Report Designer

Hi AnonymousOne!

We're planning to build in a report designer using JS Report (or could also add Fast Report). Data could feed directly from the reports tab into those other report engines. Many users want to also export to a specific Excel or Google Sheets template, so that could work as well. I think a layout could be designed in Excel or Google Sheets that could accomplish a lot the same thing. Definitely pros/cons for each way. I'm also interested in any comments from users on what they would like to see.

For us, a PDF and excel would be great. Ideally would like one that's inside the solution so we can make sure the data is always fresh - I get nervous about the dependencies of syncing out.

Curious on the Goal Here—Need to Clarify

Before we dive too deep, I think we need to step back and ask: what's the actual goal here with the report designer?

Is the goal to give subcontractors or GCs a polished, branded deliverable? Like a client-facing, logo-driven, template-based report? If so, that’s a very different outcome than just internal workflows or team summaries.

I’ll admit—I’m biased. I’ve had amazing success with Excel-based reporting, especially using Ediphi’s Excel add-in. It’s refreshable, it’s clean, and people already know how to use it. You hit a button, it updates, and boom—it works. I’ve found that it solves 90% of the use case with way less complexity.

When I look at JSReport, honestly, it feels like overkill for what we need. Too technical. And what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) matters—especially if you’re a trade partner or GC trying to deliver a consistent experience to a client.

In reality, we might only need 2–3 flavors of reports, and Excel add-in handles that beautifully. It’s fast, flexible, and standardized without being rigid.

Recommendation: Let’s schedule a call. I’d love to show how we’ve used Ediphi’s Excel add-in and why I think that model could check a lot of boxes for ZZTakeoff without adding unnecessary complexity.

Kyle,

With Jsreport you can setup excel and word templates

Kyle - then we would have to pay for Ediphi to get to excel, or are you saying there's a free plugin coming into ZZ? Simplest solution to me is a low code, but highly customizable way to get to the customer facing deliverable - keeping ZZ takeoff as the source of truth

@sam - I bet you need a degree in astrophysics to figure out how to do that.

@AnonymousOne - Negative you would not need to pay for Ediphi. You would need excel tho which I bet you pay already. The updates are managed by Microsoft if its in their store. Here is how it could work in zzTO in 2 min vid. LINK

I really like that process Kyle... someday ZZ will be there. I personally was curious what the reports (proposals, request for quotes...) would be like in ZZ, but having an app integration with Excel would awesome! And like you said, we all have Excel and Google sheets these days.