# What is a report?

A report is a **table of metrics across periods**: your numbers down the
side, and columns such as *This month*, *Last month* and *This year* across
the top. It answers "how does now compare with before?" for many numbers at
once.

## What it represents

A report is another way to analyse the same metrics. Each has its own
strength:

- A **dashboard** shows numbers together, for one period at a time.
- A **goal list** judges numbers against targets.
- A **report** compares numbers **across time**, side by side.

Like the others, a report stores no values. It keeps a list of metrics and a
list of periods, and works every cell out when you open it. Each cell is one
metric narrowed to one period.

## How it's set up

**Goals → Reports → New KPI report**:

1. **Name it.**
2. **Add the metrics**, one row each. A row can have its own label.
3. **Tick the periods** for the columns. The first one you tick is the first
   column, and the one the others are compared with.
4. Optionally give a row a **target** and an at-risk line, as in a goal list.
   Its values are then coloured on target, at risk or missed, and a Target
   column appears. **Use the colour rules** starts from the metric's own.
5. Choose **Personal** or **Shared**.

The preview shows the real values as you build. Clicking a column heading in
the editor sorts the rows, which changes the order the report reads in;
**Undo** puts them back.

A metric needs a **period field** to be narrowed. One without it, like
*pending approvals*, shows the same number in every column.

## How to use it

- **Read the change.** Under each value in the first column is its change
  from the second: *▲ 12% vs last month*. If the first period is still
  running, the report says so, because part of this month is being compared
  with all of last month.
- **Sort it.** Click a column heading to order the rows by that column. The
  report's own order is one click away.
- **Open a number.** Every value opens the rows behind it, for that period.
- **Download CSV** for a spreadsheet. The file follows the order on screen,
  and includes each value's status when rows have targets.
- **Print** opens a clean document of the report. One with more than three
  period columns prints sideways.
- **Scan the list.** The Reports page sums each report up in a line: *▲ 2 up,
  ▼ 5 down*.

## Good to know

- **Whether up is good depends on the metric.** The change is shown in grey.
  Give a row a target if you want a verdict.
- **A value that says Restricted** is over data your account can't read. One
  that says *Can't evaluate* has a metric whose dataset changed under it.
- **A report follows its metrics.** Edit a metric and every report using it
  changes. Deleting a metric removes its rows from reports as well, and the
  reports list warns when a report points at one that's gone.
- **Duplicate** opens a copy with the same rows and periods, a quick way to
  make a second report for another team.
- A shared report can hold only shared metrics. Only staff can share.