It must be nice to have a choice and not be on a time limit. As someone who has written software since the 70's and had my own small software business for the last 30 years i dont have this luxury lol, but on projects where i feel stalled and stop enjoying it as much, i just bat on and try get it properly completed as soon as possible, knowing i'll feel much better when it's behind me, rather than having that 'pissed off' feeling every day.

I have looked at report generators since the 80's and concluded long ago they aint worth the hassle, because they rarely give you exactly what you want, and from a customer point of view they are difficult to use with no-one wanting to take responsibility for learning them, and even if they do when that person leaves it's back to square one. When designing a solution i try make my reports give all the options i can think, and usually also have a 'dump to csv' checkbox, so as well as producing a pdf, it will create a file the customer can manipulate themselves in excel. If there's really something in there not initially discussed or wanted later as needs change, i quote and charge, unless it's a quick mod to filter data in a certain way as a one off and takes me less than an hour, which i do as part of the support contract. GL Bob