Product documentation

Reporting Engine Entities

Entities are the foundation of every report in Administrate. The entity determines the primary record type your report is based on and defines which related…

Entities are the foundation of every report in Administrate. The entity determines the primary record type your report is based on and defines which related fields and data can be included.

Choosing the correct entity is the most important step when building a report. It controls what information is available and how records relate to each other.

Table of contents

Key concept: what each row represents

The entity determines what each row in your report represents.

  • Events → one row per event
  • Delegates → one row per learner registration
  • Accounts → one row per organization

This is the most important concept in reporting. If the entity does not match your reporting intent, the results may appear incorrect or misleading.

What an entity represents

An entity represents a specific type of record within Administrate. When you create a report, the entity becomes the base dataset used by the Reporting Engine.

All filtering, grouping, sorting, and output fields are based on the entity selected when the report is created.

Common entities

  • Events — scheduled training deliveries
  • Delegates — learners registered on events
  • Courses — course definitions
  • Invoices — financial transactions
  • Accounts — organizations or customers

The Reporting Engine includes many additional entities across CRM, Events, Finance, and Learning data. The correct choice depends on what you want each row to represent.

How entities affect report design

The entity determines:

  • which fields are available for filtering
  • which attributes can appear in output columns
  • which related records can be included in the report

For example:

  • If the entity is Events, the report focuses on event deliveries
  • If the entity is Delegates, the report focuses on learners
  • If the entity is Invoices, the report focuses on financial records

Choosing the correct entity

Choosing the correct entity is the most common source of reporting errors.

Start by identifying the type of record you want each row in your report to represent.

  • If you want a list of learners on events → Delegates
  • If you want a list of events → Events
  • If you want financial data → Invoices

Example:

  • Using Events may group learners together
  • Using Delegates gives one row per learner

Entity selection guidelines

  • Use Delegates for learner-level detail
  • Use Events for delivery-level reporting
  • Use Accounts or Contacts for CRM reporting
  • Use Invoices for financial reporting

If you are unsure, ask: “What should each row represent?”

Advanced considerations and edge cases

Row granularity differences

Some entities represent summary records, while others represent line-level data.

  • Invoice-level entities → one row per invoice
  • Transaction-level entities → one row per line item

Choosing the wrong level can result in duplicated or inflated totals.

Entity vs filter strategy

Sometimes the correct approach is not changing the entity, but filtering within it.

  • To report on events for a specific account:
    • Use Events or Delegates
    • Apply a filter for the account

Event vs session behavior

In some cases, sessions are treated as events in reporting.

If using the Events entity, you may need to filter to exclude session-level records depending on your reporting goal.

Common reporting mistakes

Choosing the wrong entity

If the entity does not match the reporting objective, results may be misleading or incomplete.

Trying to answer multiple questions in one report

Reports work best when focused on a single primary record type.

Filtering incorrectly due to entity choice

If the entity is incorrect, filter conditions may not behave as expected.