Custom Reports: Operator "Is" vs "Is not". Bug? or Design?

By using the “Is not” operator it is possible to create a report with data from only a few GL accounts by using multiple “Is not” lines until you eliminate all the accounts that you do not require. However this could require upwards of more than 30 lines in the report definition.

Should it not be possible to select only the accounts you require by having multiple lines using the “Is” operator? At present more than one line using the “Is” operator produces a report with no data.

Examples: (test database with only a few GL accounts active)

This report definition

Produces this output

However this report definition

Produces this output
image

No, this is not a bug. Multiple Where entries are Boolean AND operations, not OR operations. In your example, an account cannot be both Inventory - sales AND Inventory - cost. Every account has a singular identity. Remember, the Where arguments apply to individual records in the report.

OK. So is it possible to include “OR” operations? As this would improve the functionality of Custom Reports tremendously. Maybe this could go into the ideas category.

Since we are basically writing pseudo SQL here, OR and IN statements would both certainly be useful, but adding the OR is likely a little complex and it might also require adding the ability to put parenthesis around multiple lines.