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Desiging a New Word Report Template

  • Updated

Data Entry Templates, or DET as referred to by the team at ValuePRO are the templates for the Job Card in ValuePRO Standard Edition. It makes sense to design the DET to fit in with the details set by the final Valuation report that is sent to the customer.

How to plan the DET

Open the report template (RT). This is usually a Word file.

Look at the Report Template in Word, scroll down to the Table of Contents (TOC). It may differ but should generally be similar to this:

  
Sample Table of Contents  

 

In ValuePRO Standard Edition, under Templates > Data Entry Templates create a new DET (Button below) with a similar name to the Report Template.

PS: Naming templates a very descriptive name is advised.

Adding in the Tabs

Add tabs to the DET to match the headings of the Table Of Contents as illustrated below.

  When adding tabs, follow these rules:

  • Instructions should always be the first tab, containing the fields for the RT & DET Templates, job address and valuer assigned, Valuation dates and general information about the job.
  • Photos & Documents should always be the last two tabs.
  • Try to create a new tab per heading
    Note: if a heading has no matching tab, group it with another tab of a similar topic
  • Tabs should appear in the order of the headings of the document.
  • Make labels to segment content on the tabs. Labels can be spaces, lines, headings and text. The field type "Label" will give you the options you need to make a divider or section heading. Include the word label in the field name so you know what it is, it becomes helpful later.

For example, your tab arrangement for the TOC above could look like this:

Mapping:


Explanation:

  • Instructions is always the first tab as it contains vital information about the job.
  • Photos / Documents are usually set up to be the last tabs and do not need any fields added to it. 
  • Executive Summary (from template) falls into Summary
  • Location, Site Details, and Town Planning have more to do with the "Land" than the actual building
  • The Description section details information about the building: its construction, size, improvements made to it, etc.
  • Insurance Replacement section refers to the cost to replace the building where it damaged
  • Tenancy Details about who resides in the building
  • General Comments can fall into the Comments tab
  • Basis for Valuation, Mortgage Recommendation, and Valuation can all be lumped into the Value tab as they all have to do with “value”
  • Use the options provided on the left block, click the one you want to add, click the right arrow, to create your top level tabs. You can order them any way you like but we suggest to follow the flow of your document.
  • On the fields tab, select the corresponding tab in the selection box on the top right of the screen, click on the left block, search and select the field you want to add to the tab, and add in the fields one by one.

Go through each section of the RT and add a corresponding field for each field / paragraph in under the matching tab in the DET.

 

Note: every time you see a table, you will have to create a new SubObject instead of a field.

Ordering the fields

  1. Reorder the fields in every tab so they appear in the order the information flows in the RT as much as possible. 
  2. Important: Make sure the Instructions tab has the fields added for the Data Entry Template and Report Template, as well as all the dates, property address and valuer!
  3. Create a new "test job" and populate its fields. Select your new DET and RT on the instructions tab. 
  4. Review each field in the DET:
  • If the field is 1 line tall and the text inside it overflows, resize it to be +-100px tall. Adjust as the field use requires.
  • Resize all text and number fields to be 400px wide (the height is able to be any value. 100 Being paragraph height and 30 a smaller paragraph height.)
  • Select fields so that the friendly field name reflects the section name / field name of the merge field in the Report Template
  • Make sure all fields are enabled, not read-only (RO) (unless they are already RO and a system / exception field), and visible to Valuers 
  • Avoid making new fields if there are already field types fit for purpose.
  • Search for fields using the search function on the card top left. If it is already used somewhere it will not show on the left. If it does not exist, create a new field for it.
  • When making a new field for the DET to accommodate a section in the RT, make sure you name it something descriptive. You may want to use it in future with more of your new templates. Think about what words you would use to search for it and use those in the name.
  • If you need help understanding the field settings, options and tick boxes to select, or the sales data and lease data tabs, please let ValuePRO Support know. 

Now you can make the Report Template 

Now that the DET is done, you can build the Word Report Template and upload it to the system as a new template.

 

Run Checks

  • Check your job by generating a report from your job card, to see how the report renders.
  • Fix the templates where necessary.
  • This could be a trial and error process the first few times you do it. You will be a skilled template builder in no time.

 

 

More information

How to add a field to a DET

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