When looking at any production, managerial, financial or operational report, each displays detail data, organizes it by certain categories and specifies which pieces of data gets presented on the first page, last page or on every page. In addition, these report types can contain:

• Analytical computations that are simple like performing subtotaling or averaging by group or complex like computing each detail line time's percentage of their group's total or highlighting line items or groups for exception reporting,
• Objects like lines or bands to emphasize totaling or other metrics
• Images for corporate logos or watermarks

This guide will explain:

• The Simple-XML report definition format for a Pentaho Reporting document.
• Report layout and object placement
• Formatting
• The use of functions
• Configuration and layout

This guide contains the following sections: