A report or export is missing fields or formatting numbers wrong

Work down the layers — document, template mapping, formatting, the output file itself — to find exactly where a report or export value goes missing or wrong.

Catalog administratorsContent Central 7.x25 minutesVerified 2026-08-30

Before you begin

An administrator account with permission to manage report templates
One document that shows the problem, and the output file that came out wrong

By the end of this guide you'll know exactly which layer the problem lives in — the document, the template's field mapping, the formatting, or the output file — and you'll have either fixed it or captured the exact evidence support needs.

First: which output are you looking at?

Content Central has two systems that write data files, and they're configured in different places:

	Report templates	Export data templates
Produces	Scheduled `.csv` report files	A data file written by a workflow export action
Configured in	Administration > Report Templates	Workflow administration
Scope	Filters select documents across catalogs and types	One catalog and one document type per template

The steps below cover both — most apply to either, and the differences are called out.

Step 1 — Is the value on the document at all?

Open a document that appears wrong in the output and look at its fields on screen.

If the field is blank on the document too, this is not a report or export problem — fix the capture or indexing process that should fill the field, then re-run.

What you should see: the on-screen value matches what you expected in the file. If it does, the problem is in the layers below — keep going.

Step 2 — Is the field mapped in the template?

This is the most common cause: a new document type was created, but existing report or export templates were never updated for it, so its fields come out blank.

Go to Administration > Report Templates and open the template. Under Output Columns, check whether the missing field is listed.

If it's missing, click Add Output Column, set Output-Column Type: to Index Field, and pick the field in the searchable Field: list. Click Apply to save.

note
If the dialog says "There are no available index fields.", every eligible field is already in the template — the field you're missing may belong to a document type the report's filters exclude.

Check the template's Filters too. A field used as a column just shows a blank for documents that don't have it, but a field used as a filter silently excludes those documents entirely. If whole documents are missing (not just blank cells), suspect a field filter.

For an export data template, remember each template is scoped to one catalog and one document type. Documents of a newly created document type are not exported at all until a template scoped to that type exists — create one in workflow administration.

Success check: run the report or export again and open the new file. The previously blank column should now show values for the affected documents. If it does, you're done.

Step 3 — Check the template's formatting

Header text. Each output column has a Header Text (blank for default) cell. Text typed here changes only the CSV header label — a misspelled header does not affect the data under it.
Column order. Columns follow the order in the Output Columns table (drag to reorder), and Segment columns always come first. A column that "moved" usually means the order changed, not that data was lost.
Consistent rows. If Write mode: is Append and you added or reordered columns, old rows in the existing file keep the old layout and the file looks scrambled. Start a fresh file (or use Replace / KeepAll) after changing columns.
Numbers. There is no per-column number-format setting — the CSV contains the value as stored on the document. If decimals or leading zeros look wrong, open the file in a plain-text editor first: if the raw value is right, it's the spreadsheet program re-rendering it, not Content Central.
Numeric filters. A numeric filter's match value must be a whole number — a decimal or text value makes the report run fail entirely, and a Range filter with reversed bounds returns an empty report.
Export data templates. Each element outputs exactly one index field, system field, or static text; fixed-width padding uses RightPad(n) or LeftPad(n) in the element's Format setting. Check padding widths and the include-header-row option if columns misalign.

Step 4 — Compare the output file against the screen, and keep it

Open the downloaded file in a plain-text editor, not a spreadsheet.

What you should see: the file starts with a report header line (template name, type, date/time), then column headers if configured. Values are wrapped in double quotes, and line breaks inside a value are replaced with spaces. All of that is normal, not corruption.

Compare a few raw values against the same documents on screen.

Important

If the file is wrong, keep that exact file and send the file itself to support. A screenshot of it opened in a spreadsheet is not enough — support needs the artifact to see the raw bytes.

Note

If a numeric field in a generated output renders as invalid even though the value looks correct on screen, that's a product defect, not a template setting — contact support (and mention your version) rather than trying to configure around it.

Step 5 — Is the complaint about the file's name?

In the template, check the Report Output section's Filename: field. Leftover test text there — for example a temporary prefix typed during setup — ends up on every generated file. The name always ends in .csv; that extension is added automatically.

Export data templates can append a chosen index field's value to the export filename — if names vary unexpectedly, that option is why.

Generated report files land in a per-template folder under the system reports folder, and the newest one is downloadable from the Report Templates list via the green Download Report icon.

Step 6 — Does it only fail with one specific column?

Every index-field column or filter makes the database do extra work for every row in the report. On a large report, adding a single field can be the difference between finishing and timing out.

Remove the recently added column and run the report. If it succeeds without that column and fails with it, that's your answer.

Report it exactly that way — "the report works until I add the Employee Name column" is far more useful to support than "reports are broken."

Still stuck?

Contact support with this compact evidence bundle:

The exact faulty output file (the file itself, not a screenshot)
The template name and its report type
The field name(s) missing or wrong, and one example document with its on-screen value
The template's Write mode: and when the file was generated
Whether the problem appears only when one specific column is added — name the column