Vertical Change is designed to capture data through a set of forms which are divided into 3 categories: contacts (individuals and groups), activities, and assessments.  The Report Builder is designed to pull data out of the system with the same categorical logic.  It helps to know what these categories are, and what type of data typically lives in these forms, so that you can build your forms, and effectively query data for your reports. 

Lets dive in and look at each form category type:  

 "Person" forms tell us static information about the contact - information that typically doesn't change.  This is usually data you enter when you create a new contact from the "Create" button.  It includes things like Date of Birth, Address, Name, Gender, etc.  This data follows a contact around, like an ID card or a Rolodex file.  

You will notice, when you click on the little + sign next to "person" in the Report Builder  query bar, that more categories appear.  

Basic Fields give you meta-data, information you probably didn't enter yourself - such as a client's "Unique ID" (the ID that the system creates when each new contact is created),  "Date Created" (the date the contact was entered into the system),  "Staff Assigned" (the staff member you assigned to this contact), and others.  Poke around the Report Builder and see what you find under that category, and see what it looks like in the data grid when you click on one of the boxes!

You will also see some more drill-downs called "Related Family" or any other Group you have in your system (like "related class").  This will open up fields specific to any group you have assigned to a person.  So if you select "Name" under Basic Fields, and then "Name" under the related family, it will show you the name of the family that that person has been connected with. 

These are fields that were created to go with any contact type.  For example, your system may have multiple Contact Types:  Youth, Parent, Advocate, etc.  They further categorize your client base.  We know that a "Youth" contact type will have data specific to that type, such as School - which a "Parent" would not have.  However, we also know that there are data points that will be the same for both types.  These are the data points we group into "Common Fields".  Examples of common fields might be Date of Birth, Gender, Race. These are set up in your initial system configuration.  

As stated above, these will show you data fields specific to those other contact types that were set up in your system.  In the screenshot above, Parent and Youth are the designated contact types.
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​4. Programs

These will show you the programs that the contact is enrolled in, which can help you further filter out the data you need in your report. 

This will bring up all the form names that have been created as an "activity".  These are the forms that show up when you go to the Activity tab in a contact's profile. Activity forms typically record data related to services you provide, but can capture any range of data you decide to categorize through a form.  

When you click on the the form of interest, you'll see all the field names appear, along with some meta-data about the form, with the ability to check the ones you want to show data for in the grid.

Similar to Activities, Assessments are a grouping of forms that give you data related to assessments you create in the system.  These forms typically contain data that lets you measure progress clients have made towards goals.  Performance measures, we like to call them.  Similar to activity forms, you can click on the assessment form you want data for, and then select the field you want to show up in the grid. 

All the data that goes IN to Vertical Change through a form, can be pulled OUT via the Report Builder.  It's a beautiful thing.  

Dive in and create a basic report with what you now know!  

Then later, learn how each data element behaves in the report builder so you can filter your data to find the answers to your questions about the services you provide and their impact on your constituents!  
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