The Complete Guide to Understanding Data Reporting

Data Reporting Basics

What are data reports, how do they work, and what are the common types of data reports? Here are some answers:

Basics include:

What is a data set?

A data set is made up of the data that you want to capture and present. These are the actual source documents that contain the data that you are interested in.

The following are common data sets that are used for data reporting:

Financial and operational data: Data that is provided by an organization's accounting system or other financial and operational systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. You can extract financial and operational data from the source documents and bring it into a data mart before sending it to a reporting server for reporting.

Customer relationship management (CRM) data: Data from various systems that can be extracted from source documents to a data mart. For example, you can extract customer information from a CRM system and put the data into a data mart for reporting.

Archival data: Data that was captured in source documents. If you need the same data several times, extracting it from the source documents and loading it into a data mart before sending it to a reporting server for reporting save time and effort.

What are data reports and the types of data reports?

Data reporting is the process of creating digestible data by translating raw data into formats that help you assess the success of your organization. There are several different kinds of data reports. They can be classified by the kind of information they report on and the manner in which they do so.

When it comes to presenting your data, there are two different types of reports: static and interactive. Static reports are simple to create and understand but do not allow users to interact with them. Most pull data from a single source, hence are called static.

Static reports provide "historical" data, i.e. of events that have already occurred. Eg: What was the cost per lead acquisition?

Interactive reports also called real-time or dynamic reports, provide access to data as it is collected in real-time. Because they update data continuously, they allow users to drill down into the data to uncover a deeper meaning.

What types of reports do you typically create? The primary type of report is a list, which provides a brief view of the facts from source documents without presenting them in a context that can then be used down the line to make decisions.

For example, you can create a list of key facts, or key dates, or key costs. An example would be: How many customers opened bank accounts, in which months, last year?

What data are you reporting?

The next step in designing reports is to determine the information you want your users to view and the results you want them to get. A report is a detailed presentation of facts and can come in summary form, too. Then, there's the query. Report summaries provide a snapshot of an organization's performance. They are usually generated for top management, who then disseminate the information to their staff.

Form queries are more complex. They are typically requested by users to filter the information they want. For example, an analyst might want to look at sales growth by individual products, geographical locations, or customers within particular organizations. They may want to know how many customers opened their accounts in the previous year. So they 'query" the database for the answers.

What is the purpose of data reports?

To present information to analysts and managers so they can make effective business decisionsTo present information to analysts and managers so they can improve the performance of their organization

To improve the quality of existing information                                                                                                  For managers, it is to satisfy information needs so they can make informed decisions.

How do you format it?

Each column is a separate information item or entityEach line of a report summarizes a specific set of informationIf a set of information items is too large to fit on one page, it is broken into sections or linesA report usually contains several sections: title, purpose, list of information items, and organization chartThe sections should be labeled, described, and described in detail

Data reporting tools

A data reporting tool performs the actual data reporting by collecting data from within your business processes. The data reporting tool collects data from the business processes being conducted by the company. The data reporting tool can be an Excel spreadsheet or some other type of electronic reporting tool.

The Importance Of Data Reporting

Here's why should you care about data reporting.

If data is not reported, there are two reasons why:

1) the data was not measured or2) the data was measured but not reportedNot measuring is never an option, but reporting is often optional. If the data is not reported, it does not exist, in a sense. The data can't be used for making decisions. This can be a problem. Also, not all data should be reported to make a decision. If a person is making a decision based on certain assumptions, they need the actual data to see if it supports the assumptions.

Why measure the data?

There are many reasons you would want to measure data, but there are five main ones:1) it helps to mark the stages/progress of a business2) it helps understand what is going on with competitors3) it is a valuable measurement tool for taking action4) it helps you improve your data management process

How To Write A Data Report

These are the basic components to a good data report:

1) title and introduction 

2) business logic

3) data summary

4) group by and sort criteria

5) visualizations6) drill down

7) conclusions and recommendations

8) references and appendices

9) footnotes and credits

Original Source: https://expressanalytics.com/blog/data-reporting/