Report Writer

Report Writer is ConnectWise PSA's built-in reporting tool, accessible under System > Report Writer. It lets you build custom reports against live ConnectWise data — tickets, time entries, agreements, invoices — and output them as formatted documents, dashboards, or scheduled exports. Every report ConnectWise ships (including the standard invoice) is built in Report Writer, which means you can open and modify any of them.

In practice, most MSPs use Report Writer for one of three things: running ad-hoc operational reports, building executive dashboards, or — most commonly — editing the invoice template. The Report Designer itself has six tabs you'll work across: Data Sources (what tables feed the report), Fields (which columns appear and how they're computed), Summary (grouping and totals), Chart (visualizations), Filters (parameters exposed to the user), and Preview (render a live output before saving).

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Report Writer is a powerful tool that rewards heavy investment. But if your goal is simply to put your logo on an invoice or rearrange a few line items, the learning curve is steep for what you actually need. The standard invoice is composed of four linked reports — a parent and three subreports — and touching any of them without understanding the data model usually breaks something. The docs below cover all of it: the mechanics of the designer, the gotchas around invoice editing, and the reference material you'll reach for when something stops working.