Creating a Transaction Writer Report

You only need to define transaction reports once, and then you can run them at any time you want. A Transaction Writer report prints up to two 132 character transaction lines for each transaction. Use this procedure to create Transaction Writer reports.

Note: You need to define a report only once, but you can change the report layout at any time. Once defined, run the report at any time using GL256.

Access Transaction Writer (GL55.1).
Define basic report parameters using the Basic form tab. Use the following guidelines to enter field values:
Folder

You must select the folder where you want to store report information. Folders are defined in Folder (RW01.1). Folders store Transaction Writer reports and Report Writer reports. You can assign security to reports in a folder.

Column Spacing

You can type the number of spaces you want between columns. Column spacing is only applied to columns as they are added to a report.

If you leave this field blank, you can define the space between each column in the Space field in the Layout form tab. Use the Space field to override spacing indicated on the Basic form tab. If you leave both fields blank, no space is put between columns.

Column Heading

Select Manual or Automatic to indicate whether to manually define the two column heading lines at the top of the Layout form tab or if the system automatically creates the column headings. The default is Automatic. Automatic headings use the column heading defined in Attribute (MX00.1) for the attribute selected in the column defaults.

CSV Output

Select whether you want the output for the report to be a CSV (comma separated value) file. The default is No, which creates a 132-character wide report with up to two lines of detail for each transaction.

Search Method
Select how Transaction Writer searches for information about selected transactions.
- Accept the default, System Controlled, to let the program analyze the selected parameters and choose the most efficient search method.
- Select Account to use the company, accounting unit, and account parameters to find the initial set of transactions to include. Use this option if the report does not contain too many accounts.
- Select Analysis Codes to use analysis code values to find the initial set of transactions to include. To use this method, secondary selects must exist and each 'or' group must contain at least one user-defined attribute.
- Select Journal Header to use the journal header file to find the initial set of transactions to include. Use this option if the report select attributes are fields in the journal header file.
Report Currency

Select a Report Currency code for company groups or account unit lists.
Note: You can save a report after entering required information on the Basic and Sort form tabs.
Define the sort criteria for the report using the Sort form tab. You must define at least one sort criteria for each report.

Note: If you select a summary accounting unit, transactions are listed for all of the posting accounting units below the summary accounting unit.
Select the organizational levels, accounts, and subaccounts for which you want to list transactions on the Primary Values tab.

To narrow the report down further, define additional selection criteria using the Secondary Values tab. Use the following guidelines to enter field values:

Field: Select the attribute you want to include specific values for in the report. Select the specific attribute values in the Value Range field.
Value Range: You can include a specific range of attribute values in the report. Type the beginning value in the first value range field and the ending value in the second value range field.

Note: To include a negative amount in a value range field, the minus sign must follow the numeric value. For example, type 100.00-.
Or Group: You can select a value in the Or Group field to create conditional value statements. Use the Field and Or Group fields together to create conditional value statements.

The following table shows the type of conditional statement created depending on the values in this field and the Item field.


Field	Group Number	Statement
same	same	not valid
same	different	either/or
different	same	both/and
different	different	either/or

Having a field and group number that are the same is not a valid combination. For example, a transaction cannot have a transaction amount of $5,000 and a transaction amount of $7,000.

The following example shows how you can include a combination of conditions to select transactions with a status of Released (1) or Posted (9) in period 12.


Field	Value Range	Or Group
Trans Status	1-1
Acct Period	12-12	and
Trans Status	9-9	or
Acct Period	12-12	and

In this example, if you did not repeat the "and" statement for Acct Period after the "or" statement, the system would select released transactions in period 12 and posted transactions in any period.

To indicate which fields will be printed on the report and to define additional layout options such as report totals and page breaks, define options using the Layout tab. Use the following guidelines to enter field values:
(Column Headings)

If you selected Manual column headings on the Basic tab, type the column headings in the first two lines on the Layout form tab.

Line

This field identifies the line number you are including transaction data in. The default is line 1. You can include two lines in the report. The total width of the columns cannot exceed 132 characters.

Column Number

Type the column number for the line. You can include as many columns in each line as necessary.

Field

Select the attributes to include on the report for each transaction. There are Lawson-defined attributes in the application for all of the fields on a transaction. You must create user-defined attributes for the originating system values that you have assigned to each source code.

Column Width

Select the size of the column. If left blank, the field size defined for the attribute defaults. If you decrease the width of a column for an alphanumeric field, the characters at the end of the field will be truncated. You should not decrease the width of a numeric field because the characters at the beginning of the field will be truncated.

Count Total

Select Count Total to have the system count the number of records (alpha and date fields) or total the values in the field (numeric and signed fields).

Total Break

Select Total Break to print totals for this field. If you select Yes as the Total Break option, you must include the field in the Sort form tab.

Page Break

Select Page Break to have each field listed on a separate page. If you select Yes as the Page Break option, you must include the field in the Sort form tab.

Description Of
Select Description Of to print the description of the field instead of the code. For example, printing Cash-Checking instead of account 11100. You can also print the description of a status, such as released, instead of the code, such as 1. This is valid only for the following fields:
- Account
- Account Category
- Account Currency
- Accounting Unit
- Activity
- Company
- Currency
- Hold Code
- Journal Entry Number
- Journal Book
- Originating Company
- Source Code
- Subaccount
- System
- To Company
- Transaction Status
Field Dup

Select Field Dup to suppress duplicate values on sequential lines of the report.

Line Dup

Select Line Dup to suppress an entire line if it equals the previous transaction field values.

Align Head

Select Left, Right, Center, or None in the Align Head field to indicate how the heading aligns over the field values. The default is Left align for alpha and date fields, None for field descriptions, and Right align for other fields. If you use automatic headings, the headings will appear on the Layout form tab after the lines have been added so that you can view and change them before you produce the report.