How report charts count and group documents

A chart on a report’s Analysis tab counts the report’s documents per value of one field, or sums a number field per value. This page gives the rules behind the numbers: which documents are counted, which fields can be used, how dates group the data, and which chart types each option allows. The controls themselves are described in The chart editor and chart controls.

Which documents a chart counts

Rule	Detail
Same documents as the Index	A chart counts the documents the report lists for the person viewing it: the report’s document types and main filter, that person’s personal filters and the current search text all apply; see Which documents a report shows: document types, filters, search and sorting. Two users with different personal filters can therefore see different numbers in the same chart. On top of these, the chart’s own period filter applies, and a chart with a date field leaves out documents without a date in that field (see below).
Each document once	Each document is counted once. The report’s filters and search are checked against the document’s latest published version and against its newest version being worked on. When both match, the values of the published version are counted; when only one matches, that version’s values are counted.
With a date field	When the chart has a date field, documents without a value in that field are not counted.

Fields a chart can use

Choice	Fields you can choose
Choose a field (the main field)	A column of the report, except date fields, whole numbers, decimal numbers, calculated fields, Created, Last updated, Id, Delete, the observation column and Revision number.
Number Fields	Whole number, decimal number and calculated fields.
Choose a date field	Date fields, Created and Last updated. Created is the date the document was first created.

What the numbers mean

Setting	Each bar, slice or point shows
Main field only	The number of documents with that value of the main field.
Main field and a number field	The sum of the number field for the documents with that value.
Show by months	The documents grouped by calendar month of the date field. The box can be ticked only when Choose a date field has a value and Compare with field: is not set.
Show by weeks	The documents grouped by week of the date field. Weeks run from Monday to Sunday and are numbered by the ISO standard. The box can be ticked only when Choose a date field has a value.
Trend	The trend is always calculated per calendar month.
Compare with field:	Each value of the main field split by the values of the second field.

Period filters

The period filters on a chart (From and To, a year, the current or last month or quarter, last year, the year to date) use the chart’s date field. When the chart has no date field, they use the date the document was first created.

Top and sort

Control	Rule
Top, among the controls on the chart	Keeps the given number of values with the highest totals. It has no effect while the chart is shown by months or weeks or has a trend.
Sort, among the controls on the chart	Orders the values by their totals, ascending or descending, or leaves them in their original order.

Chart types

The Graph type buttons are shown with these English names in both languages: bar, horizontalBar, pie, doughnut, line, polarArea and radar.

Chart setting	Chart types you can use
No special setting	All seven.
Compare with field: is set	bar and horizontalBar, also when Show by weeks or a trend is set as well.
Show by months, Show by weeks or a trend is set	bar, horizontalBar and line.
Show numbers	Available for bar, horizontalBar, pie, doughnut and line.

Next step

Create an analysis with charts

The chart editor and chart controls
Reports: who can do what, and the Reports list
Which documents a report shows: document types, filters, search and sorting
The dashboard, where a chart can also be shown in a Report analysis widget