Variants and variant groups let you execute and save or print reports in the background at prespecified times.

Selection variants let you save entries for variables along with other settings for a report. You can group several reports along with their variants into a so-called "variant group". Then you can execute the entire variant group in the background.

You can use the following functions to save and print reports in the background using variants:

In the variant, define the selection criteria as you would for the report. Then specify how the report should be processed in the background, and save these settings as a variant for the report.

If you want to schedule more than one report together with their variants, you can group these reports and variants together in a variant group. Create a variant group. To do so, enter a name, a short text, and a description.

Here you enter all the desired variants and reports in your variant group.

A variant group lets you:

• Process more than one variant of one report together
• Process variants from different reports together

Once you have made your entries, save the variant.

Here you can schedule the entire variant group for processing in the background, or select and schedule only specific reports in the variant group.

The system schedules the selected reports or the whole variant at the specified time. You can also schedule the job for execution in regular intervals. For more information, see the documentation BC Computing Center Management System.

This function lets you delete any variant groups that you no longer need.

Where you can find the functions for defining variants and variant groups differs from application to application. For details, see the documentation for your application.