Comparative Report Custom Columns and Templates

To maximize the value of College Comparative Reports, spend some time getting to know the last two tabs in the Manage Data Columns tool: Custom and Templates. These two tabs provide a lot of power, customization, and time-saving benefits:

• Add data fields not available in CollegePlannerPro, but that you regularly share with your students in the Custom tab.
• Save templates for your most-common report designs in Templates, so you don't need to build the reports from scratch each time.

Custom Report Data Columns

In this example, I have added data fields that may be valuable for a counselor working with many transfer students. These data points are available in CollegePlannerPro, but may be points that students will want to compare when selecting schools for a possible transfer.

Simply enter the data column label you would like, and hit "Add column." The label will be created, and will be available for all of your students. Click the box next to any custom field to add it to a report, same as you would for a field in any other tab.

Once you start entering data in these fields, that data will be shared across your account. So if you have ten students who all need the same custom data, and they have overlapping schools of interest, you will only need to enter the data in one student's comparative report for it to show in all comparative reports with that school and that column visible. This saves a lot of time entering the same data for multiple students, or building custom spreadsheets for each student.

If you have a sample student, saving a report with all of the schools you recommend as well as all of your custom data points is a great way to quickly review the data and add any missing data in one place.

Templates

If you find yourself building the same comparative report setup, or even similar ones, for multiple students, it is worth it to build a template. 

Once you have selected your columns, click the large button on the bottom of the report builder that says "Save Selected Columns as Template for Future Reports?" Give the template a name, and click "Save Template." Next time you need to use that template, go to the Template tab, select the template from your list of templates, and click the "Apply Template" button. Your report will ne built with all of the columns saved to that template.

If you had selected any columns before saving the template, they will show at the start of the report. You can always click "Manage Data Columns" to add or remove any columns from the report; as you move through the tabs for the data sources you will see each fields from the template has been selected. 

Modifying a report that uses a template will not update the template; if you have updates that you would like to save, you must create a new template with the updates.