IBM Maximo Real Estate and Facilities · Reporting · A guide for Maximo people

Reporting in Maximo Real Estate and Facilities: one tool for lists, reports and charts

In Maximo you learned three things for reporting: saved queries, Ad Hoc reports and BIRT. In Maximo Real Estate and Facilities (MREF, the former TRIRIGA) almost everything is one thing: a report definition built in the Report Manager. The list on a portal, the table inside a form, the search screen, the grouped report and the bar chart are all the same object with a different Type. This guide opens one, then builds one from an empty form to a chart, on a live system.

What you will learn

Where reports live: My Reports, Community, System Reports.
The anatomy of a report: business object, columns, order and group, user filters, system filters, association filters.
The report types and when each is used.
Example 1: read an existing report, "Leases by Landlord".
Example 2: build "Buildings by City" from scratch: 89 active buildings, grouped, with totals.
Example 3: turn the same definition into a bar chart.
Sharing, export and the Report Scheduler, and five traps.

Reading time: about 15 minutes. System: MREF on Maximo Application Suite 9.2, sample data.

In Maximo terms · the translation table

You know (Maximo Manage)	In MREF
Saved query on a List tab	A report of type Query, attached to a form, a portal or a navigation item
Ad Hoc report (QBR)	A report of type Report in My Reports
Result set or KPI on a Start Center	A report shown in a portal section; a Chart or Metric report for the graphic ones
Bind variable at run time ("request page")	A user filter: an empty box above the column
The fixed WHERE clause of a report	A system filter: the user cannot change it
Report object structure with child objects	Extra business objects added through an association
Report security by group	The Security tab of the report, plus Share Report
BIRT report scheduled by email	Report Scheduler
BIRT Designer for pixel-perfect output	BIRT also exists in MREF for form reports; not covered here

1. The one idea: everything is a query

A report definition says: start from this business object, show these fields, keep these rows, sort and group like this. MREF then uses that one definition wherever a list of records is needed. This is why a default system carries thousands of them, and why the same builder serves a developer wiring a form and a planner who wants a list for Monday.

2. Where reports live

From the home page, open Report Manager (Tools › Builder Tools). Report Scheduler sits one column to the left.

Report Manager under Application Builder; Report Scheduler under Application Administration.

Report Manager has four tabs.

Tab	What is in it	Who changes it
My Reports	Reports you own, and reports shared with your groups. 16 on our system.	You
Community	Reports published for everyone to copy from.	Authors who choose "Copy as Community Report"
System Reports	The definitions the application itself uses: every list, search and section query. Filtering on business objects that start with "triBuilding" alone returns 780.	Administrators and developers
Administration	Administrator functions. Not needed for this guide.	Administrators

My Reports. The triangle runs a report; the name opens its definition. Note the Display Type column: Report, Chart, Query.

System Reports stays empty until you filter. Here: 780 definitions on building-related business objects.

Rule for beginners. Never edit a System Report to get "your" list. Select it, choose Copy as My Report, and change the copy. The original is used by a screen somewhere, and an upgrade may replace it.

3. Example 1: run and read "Leases by Landlord"

Click the triangle next to Leases by Landlord.

311 leases, grouped by landlord. Every column has a filter box; the blue link opens the lease record.

What the screen gives you without any design work:

Groups you can collapse, with a count: "ABJ Pr… (17)".
A filter box per column. Type and press Enter. Dates get "Less Than or Equals".
A link to the record on the first column.
A toolbar: refresh, add to bookmarks, export, row height, filters, settings.

4. The anatomy of a report

Click the report name instead of the triangle and the definition opens. It has seven tabs; you need five.

Tab 1, My Report: name, title, type, and the business object the report starts from (module triContract, Real Estate Contract, form Real Estate Lease).

Tab 2, Columns: tick fields on the left, they appear on the right as display columns. The Report Label is the heading users see.

Tab 3, Order & Group: grouped by Landlord Legal Name, sorted by landlord then lease ID.

Tab 4, Filters. Top: twelve user filters, the boxes the user can type in. Bottom: one system filter, Status Not In 'Retired','History', which the user never sees.

Tab	Question it answers
My Report	What kind of record, and what type of output?
Columns	Which fields do I show?
Order & Group	In what order, grouped by what, with which totals?
Filters	Which rows always (system), and which can the user narrow (user)?
Advanced	Which rows by relationship: "only spaces of this building", "only my tasks".

User filter versus system filter is the distinction to remember. A user filter is an offer; a system filter is a rule. "Status = Active" as a system filter is how a report hides retired records from everyone.

5. The report types

Type	Output	Typical use
Query	A plain list. Created on the System Reports side; the builder in My Reports does not offer it, but a copied query keeps the type.	Sections in forms, search screens, lists behind a navigation item
Report	A list with grouping, totals and filters	Anything an end user runs from My Reports
Summary	Totals only, no detail rows	"Area by building", "cost by organisation"
Chart	Pie, bar, line or stacked bar	Portal sections for managers
Hierarchy	A tree	Locations, organisations, classifications
Metric	A measure against thresholds, from fact tables	Performance scorecards

There is also Graphic, which colours a floor plan with report values. It needs CAD drawings and belongs in a space-planning guide.

6. Example 2: build "Buildings by City"

The question: which active buildings do we have in each city, how big are they, and how many people sit in them?

Step 1. New report, and its business object

My Reports › New. Give it a name and a title, leave the type on Report, and choose Add Business Object. Pick the module, the business object and the form.

Module Location, business object Building, form Building.

Save first. On my brand-new report the other tabs would not open. They worked after I saved it and reopened it from My Reports. I clicked Columns four times before I tried that.

Step 2. Columns

Tick City, Name, State/Province, Status, Gross Area and Headcount. The order you tick is the order of the columns; Move up and Move down fix it afterwards.

Six display columns. The field name in brackets (triCityTX, triGrossAreaNU) tells you the data type: TX text, NU number, CL classification, DA date.

Step 3. Order, group and totals

Group by City, order by Name, and tick SUM for the two number columns.

Group By: City. Order By: Name ascending. Summary Columns list every numeric display column.

Step 4. Filters

In the field list each row now has two tick boxes: User and System. City and State/Province become user filters. Status becomes a system filter: Equals, Active.

Two offers to the user, one rule for everyone.

Step 5. Save, Publish, Run

Save puts the report in "Work In Progress". Publish makes that revision the one that runs. Then Run Report.

89 active buildings, one group per city, the gross area with its unit.

Type North Carolina in the State/Province box and press Enter:

One building: Charlotte Stueben Center, 516,243.92 square feet, headcount 124. The filter shows as a chip you can remove.

That is a working report in five steps and no code. The total headcount across the 89 buildings was 5,733.

7. Example 3: the same report as a chart

Open the definition again, change Type to Chart, and open the Options sub-tab. It now offers a graph type (Pie, Bar, Line, Stacked Bar), axis titles, a legend and a precision.

Options for a chart. The same sub-tab holds "Prompt Before Query" and the data scope.

Graph type Bar, save, publish, run:

One bar per city, from the group and the first summary column. Charlotte stands out at about 516,000.

Look at the Y axis of my chart: it says "Headcount", and the bars are gross area. That is my mistake, kept on purpose. It shows two rules:

A chart plots the group on X and the first summary column on Y. Gross Area came before Headcount, so Gross Area was drawn.
The axis titles are free text. MREF does not check them against the data.

To chart headcount, remove the SUM on Gross Area or move Headcount above it, and re-publish.

You want to	Do this
Let a group run your report	My Reports › tick the report › Share Report. The group appears in the Shared Groups column.
Offer it to everyone as a starting point	Copy as Community Report
Start from an application list	System Reports › tick it › Copy as My Report
Get the rows into Excel	The export icon on the report toolbar. It exports what is on screen, filters included.
Keep a favourite one click away	The star on the toolbar adds it to your bookmarks
Email it every Monday	Report Scheduler, on the home page next to Job Scheduler. Not shown in this guide.
Show it on a home page	Portal Builder: a portal section can take a report as its source. Not shown in this guide.

9. Five traps

1. "Source query has no data", or an empty list, with good data. A filter on a classification field must use a value that really exists in that classification. A report that filters Lease Type = 'Expense' returns nothing if the real values are 'Expense Lease' and 'Expense Lease - Master Sublease'. No error is logged. Check the filter values before you suspect the data.

2. Totals that add apples and pears. In Example 2 some buildings are in square feet and others in square metres. The grand total row shows a warning icon instead of a number, and the chart plots the raw numbers side by side. Filter to one unit, or report on the "(Imperial)" or "(Metric)" variants of the field.

3. Saved is not published. After Save the status is "Work In Progress" and users still get the previous revision. Publish every time.

4. A section that shows every record. A report inside a form shows all records in the system unless it has an association filter on the Advanced tab that ties it to the record on screen.

5. Editing a System Report. It changes a screen for everybody, and you will not remember which one. Copy first.

10. Check yourself

A user asks for "the building list, but only Europe". Which kind of filter?

If only this user wants it: a user filter on Country or a geography field, and they type the value. If nobody should ever see the rest: a system filter in a copy of the report shared with that group.

Your chart shows the wrong measure. Where do you look?

Order & Group › Summary Columns. The chart takes the first summary column. The axis title is only a label.

You changed a report and users see no difference. Why?

It was saved and not published; the status reads "Work In Progress".

Where is the list of rooms on the Building form defined?

In a System Report of type Query, with an association filter to the building. Find it in System Reports by business object, and copy it before changing anything.

Built on a demo system with sample data on 3 October 2026. The report "Blog - Buildings by City" was created for this article. Screens are from Maximo Real Estate and Facilities on MAS 9.2.