Create Reports - Custom Reporting

The information available on the currently selected company is displayed in a number of separate pages within the Company Details section of Mergent Online. The Create Reports facility enables you to collect together a selection of these pages into a formatted report. These reports can then be viewed on the screen or downloaded for separate viewing or printing.

The reports can be generated in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel or Adobe Acrobat PDF format. The Excel format is, of course, most suitable for numeric/financial data. The Word and PDF formats can be used for all data forms. You will need the appropriate software installed on your computer to view these report formats.

Note (Technical) The Word format report is actually in RTF format and so can be viewed in any version of Word. The Excel format report is in CSV format and can be viewed in any version of Excel. This also means that these reports can be opened in any other program that understands these formats. The PDF format report can be viewed in any version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Reports can be built in three ways:

1. Custom Report. Here you select the individual pages that will make up the report
2. Pre-defined Report. Here you select one or more ready built report formats from a list
3. Company Analysis Report. Here you can create a report that compares a selected company with selected industry criteria or with the companies in the Company Analysis List

The Custom Report page is always shown first. See Pre-defined Reports and Company Analysis Reporting for further details on those pages.

The process of building a Custom Report consists of selecting the pages you wish to appear in the report. Company Detail sub-pages are single pages that are selected using check boxes. The same is true of the News and Research, and the Analysis pages of Company Financials. The left part of the Custom Reporting page allows you to select the pages required from these.

Most of the sub-pages of Company Financials have drop down lists where various options can be selected. This is reflected in the Financial Statements block in the middle part of the Custom Reporting page. Here, though, one extra feature is available: individual years can be chosen as well as the groups of years that are available in the Company Financials pages.

A custom report can also be generated for selected members of the current Company Analysis List. The procedure for this is given below.

To build a custom report

1. If necessary, choose the Reset button to clear any previous settings you may have made.
2. In the Company Details and Research & News groups, set the check boxes for the pages you wish to include in the report.
3. In the Financial Statements group, set the check box for the type of financial you wish to include.
   You can set several check boxes if you want them to all have the same options.
4. Select the style of presentation from the first drop down list.
5. Select Annual or Quarterly values from the second drop down list.
6. Select the reporting currency required from the Currency drop down list.
7. To report on a contiguous group of years, choose the Period radio button.
   The Period drop down list will be displayed.
8. From the Period drop down list, select the number of years required.
9. To report on individual years, choose the Years radio button.
   The Year(s) list box will be displayed.
10. From the Year(s) list box, select the year or years required.
    Select multiple years by using SHIFT to select a contiguous group or ALT to select individual years.
11. Select the scale required from the Scale drop down list.
12. Choose the Add Item button to add the selections made to the Financial Items list box.
13. To remove an unwanted item from the Financial Items list box, select it and choose the Remove Selected Item button.
14. To remove all the items added so far, choose the Clear All button.
15. Repeat steps 3. to 14. for any other pages and options required.
16. When ready, choose Create Company Report to start the report generation process.
    This will display a request for the report format required.
17. Select the radio button for the report format you want.
18. Choose Create Report.
    This will display the report on the screen using the appropriate program.

Note Reporting of financial data in PDF format. When up to three years of data are requested, the table is displayed in portrait orientation on the page. When four or more years are requested, the table is displayed in landscape orientation to improve readability.

To report on the Company Analysis List

1. Build the required report using steps 1. to 15. of the above procedure.
2. Choose Create Multiple Company Report
   or
   Choose the Here link at the right of the page.
   This will display a list of the companies in the current Company Analysis List and a request for the report format required.
3. Clear the check boxes of the companies you do not want to include in the report.
4. Select the radio button for the report format you want.
5. Choose Create Report.
   This will display the report on the screen using the appropriate program.