Reporting Overview
Every organisation these days has data and the larger the organisation the more data they are likely to hold. Utilizing that data – rather than just processing or storing it – is where reporting comes in.
How profitable is the company?
Who are our best customers?
Which is the most profitable product line?
Which sales representative (or partner) brings in the most revenue?
These are all examples of the sort of questions management need answers to in order to effectively run their business. Without information it’s difficult to effectively manage. Knowing that something or someone is performing well, or conversely is under-performing, is the first step of management. Managing blind isn’t really management.
And this is where reporting comes in.
Reporting is the process of converting data to information – the process of taking masses of (often) meaningless data and converting it into useful, objective, measurable information.
Most software solutions that run businesses these days offer reports that to a large extent provide the information required. It’s on those few occasions where this isn’t the case or that additional specific reports are required that the need for a skilled report writer comes in. Businesses that run off-the-shelf software solutions typically fall into this category. The business is often made to fit the software, and as every business is different, the standard reports that are supplied with the package aren’t always sufficient; something tailored is often required in these instances.
If you find yourself in this situation, despair not. Help is at hand!
Types of report
There are two basic types of report. Everyday, ‘bread and butter’ reports such as invoices, despatch notes, goods received notes and so on that run a company at the lowest level. These are so fundamental that they are not always looked on as reports – but are an essential tool in running a business. Typically the data needed to create these reports requires little or no special processing; the design of the database is such that these reports are readily available.
The other type of report goes beyond merely reporting what’s happening on the shop floor to give higher-level or meta-level information that’s more useful to management. Examples include reports such as a gross profit report, a commission report, a sales by region by rep report or a report detailing the ‘productivity’ of each employee etc. For these types of report the data needs to be processed and summarised in order to create the report. It is this type of report that yields real value to managers.
Reporting Tools
There are many reporting tools available but two principal reporting technologies are Crystal Reports and Reporting Services. Extract Science specialises in them both.
