How to build and schedule a custom report

Standard reports cover the common questions, but every organisation has a few of its own: which people worked well beyond their shift last week, which applications took the most time in a team, which projects are burning through hours. A custom report answers exactly your question, and a schedule delivers the answer without anyone having to remember to run it. This guide walks through building one in BeeWorkforce.

Before you start: write the question

Write down, in one sentence, what the report should tell its reader. For example: "Every Monday, show team leads which people had productivity below 50% last week, lowest first." That sentence tells you the data source, the date range, the condition, the sort order and the schedule. It also stops the report from growing columns nobody needs.

Step 1: Open the report builder

Go to Reports and choose New report. You can also open any standard report and choose Customize & schedule to start from it.

Step 2: Choose the data source and date range

1. Give the report a clear name, such as "Low productivity – last week".
2. Under Data source, pick the report to build on, for example Productivity, Daily attendance or Apps / URLs.
3. Pick a date range. Relative ranges such as Yesterday, Last week or Last month are recalculated every time the report runs, which is what you want for a scheduled report.
4. Add filters such as a team or a person if the report is only for part of the organisation.

Step 3: Choose and order the columns

The Columns panel lists every column the data source offers. Untick the ones the reader does not need and use the arrows to put the most important columns first. Keep it short; three to six columns is usually enough. The preview on the right updates as you go.

Step 4: Keep only the rows that matter

Under Show rows where, add conditions to filter the rows. Each condition has a column, a comparison and a value:

• Text columns can use contains, is and is not.
• Number, percentage and time columns can use more than, at least, less than and at most.
• Time columns are entered in hours, so 0.5 means thirty minutes.

For the example above, the condition would be Productivity less than 50. You can add several conditions; a row must match all of them to appear.

Step 5: Sort and limit

Choose a Sort by column and direction so the most important rows come first. If only the top few rows matter, set Show top to a number such as 10.

Step 6: Decide who can see it

Reports you save are private by default. Turn on sharing to make the report available to everyone who can open reports. Shared reports always run with each viewer's own access, so a manager opening a shared report sees only the people they are allowed to see.

Step 7: Add a schedule

Switch on Email this report on a schedule and choose:

1. Frequency: every day, every week on a chosen weekday, or every month on a chosen day.
2. Time: in the company's time zone.
3. Recipients: up to 20 email addresses.

Changing the frequency also sets the date range to the period that just ended (yesterday, last week or last month), which you can adjust if needed. The email contains a short summary with the main totals and the full report as a CSV attachment.

A scheduled report is built with the access of the person who set it up, so recipients see what that person can see. Choose recipients with that in mind.

Step 8: Save and test

Choose Save report. On the saved report you can use Send now to email it immediately and check that it looks right in the recipients' inboxes. The saved report also shows when it was last sent and when the next email is due, and any problem sending it.

Three examples to adapt

Late arrivals, every morning

Data source: Daily attendance. Date range: Yesterday. Filter: the team. Condition: Late by more than 0. Columns: Employee, Punch in and Late by. Schedule: every day at 09:00 to the team lead.

Overworked last week

Data source: Productivity. Date range: Last week. Condition: Online at least 50 hours. Columns: Employee, Team, Online and Productive. Sort: Online, highest first. Schedule: every Monday at 08:30 to department heads.

Top applications by team, monthly

Data source: Apps / URLs, grouped by applications. Date range: Last month. Filter: the team. Show top: 15. Sort: time used, highest first. Schedule: on the 1st of each month to the team lead, as a basis for reviewing productivity categories.

Checking the report before you rely on it

Before you leave a schedule running unattended, spend five minutes checking the output. Run the report for a period you know well and compare a few rows with the standard report or the daily board. Check that conditions behave as expected: a condition on a time column uses hours, so a value of 8 means eight hours, not eight minutes. Confirm that the totals row makes sense with the columns you chose; if the first column is a number rather than a name, the totals row may not appear. Finally, use Send now and open the email on the device your recipients use most, so you know the summary and attachment arrive as expected.

Tips for reports that stay useful

• Name reports after the question they answer, not the data they contain.
• Send them shortly before the meeting or planning time where they will be used.
• Review scheduled reports every quarter and delete the ones nobody reads.
• If a report keeps growing columns, split it into two smaller reports for different readers.

A well-built custom report replaces a recurring manual task with a short email that arrives exactly when it is needed. Start with one clear question, keep the report small, and let the schedule do the rest.