Do you have the same problem with monthly reports?

I summarized the problems typical with many monthly reports I have these years. 

• The process of data collection is time-consuming. Usually, the data is stored in Excel. Many report styles in the company are the same. But there is still a lot of repetitive work since different departments have separate data with Excel to calculate, accompanied by the tedious formula. 
• Even if the data warehouse and templates are well established, it is also very troublesome to modify and adjust the fixed reports. Every change of the reports requires changing the underlying template.
• The monthly reports can play a role in the data display. But it is challenging to do data analysis and track the problem through the reports. 

Even so, monthly reports are part of enterprise reporting. These reports are still inevitable every month. Is there any way to simplify monthly work?

 The answer is Yes. On the one hand, reduce the workload by reporting software; On the other hand, improve the value of monthly reports. Next, I will share details with you.

Simplify monthly reports by reporting tools

The core of simplifying monthly reports is report automation; the key points are automatic data entry and automated reporting.

Python and Excel can meet these needs. However, the code is hard for a newbie to learn. Here, I would recommend the software requires no code, which is easy to operate with its drag&drop interface. 

1. Quickly collect the data for monthly reports

For example, I am the leader of the production line in the manufacturing industry. My monthly task is to generate monthly reports based on production data. 

The problem is how to extract data from the separate excel files. For some enterprises with a high level of informationization, this problem is easy to solve with FineReport.

FineReport is directly connected to the database. In other words, it is equal to building a data center in the FineReport under the support of the database, and all the production data can be centralized into the system.

You can integrate the FineReport with ERP, CRM, or other business systems that you store the production data. As long as the data of the production plan and progress of the production line are input into your business system, FineReport will extract data from these systems and update the date on the report in real-time. 

However, few companies have a complete production planning system to support the report generation. The production schedule can only be summarized and printed in Excel or recorded on the blackboard board to arrange the production. It is so hard to collect the data to generate daily reports. 

In this situation, the data entry feature of FineReport plays such an essential role in collecting the data from separate people. Data entry support inputting data directly into the database via online forms, similar to the questionnaire. After setting the report formats, you can distribute the online forms to your team. No matter the data of schedule or the progress will be directly gathered into the database, the latest data will be displayed on your daily reports.

FineReport also supports importing excel data in batches. After designing the importing templates based on EXCEL sheets, you can import data from Excel to FineReport in a few clicks.

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2. Automate the reports generation process with the monthly report template. 

With the database problem solved, it is time to make a monthly report. But to automate the report, I hope I only need to make a monthly report once and then use it as a template. 

FineReport can realize it. First, make an excellent template and save it in the FineReport. You can reuse it when making a monthly report next time. It greatly reduces the process and time to make a report. 

At the same time, for different reporting users, you can use FineReport to set different types of templates. For example, design different templates for the headquarters and branches. Also, distribute different templates for various teams of the offices. 

By setting a drill-down relationship between these templates, you can drill down from headquarters’ reports to the branches’, also to the offices.’ In this way, finding critical problems is time-saving. 

Monthly reports usually involve the progress of the project, using numbers is hard to reflect intuitive data. In this situation, you can use dashboards, progress bars, and other charts to reflect the progress of your plan.

3. Make the business department track the source of problem data directly based on monthly reports

Different from the fixed display in the traditional monthly reports, you can analyze the problem through a variety of joint drilling operations, such as drill-down and linkage analysis in FineReport.

4. Export or print the daily, weekly, and monthly reports

FineReport supports exporting and printing reports in various formats, such as Excel, PDF, PNG, and so on.

5. Share the reports with your team or your manager?

In general, the monthly reports of enterprises are reported regularly; you need to report it manually every day. Once you have some emergency to do, the report will be delayed.

This problem is also relatively easy to solve. With the time schedule function, you will be liberated from the repeated work. You can quickly set up monthly reports, and other tasks without additional work.

If you’re a manager who waits for someone to submit a monthly report and gather data, FineReport can help you automatically gather and organize data. The only thing you need to do is open your phone and check the reports you need on your mobile anytime, anywhere.

And if you are the one who is responsible for making data reports, you can take advantage of FineReport’s regular scheduling and message reminding function to set generating reports regularly and pushing the monthly reports to the corresponding managers.

FineReport is free for personal use. You can download to help you simplify your monthly work.