Tiptoeing into Visual Studio 2005 for SSRS

I wanted to create a report for a client that showed unapproved timesheets in PDK that could be published in SQL Reporting Services. I did not use the Report Builder because there was not an existing object for the data I wanted. So I decided to try out Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. I'm not a developer, so I proceeded with a bit of trepidation.

Guess what. I found it pretty easy to get started. This is what I did:
1.) Open Visual Studio >> New Project >> Business Intelligence Project >> Report Server Project
2.) Right-click on your new project name >> Add >> New Item >> Report Wizard

Then the Report Wizard takes over, and you basically define your data source and design the report. You can run the report from within Visual Studio.

I created this sample report quickly. You don't need to be a developer to get started with this tool, and I think you will find it fairly easy to get stared.

More and more we are recommending SSRS to our clients for their reporting needs. You should check it out.