Summary reports in related modules

[meharmon]

Hi, we're evaluating the Pro version right now and I'm falling in love with SugarCRM. I've actually been working with the OpenSource version for a couple of months, but we need the more advanced reporting and work flow features.

After some playing around, I've got two major tasks so far that I'm not yet sure can be done. These tasks are absolutely essential to our business. Can you guys tell me if this can be done...and if so, how? Keep in mind that some of my end users are a bit on the "clueless" side when it comes to technology. The prospect of a new process is making them very nervous...so it has to be as easy as possible. (Granted, this will make everyone's life 300% easier than what we're dealing with now, but they don't understand that yet.)


Here's the basic flow of what I want to do:


1) Given a certain project, I will select certain accounts by either an advanced search or manual selection. That's easy enough.

2) I need to run a single report that summarizes certain information from each account. This report will saved as a PDF file and added to other static documents to form a project packet of sorts to presented to our clients.

3) A project summary report must then be emailed to each of the accounts previously selected. This summary file should not reference any of the other accounts...they will all be notified blindly of the project. An email template might work...might not...as some of these are emails are converted to fax.

All of the other details I'm pretty sure I can handle with simple work flow commands...although I'm not entirely sure about that, either. I'm still working on that.

The biggest issue is running the reports between the related modules, and producing the proper documents. In some cases the option of producing both a PDF and a text based report would be ideal, too.

Thank you in advance for any pointers in the right direction.



ETA: I know this is the Open Source forums...but if this really can be done in Open Source rather than Pro, I'd obviously prefer that. But I'm thinking it's not possible.

[meharmon]

Still wondering if this is possible.

I'm willing to go with OS and Zucker Reports/ireports if I can, I'm just not at all sure how this could be implemented. Let me see if I can explain it better:

Let's say I start New Project ABC for Client X. To this project, I want "suggest" the client use one of a handful of our accounts. I choose those accounts and attach them to the project.

From there, I need to run a single report that shows a summary of specific information for each of those accounts. That report will then be given to Client X.

Additionally, a short overview of Project ABC will be emailed/fax to each of the accounts, notifying them of a possible new client.

Of course, this activity should all be logged/audited, too.