Report filters take a column of report data and narrow down the results that appear when the report is run. Your database still contains all of the data, and the report still pulls in all of the data, but filters allow you to be more selective in what the report shows at that given moment.

Follow the steps listed below to learn how to add a filter to your report.

Note: Before adding a filter, be sure you've pulled the necessary columns into your report. For example, if you want to filter on participants that were provided a service within a particular time period, ensure you've pulled in columns for participant data including a Service Date field from your Services form.

At the top of the report section, click the + icon to the right of the Filters area to open the Filter Properties window.

In the Rule dropdown field, you'll find a list of columns currently pulled into your report section and other searchable fields you can filter by. Select your desired field.

In this example, we want to filter for participants who received services within a particular timeframe by selecting 'Service Date'.

After choosing your column, another dropdown field for you to specify how you want to filter the data. The options available here depend on what type of data your column contains. For example, a date column will have different conditions to filter by compared to text columns.

Date Column

Text Column

We selected 'Is Between' in our report to later specify the start and end date of our desired timeframe.

Important: Avoid using the 'Does Not Contain' filter whenever possible in reports. This filter is very resource-intensive and can significantly slow down report performance. In the event that you wish to filter out test data or "fake" data, it's best practice to instead archive data that is no longer needed. This helps keep your reports running smoothly and quickly.

Depending on the criteria you selected, another field may appear in the Rule section of your Filter Properties. This field defines the values by which you want to filter the column.

For example, the 'Is Between' filter generates two fields for a user to enter two dates they want to see data within. Filtering data by 'This Year' or 'This Month', however, does not generate an additional field as the filter will run based on the year or month of today's date.

Below are the available options that allow you to further set up your filter.

Once you've finished setting up your filter, select Apply to close the Filter Properties.

You'll find the filter listed at the top of the report section, and only data that meets the filter criteria will be displayed in the report. You can click the filter's green text to edit its properties if necessary.

Repeat the above steps if necessary to add more filters to your report data. If you decide to add another filter to your report, a Filter Logic section will appear under Filters.

By default, filter logic will only show results that meet all filter conditions (ex. applying filters 1 AND 2 before displaying report data).

You can click into the Filter Logic field and adjust how the filters run. For example, you can replace "and" with "or" to show results that meet either condition even if they don't meet both.

Once your filters are set appropriately, save your report from the Report Actions palette. You can also publish the report to make the changes immediately available to other users running the report.