Custom reports without the email chain
In Ops Insights, a custom report goes from the first ask to the sign-off inside the app: the request, your administrator's approval, the analyst's questions, the preview, the changes and the final approval. Nothing waits in someone's inbox, and every step stays on the record.
The part of reporting nobody compares
A familiar story
A composite example, not a customer's story. Every step in it is ordinary. Together they take three weeks, and the decisions behind the report are lost the day it goes live.
Monday
An operations manager emails the company's analyst: “Can I get new orders by branch, by week, with the turn time from open to close?”
Wednesday
The analyst replies with three questions. Which date counts as open? Do cancelled orders count? Which branches? The manager is travelling, so a colleague answers two of them.
The next Tuesday
A spreadsheet arrives as an attachment. It counts test files, and the turn time starts from the wrong date. The manager replies with changes. A branch manager, copied on the thread, replies separately with different ones.
That Friday
Version three. The manager thinks it's finished. The analyst is still waiting to hear from the branch manager. Nobody is sure who has the final say.
Three weeks in
The report finally goes live. Whether it leaves out cancelled orders, and who decided that, is buried in a reply in someone's inbox.
Six months later
The numbers don't match another report, and someone asks why. The analyst has moved on, the thread sits in a mailbox nobody else can search, and the answer is a guess.
The same request in Ops Insights
- 1
Ask
Fill in the Report Request form in the app: the business purpose, what to include and leave out, the chart you want, the columns and where each one lives in your system. Attach an example if you have one. - 2
Approve the request
Your company's Client Admin reviews it first. They can send it to our analysts, assign a report you already have, or decline it, so nobody builds the same report twice. - 3
Answer questions in one place
If our Report Writing Team needs more detail, they ask in a note on the request, and you answer there. The request shows when it's waiting on you. - 4
Preview and check
The report comes back with a Report Description: its purpose, where its data comes from and what it includes or leaves out. Preview it with different criteria and spot-check it against your own system. - 5
Ask for changes
If something is off, request a revision with exact examples, such as “File 123 shouldn't appear: it's a test file.” The revised report comes back for review the same way. - 6
Approve and go live
Nothing goes live until every report on the request is approved. Then your Client Admin assigns it to the right roles, and it appears on their dashboards and in their report libraries.
Everything about a request, in one place
Each report request keeps its own record, on six tabs. Your requester, your Client Admin and our analysts all work from the same one.
- Action
- What the request needs from you right now. Requests waiting on you are flagged on the My Requests page.
- Request Overview
- What was asked for, exactly as it was submitted.
- Status
- Every step, with the date and time it was completed, so turn times are plain to see.
- Notes
- Every message between your team and our analysts, newest first.
- Documents
- Every file attached along the way: examples, screenshots, the old report you want replaced.
- Contacts
- Who requested it, and the Client Admin who approved it.
A record you can go back to
Completed requests stay in the app, on the Completed Requests tab, with how each one ended: completed by our team, met with a report you already had, declined by your Client Admin, or cancelled. When a number is questioned or an auditor asks how a report works, the answer is written down.
Questions the record answers
- Who asked for this report, and what was it for?
- Who approved the request, and who approved the results?
- Why does it leave out cancelled orders?
- What changed in the last revision, and who asked for it?
- How long did each step take?
Questions about report requests
- Who can submit a report request?
- Your team's users submit them in the app. Each one goes to your Client Admin for approval before our analysts start, so your company decides what gets built.
- Can we change a report we already have?
- Yes. A revision request works the same way, for a custom report or one from your report library, and the revised report comes back for your approval.
- What if the report already exists?
- Your Client Admin can assign the existing report instead of having a new one written, or approve a user's request for access to a report in your library.
- Is a new report live before we approve it?
- No. A request is complete only when every report on it is approved, and only then is it assigned to roles.
- Can we attach files?
- Yes. Attach examples, screenshots or the report you want replaced, when you submit or later. They stay on the request's Documents tab.
- Who writes the reports?
- The Ops Insights Report Writing Team: ProcessFast business analysts who write custom SQL against your data. Database reporting
Related
- Operational dashboardsKPI tiles with drilldown, and alerts when a number crosses a line
- Automated reportingScheduled reports by email, as Excel, CSV or PDF
- Database reportingReports and dashboards from any SQL database
- Vendor scorecardsSLA and turnaround reporting from your transaction data
- Accounting data exportFinancial and transaction data, shaped for your accounting system
Discover a better bottom line
See your own reports, dashboards and alerts in a 30-minute demo. We'll walk through what Ops Insights would look like on your data.