Reporting An In-Depth Guide

Overview Two main modules Other reports throughout software Reporter Messages Extended Reports System configuration Combinations Other reports throughout software A very important part of an Access Control System is that every event in the system is recorded in the database. Being able to access those events in a useful and concise manner is very important for many parts of an organization that may use the data for different purposes. For this purpose there are two reporing applications in While most people think of an Access Control system as mainly for security, there can be many other valuable uses such as time and attendance (only paying people for the time they actually worked) and resource control (charging someone each time they enter into the cafeteria). Of course there are many security applications that use reporting such as incident investigation and tracking movements of particular users.

Reporter Select message types and desired objects The main module for reporting is Reporter which allows access to all the historical events that have occurred in the system. Remember that only the messages stored in the database are available. If messages have been deleted in order to shrink the database, they can’t be retrieved by Reporter. The main configuration screen is the Filter for the report. Using the intuitive drill-down interface, first the type of messages desired can be selected. This is a list of every possible message in the system. Type, group or individual message can be selected. Next the objects from which the selected messages originated are selected. Be careful to select message types and objects that match. An access grant message cannot be generated from an alarm point for example!

Reporter, cont. Results can be filtered further with time and card information The report filter can be further enhanced by adding time restrictions or information about cardholders. Again, remember that if filtering by cardholder information it will only apply to access type events.

Reporter - Options The format of reports can also be customized for columns included, sorting, color, format, etc. Report configurations can be saved and retrieved to be again.

Reporter – Command Line Pre-configured reports can be run from the command line to print or export on a schedule (Windows tasks) Can be used for integration Once reports have been configured in Reporter, they can be run automatically by calling them from the command line. In addition to automating the execution, this can be a part of a larger scripting operation that emails the reports or imports them to other third-party systems.

Extended Reports Preconfigured reports Extended Reports is a collection of pre-configured reports that can be quickly executed to see information about configuration of the system as well as event information. Configuration reports allow display of all cardholders with a specific access level, or all cardholders that have access to a particular readers. Reports for configuration of time zones or system hardware are other examples. Event reports allow viewing of access for a particular reader or a particular cardholder. Also included are Time and Attendance reports which will display the hours on site for cardholders based on IN/OUT events and reports about visitors on site.

Extended Reports Scheduled Reports Command Line Time and attendance reports can be scheduled to be printed or saved at regular intervals. Extended Reports must be running in the background for this to happen.

Application Reports Don’t forget many reports can be generated on the fly in different modules. Cardholder Configuration lists can be filtered and printed for very useful reports. In Alarm Mode there are mustering reports and cardholder trace reports.

Custom Reports Directly from database Custom applications Reporting options don’t stop at what is included in APACS. The database can be accessed directly in order to make custom reports for display on webpages or in creating custom output such as with Crystal Reports.