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Advanced Reporting Tags

Advanced reporting tags extend the capabilities of standard reporting tags by letting you structure tag options in a multi-level hierarchy and control which options appear based on earlier selections. This makes tagging more contextual, reduces incorrect selections, and keeps reports consistently organised.

Unlike regular reporting tags, where all options are listed at the same level, advanced reporting tags guide users step by step through related options, ensuring only relevant values can be selected.

SCENARIO A company operates across multiple regions, cities, and departments. Instead of creating separate flat tags for each level, they create hierarchical reporting tags such as:

  • Region
    • GCC
    • North Africa
  • Location (Visible only when Region = GCC)
    • UAE
      • Dubai
      • Abu Dhabi
    • Saudi Arabia
      • Riyadh
  • Department
    • Sales
      • Enterprise Sales
    • Engineering
      • Platform Team

When processing payroll or generating reports:

  • Selecting Region = GCC automatically limits the available location options to GCC countries and cities.
  • Users cannot accidentally tag a North Africa employee with a GCC location.
  • Payroll costs can be accurately filtered and analysed by region, country, city, and department without manual cleanup.

This structured approach ensures consistent tagging, cleaner reports, and better control over how payroll data is classified and viewed.

You can also restrict user access based on reporting tags. Once configured, you can associate tags with employees, and then filter, compare, or segment your reports using these tags.

NOTE This feature is available in early access only for certain plans of Zoho Payroll. Visit our pricing page to check if it’s included in your plan.

Enable Advanced Reporting Tags

NOTE Once enabled, the Advanced Reporting Tags feature cannot be disabled.

To enable Advanced Reporting Tags:

  1. Click Settings on the left sidebar or in the top-right corner.
  2. Click Reporting Tags under Customisation.
  3. Click Enable Advanced Reporting Tags.
  4. Click Enable.

Once enabled, you will see additional configuration controls such as hierarchy options, visibility conditions, and access control in the Reporting Tags creation page.

Create Reporting Tags

To create a reporting tag:

  1. Click Settings on the left sidebar or in the top-right corner.
  2. Click Reporting Tags under Customisation.
  3. Click + New Reporting Tag. You’ll be directed to the Create Reporting Tag page.
  4. Here, enter a name for your reporting tag in the Reporting Tag Name field.
  5. Add a Description if required.
  6. Under Associate This Reporting Tag To, select Employees.
  7. Under Configurations, enable Make This Reporting Tag Mandatory to have it as a mandatory field in employee profile.

NOTE Mandatory tags must have at least one active option.

  1. Click Save & Proceed.

You will be redirected to the Configure Options page.

Configure Options

Here, you can create and manage the available options for your reporting tag. These represent the values you and other authorised users will select when applying tags to records.

To configure options:

  1. Enter an option name.
  2. Click + Add Option to create additional options.
    • Or hover over any option and click + → Add a Child to organise it under a parent option.
  3. Reorder options by dragging and arranging them as required.
  4. Click Save & Proceed.

INSIGHT Click the Delete icon next to an option to remove it, if required.

You will now be redirected to the Configure Visibility Conditions tab.

Configure Visibility Conditions

This feature lets you control when an option should appear based on selections made in other reporting tags.

To configure visibility conditions:

  1. Enable Configure when tag options should be visible.
  2. In the Choose Filters section, select the reporting tags you want to use as conditions.

NOTE You can only use reporting tags that appear before the current tag on the list page as filters.

  1. Map each option to the options of the selected filter tags. The option will appear only when at least one of the mapped filter options is selected.

NOTE You can add up to 5 filters per tag and map up to 200 options.

  1. Choose All to map to every option under a filter tag, or Untagged if you want the option to appear even when no filter is selected.
  2. Click Save & Proceed.

Using Reporting Tags

Once created, you can apply reporting tags to employees and transactions.

Refer to our help document on Reporting Tags to learn how to:

  • Associate reporting tags with employees
  • Edit reporting tag details
  • Mark a reporting tag as inactive
  • Delete a reporting tag
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