Reporting

Once we know what we want to display in the report, I will work with you to gather the data. Data come in all shapes, sizes, and formats - Excel/csv files, databases, SharePoint lists, even manually updated lists or emails. We’ll explore your setup and figure out a way to pull the information into your report(s) in the most repeatable, automated fashion possible.

Once we have the data in the reporting tool, we need to make it ready for reporting. If your organization has sophisticated and well-maintained data warehouses, great! But many times, organizations are using transactional data (e.g. data directly from their CRM). This can mean inconsistent data that need to be cleaned and standardized so that we see information in the groupings we expect (e.g. do you want “Former Student” and “Alumna/us” to show up under a single heading of “Alumni”?), and so that multiple data sources can work together.

Again, we want this to be as repeatable as possible, so I’ll code this in a way that supports automation and limits annual maintenance - no more updating date range filters and names in January each year!

Data visualization is one of my passions. Calling on the best practices of experts such as Edward Tufte and Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, I will make your report design come to life with simple, clean lines and easy-to-read visuals. No clutter or illegible pie charts to be found.

When it comes to reporting, there’s nothing worse than information you can’t trust. Who cares that it’s beautiful if it’s wrong? That’s why we conduct thorough testing to ensure each element of each report is accurate and consistent, and take extra steps to proactively identify potential errors in reports. I will do my best to make sure new reports match the old, sometimes finding longstanding errors that can be corrected in a new report.

Depending on your organization’s setup, we can add a variety of features to make the most important information stand out.

Ranging from color coding and icons to conditional messages and alerts, I’ll make sure you are well-armed to face your organization’s highest needs.

If a report is refreshed in the woods but nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Er… you get what I mean. I’ll work with you to understand how you and your audiences consume information so I can meet you where you’re at. Email delivery? Embedding in a website? Exporting to PDFs? All of the above? We can make it happen.

At the conclusion of our engagement, I will work with you to ensure you have ownership of your report files and the ability to update them as needed. This will include documentation explaining the logic of the report design, anticipated troubleshooting scenarios, etc.

While I will strive to automate as much as possible, there may be limits due to the organization’s tech stack and policies. If there are manual steps to take each time the report runs, I will include a how-to guide explaining each step.