A User Report Type is required when defining a User Report. It determines what data tables and fields are available to be used in a User Report and so acts as a filter by whittling down the data which needs to be available to the user report.
User Report Types are important as they act as the link between User Reports and the particular part of the Equus Platform database where the report needs to fetch its data from.
A User Report will always require a User Report Type (or set of data tables/sources). User Report Types can be used for more than one user report so where possible, it is advisable to minimize the number of report types used by reports. Any changes made to a User Report Type will affect all User Reports that utilize it and could be detrimental to their operation if the changes are made to the data sources and their associated path.
It is a good practice to make a User Report Type for every User Report to ease future tables/data modifications (known as 1:1 methodology).
Things to note:
When creating user reports for configuration purposes such as email templates, merge documents, custom calculations, and quick workflows (QWF), it is good practice to make a User Report Type for every User Report to ease future table/data modifications.
Poor User Report Type configuration can impact system performance, as the path to the relevant data should be the most direct.