Choosing a Custom Report Type

SBM provides a range of report types to choose from when creating a custom report. The following questions will help you decide which type of custom report to choose.

What data do you want your report to show?

Items assigned to me or someone else.
Listing reports are most commonly used for this purpose. Refer to Listing report. Another type of report which is used less frequently is the Details report. This report displays all of the item details for an item, instead of limited number of fields that display with the listing reports. See Details Reports for more information.
How many items are in each state or assigned to each person.
Distribution reports are used to see how items are distributed across different criteria, such as users or states. See Distribution Reports for the different distribution reports that are available.
How long items spend in each state.
Duration reports allow you to see how long items spend in a particular state. For example, you would use a duration report to determine the average time that items stay in a New state before they are assigned to a developer for work. For more information, see Time In State Reports. Another report type, which is less frequently used, is the State Change Report. This report calculates the exact time that each item spent in a particular state. See State Change Reports for details.
The rate at which items are being submitted or closed.
Trend reports provide historical totals or submittal rates of items over a specified time period. For example, you could use a trend report to look at the size of the backlog of items that have not been closed. This report would allow you to tell over time if you are closing more items than are being submitted. For more information, see Trend Reports.
Data from multiple tables

Most reports are run across only one primary table; however, both Multi-Table reports and Listing reports with Join conditions enable you to collect data across multiple tables. For more information, see Multi-Table Reports and Including Data from Related Items.
Show particular changes made to an item such as changes to particular field

Change History reports give details as to who performed changes to an item and what changes were performed. For example, you would use a Change History report to find all of the changes made by a particular user. You would set the User Making Change to the user name in the Search Filter options. For details, see Change History Reports.
Show items that have been deleted

Deleted Items reports enable you to see which items have been deleted. These items no longer appear in other types of reports since they are neither active nor inactive. For details, see Deleted Items Reports.
Source control information with a connector such as SourceBridge

Use the Version Control Actions Report to create reports on data stored in the VCACTIONS table by your version control plug-in. For details, see Version Control Actions Reports.