Reporting Automation

Reporting automation connects your data to a designed report that refreshes on a schedule, so nobody rebuilds it by hand each month.

With an audit. A visual reporting strategy lists the reports you make, who reads them and what they decide, then picks the few worth automating first.

We run a design process built around people: designers with more than ten years of dashboard experience, and project managers who run every engagement. We use AI inside that process, for analysis, visualization and storytelling, to move faster. What the data says, and how it looks, stays with our team. We also teach your team to use AI in their own analysis, dashboard design and presentations.

We can set up AI assistance for analysis and commentary inside an engagement model our team designs, and your people review what goes out. The judgment stays with people.

Start by designing the report, then connect the data and schedule the refresh. In Power BI that means a designed report and a scheduled refresh. In Excel it means moving the report to a tool that refreshes itself, in stages. We plan and build both, and train your team to run them.

It depends on how many reports and how much design they need. We quote a visual reporting strategy first, so you know what to automate and in what order. Ask for a quote.

Not at once. We help you plan the move from legacy tools like Excel to interactive ones in stages, and we write the style guides that keep every report consistent along the way.

Most clients use Power BI, Tableau and Excel, so we design and build there. We also build interactive tools and interfaces in code when a report needs one.

Yes. Workshops in dashboard design and storytelling, including AI, teach your team to run and extend what we build. Ask for a quote.

There is no single best tool. The right choice depends on your data, who reads the report and how often it runs. Most of our clients report in Power BI, Tableau and Excel, so we start there and add AI assistance where it helps. The Datalabs Agency advises on the choice as part of a visual reporting strategy.

List every report, decide which are worth automating, design them as one system, connect the data and schedule the refresh, then train your team to run it. That is the six-step path above, and we can run all of it or the design and strategy steps alone.

Otto Ottinger is the founder and Managing Director of The Datalabs Agency. He worked at National Geographic before founding the agency, and he leads the workshops himself. Read more about Otto Ottinger.