Snapshot Report

Overview

Snapshot Report — sometimes called Flash Report in the report picker — is a self-service status report builder for a single project and, optionally, its sub-projects.

What is it used for?

Most projects have status data scattered across a schedule, a risk register, a financial ledger, and a benefits tracker. Snapshot Report pulls exactly the slice of data a particular audience needs into one page, without a developer or report writer involved.

• One page for stakeholders who do not log into the system. Build a report once, export it as an image, PDF, or PowerPoint deck, and circulate it to sponsors, steering committees, or customers who never touch Cora PPM directly.

• RAG status at a glance. The Summary panel surfaces Calculated, Time, Cost, Risk, Issue, Milestone, and Task RAG statuses so a reader can spot trouble before reading a single row of detail.

• Reusable, not rebuilt. Save a layout under a name, then reload it next week, next month, or for a different project — the sections and filters carry over; only the underlying data refreshes.

• No two audiences need the same report. An operations lead might want a Milestone Gantt and nothing else; an executive sponsor might want a one-page Summary plus a Financials tile. Same engine, different layout.

What goes into a report

Rather than a fixed template, you assemble the report yourself from a catalog of sections arranged as half- or full-width tiles on a drag-and-drop layout.

• Tasks

• Milestones

• Risks and Issues

• Financials and Benefits

• Custom Registers, Progress, and Opportunities

• Chart types including Waterfall and Bubble

• Project details, Custom Fields, and Project Review

• Projects-by-Attribute chart

• Workflow Audit History (only where this option has been enabled for your organisation)

Each section carries its own view — Summary, Trend, Grid, Gantt, Financial Analysis, or Cumulative Financial Analysis — and its own filters, so a Milestones tile can look completely different from one report to the next.

The optional Summary panel at the top of the report shows the project-level details you pick. Available fields include:

• Project details: Project Name, Project ID, Project Manager, Project Status, Project Type, Organisation, Financial Code, Current Phase, Phase Due Date, % Complete, Hours/Day, and Working Days.

• Dates: Start Date, Finish Date, Live Date, and Duration (days).

• RAG statuses: Calculated, Time, Costs, Risks, Issues, Milestones, and Tasks RAG Status.

• Custom Fields defined on the project.

• Report values: the date the report was run and the Currency used.

Some fields only appear when the related feature is switched on for your organisation — for example Project Phase, Invoice Type, Resource Demand Start/Finish/Strategy, and the RAG status fields. See Notes below.

Section options added in 1.26.4

Custom Field section: Font Size and Font Shade. When you add or edit a Custom Field section, two display settings appear below the custom-field list:

• Font Size: Standard, Large (about 125%) or Largest (about 150%).

• Font Shade: Standard, or Dark (a near-black text colour; it darkens the text but does not make it bold).

Both default to Standard. They can be combined and are set per section, so several Custom Field sections on one report can each look different. They scale and darken the section heading, its description, the field labels and the field values together. Your choices are saved with the report and apply on screen and in Image and PDF exports.

Tasks section: filter. The Tasks section has a filter for applying your own conditions to the tasks shown. It works the same way as the filter on the Registers widget.

Any section: Start on a new page. Every section’s Edit Section panel has a Start on a new page option. It only affects the PDF (Automatic Layout) export; see Exporting and Sharing below.

How to Build and Run a Report

Follow these steps to move from a blank report to an exported file.

1. Open a new or saved report. Go to Reports › Flash Report. Use the Saved Report Name selector to reload a report you built before, or leave it blank to start fresh.

2. Fill in Report Details. Give the report a title, choose the Project, optionally include sub-projects, and set the Currency for any financial sections.

3. Decide on the Summary panel. Toggle Include Summary Section on, then choose which fields appear: Project Manager, Status, dates, RAG statuses, custom fields, and more.

4. Add sections to the layout. In the Layout panel, drag half-width or full-width tiles into place. Each tile is one project-detail type: Tasks, Milestones, Risks, Issues, Financials, Benefits, Registers, Progress, Opportunities, or a chart.

5. Configure each section. Pick a view per tile — Summary, Trend, Grid, Gantt, or Financial Analysis — and set its filters. On a Milestones tile, for example: date range, deliverable type, task status, and Show Only Overdue / Key / At-Risk Milestones. On a Tasks tile you can add a filter; on a Custom Field tile you can set Font Size and Font Shade; and on any tile you can tick Start on a new page to control PDF page breaks.

6. Save the design. Name the report and save it. This stores the layout, sections, and filters — not a copy of the data — so it is ready to reuse next time.

7. Run it. Select Run to pull current data for every section. Re-running the same saved report later always reflects whatever has changed since.

8. Review, then export or go back. Use Export to generate an Image, PDF, or PowerPoint file, or select Back to return to the builder and adjust sections.

9. Keep your saved reports tidy. Use Clear to start over on the current design, or Delete to remove a saved report you no longer need.

Exporting and Sharing

Once a report has run, four export formats are available from the Export dialog:

Page breaks in the PDF (Automatic Layout) export

1. Open the section that should start a new page and select Edit Section.

2. Tick Start on a new page (helper text: “Applies to PDF (automatic layout) export.”).

3. Save, run the report, and export as PDF · Automatic Layout. A page break is inserted before the row that section sits on.

• Repeating the Summary: if Repeat summary section on every page is ticked, the Summary section is output again at the top of each new page.

• Half-width sections: when two half-width sections share a row, you can set the page break on either one. Setting it on both still gives only one page break, and side-by-side sections always stay side-by-side.

• Other export types: the option has no effect on Image, PDF · Manual Layout or PowerPoint exports.

• Printing: paper size and scaling are still controlled by Adobe Acrobat, or whichever application you use to open the PDF.

Use Cases

• As a Project Manager, I use this to build a one-page status report for my project and export it as a PDF or PowerPoint deck for sponsors and steering committees who don’t log into Cora PPM.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to show RAG statuses in the Summary panel so readers can spot trouble at a glance before reading the detail.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to focus a Milestones section on just my Key or At Risk milestones ahead of a review.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to save a report design once and re-run it each reporting cycle, or for another project, without rebuilding it.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to include my sub-projects in one report so the parent project’s status covers the whole programme of work.

• As a Project Manager, I use this to enlarge and darken my Custom Field section text, and start key sections on a new PDF page, so the report is easy to read when projected or printed for a meeting.

Use Cases by Project Type

The sections below are generic — how they get used depends heavily on what kind of project is being run. Customers commonly build the following patterns:

FAQ's

Related Materials

• Admin page: Admin - Snapshot Report

• Related End User pages: [⚠️ CONTENT NEEDED: links to related End User pages, e.g. Project/Portfolio Dashboard Milestone widget, Milestones, Risks & Issues, Financials]

• Videos: [⚠️ CONTENT NEEDED: training video or walkthrough link, if one exists]

Glossary

Terms used throughout this guide and on the report screen itself.

Notes

• Key and At Risk milestone filters combine with each other using “either” logic, and with every other active milestone filter (Overdue, date range, deliverable, task status) using “and” logic. They are hidden and not applied when the Milestones section uses the Gantt view.

• Workflow Audit History is only offered as a section type when Cora Support has enabled it for your organisation. It displays workflow history from elsewhere in Cora PPM; it is not an approval step on the report itself.

• RAG status fields in the Summary panel only appear when calculated RAG is switched on. Milestone and task start/finish RAG colours are based on how far dates have moved from baseline, using thresholds your administrator sets, which can be overridden for an individual project.

• Configuration-dependent Summary fields: Project Phase appears only if phases are enabled; Invoice Type only if invoicing is configured; Resource Demand Start/Finish/Strategy only if skill planning is configured.

• Saved reports store the design only (project, sections, filters, layout), are kept per user, and are upgraded automatically when older versions are loaded.

• Font Size / Font Shade (1.26.4): text only. Text function fields with custom HTML may not format correctly at Large or Largest. At larger sizes, longer values wrap sooner and the section takes more space, so PDF pagination may change. Reports saved before 1.26.4 look exactly as they did and show both settings as Standard. Custom fields elsewhere in Cora PPM are not affected.

• Export label change (1.26.4): “Single Page” is now Automatic Layout and “manually change the layout” is now Manual Layout. Older screenshots and training material may still show the previous labels.

Cora PPM · Snapshot Report (Flash) · End-User Enablement Guide