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.