DATA & BI
Automated reporting: recurring reports that refresh themselves
Automated reporting with TIMi uses Anatella to compute your recurring figures, such as sales or KPIs per month, and inject them in batch into the charts of Microsoft Office documents, so reports refresh without manual copy and paste.
Recurring reports
Monthly sales, KPIs and other regular figures.
Office charts
Pie, bar, bubble, 3D surface and other chart types.
Scheduled
Runs on the schedule you set.
HOW IT WORKS
How automated reporting works.
Three steps, in one engine, on a standard server with no cluster.
1. Compute the figures
Anatella reads the sources and computes the indicators of the report.
2. Inject into Office
A data injection action writes the results into the charts of an existing Word, Excel or PowerPoint document.
3. Schedule the run
The flow runs from the command line, so your scheduler can refresh the report each day or month.
AnatellaGETTING IT RIGHT
Choices that shape a reporting setup.
Automation pays off when the report is stable and the rules are clear.
Fix the template first
The Office document keeps its layout and formatting. Only the data behind the charts changes at each run.
Agree on the definitions
A figure automated is a figure repeated. Definitions of each indicator need to be validated before automation.
Use the right tool for exploration
For interactive exploration, use Kibella dashboards. Office reports are best for formal, fixed-format documents.
TRANSPARENCY
Every figure has a documented path.
The figures in an automated report come from a flow you can open. When someone asks where a number comes from, the answer is in the graph, not in a spreadsheet nobody remembers building.
For analysts
Trace each figure to its source and rules.
For reproducibility
The same flow produces the same report each cycle.
For readers
The report keeps the format they already know.
DATA
What data a report draws on.
Anatella connects to more than 80 sources, so this data can be gathered without prior custom development.
Sales and transactions
Volumes and amounts per period.
KPIs
Indicators computed from detailed data.
Model scores
Predictions computed with Modeler models.
Time series
Evolution per month, quarter or year.
PROOF
Recurring batches at scale.
We do not have a published case study dedicated to automated reporting. The reference below is indirect: a reduction in batch time makes recurring reports available earlier.
Billing ETL from 1,520 hours to 80 hours
Not a reporting case. It shows the processing time of a large recurring batch reduced from 1,520 hours to 80 hours.
FAQ
Common questions.
Which Office formats are supported?
Anatella injects data into the charts of Microsoft Office documents, and can generate all chart types of Office.
Can a report refresh every day?
Yes. The flow can be launched from the command line, so a scheduler can run it daily or at any other rhythm.
Is this a full OLAP solution?
No. It covers recurring reports with fixed formats. For interactive exploration, Kibella dashboards are the better fit.
Can the report include predictions?
Yes. Anatella can apply Modeler models and include the scores in the figures.
RELATED USE CASES
Keep exploring.
SEE FOR YOURSELF
Test it on your own data.
Run TIMi on your own data with a free trial, or talk to us about your case.
