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How To Create Data Reports That Will Skyrocket Your Business Performance

How to create data reports by datapine.

While they have always played a pivotal role in business success, the terms ‘data report’ or ‘business report’ haven’t exactly been synonymous with creativity or innovation. Data reporting and analysis are often seen as necessary evils created by analysts and consultants to offer functional operational insights. 

As such, the term usually conjures up images of static PDFs, old-school PowerPoint slides, and big tables. Usually created with past data without any room for generating real-time or predictive insights, static reports were deemed obsolete, consisting of numerous external and internal files, without proper information management processes at hand.

But it doesn’t have to be this way in the digital age. In fact, the business intelligence industry has evolved enormously over the past decade, and data analytics reports are riding the crest of this incredible technological wave.

The rise of innovative report tools means you can create report insights that people are compelled to read and that offer a wealth of business-boosting value. If you utilize business intelligence correctly, not only will you be able to connect your informational dots, but you will also be able to take control of your data across the company and improve your bottom line.

Here, we will consider the question, ‘what is a data report?’, explore how to generate one, and provide the best possible data reports examples, all created with modern software. Without further ado, let's get started!

What Is a Data Report?

A data report is an analytical tool used to extract past, present, and future performance insights to accelerate a company’s growth. It combines various sources of information and is usually used for operational and strategic decision-making.

As mentioned, these reports originally had features of static presentation of data, manually written or calculated, but with the introduction of modern processes such as dashboard reporting, they have developed into an invaluable resource to successfully manage your sales processes, marketing data, and even robust manufacturing analytics and numerous other organizational processes needed to stay on top of the pack.

Let’s explore the basics in more detail, and then we will look at data reporting examples that you can use for your own internal processes and more.

The Importance Of Data Reporting

In our current data-driven world, the importance of data reporting cannot be overstated. Organizations rely heavily on data to gain insights into their operations, understand market trends, and make informed decisions. In the reporting phase, you give meaning to your data by presenting it in a structured format so users can understand and use it to its potential.

At its core, data reporting serves as a bridge between raw data and actionable insights. It transforms vast amounts of information into digestible formats so stakeholders can assess performance, allocate resources, and drive decision-making. Without reporting, companies would struggle to navigate business challenges and complexities, relying instead on guesswork and intuition to guide their actions.

When done correctly, data reporting can offer the following benefits:

  • Better decision-making: Effective reporting provides insights into trends, patterns, and performance metrics, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions based on evidence. With a well-designed report and access to data at any time, decision-making power improves significantly.
  • Objective performance evaluation: By analyzing data reports, organizations can evaluate the performance of individuals, teams, departments, or entire systems. This helps leaders find areas for improvement and recognize their strengths without letting personal feelings skew their judgment.
  • Better resource allocation: Data analysis reports can help decision-makers proactively decide where resources are most needed and where they can be optimized for better outcomes. They can also identify potential waste areas, allowing them to curb losses and reduce budget strain.
  • Improved risk management: Every organization faces risks, and reporting can help call attention to risks that might otherwise go unnoticed. Data helps uncover potential issues so leaders can take immediate action and reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes.
  • Accountability and transparency: Data (and access to data) helps foster a culture of transparency and allows users to be more accountable for their performance and decisions. Empowering employees with data gives them clear metrics against which they can measure their performance and activities.
  • Customer insights: Analyzing customer behaviors helps organizations understand customer behavior, preferences, and needs. These insights can lead to a better marketing approach and customer experience.
  • Continuous improvement: Ongoing reporting creates a culture of continuous improvement, with data guiding your decisions rather than a set-in-stone strategy. Metrics and KPIs provide feedback on strategies, processes, and initiatives, allowing you to see what’s working and what needs to be changed to achieve better outcomes.
  • New trends and opportunities: Data can reveal many things about your company and services that might otherwise go unnoticed, such as emerging trends and patterns. Spotting these trends early gives you the best advantage to get ahead of competitors.

Data Reporting Basics

We’ve explored the data report definition and its benefits. Now, we’re going to look at the fundamentals of data and effective reports, the building blocks of business intelligence success.

  • Purpose: Data analytics is the art of curating and analyzing raw insights to transform metrics into actionable insights. Data analytics reports present metrics, analyses, conclusions, and recommendations in an accessible, digestible visual format so everyone can make informed, data-driven decisions.
  • Data types: Business data reports cover a variety of topics and functions. As such, all types vary greatly in length, content, and format. It’s possible to present reporting data as an annual overview, monthly sales, accounting report, data requested by management exploring a specific issue, information requested by the government showing a company’s compliance with regulations, progress reports, feasibility studies, and more. The all-encompassing nature of data-centric reports means working with a mix of historical, predictive, and in-the-moment insights to paint a panoramic picture of your organization's functions, processes, and overall progress is possible.
  • Accessibility: Historically, creating data-driven reports was time- and resource-intensive. Data pull requests were the exclusive duties of the IT department, with a significant amount of effort spent analyzing, formatting, and then presenting the data. Because this task was so resource-heavy, data analysis was an occasional luxury. Also, by the time the data was presented, it was generally out of date. The emergence of real-time cloud-based BI reporting tools has changed the game. Now a wider range of users can act as analysts, even performing advanced analytics. The right BI platform can blend multiple data sources into one analysis, enhancing insights and better-informed decision-making. These cloud-based tools allow organizations to collaborate on data, bringing various subject matter experts (SMEs) to the same table. Modern business dashboard tools allow a wider audience to comprehend and disseminate the findings. Users can also easily export these dashboards and data visualizations into visually stunning writeups that can be shared via multiple options, such as automating emails or providing a secure viewer area, even embedding data into your own application, for example.
  • Flexibility: In addition to the fact that software offers a wealth of visually accessible KPI-driven insight, business intelligence dashboards are also completely customizable to suit individual goals or needs. Moreover, data dashboards are optimized for mobile devices, meaning users can access a wealth of business-boosting information from a central display, 24/7, without restrictions or limits. You can leverage business intelligence day or night from anywhere in the world.

Now that you understand the superior analytical capabilities of modern business data reporting, we’ll examine a mix of tips and ideas designed to help you build and create online data reports that will save time and costs while driving innovation across the company.

Your Chance: Want to test a modern data reporting software for free? We offer a 14-day free trial. Benefit from great data reports today!

Top 14 Data Reporting Best Practices & Tips

Top 14 data reporting best practices and tricks on how to build efficient reports

We’ve covered the basics, so now we’ll examine how to create these reports from a practical perspective. Our tips for documenting data will help you do so.

Depending on the type of report, each has its own set of rules and best practices. Below, we will mention the most popular ones, but our main focus is on best practices that will make your reporting more productive. Let’s get started.

1. Define The Type Of Data Report

What types of data reporting do you need to present? Having this definition in advance will help set parameters you can easily stick to. Here are the most common types of data reports:

1) Informational vs. analytical: First, determine if this report provides factual information. Informational reports are usually smaller in size, the writing structure is not strict, and the sole purpose is to inform about facts without adding any analysis. On the other hand, if it includes any analysis, demonstrates relationships, or provides recommendations, it is an analytical report.

2) Recommendation/justification report: This report presents an idea and makes suggestions to management or other decision-makers. As the name suggests, it provides recommendations for changes in internal procedures and justifies courses of action that aim to improve organizational success.

3) Investigative report: This type helps determine the risks involved with a specific course of action. It is based on documenting specific information objectively to present enough information to stakeholders, who will ultimately decide if further actions are needed. An example would be a report created for legal purposes.

4) Compliance report: Shows accountability by providing compliance information, for example, to a governing body. This is particularly important as accurate, well-presented compliance metrics will avoid costly mistakes or red tape issues.

5) Feasibility report: An exploratory report to determine whether an idea will work. Data-driven insights could save significant time and money by helping organizations avoid redundant processes or developments.

6) Research studies report: This presents in-depth research and insights on a specific issue or problem. Research is pivotal to growth and evolution, and having the visual insights to back up your decisions will set you apart from the pack.

7) Periodic report: Improves policies, products, or processes via consistent monitoring at fixed intervals, such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. These types of reports help foster incremental growth and consistency across the board.

8) KPI report: Monitors and measures key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess if your operations deliver the expected results. The best dashboards for benchmarking progress in many internal and external areas.

9) Yardstick report: Weigh several potential solutions for a given situation, an invaluable tool to adapt to your specific goals, aims, needs, and situations. This is a solution-centric tool that every modern organization should embrace.

2. Know Your Target Audience

Knowing your audience will help determine which insights you present, the recommendations you make, and how you present the data. Your audience may be upper, middle, or line management, other departments, coworkers, clients, potential clients, the government, or another company in the same market.

Knowing your audience helps determine what information to include in the report. If a report is internally facing, branding, such as colors, font, and logo, isn’t as crucial. If it is a one-time live presentation, formatting for printing isn’t key. Determine in advance if your audience needs persuasion or education. If your audience is at the C-suite or board levels, you may want to present mostly high-level insights with specific call-outs and action items.

If the report is more exploratory in nature, you may want to include more granular information and options to interact with the data. Ramon Ray, tech evangelist and founder of Smart Hustle Magazine, wrote about presenting your data to a wide audience. He focused on keeping text simple, using visualizations whenever possible, including video and animation when appropriate, and making your presentations interactive. Knowing your audience before you start your analysis – and even more importantly before you put together the report – will keep everything data-focused and impactful.

3. Use Data From Various Sources  

Once you understand the questions you want to answer with your reports and your audience, you must determine the data sources you need. As data has become a regular part of organizations’ daily activities, the number of internal and external sources from which companies are extracting data has grown. When building your reports, it can get overwhelming to decide which information to use and how to ensure everything is clean and optimized. This can be done with the help of data connectors

Among some of the many BI features in the market today, datapine offers professional data connectors that allow you to connect flat files, social media data, APIs, CRM data, and several other sources with just a few clicks. And not just that, once your sources are connected, the tool automatically updates them for you. That way, you can always have up-to-date data ready to be analyzed. 

4. Have A Detailed Plan And Select Your KPIs

We will sound like a broken record here, but have a plan before you start your analysis. What information does the management need for its effective decision-making? What data and insights do your shareholders require? Understand the required data scope and think about how you will use that data.

Utilize as many data sources as possible, but don’t go data crazy and get bogged down in unnecessary information. Of course, you have to remain agile and may have to adapt the plan, but a robust plan is crucial. Remaining purpose-driven will focus your work, save you in the long run and improve your business outcomes.

When creating your plan, it is essential to select the right key performance indicators. You don’t need dozens of metrics that will answer all your organizational questions at once, but pick a few that will tell a comprehensive data story (more on that later), and enable you to take proper action (more on that later, too).

Depending on your department or industry, reports will vary as key success indicators also vary, but choose the ones that will help you put your data into proper context and always keep in mind the audience you’re addressing. Understanding your audience deeply and setting clear-cut strategic objectives will make the KPI selection process easier and more valuable.

Choose KPIs that align directly with your specific aims, and you will benefit from a cohesive mix of visual benchmarks that will help you track your progress accurately while spotting trends that will help you streamline your company for success. Remember to avoid vanity metrics that can mislead your visual efforts and choose only the indicators that will bring value to your strategic decisions. If you want to learn more about this, check out our insightful guide on KPIs vs. metrics.

5. Be Objective, When Possible

Business reporting describes the past, present, or possible future situation objectively and neutrally. Objective means the information states facts, not an opinion. Keep the opinions minimal. It helps to combine them in one section, possibly titled “Suggested Actions.” Also, using a passive voice in a report will help keep it formal and inoffensive. For example:

Active: The managers need to make changes in their management style.

Passive: Changes in management style need to be made.

If you’re too subjective or biased, you’re essentially moving away from your goal of uncovering factual information that will give you a competitive edge. Collect data from reliable sources, record your discoveries with pinpoint accuracy, and you will connect with objective information that will push your organization to the next level.

6. Be Visually Stunning

Numerous types of graphs and charts prove to be extremely powerful. Presenting analytics visually makes it easier for decision-makers to grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns. Data presented visually are easier for humans to perceive and digest. Reports should include data visualizations over text whenever possible. Just make sure you are choosing the most appropriate data visualization to tell your data story and that you are following BI dashboard best practices. With the right data reporting tool, anyone can create meaningful visuals and share them with their team, customers, and other shareholders. All this can be accomplished without involving a data scientist.

Also, ensure your report remains visually stunning, no matter how it is shared and disseminated. Your platform should look good on a computer, tablet, PDF, or mobile screen. That’s why utilizing an analytics platform can be the most cost-effective solution, providing you with stunning visuals and interactivity. More on this in the next point.

7. Don’t Neglect the Design 

Once you’ve chosen the type of report you will use as well as the data visualizations that will be on it, you want to consider the design. How your data is organized will tell a lot about how it is perceived. For instance, you need to include metrics that will provide context to the data; this way, you will tell a story that is easy to understand. You also need to avoid overcrowding the report. If you want to add a lot of data to it, you can use tabs to split the information by theme or subject, making it easier for users to find information. 

When discussing design, you also need to consider colors. For starters, you can follow the company's color palette. Choose up to three colors and play with different gradients to draw people’s attention to specific areas of the report while avoiding colors that can distract the audience from what really matters: the data. 

Lastly, you need to consider the format in which the report will be shared and visualized. For example, for annual reports that will be printed and widely shared, extra focus should be spent on dashboard design principles.

8. Have Content Sharply Written

While the focus should be on visuals, some data report types also need text. In this case, use persuasive and even-toned business writing, including concise, active, and engaging language. Use bullet points versus long paragraphs. Use headers and provide legends and supplementary text for your visualizations. Also, you should always proofread!

To optimize your data analytics presentation and content, our guide to digital dashboard creation and best practices offers practical insights that will help you format your reports for success.

9. Make Sure the Report Is Actionable

Prescriptive, descriptive, and predictive analytics have become increasingly popular in recent years. Each brings new insights needed to make better business decisions and increase ROI – information from the past and future, as well as prescribing possible outcomes. That being said, make sure your analytical efforts have a conclusion. When necessary, provide recommendations.

Reports should be objective, but the best ones should also be actionable. Intended audiences should walk away with the next steps or greater insights. Doing so will enable a data-driven environment and foster more efficient collaboration.

To help make your data-centric reporting more actionable, you must ensure that your KPIs and insights work together to paint a comprehensive picture of a particular process, strategy, or function.

For instance, if you’re looking to analyze your customer service success, adding metrics relating to staff performance and consumer satisfaction will give you a balanced mix of information to help you take decisive action. Naturally, all of your metrics will offer invaluable standalone information, but if they all complement one another, you will accelerate your organization’s success in a number of key areas.

10. Keep It Simple And Don’t Be Misleading

While data should be objective, formatting, filtering, and manipulation can lead to misleading statistics. Make sure your presentation is consistent and reliable. Also, keep it simple. The boom of data visualization and reporting tools has led to the creation of visualizations that don’t tell a relevant data story.

You shouldn’t need 3-D glasses to read a report. Sometimes, a simple chart is all you need. You also don’t need to go nuts with colors and formats. You can easily overwhelm your audience this way. Choose a couple of colors that are easy on the eyes. Keep to one font that’s large and legible. Don’t go crazy with highlighted, bold, or italicized text. You don’t have to create a “piece of art” for your report to be visually stunning and impactful.

The key takeaway here is: Keep your eyes on the prize and always remember the goal or primary objective when developing your reports. Remembering your objectives while prioritizing making your dashboards universally accessible will ensure you keep your efforts simple, transparent, and accurate.

11. Don’t Forget to Tell a Complete Story

To successfully deliver data, you must consider your story's logic. The presentation should provide a clear narrative that will not confuse the recipient but enable him/her to derive the most important findings.

Consider creating an analytical presentation. That way, you will have your data on a single screen, and you can interact with numerous charts and graphs while your story stays focused and effective. By utilizing interactive visualizations, you have a strong backbone on how to write a data report and ensure that your audience is well-informed and digests data easily and quickly.

Human beings absorb and engage with narratives better than other formats. Telling a tale with your data will skyrocket your organization’s success, improve your chances of executive buy-in, and foster innovation.

Our definitive guide to dashboard presentation and storytelling will tell you all you need to know to get started.

12. Regularly Measure The Progress Of Specific Goals

When it comes to data reporting, creating a persuasive narrative is important. For maximum effectiveness, it’s also essential to check whether data report arrangements and designs are helping you work toward your specific organizational goals.

The best way to do this is to set time aside to drill down into specific pockets of information frequently. If you’ve set watertight benchmarks (taking your company’s current capabilities and industry standards into consideration), you will gain an actionable view of how you are progressing goal-wise.

For example, if you’re trying to improve customer loyalty through your email marketing efforts, you can drill down into specific metrics to check your performance. If progress is slow - or you’re underachieving - you can tweak your storytelling design to help provide extra clarity and, ultimately, give everyone the tools to meet or even exceed expectations.

The main point here: As a best practice, make checking in with every one of your goals individually a priority. Doing so will ensure that your designs and visuals provide the clarity and information you need to succeed.

13. Use Professional Data Report Software

Utilizing modern visual analytics software will ensure you design your reports based on the decisions you need to make, filtering the ever-present noise in reporting processes and making sure you don’t get lost in the details. Oftentimes, reports are piled with large volumes of spreadsheets and presentation slides that can create an obscure view of the presented data and increase the possibility of (unintentional) errors. The software can eliminate hideous manual tasks of searching through rows and columns and provide the necessary real-time view, alongside the possibility of looking into the past and the future of how the data will behave.

No matter if you’re an analyst working with databases and need a strong MySQL reporting tool or a marketing professional looking to consolidate all your channels under the same umbrella, the software will enable you to clear the clutter and automate your reports based on your specific intervals. It will update the data automatically, and you will not need more than small refinements to ensure the data you present is what your audience needs.

14. Empower Everyone In The Organization

Another valuable data reporting and analysis tip is ensuring full buy-in across the organization. Providing education and training will ensure everyone in the company pulls in the same direction.

Hosting talks as well as workshops will not only help everyone in the organization understand the practical importance of data analysis reporting, but it will empower everyone with the skills to use your new data tools to their advantage.

If everyone has the right level of access to your data reporting systems and the skills to interact with those tools confidently, your organization will more often exceed its goals.

Now that we’ve covered essential best practices let’s explore common challenges and mistakes to avoid.

Data Reporting Challenges & Mistakes To Avoid

Regardless of which types of data reports you’re talking about, there are certain universal mistakes you should avoid. Knowing these common pitfalls inside and out will ensure you stay on the right path and earn the best possible return on investment (ROI) from your analytical efforts. Let’s look at them:

Working with uncleaned information

One of the biggest mistakes we see is companies working with unvetted or unclean data. While it’s best to work with information from various relevant sources, it’s also crucial to omit any analytical information that is incorrect, misleading, or not absolutely essential to your organizational goals or progress.

To avoid such a pitfall, select sources you know will offer genuine value to your organization, then set about cleaning each pocket of information so that a clean funnel of metrics remains. Doing so will ensure your reports are true and accurate and won’t lead you down the wrong path.

Using one type of metric

What we mean here is that you shouldn’t narrow your analytical scope when creating a report. That said, you ideally want to work with visuals that offer historical, predictive, and in-the-moment intelligence.

By working with all of these ‘metric types,’ you will become more responsive while gaining the tools to examine past successes or failures and make accurate strategic projections for the future.

Overloading

While adding as much information as humanly possible is tempting, doing so will only result in overload. If your users are presented with too many metrics at one time, they will become distracted and overwhelmed.

You should only include visuals vital to your storytelling efforts while avoiding on-page clutter at all costs. Keep your designs neat, functional, and logical—doing so will help your users discover the information they need swiftly and confidently.

Being set in stone

Another significant pitfall of reporting is thinking that the battle is won once you’ve set everything up and you’re earning results.

Niche or sector aside, the business world is in a state of continual change. What works today might not work tomorrow, so it's paramount to regularly check in with your creations and make visual or informational tweaks where required.

The best analysis tools are fully customizable, making it easy to switch informational sources or update designs or metrics at any point. Consider whether your reporting formats are still offering the best ROI for your efforts, and if you believe they are falling short, evolve your designs and your efforts for success.

Your Chance: Want to test a modern data reporting software for free? We offer a 14-day free trial. Benefit from great data reports today!

Data Reports Examples and Templates

Let's move on to data reporting examples to put everything we’ve discussed so far into perspective. Apply these examples during your report generation process to create reports that drive action and add value to your company’s efforts. 

These powerful data report examples have been developed with the help of a professional dashboard designer, who empowers everyone in the business to build their own reports. Let’s start with the finance department.

1. Financial KPI Dashboard

Finance is the beating heart of any organization, and creating a financial report is the basis for sustainable development. Companies need to monitor their monetary operations closely and ensure that their financial data is 100% accurate.

Our example focuses on metrics meticulously chosen to depict a company's general financial health. The information is presented logically, connecting various financial indicators that make a complete data story without overcrowding the screen or complicating the report.

Data report example from the financial department

**click to enlarge**

Primary KPIs:

  • Working Capital
  • Quick Ratio / Acid Test
  • Cash Conversion Cycle
  • Vendor Payment Error Rate
  • Budget Variance

Data reporting is quite simple in this case: Presenting the most important information in a clear financial narrative that will drive action. This financial dashboard shows that the company managed to decrease the cash cycle, but the vendor payment rate spiked in September last year. It might make sense to take action and see in more detail what happened so that the processes can be adjusted accordingly.

2. Marketing KPI Dashboard 

Our next example is an intuitive marketing report composed of critical metrics related to costs and revenue. Marketers need to keep close track of this data as it helps them understand the success of their marketing efforts as well as find improvement opportunities to ensure a healthy marketing ROI.

Marketing data report for management, with main KPIs about costs and revenue

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Primary KPIs: 

  • Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
  • Return on Investment (ROI)

With valuable coverage on revenue per acquisition, profit per acquisition, cost per acquisition, and more, this data report format provides a useful overview of the most impactful marketing indicators for making strategic decisions. For instance, by looking at the CPA by channel and campaign, you can understand which of them are acquiring the most customers at the lowest price. In this case, we see that social media is the channel that brings the lowest cost per acquisition and the highest profit; therefore, it makes sense to invest more time and resources into it. 

Aside from being a great tool to support efficient decision-making, the report's visual nature makes it the perfect overview for your CEO or investors to prove the success of different marketing activities.  

3. Retail KPI Dashboard

Retailers must be extra careful in picking the right metrics and presenting their data in a clear order. They must avoid cluttering the report or confusing the people who need to read it and act accordingly.

Data reporting examples from the retail industry

**click to enlarge**

Primary KPIs:

  • Back Order Rate
  • Rate of Return
  • Customer Retention
  • Total Volume of Sales

A retail dashboard such as the one presented above focuses on the perspective of orders, which is one of the crucial points in this cutthroat business.

Gaining access to these touchpoints will equip you with the best possible ingredients to stay competitive in the market. Utilizing KPIs such as the rate of return (also by category), customer retention rate, and the number of new and returning customers will enable you to access in-depth information on your order processes and ensure your actions stay focused on developing your company sustainably. For example, you can monitor the return rate and ensure it stays as low as possible. That way, your costs will be significantly lower and, ultimately, customers more satisfied.

Your retail analytics processes don’t need to foster complex reports, but with an example, such as we presented above, you can see that reporting with dynamic visualizations empowers you to make better business decisions.

4. Customer Support Dashboard 

Our next data report template is a customer service dashboard that offers a mix of metrics related to costs, revenue, and customer satisfaction. With this information, the support team can optimize their performance by finding improvement opportunities based on data.

Customer service data report presented with the revenue value, costs per support, average time to solve an issue and overall satisfaction

**click to enlarge** 

Primary KPIs: 

  • Service Level
  • Support Costs vs Revenue
  • Customer Satisfaction

Although it might not seem the most obvious area to invest in, your customer service experience can make or break your company. If clients are unhappy with your problem-solving capabilities, they will likely not return to make another purchase. For this purpose, this report offers insights into revenue and costs, which helps you monitor that everything is running smoothly. For example, if your revenue is going down and your costs are up, you need to think of solutions to make the service department more profitable. 

This insightful report also offers insights into customer satisfaction and the average time your support agents spend solving issues. This can also give you insights into your team's general productivity. If you see that the average time to solve an issue is rising, then you can dig deeper into the reasons and find solutions to decrease it. 

5. Talent Management Dashboard

The next example is our HR dashboard, which is focused on talent management. Talent retention and development are ongoing challenges for HR managers. This data-centric reporting tool is designed to consistently keep your top-performing staff engaged and motivated.

A visual data reporting example showing the talent management metrics of a company: the hiring stats, NPS, talent turnover rate, etc.

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Primary KPIs:

  • Talent Satisfaction
  • Talent Rating
  • Talent Turnover Rate
  • Dismissal Rate

With a wealth of at-a-glance insights essential to successful talent management strategies and HR KPIs focused on rising talent as well as dismissal and turnover rates, this invaluable tool will prove vital to the health and growth of your organization. Moreover, your HR analytics efforts will prove to enhance hiring processes, enabling you to attract the best possible talent, automate tasks, and create a satisfying workforce environment.

6. Sales Opportunity Dashboard

Sales are integral to most companies' success. Our sales dashboard will help you easily identify revenue-boosting sources and prioritize them in order of prospective value.

A monthly sales report focused on sales opportunities and showing details on latest opportunities, number of opportunities and average purchase value by package, and churn reasons, among other metrics

**click to enlarge**

Primary KPIs:

  • Number of Sales Opportunities
  • Sales Opportunity Score
  • Average Purchase Value

These KPIs will allow you to streamline your sales strategy for maximum income, efficiency, and sustainability. This visually-balanced performance dashboard is easy to understand and will help you take direct action when it matters most – a priceless business intelligence tool for any forward-thinking organization.

7. IT Issue Management Dashboard 

IT analytics is another relevant area in which reporting data is useful. The IT department deals with a lot of information daily, and this report helps them keep track of everything related to technical issue management.

IT data report tracking the occurrence of technical issues to improve system operational performance

**click to enlarge**

Primary KPIs: 

  • Server Downtime
  • Meantime To Repair
  • Unsolved Tickets Per Employee
  • IT Support Employees per End Users

This insightful IT dashboard overviews the most important metrics needed to ensure technical issues are resolved efficiently. First, we get an overview of the real-time status of three main servers alongside information on the last time they were down. This lets you see at a glance if everything is going smoothly or if something needs immediate attention. 

This data report sample also offers information on the most common downtime issues, which lets you find the root causes of recurring issues and prevent them from happening again. Paired with this, you get data about the performance of the different IT employees. As seen in the chart, three employees have a low ratio of solved tickets compared to unsolved, meaning their amount of unsolved issues is much higher than the number of tickets they have solved. This can mean they lack training or a specific issue is very hard to solve. The data allows you to dig deeper into the reasons and improve efficiency. 

8. Procurement Quality Dashboard

Our procurement dashboard is designed to streamline and fortify the relationship between you, your vendors, and your suppliers.

The procurement quality dashboard is a data report that shows KPIs such as the number of suppliers, quality rating, project analysis, etc.

**click to enlarge**

Primary KPIs:

  • Supplier Quality Rating
  • Vendor Rejection Rate & Costs
  • Emergency Purchase Ratio
  • Purchases In Time & Budget
  • Spend Under Management

Cohesive procurement is vital to any modern organization's financial and operational success, regardless of industry or sector. This interactive procurement report will help you quality-check your suppliers while digging deeper into metrics surrounding emergency purchases, rejection rates, costs, budgetary constraints, and more. These insights help procurement managers to be more proactive, efficient, and sustainable in their every move.

9. Hospital Performance Dashboard 

From patient care to staff management, this insightful data report template for hospital performance is the perfect visual tool to ensure efficient facility management. More than any other industry, healthcare institutions can benefit from real-time data as it allows them to act immediately as soon as an issue arises – especially considering that any problems can affect the well-being of patients.

Hospital data report displayed on a dashboard to monitor the performance of the facility

**click to enlarge**

Primary KPIs: 

  • Average Hospital Stay
  • Hospital Readmission Rates
  • Costs By Payer

Armed with powerful healthcare KPIs, this data analysis report covers every relevant area to ensure the efficient functioning of the hospital. By using targets and desired outcomes to achieve, managers can find improvement opportunities on a clinical, operational, and financial level. For example, readmission rates are a metric that can directly affect your reputation as it is a token of the quality of care provided in your facilities and should remain as low as possible. 

This tool can also provide relevant information about patients and staff. The nurse-to-patient ratio indicates how many nurses are available per patient. For example, if you see the ratio increasing during night shifts, you must ensure you have the right staff working at those times.

Your Chance: Want to test a modern data reporting software for free? We offer a 14-day free trial. Benefit from great data reports today!

10. Facebook Page Dashboard 

Next up, we have a social media report example for Facebook. With insights into page views, behaviors, interactions, follower demographics, likes, engagements, and more, this report provides all the needed information to optimize your Facebook page's growth and ensure your strategies' success.

A Facebook page data report that provides insights into all the important metrics on this social network

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Primary KPIs:

  • Number of Fans
  • Follower Demographics
  • Page Views by Sources
  • Actions on Page

Understanding the behaviors of your target audience is crucial for success when creating social media campaigns. Generating targeted experiences for your audience will not only make them more loyal to your brand but also save you money and time on targeting the wrong people. For that purpose, this insightful Facebook dashboard is an invaluable tool. 

Like other social channels, Facebook has its best practices and techniques to follow to ensure the best results from your organic, paid, and viral campaigns. While some of the metrics might seem purely informational, like the fans by country or gender, when mixed together, they can provide deeper conclusions that will help generate interesting content and gain loyal followers in the process.

11. Supply Chain Management Dashboard

Your supply chain is one of the most crucial aspects of any modern organization. Optimizing every element of your supply chain will make your company more efficient while boosting your bottom line. Having an effective supply chain will also help you deliver on your customer-facing promises, which in turn, will build trust and accelerate your commercial growth.

One of our data reporting examples for the supply chain management

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Primary metrics

  • Inventory Accuracy
  • Inventory Turnover
  • Inventory to Sales Ratio

As one of our most visually grabbing data report examples, our supply chain logistics dashboard offers all the metrics required to explore, examine, and improve every key aspect of your processes.

Here, you can establish a firm grip on your inventory level of out-of-stock items while gaining a deeper understanding of overall inventory accuracy. You can also uncover key trends in your sales-to-inventory ratio and inventory turnover.

By gaining access to this melting pot of visual information in one cohesive space, you can decide exactly where you need to rethink your inventory choices, stocking, supply, and communication processes.

Regularly working with this data analysis report template will empower you to take charge of your supply chain while remaining adaptable to consistent change. In turn, you will gain an edge over the competition.

12. Manufacturing Production Dashboard

For organizations that deal in manufacturing, having the tools to track various processes, respond to issues, and make informed development decisions is essential. Without a clear-cut vision, things can quickly spiral out of control, putting a significant dent in budget and brand reputation.

Manufacturing data report displaying main manufacturing KPIs to keep the pulse of your factory

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Primary metrics

  • Production Volume
  • Production Downtime
  • Production Cost

This eye-catching data report example serves up critical manufacturing metrics, offering a panoramic snapshot of every cog in the machine as a result.

Here, you can drill down into your key production volumes over a specific timeframe while gaining a detailed glimpse into production costs and downtimes. Combined, these metrics will show you how efficiently your machines work while finding a correlation between productivity and revenue.

This dynamic tool will also tell you which machines are the most efficient, which will help you better distribute your production output or volumes to make your strategy as efficient as possible across the board.

Working with this tool frequently will reduce unnecessary costs and long-winded processes while helping you nip any emerging issue in the bid before it gets out of control–the perfect manufacturing manager’s companion.

13. Content Quality Control Dashboard

In an age where the consumer is well and truly in control, content is the cornerstone of building trust, establishing brand authority, and standing out from the crowd. Without publishing consistently high-quality content that meets your audience’s needs across channels, you will get left in the commercial dust.

Data report example tracking content marketing performance metrics

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Primary metrics

  • Flesch Reading Ease
  • Average Comments per Article
  • Story Turnaround Time

A data report sample designed to keep your content marketing efforts consistently on track, this powerful reporting tool is packed with visuals that will elevate your brand to new heights.

Here you can use the Flesch reading test metric to gauge the accessibility of your content while pinpointing exactly which pieces of content are performing best across channels. This most dynamic of data analysis report examples will also show how many digital subscribers you’ve gained over a certain timeframe while exploring article engagement.

If you know what your consumers want or need in terms of informational value, you will skyrocket your company’s success—and you can do that with this content report.

This perfect combination of visual information will ultimately ensure you’re producing the content that resonates most with specific audience segments while earning a consistently high return on investment (ROI) from your efforts.

14. Cyber Security Dashboard

Next is our cyber security dashboard, which helps businesses maintain a firm grasp of their systems. This IT report is mission-critical, as today’s organizations handle no shortage of sensitive information that needs to be protected. With the potential for cyber crimes at an all-time high, it’s crucial for companies to monitor for threats and implement long-term prevention measures. 

Data report example tracking cybersecurity metrics

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Primary metrics

  • Total intrusion attempts
  • Phishing test success rate
  • Intrusion attempts by malware type

To deploy proactive cyber defense, we compile essential insights into a single view. This cyber security dashboard shows you an overall security rating, along with key elements like intrusion attempts, phishing test success rates, and mean detect and resolution times.

Metrics like intrusion attempts by week and phishing test success rate show you historical values so you can see how you’re improving your cyber security efforts week by week. You can also dig deeper into specific weeks to gain more context about your efforts and events for that week. These insights can help you identify major risks and understand your employees' daily challenges, allowing you to implement the right measures to protect them (and your organization).

15. Pick and Pack Scorecard

The pick and pack scorecard focuses on warehouse operations, specifically order processing. Pick and pack refers to the procedure employees follow, starting from receiving an order to preparing an order for shipment. It entails locating the item(s) on the order, placing them in the packaging, logging them out of inventory, printing shipping labels, packaging them together, and scheduling the shipment. With so many moving parts, a detailed scorecard can provide the comprehensive view you need to identify inefficiencies.

Data report template tracking pick and pack metrics

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Primary metrics

  • Pick and pack costs
  • Pick and pack cycle times
  • Cost of packaging materials
  • Picking accuracy

This pick and pack dashboard offers insights into four key areas: Financial, Effectiveness, Utilization, and Quality. Starting with the financial section, users can track the average cost of pick and pack processes by line and the cost of returns per order. These metrics are displayed on a monthly basis, and you can view the current month and previous month on the same screen.

Next, we see productivity and effectiveness data to show how efficiently employees work. Big fluctuations in these metrics could indicate a lack of training and/or a need for new processes or quality controls, for example. Utilization also relates to the financial aspect, as you don’t want to spend more on materials and equipment than necessary. 

16. Energy Operational Dashboard

Our energy dashboard is designed for operations managers who need a bird' s-eye view of their operations and facilities. Here, we combine production distribution, availability, energy savings, and other metrics in a single view. Large plants have complex energy needs, so this dashboard helps simplify understanding energy consumption.

Energy operational dashboard as an example of a data report

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Primary metrics

  • Production distribution
  • Energy savings
  • Availability factor
  • Performance ratio

The availability section refers to the amount of time your plant can operate. This metric is especially helpful when you manage multiple plants, as it helps identify potential equipment problems so you can plan for downtime. 

Production distribution helps you better understand your customers. Knowing how much of each type of energy you’re producing allows you to anticipate consumer demand and adapt your supply accordingly.

Last but not least, we have each plant's performance ratio. You can compare actual production to projected production, gauging each facility's efficiency. The difference between these two metrics can arise from a number of factors, including energy losses from solar input or water systems, for example. This indicator allows you to spot issues and take action before losses mount significantly.

17. HR Executive Dashboard

Next on our list is the HR executive dashboard, a critical helper for maintaining growth goals, employee satisfaction, and salary costs. Talent shortages and an unpredictable labor market directly impact a company’s ability to grow, so it’s essential for HR to stay ahead of the curve and make key hiring decisions at critical moments.

Data report template tracking HR metrics for executives

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Primary metrics

  • Employee satisfaction
  • Head count
  • Vacancy rate
  • Salary costs to gross revenue

Maintaining a healthy workforce focuses on three key areas: high employee satisfaction, adequate staffing so employees are not overworked, and fair salary costs compared to the company’s financial health. This dashboard encompasses each of these areas in a single view.

This first section shows a growth headcount chart with insights into current vacancies, new hires, and turnover. We can see how these counts fluctuate and prepare salary budgets, recruiting efforts, and retention initiatives accordingly. 

In the employee satisfaction section, we gain insight into employees' happiness, which may indicate their likelihood of remaining with the company. This chart also includes manager feedback scores, which directly impact how confident employees feel in their roles. We can observe how these values change over time and influence other areas like hiring, retention, and turnover.

18. Operating Expenses Dashboard

Last on our list is the operating expenses dashboard. This financial dashboard is a daily helper to CFOs, as it allows them to view operating expenses, fixed and variable expenses, and operating ratios in one view.

Operating expenses analysis as an example of data reporting

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Primary metrics

  • Operating expense ratio
  • Fixed expenses
  • Variable expenses
  • Net profit margin

Operating expenses refer to all of the costs an organization incurs as a result of operations. These expenses may include marketing costs, production costs, employee salaries, rent or mortgage, inventory costs, and insurance, for example. 

Here we have a breakdown of fixed and variable costs, which are paid over a defined period. We can look at fluctuations in these expenses as they relate to output to see which ones we can influence. To better understand these costs, we can look to other metrics like production to see why certain costs may increase or decrease.

One of the most valuable KPIs in this chart is the operating ratio, which adds context to the overall financial picture. This metric represents operational expenses as a percentage of revenue and can indicate the success of your expense optimization efforts. Ideally, you’ll keep this ratio as low as possible without impacting efficiency or output.

Your Chance: Want to test a modern data reporting software for free? We offer a 14-day free trial. Benefit from great data reports today!

Start Building Your Data Reports Now!

We’ve answered the question, ‘What is data reporting?’ and explored a host of powerful data reporting templates. During our journey, one thing has become clear: investing in the right analytical tools and processes will propel your organization ahead of the pack.

Now that you know how to create efficient data analysis reports, it’s time to embrace the power of modern BI solutions and data analytics.

Reporting, analytics, and smart informational processing can have a transformational impact if approached correctly.

Fortunately, the mind-numbing task of manually creating daily or weekly reports is a thing of the past. With the right plan and proper business reporting software, you can easily analyze your data and also create eye-catching and remarkable reports.

We live in the age of information, a time when anything is possible. By embracing data-centric reports and forming the right foundations, you will accelerate your organization's success in ways you never thought possible, pushing you ahead of the pack in the process.

All you need to do is follow these essential steps and recommendations, and you will be on your way to a brighter, more prosperous commercial future. If you want to start creating your own powerful and modern reports and testing all of these practices, you can try datapine for a 14-day trial, which is completely free. The time to strike is now.