eBR: Automatic Custom Reports

Design the report once on your production process, and every batch record produces its own report that fills itself in as operators sign.

What a Custom Report is

A batch run has to end with a document. On paper, someone collects the executed pages, checks that every signature is there, and assembles the batch file by hand at the end.

In Labguru eBR that document builds itself while the work happens. You design a report on the production process and map each of its sections to a protocol section in the work plan. From then on, every batch record created from that process gets its own report, and each time an operator signs or witnesses an activity, the data from that activity is copied into the matching section. Nothing is retyped and nothing is assembled at the end. When the last activity is signed, the report is finished .

A generated report. The section list on the left records where every section came from and when it arrived.

Custom Report or Basic Report?

The Certificates tab of a batch record offers two kinds of report. They serve different purposes.

The Basic Report is produced on demand from the batch record data. Nothing to configure, and nothing to lay out.

If you need one document per batch that always looks the same and can stand up to an audit, use the Custom Report. This article covers how to build it.

Before you start

Three things need to be in place.

The process needs a work plan (an SOP) with its protocols attached. The section mapping can only offer you protocols that are already in the work plan, so an empty work plan gives you nothing to map.

Your protocols should be close to final. A batch record freezes its protocol structure when it is created, so mapping a report to protocols that are still changing means revisiting the mapping later.

Set the report up before the first real batch. Batch records created while Automated reports is switched off will not get a Custom Report, and turning it on later does not go back and create one for them.

Step 1: Prepare the report layout

The layout is an ordinary Labguru report from Knowledge > Reports. It holds everything that stays the same in every batch: a cover page, a title block, your logo, headers and footers, approval wording, any fixed tables.

You can prepare it in advance in the Reports collection, or create it while configuring the process using the Add new button next to the layout field, which opens a new report in a separate tab.

Step 2: Turn on automated reports

1. Open Production > Processes, select your process, and edit it.
2. Go to the Process Reports step, the last step of the process form.
3. Switch the Automated reports toggle on. The report settings appear.
4. Fill in Report type name. This is the name of the report generation itself, not of an individual report, so use the name of the document type: Master Batch Record, COA, Summary Report, QC Review. It is required.
5. Choose a Report layout from the list, or click Add new to build one now. This is also required.

Switching on Automated reports opens the report settings.

Naming the generated reports

Generated report naming convention controls what each batch's report is called. Build it from these parameters:

Fixed text can sit alongside the parameters, and a preview next to the field shows the result as you type. MBR-%ID-%d-%m-%Y produces a name like MBR-120-08-09-2026, and a fuller convention such as MANUFACTURING BATCH RECORD: Paracetamol 500 mg Tablets - %ID gives you a report title that already reads like the document it is.

Always include %ID. It is the only parameter guaranteed to be unique, so it is what keeps two reports from the same month apart when you are searching the Reports collection months later.

Step 3: Map the sections

The Sections table decides what is copied into the report and when. Click Add new row for each section you want, and complete four columns:

Use one row per section, not one row per protocol. If you want three sections from the same protocol, add three rows and pick the same protocol in each. Anything you do not map stays out of the report, which is how internal calculations or working notes are kept out of a document that goes to a customer.

Sections are copied in the order the rows appear. Drag the handle at the end of a row to reorder, and keep the order the same as the execution order in the work plan. A reviewer then reads the report in the sequence the operator worked, which is the single most useful thing you can do to make review fast.

Click Save when the table is complete.

One row per section. Several rows can point at the same protocol, and the Trigger column decides when the data is copied.

What happens during the batch run

Operators do nothing differently. They execute their activities and sign as usual, and the report fills in behind them.

To find it, open the batch record and go to the Certificates tab, then the Custom Report sub-tab. Every batch record from the process has its own report listed there with its ID, name, owner and the time it was last updated. The Updated at time moves every time a new section is copied in, which makes it a quick way to see whether the last signature landed.

Each batch record has its own Custom Report under Certificates.

Working with the report

Click the report name to open it. It is a normal Labguru report, so it can be read, printed and exported at any point during the run and not only at the end. A report printed mid-run reflects the batch as it stands at that moment, which is worth remembering before sending one outside the system.

The usual report actions are all available. Add cover page puts a title page in front, Print produces the PDF, and Sign lets reviewers and approvers sign the assembled document once the batch is complete. You can also add your own sections to a generated report if a batch needs something the template did not anticipate, such as an attachment list or a deviation note.

Where each section came from

Every section that arrives in the report is labeled with its origin. The section list shows Copied from and Copied at beneath each section name, so a section that came from the layout names the layout, and a section that came from an activity names the batch record and the protocol it was executed from, with the date and time it was copied.

This is the fastest way to answer the two questions a reviewer actually asks: is this section the one I think it is, and when did it get here. It is also how you check a mapping without opening the process configuration.

Print is available throughout the run, not only at the end. A report printed mid-run shows the batch as it stands at that moment.

Tips

Test with one throwaway batch. Create a batch record, execute and sign one or two activities, then open the Custom Report and check that the content landed where you expected. Fixing a mapping at that point takes minutes.

Name protocol sections carefully. The Data/Section list shows you section names, so protocols whose sections are all called Description are hard to map correctly. Clear section names in the protocol make the report mapping obvious.

Review the mapping after changing an SOP. Rows point at specific protocol sections. If a protocol is restructured, check the Sections table afterwards and re-select anything that moved.

Switching the toggle off keeps your work. Turning Automated reports off suspends generation for new batches without deleting the configuration, so you can switch it back on later without rebuilding the table.

Troubleshooting

A section in the report is empty

The activity behind it has not reached its trigger yet. A row set to Witness copies nothing until a second person countersigns, even though the operator has already signed. If the activity is fully signed and witnessed and the section is still empty, check that the row's Trigger is not left on None.

The Custom Report sub-tab is empty

The batch record was created while Automated reports was switched off on the process. Switching it on now covers new batch records, not existing ones. For a batch already in progress, use the Basic Report, or record the deviation according to your own procedures.

A field the operator filled in is missing from the report

The section containing it was not mapped. Edit the process, go to Process Reports, and add a row for that protocol section. New batch records will include it.

I restructured a protocol. What happens to the mapping?

Rows point at specific protocol sections, so restructuring a protocol can leave a row pointing at something that no longer exists. Edit the process and re-select the affected sections. Batch records created before the change keep the structure they were created with.

Can two batches from the same process use different reports?

No. A process holds one report configuration, and every batch record created from it produces the same report structure. That is what makes batches comparable. You can map as many sections as you like inside that one configuration, each from a different protocol, but if you need two genuinely different documents you need two processes.

I cannot save the Process Reports step

Report type name and Report layout are both required once the toggle is on. If you are not ready to choose a layout, switch the toggle off, save, and come back to it.

The settings are not there at all

Check that you have rights to edit the process. Report configuration is a process-level setting, so being able to run batch records does not by itself allow you to change it.