Body: <p>I'd like to create reports on member retention and churn rates but seems I'm forced to create a report based on a template instead of defining it myself.</p>
  <p>Any suggestions on how to go about this?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-06-29T02:27:10.440Z
Comments.Text: can you outline the problems of basing it on a template?
Comments.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-06-29T03:35:20.607Z
Comments.Text: I'm used to working in CRMs such as ZoHo and SFDC where it's possible to create reports by selecting fields, defining totals and subtotals etc.  I'm just not seeing how to select multiple fields and to create a report that performs calculations - such as for the churn rate. None of the templates seem to offer this level of functionality.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ronald Jamieson
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-06-29T04:28:12.107Z
Comments.Text: Search kit (a built-in extension you can enable at Administer - System Settings - Extensions) will have this but it doesn't handle memberships fully yet. Or, if you're ok with writing php code you can copy one of the existing templates as a starting point into your own extension (https://docs.civicrm.org/dev/en/latest/extensions/) and turn it into your own template. Or consider something like https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/22537/connecting-power-bi-to-civi
Comments.UserDisplayName: Demerit
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-06-30T15:54:01.547Z
Comments.Text: Thanks for your suggestion. I'll check it out. However, I'm a user, not a coder, so I don't think writing php code is an option for me. Maybe someone in the CiviCRM community will take on the task of creating reports that offer diagnostics about organization memberships. I'm sure that would be something users would appreciate.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ronald Jamieson
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-07-15T04:00:32.843Z
Comments.Text: In cases where I need a more complicated report from CIVICRM data, I would download only the data in csv and generate the report using Excel.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Clement Leong
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-07-17T15:30:25.593Z
Comments.Text: Thanks for the suggestion, Clement. However, in my experience on multiple CRM platforms, one of the roles of CRM is to transform data into information without the need for writing separate code or downloading data to manipulate in Excel. Kind of defeats the purposed of CRM. I'm wo0rking with a client in Peru who wants to migrate from Excel spreadsheets to a CRM to get the benefits of a CRM. BTW, they're going with ZoHo CRM. I think CiviCRM needs more robust reporting built into it.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ronald Jamieson
Tags: <reports><custom-reports>
Title: Creating Ad Hoc Reports
ThreadText: # Creating Ad Hoc Reports
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2021-06-28)
  
  I'd like to create reports on member retention and churn rates but seems I'm forced to create a report based on a template instead of defining it myself.
  
  Any suggestions on how to go about this?
  
  **Tags:** reports, custom-reports
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: can you outline the problems of basing it on a template?  
  > **username_0**: I'm used to working in CRMs such as ZoHo and SFDC where it's possible to create reports by selecting fields, defining totals and subtotals etc.  I'm just not seeing how to select multiple fields and to create a report that performs calculations - such as for the churn rate. None of the templates seem to offer this level of functionality.  
  > **username_2**: Search kit (a built-in extension you can enable at Administer - System Settings - Extensions) will have this but it doesn't handle memberships fully yet. Or, if you're ok with writing php code you can copy one of the existing templates as a starting point into your own extension (https://docs.civicrm.org/dev/en/latest/extensions/) and turn it into your own template. Or consider something like https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/22537/connecting-power-bi-to-civi  
  > **username_0**: Thanks for your suggestion. I'll check it out. However, I'm a user, not a coder, so I don't think writing php code is an option for me. Maybe someone in the CiviCRM community will take on the task of creating reports that offer diagnostics about organization memberships. I'm sure that would be something users would appreciate.  
  > **username_3**: In cases where I need a more complicated report from CIVICRM data, I would download only the data in csv and generate the report using Excel.  
  > **username_0**: Thanks for the suggestion, Clement. However, in my experience on multiple CRM platforms, one of the roles of CRM is to transform data into information without the need for writing separate code or downloading data to manipulate in Excel. Kind of defeats the purposed of CRM. I'm wo0rking with a client in Peru who wants to migrate from Excel spreadsheets to a CRM to get the benefits of a CRM. BTW, they're going with ZoHo CRM. I think CiviCRM needs more robust reporting built into it.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 0 answers
  
  