As of 2025, 463 exabytes of data will be generated by people every single day. If you don’t know what an exabyte is, suffice it to say, it’s a lot of data (technically speaking, it’s 2 to the sixtieth power)! Businesses rely on massive amounts of such data to make informed business decisions. That means that data must be transformed into analytics and readable reports to be made usable, which is where automated reporting software enters the picture.
In this article, we will share details about reporting software and business intelligence tools. By the end of this read, you’ll have a good idea of how to search for and find the right analytics and reporting tools for your business’ needs.
Coming Up
1. What is an Automated Report?
2. What is Automated Reporting Software?
3. What are the Benefits of Automated Reporting Software?
4. What are Automated Reporting Best Practices?
5. What are Examples of Automated Reports?
6. What are the Types of Automated Reporting Software?
7. What is Reporting vs Business Intelligence Tools?
8. How to Choose Automated Reporting Software?
What is an Automated Report?
An automated report is a business management tool. Automated reports are created using real-time data, which means that you no longer have to collect and sift through up-to-date data to be able to make timely inferences.
Automated reports utilise APIs, or application programming interfaces, to connect to various data sources and communicate between them. This is where you can attribute the bulk of the time savings.
With automated reports, you can customise reports based on need so that every stakeholder can obtain the insights that are relevant to them without having to create any extra work.
What is Automated Reporting Software?
Automated reporting software is what enables automated reports to be created. The reporting software, like SolveXia which is a great option for financial reporting software, will aggregate your data from all connected sources and use it to create visual dashboards and reports.
Essentially, it is your puzzle solver! The reporting software makes data usable and understandable. SolveXia not only generates reports, but it is a robust financial automation system that will also collect, cleanse, merge, and transform your data so you don’t have to.
Plus, after report generation, a tool like SolveXia can securely store all of your data and make it easy to create audit trails with the click of a button, should the need arise.
What are the Benefits of Automated Reporting Software?
Automated reporting software can be a gamechanger for any type of business. This is especially true with regard to the finance function of the business. Since most decisions are based on a business’ financial health, it can make or break a business to have access to timely data.
The benefits of automated reporting software are plenty. Reporting software can contribute to:
1. Time Savings
Automated reporting software tracks, collects, and cleans your data which saves countless hours of manual effort. At the end of the day, this not only results in time savings but also monetary savings since time is money.
2. Increased Internal Control
By granting stakeholders access to automated reporting software, you can increase the transparency and visibility within an organisation.
This allows everyone to not only be informed of how the business is operating, but also provides information about how processes are flowing within the walls of the business. This level of internal control can be used to optimise processes and reduce risks.
3. Continuous Improvement
As automated reporting software provides constant analytics, processes always have the opportunity to be improved upon.
4. Data Security
With an automated software solution like SolveXia, your team not only benefits from accurate and automated reports. The centralised software system also provides bank-grade security to collect, communicate, and store sensitive data.
There’s no longer a need to have data existing across spreadsheets, office locations, and desktops that are at risk of being breached.
5. Timely Decision-Making
With reports at your fingertips that are based on real-time data, your decisions get smarter! Without automated reporting software, you are stuck collecting and analyzing historical data for countless hours, and by the time you have the insights you seek, the data has changed and the final decision may be different based on new data.
What are Automated Reporting Best Practices?
The simple act of deploying automated reporting software within your business is the first step to experiencing its positive effects. However, to get the most your of your data reporting tools, consider these best practices:
1. Goal Setting
Start by setting clear goals. It seems like an obvious step but it’s often missed because it’s so obvious. By setting clear goals, you get answers to a lot of questions, such as: the department, processes, and functions that will be impacted by the automated reports.
For example, are you looking to assess team performance metrics, reduce manual financial tasks, or optimise marketing campaigns? Whatever your goal is, your approach will be based on what you wish to achieve.
2. KPIs Selection
Key performance indicators, or KPIs, will help you to analyse how a process or goal is coming to fruition. Try to choose about 6-8 KPIs that are based on your goals. This is what your reports will focus on tracking, communicating and sharing.
3. Reporting Frequency
Decide how often you want the automated report to be generated and sent. With the use of automated reporting software, you can have daily reports, weekly reports, or whatever other frequency you have in mind.
For operational data, daily reports are commonly used. Weekly reports are more common when it comes to strategic data that will be used to make more big picture decisions.
4. Report Format
The best reports are easy-to-read and easy-to-understand. With SolveXia, you have the freedom to customise your reports and dashboards based on the information and audience.
5. Offer Support
When you implement automated reporting software, your team will reap the benefits. But, in order to understand how to use the software and the value of it, you’ll need to offer guidance and training.
For people to get the most out of the software, they need to know how to use it. With tools like SolveXia, there is a dedicated team of experts who are happy to share their knowledge at any and every step of the way. Plus their user friendly interface and no code solution makes it simple to adopt and utilise without training necessary.
What are Examples of Automated Reports?
As we mentioned, any type of business and team can benefit from automated reporting software. To see what we mean, take a look at these examples of automated reports:
Marketing Reports
Marketing teams want to know how their campaigns are performing to ensure that their time, effort, and money are reaping the intended results. Marketing reports can showcase the total spend, impressions, clicks, acquisitions, and cost per acquisition, for example.
Financial Reports
Financial dashboards and reports can be used to share important KPIs that display the up-to-date fiscal status of the business. For example, you can see working capital, budget variance, and cash conversion cycles. This way, CFOs and team leads can ensure that a business’ money management strategy is working optimally.
What are the Types of Automated Reporting Software?
When automated reporting software, you will come across different options. The tool that’s right for you will depend on your preferences and needs. The main types of automated reporting software can be categorised as:
Code-Based Tools
Code-based tools provide the highest level of control over the system. However, the drawback is that they are time-consuming to customise, test, develop, and debug. They require constant management and oversight on behalf of IT teams. They also are typically high budget options.
Low-Code or No-Code Tools
An automation tool like SolveXia falls into this category. Low-code and no-code tools are easy to implement and quick to understand because of their user-friendly design.
It is an out-of-the-box solution that still has the opportunity to be customised but can be done through drag-and-drop functionality. They also tend to be cost effective.
Dashboard Tools
Dashboard tools are closely related to business intelligence tools because they generate KPIs in a visual dashboard in real-time. They make use of predictive and real-time insights to help with business decision-making.
What is Reporting vs Business Intelligence Tools?
Automated reporting software and business intelligence tools are easy to confuse. Here’s the big difference between the two:
Reporting is often used to provide insights about a specific dataset in a given period of time. They are also utilised for quick decision-making that’s geared towards the short-term.
Business intelligence tools are more for the big picture. They make use of an extensive database that can span across data collection systems. With insights from BI tools, business leaders gain access to broad trends and patterns that impact strategic business decisions. It’s a more macro-oriented endeavor.
How to Choose Automated Reporting Software?
It’s clear to see that automated reporting software can greatly benefit your business. So, when deciding which software to choose, here’s a list of considerations that are worthwhile to keep in mind.
- Data Processing: The most robust tools are able to connect and collect data from various sources. A tool like SolveXia does this through its use of APIs.
- Templates: If you’re crunched for time or need some inspiration, choose a tool that offers report templates that come ready-to-use so that you don’t have to build a report from scratch.
- Pricing: Of course, pricing will be a main consideration based on your budget.
- Integrations: Take a look at how the automation tool will integrate with your existing software and systems. A reporting tool like SolveXia can connect to legacy systems so that no data is overlooked or goes to waste.
Closing Thoughts
The most efficient way to make use of your data for real-time decision-making is through the use of automated reporting software. Now, you have an understanding about what reporting software offers and how to choose the best solution for your business.
If you’re interested in seeing a tool like SolveXia in action, we invite you to request a demo here.
