How to Create and Schedule a Report

You can use reports in MSPbots to share data with key members in your organization for making data-driven decisions. This page discusses how you can create a report and configure it to send specific data to identified individuals at a set schedule. 

What's on this page

What are reports and the benefits of using these?  

Reports are important tools for leaders and teams to communicate critical information to clients and within teams. These contain a summary of historical data used in making data-driven decisions and can be shared externally with clients or internally within teams via scheduled reporting or manual PDF generation. With reports, you can identify trends, diagnose problems, and make necessary adjustments to improve areas like capacity planning, communication, cost management, and overall performance.

1. Open the MSPbots app as administrator.
2. Navigate to Dashboards on the menu and click the New Dashboard button.
3. Select Report.
   
4. On the Add New Dashboard window, 
   1. Give the new report a name.
   2. Select the roles that will have access to the report. 
   3. Select one or multiple tags to label the new report you create.
   4. Provide a description of the report being created.
   5. Click Continue. This opens a tab for the new report.
      
5. On the new report tab, click Add Widget. This opens the Add Widget window.
   
6. Next, on the Add Widget window that appears, you can also create new widgets as needed or select the widgets that you want to appear in the report from the Widgets List or Slicer List.
   
7. Click the Add Selected button.The selected widgets will now appear on the report you have just created.
8. If needed, you can also configure the Report's Size (A4/letter) and Orientation (portrait/landscape).
   
9. Click the Save Dashboard button when done. 
   
   
   
   • If you do not want to save this report, click Cancel.
     
10. The new report you have just created will now appear.
    
11. Other optional settings:
    • Design - Click  to configure the widgets, size, and orientation of the report.
    • Edit - Click to edit the basic information of the report.
      
    • Refresh - Click  to refresh all widgets. Hovering here for 2 seconds will open the auto refresh settings.
      
      

      When the auto-refresh feature is enabled and the refresh interval is set, the following rules will apply:

      • Upon switching back the dashboard page:
        • If the current time is equal to or later than the last refresh time plus the auto-refresh interval, the page will automatically refresh, and a new countdown will start from the current time.
        • If the current time is earlier than the last refresh time plus the auto-refresh interval, no action will be taken. The page will automatically refresh once the set interval is reached.
      • While staying on the dashboard page, it will adhere to the auto-refresh interval you have set and automatically refresh at the specified time.
      • Once you switch away from the dashboard page, the auto-refresh of the page will stop.

      For example, let's say the last refresh time was 9:00, and the auto-refresh interval is set to 5 minutes.

      • If you access the report page at 9:08, which is later than 9:00 + 5 minutes, it will automatically refresh once, and the new auto-refresh timer will initiate from 9:08. Please note that it will not automatically refresh at 9:05.
      • If you access the report page at 9:02, which is earlier than 9:00 + 5 minutes, no action will occur. If you remain on the page until 9:05, it will automatically refresh at precisely 9:05. However, if you leave the page before 9:05, the last refresh time will remain as 9:00.
    • Share - Click  to share the report. It supports sharing through a shareable link, snapshot, and embedding. Please refer to:
      • How to Share a Dashboard Using the Shareable Link Function
      • Sharing a Dashboard Using the Snapshot Function
      • How to Share A Dashboard Using the Embed Function (HTML)
        
    • Delete - Click  to delete the report.
      
    • Schedule report -Click the Schedule report button to access the New Schedule page.
        
    • Export PDF - Click  to export the report in PDF format.

How to Create a New Schedule

1. Open the MSPbots app as administrator. 

2. Navigate to Dashboards on the menu and open the report that needs to be configured for a new schedule.
   

3. Click the Schedule report button to access the New Schedule page.
   

   • If there haven't been any previously scheduled reports, click the Create a New Schedule button on the Scheduled tab or the + New button to enter the New Schedule dialog box and create a new schedule.
     
   • If there have been previously scheduled reports, the Scheduled tab will display the existing scheduled reports. To create a new one, click the + New button to enter the New Schedule dialog box and create a new schedule.
     
4. (Optional) Schedule Name - Please provide a unique schedule name. Recipients' names will be used if left blank.
   
   
5. Delivery options - The default is to send via email. Currently, there is no support for customization.

6. Email recipient(s) - Select the email recipients from the dropdown menu. Click on CC or BCC to add additional technical personnel for carbon copy or blind carbon copy. Multiple selections are supported.

   • (Optional)Send filtered dashboard for the associated company of each recipient:

     • This option only appears when there's a slicer with QueryParams="Company" in the Dashboard.
     • If you check the option, scheduled reports will be sent with filters specific to the recipients' mapped company. In this case, you need to configure the PSA by selecting an option from the PSA dropdown menu. The available options are: Autotask, ConnectWise, Kaseya, Syncro, Halo.

7. (Optional) Save Slicer:

   • This option only appears when there are slicers in the dashboard (excluding the "Company" Slicer).
     
     

   • The default setting for the Save Slicer option is on. When it is turned on, the current slicer selection will be saved and applied to scheduled reports.

   • The slicers displayed here are the ones you added when creating this dashboard. If you need to modify the slicers, please go to the page of this dashboard, click Design > Add Widget to add or delete slicers.
     
     
8. Frequency:
   • Set the frequency for sending scheduled report emails.
   • You can also customize the time zone here, which means you can set specific report times based on different locations and preferences, making it easier for you to manage and schedule reports worldwide.
   •  If you want to customize the frequency, select Advanced Scheduler for more options.
9. Attachment:

   • Include PDF Attachment - This option is selected by default, which means that the scheduled reports will be sent in PDF format.

   • Include Shareable link - If you check the Include Shareable link checkbox, the token {{report_link}} will automatically be added, and the shareable link of the dashboard will be included as an attachment in your email. The placeholder {{report_link}} represents the actual dashboard link.
     
10. From:
    • Please select the email address from which to send the scheduled report.
    • Provide a custom subject, and then click to select tokens. You can refer to the token descriptions below for guidance.
      • Token Descriptions
        • {{recipient_company_name}} is for the recipient's company name.
        • {{recipient_name}} is for the recipient's full name. Use first name and last name if the full name is not available.
        • {{report_name}} is for the dashboard's name. 
        • {{report_owner_name}} is for the dashboard owner's name.
        • {{report_owner_email}} is for the dashboard owner's email address.
        • {{report_link}} is for the dashboard link.
        • {{your_company_name}} is for the sender's company name.Select a token for the email subject from the list. 
          
      • If your PSA is selected, the values for {{recipient_company_name}} and {{recipient_name}} can be obtained from Autotask, ConnectWise, Kaseya, Syncro or Halo's contact data.
      • If your PSA is not selected or the values for {{recipient_company_name}} and {{recipient_name}} cannot be obtained, set these values to null.
      
      
11. (Optional) Hide the email footer - Tick the Hide the email footer checkbox to hide the footer on the email. 
12. Click Save to save the settings.
13. After successful creation, the Scheduled tab displays the following information.
    • Report Name
    • Last Sent Timestamp
    • Frequency
    • Next Scheduled Time
    • Recipients
    • Saved Slicer(s)
      
      
14. if you need to configure the schedule report, click onthe ellipsis button located on the right side. Here are the available actions when configuring the Scheduler: 
    • Edit - Click Edit to modify the information of the scheduled report. Once you're done, click Save.
    • Send Now - Click Send Now to immediately send the scheduled report email to the recipients.
    • Send To Me - Click Send To Me to send the scheduled report to your email. You can use this option to preview the report before sending it to clients or teams. 
    • Delete - You can delete the scheduled report by clicking Delete and confirming when prompted.
      

15. Click on Log to view the record of the schedule reports sent, including the following information.

    • Status
    • Report Name
    • Sent Timestamp
    • Recipients
    • Saved Slicer(s)