a MSP to create an unlimited number of non-uniform date ranges for those clients whose reporting periods do not fall within the standard reporting periods on the system.
Custom Date Ranges can be used in Dragon, other reports, logs and anywhere there are date selectors. Once custom date ranges are set up, date selectors will use the "select a period and number of periods" method rather than setting start and end dates.
Accessing Custom Date Range Setup
You can access the Custom Date Range setup by selecting your client and searching the Quick Jump field from the Main Admin Page.
Figure 1
Once the MSP has created at least 1 Custom Date Range for a client, an additional link to the menu will now exist on the Client and Form Settings page.
Figure 2
Adding New Custom Dates
For a client without any defined Custom Date Ranges, the page will look like this.
Figure 3
Clicking on the 'Add New Custom Date' link will open up the Custom Date Administration page.
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All fields are required to create a valid entry. Start with creating a name for the Date Range and try to use a naming convention that is understandable to the end users. Enter a Start and End Date for the range. The range can be as wide as you like and the only limitation is that the Start Date must come before the End Date. The Date Range Types are 'Small', 'Medium' and 'Large' by default but these labels are editable on the Client and Form Settings page. And last, select the year in which this custom date range lies. Click the 'Add New' button to submit the entry.
Repeat the above steps to make as many custom date ranges as needed.
Custom Date Ranges are designed to be flexible but it does help to plan out how you want to organize them for the client. An example would be to make the 'Smalls' a Month, the 'Mediums' a Quarter, and the 'Larges' a Year.
Switching A Client To Use Custom Date Ranges
When you are finished, you should now be able to change the client's 'Type of Year' to 'Custom' on the Client and Form Settings page and submit the 'Save Changes' button. All the Date Selectors on Logs, Reporting, Dragon, etc. should switch over to using your new dates.
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