How to Use a Dashboard for Automated Reporting

It is often useful to create create an automated report in PowerPoint or Excel using an existing Dashboard. For example, the Dashboard may contain detailed data and the automated report may be a topline report containing the key slides.

Creating the Automated Report

1. Log in to the dashboard that you wish to use.
2. Click on Current dashboard settings (top-right) to open the Dashboard Settings page.
3. Scroll down to the section called Versions and click on Download link for the most recent version and save it somewhere and open it.
4. Create a new folder in the Report and give it a name commencing with private. For example, private Topline Report. The use of the word private means that anything in this group will not appear as a tab in the published dashboard, though it will still be available when editing.
5. Add any tables or charts that you wish to have in the automated report to this folder. If you wish to use existing charts or tables, click on them, hold down Ctrl and drag them into the new folder.
6. Lock each of the tables and charts in the folder.
7. Export the tables/charts to a PowerPoint or Excel file and format as desired. For any charts that have been exported using the Format of To PowerPoint as Excel Chart, you can re-size them in PowerPoint and then re-export them again, selecting the Update option, and this will update the exported chart with the new sizing. When you are finished, be sure to save your report in PowerPoint or Excel.
8. Save this Q Project file as a QPack.
9. Press the + Upload New Version button in the Dashboard settings page of the Dashboard and upload the revised QPack.

If the automated report is to contain data from multiple dashboards, repeat the above process for each dashboard.

Updating the Automated Report

When the Dashboard has been updated with new data, the automated report is updated as follows:

1. Log in to the dashboard.
2. Click on Current dashboard settings (top-right) to open the Dashboard Settings page.
3. Scroll down to the section called Versions and click on Download link for the most recent version and save it somewhere and open it.
4. Open a PowerPoint or Excel file which contains the report (note that this can be a copy of the original file and can be formatted and modified since it was originally created so long as the charts and tables in it were originally created by exporting from Q).
5. Go to the folder that contains the data to be exported, select all its contents and press the export button, press OK and select the Update option.

The automated report will now be updated. There is no need to upload the QPack to the Dashboard (the reason it is done at when setting up the automated report is to save the tables and charts in the automated report up to the dashboard so that they are updated when the data in the Dashboard is updated.

You may also update with new data automatically by using the Displayr API.