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Advanced Report Customization

What is Advanced Report Customization?

Advanced Report Customization is TMS.ai's Edit Mode that lets you modify pre-built reports or create entirely new ones tailored to your specific business needs. This goes beyond basic filtering. You can add data fields, create new visualizations, adjust how metrics are calculated, and build reports that answer the unique questions your operation needs to track.

This capability is available with Analytics Tier 2 and gives you the flexibility to adapt your reporting as your business evolves. When you need to track a new metric, add a dimension to your analysis, or combine data in a way the pre-built reports don't cover, Edit Mode puts those capabilities in your hands without requiring technical expertise or custom development.

The system uses Dashboard Datasets, which are collections of related data fields you can pull into your reports. These datasets include fields from orders, shipments, invoices, carriers, customers, and every other object in TMS.ai. You select the fields you need, choose how to visualize them, and build reports that reflect how you actually run your business.

How Advanced Report Customization works

  1. Open any pre-built report you want to customize and click "Create New Version" from the dropdown menu. This makes a personal copy that you can modify without affecting the original report or other users' versions.
  2. Access Edit Mode to reveal the customization tools. You'll see options for Data (adding fields), Charts (creating visualizations), Settings (adjusting how charts display), and Dashboard Filters (setting report-wide parameters).
  3. Add data fields from Dashboard Datasets by clicking the Data tab. Browse the available datasets relevant to your report, then select the specific fields you want to include. For example, when customizing a carrier performance report, you can add fields like average cost per mile, on-time percentage by lane, or detention incidents.
  4. Create new charts by navigating to the "Add Item" tab. Choose from visualization types like bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, tables, or pivot tables. Each chart type works best for different kinds of analysis. Use bar charts for comparisons, line charts for trends over time, and pivot tables for multi-dimensional breakdowns.
  5. Clone existing charts when you want to create similar visualizations with different data. This saves time when you need multiple views of related information (like carrier performance by region and by month side by side).
  6. Adjust chart settings to control how data displays. This includes filter defaults (which criteria are applied when the report loads), value display options (show as currency, percentage, count), and visual style (colors, labels, axis scales).
  7. Set dashboard filters that apply across the entire report. These are parameters you don't want other users to change. For example, you might set a dashboard filter for "Invoice Export State = Not Exported" so the report always shows only unprocessed invoices regardless of other filter selections.
  8. Save your customized report with a descriptive name that makes its purpose clear to other users who might need it. Your custom version becomes available in your report list and can be shared with specific team members or roles.
  9. Schedule automatic delivery of your custom reports just like pre-built ones. You can set up weekly profitability summaries for management, daily operational reports for dispatch, or monthly customer summaries for your sales team.

What it means for you

Advanced customization means your reporting adapts to your business, not the other way around. Every transportation company tracks performance differently based on their service mix, customer base, and operational model. Custom reports let you measure what actually matters to your specific operation.

If you run dedicated contract lanes and need to track utilization and deadhead miles by customer, you can build that report. If you're focused on margin improvement and need visibility into accessorial revenue as a percentage of total revenue by lane, you can create that view. If your finance team needs a custom aging report that groups customers by credit terms and payment history, that's entirely possible.

The interactive charts make it easy to explore your data without exporting to Excel. Click on a region in your revenue chart to see which customers drive that number. Filter a profitability report by quarter to spot seasonal patterns. Drill into carrier performance to identify which specific drivers or routes are creating issues.

This level of customization turns analytics from a reporting function into a strategic capability that helps you find opportunities, identify problems before they escalate, and make decisions based on the specific metrics that drive your business forward.