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Creating a Historical Report

To create a report which shows, for example, opportunities opened during July, which were subsequently closed within the same quarter (July - September), you can create a Historical report.

To set up and run this report:

Select the Reports button.
Select the category to which you want to add your new report. For example, Sales. A list of Sales reports is displayed.
Select the New action button. The Report Options, Step 1 of 2 is displayed.
Give the report a name, for example, Opportunity Opened and Closed.
Select the Report Source as Opportunity Summary.
Set the Report Type to Historical. The panels below the Report Details are changed to reflect this type of report.
- The In Range field should reflect the type of start date you are measuring, in this case, Opportunity : Opened. You can also use the Opportunity : Created Date. The former is set by the system but can be changed by the end user. The latter is set by the system and cannot be changed by the user. The way in which you structured your sales process and workflow determines which date to report on.
- The Out Of Range field can be used to form a logical pair with the In Range field. For example, if you select the In Range field as Opportunity : Opened, and the Out Of Range field as Opportunity : Closed, when you report over a period of, for example, one quarter, the report will return the number of opportunities still open at the end of that quarter.
For this report, we are more interested in what has closed within the specified time frame, so you can leave the Out Of Range field blank, but add the Opportunity : Closed to the Search Criteria of the report. You can also add the Opportunity : Status to Search Criteria.

The Date Partition field divides the report results into sections within the In Range date specified. Since our In Range date will cover a month time period, it would be useful to divide the results by week. You can do this by setting the Date Partition field to Week.
Select the Continue button. The Search Criteria for Report page is displayed.
The In Range date is automatically displayed as the first search criteria. Specify the date range for Opportunity Opened, such as between 01 July and 31 July.
Specify the Opportunity Closed date range, such as between 01 July and 30 September.
Add the Opportunity Status search criteria, for example, Won.
Click on the Continue button. The Report Options, Step 2 of 2 page is displayed.
Complete the Header and Footer settings and Chart Options. A line chart will be displayed by default.
Select the Save button. The report is displayed in the list of reports.
Click on the hyperlink of the report or select the Run button to run the report. The report Display Options page is displayed.
Select the appropriate display options. You can also re-set the report search criteria if you wish.
Select the Run button. The report output is displayed in a new browser window. The report output shows the number of opportunities that were opened in July, which were closed and won within the Q3 (Jul - Sep) period.

The total number of opportunities opened from the 1st of July to the 31st of July, which were subsequently won, is the number shown on the last week of the selected time period (not the total of all the weeks). The weekly totals give you a point-in-time snapshot for the whole "opened" period being measured.

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