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      Overview: Reports

      IN THIS ARTICLE

      What are Reports

      Reports allow you to not just analyze your data, but also add context and share insights about your data in a way you’re already familiar with. 

      Rather than creating reports or presentations outside of the Databox app, this feature aims to help you with the full process from data collection to presentation. Databox Reports are exported as PDFs.

      Pro Tip: For additional information about the value of Reports in your business, learn more here. 

      Reports Use Cases

      Reports and Databoards are not the same. Reports are used to provide an analysis of historical data, which ideally includes an explanation of why performance has changed and steps to improve performance moving forward. Databoards are used to monitor live performance data. 

      You may want to use Databoards to monitor performance throughout the month, and Reports to present performance results to report on a specific period (i.e., weekly, monthly, quarterly). 

      Some of the benefits of Reports include: 

      • Being able to automate more of your reporting process. You can put it on autopilot or simply input text and recommendations to communicate your performance results. 
      • Reports also allow you to use what you’ve already built with Databoards and efficiently monitor data, create presentations, and share results. 
      • Overall, reports help you tell a better, more compelling story of what was done, how this impacted performance, and the results of those efforts on your business.  

      What are Data Stories? 

      Data Stories allow you to add dynamic elements to the text of your Reports. This includes a Metric Value, Metric Name, Date Range, Comparison Period, Comparison Period Value, and Comparison Period Percentage. By including these dynamic elements, you can ensure the context of your Reports stay up-to-date based on the most recent data sync. 

      Data Stories can also help save time since you do not need to write out every element in the Report. 

      You can add Data Stories to Text or Side-by-Side Slides by clicking the blue Add Metric Story button in the top text editor. Or, you could add a Data Story slide from the lefthand slide panel. 

      How to access Reports and the Report Editor

      You can access Reports by navigating to  Reports in the lefthand navigation. To open a Report in the Report Editor, click Edit. 

      How to create a Report

       

      You can create a new Report from scratch by clicking  + New Report from the Reports page.  

       

       

      You can also add Databoards to a Report from the Databoards page by clicking More > Add to Report, and selecting the Report you'd like to add the dashboard slide to. 

       

       

      Or, you can create a Report from a Loop on the Looped Databoards page by clicking the drop-down arrow > Create a Report.

       

       

      You can reorder slides, duplicate slides, or delete slides from the Reports editor. Similar to Databoards, you can name slides in the bottom lefthand corner, add a custom image, and change the background color/ image.

      How to use Slides

      We currently have 6 slide options when building Reports: 

      1. Dashboard: Select a Databoard to add to the slide. You can add text underneath that will be included in the slide when exported.
      2. Cover: Add a cover slide to the Report, with an image, header, and text.
      3. Text: Create a slide with all text. You can adjust the format of the text and include text of different sizes, bold/ underline/ italicize text, bulleted/ numbered lists, and include links.
      4. Image: Create a slide that features an image. You can add text underneath that will be included in the slide when exported (similar to the Dashboard slide).
      5. Side-by-Side: Select a metric or image to visualize on the slide next to accompanying text. 
      6. Data Story: Include dynamic data in your text. 

      Dashboard and Cover slides are available for all users. Text, Image, Side-by-Side, and Data Story slides are only available for users on the Growth and higher plans. Start a trial of the Growth and higher plans by starting a chat with our team or by requesting a trial in-app. 

       

      IN THIS SECTION

      Dashboard Slide

      Select a Databoard to add to the slide. You can add text underneath that will be included in the slide when exported.

      • You can change the Date Range for the entire dashboard or for individual Datablocks from within the Report. This will not update the Date Range on the Databoard in the Designer. 
        • On the flip side, if you make changes to a Date Range on the Databoard in the Designer, the updated Date Ranges will be reflected in the Report, as long as manual changes haven’t been made to Date Range in the Report.
        • This allows you to use Reports to report on data for a specified historical period (i.e., Last Month), while using Databoards to monitor performance in real-time (i.e., Month-to-Date). 
      • If you add or remove a Datablock from a Databoard that’s used in a Report, it will be reflected in the Report (the Datablock will be added/ removed from the Report as well). 
      • You can include text underneath the dashboard, similar to Speaker Notes in Google Slides. This will show up underneath the dashboard in the exported PDF. 
        • There is a 10,000 character limit for text included in this section, which is extremely  high and should really never be hit.
      • You can show Insights on the Report, including Annotations, Triggered Alerts, and Achieved Goals. 
        • These will show up in a panel on the righthand side of the exported slide, and will include information on Annotations, Alerts, and Goals associated with Metrics/ Datablocks on the included dashboard.

      Cover Slide

      Add a cover slide to the Report, with an image, header, and text.

      • It's recommended that you add an image with a transparent background to the Cover slide so you can update the background color of the slide. 

      Text Slide

      Create a slide with all text. You can adjust the format of the text and include text of different sizes, bold/ underline/ italicize text, bulleted/ numbered lists, and include links.

      • You can add a Data Story or Data Elements to the Text Slide by clicking Add Data Story in the formatting bar at the top of the slide. 
      • A red line will appear if too much text is added to the slide (or the text is too large to fit on the slide). Everything above the red line will be visible in the exported PDF, everything below the red line will not be visible in the export.
      • You cannot currently add images to the Text slide. This is planned for a future iteration (more info on this shortly).

      Image Slide

      Create a slide that features an image. You can add text underneath that will be included in the slide when exported (similar to the Dashboard slide).

      • You can add an image to the slide from other sources or systems and use the text section underneath to provide additional context.  

      Side-by-Side Slide

      Select a metric or image to visualize on the slide next to accompanying text. 

      • Select a Metric to display on each side of the slide, or choose to upload an image.
      • You can add a Data Story or Data Elements to the Text Slide by clicking Add Data Story in the formatting bar at the top of the slide. 

      Data Story Slide

      Include dynamic data in your text in order to save time and ensure your performance analysis remains up-to-date at all times. 

      • Data Stories can be included in Text slides or Side-by-Side slides. 
      • Dynamic elements have a background color shown in the Reports Editor. These elements cannot be edited directly but can be added by clicking Add Metric Story > Metric Elements. 

      How to change the Date Range of a Report

      Learn how to change the Date Range of the Side-by-Side, Text and Data Story Slides of your Report here. 

      How to share a Report

      You can share Reports in multiple ways from the Reports editor, including downloading the PDF, sending the PDF to specified email addresses, or automating the export. To open a Report in the editor, click Edit from the main Reports page.

      IN THIS SECTION

      Download PDF

      From the Reports editor, click the PDF button in the top right corner. Select Create PDF to generate the PDF. 

      The PDF can be downloaded by clicking Download File from the Share window, by copying the Download URL from the Share window, or by navigating to the Archive page. 

      Even if you click away while the PDF is generating, you'll be able to access the PDF from the Archive page. 

      Send to Email

      You can send an email (either immediately or at a scheduled date and time) to any email address from within the Reports editor by clicking Send to Email. Enter Recipient Emails, a Subject for the message, and any additional text you'd like to include in the email. 

      Select Send Now for the email to be sent immediately, or Send Later if you'd like the email to be sent at a future date/ time. 

      Send to Slack

      You can send a Report to Slack (either immediately or at a scheduled date and time) from the main Reports page by clicking Share and selecting Send to Slack. If you don't have Slack connected, you can click Connect now to start the connection process. 

      Learn more about sending data from Databox to Slack here. 

      Automate

      You can set a schedule to automatically export the Report daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly (like Scheduled Snapshots) by clicking Automate in the Report editor. 

      Set the Email Recipient(s) and select the Frequency for the PDF to be sent out. Enter a Subject for the message and any additional text you'd like to include in the email. Click Create new automation. 

      Reminder

      Since Reports typically include written context explaining the performance data, you will often need to make updates before the final PDF is valuable/ accurate. Because of this, there’s a  Remind Me option, which will send a reminder to a specified user at a set time on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. 

       

      To set up a reminder, click Remind Me from within the Reports editor and select the time you'd like to be reminded to update the Report. Click Set new reminder to save. 

      The reminder looks like this: 

      Viewing the Export Schedule

       

      You can view the schedule for upcoming Report exports on the Scheduled page. Click the drop-down arrow to Edit the schedule, or cancel the export. 

       

      Your schedule will also be visible on the  Home screen. 

      Viewing Generated Reports

      You can view any Reports that have been successfully exported from the Archive page. Click Download PDF to download the Report PDF. 

      Additional Information

      • Users will only be able to access a Report if they have access to all of the Databoards used in the Report. Otherwise, the Report will not be visible on their Reports page.