SMS|Host includes hundreds of predefined reports - over 425 just from the primary Reports menu alone – many of which offer a dozen or more prompts resulting in untold thousands of permutations. All of these choices have evolved and grown over the years because properties found them useful in response to different circumstances. Happily, the majority can be saved with one or more combinations to be run at the touch of a button or embedded in your Automated Night Audit.
The advent of the <Favorite> reports button and introduction of a personal Home Screen has enabled users to gather and quickly access the reports on which they rely most often. While these features have eclipsed that earlier functional aspect of Report Groups, their other primary purpose of ensuring accuracy and maintaining security remains important today.
Three-character Report Group codes enable properties to develop sets of reports for utilization by one or more users by linking them to their User Clearances, thereby reducing the potential for inadvertently selecting an incorrect option. Conversely, access can be restricted to reports that contain sensitive or confidential information. Properties can designate reports that include guest’s Personally Identifiable Information (PII), group or corporate account financials, Owner rental program details, etc. as being available only to users with the appropriate clearance.
Groups can be created to reflect job roles, departmental responsibilities or any other classification strategy that fits a property’s procedures. While a single iteration of a report with stored parameters can be linked to only one Report Group, the basic definition (from the Setup Reports Menu) of every report on the Reports menu can be linked to as many as three. User’s without clearance for those Report Groups will not be able to see the reports on the menu.
One approach that a property might take could be to identify all reports that are not relevant to their operations and place them in a Report Group to which no one is provided access. These reports would then disappear from the Reports menu. While the time required to set this up would not be insignificant, the results should be well worth the effort. Once the list of unneeded reports has been determined, the actual data entry through the Report Definition menu can be very quick.
Developing and deploying a report management strategy is something that every property can embrace and the results will be appreciated by all users. Details for configuring the Report Group codes can be found on the HelpSite in SMS|Host by pressing <F1> on your keyboard and searching for Report Groups.
Next time, we will take a look at the powerful Rental Program codes and how they can be used by every property to subdivide their unit inventory into meaningful reporting segments.
