balance sheet, P&L, operational metrics, cash flow). For example, a good candidate for a canned report would be a monthly reporting package produced for a CFO and finance managers that displays data on how the company is measured (e.g. These reports are short and sweet, batched and scripted data for weekly or monthly metrics. For reports on data pertaining to a recurring set of specifications or corporate interests, you will want a prebuilt or “canned” report that you can easily create (and recreate) using your organization's BI tool.Ĭanned reports are typically distributed across a wide audience with polished formatting. The key difference between a canned report and ad-hoc report is reusability. So, how do you know which reporting requests are good candidates for canned reports? And which requests are better suited for spontaneous ad-hoc analysis? You can view the flow chart to get a quick answer! In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at each type of reporting and how to maximize efficiency.

For all other use cases, give business users the ability to perform quick and easy ad-hoc analysis.For insights that can be canned, you can automate pre-built reports.So how can you keep up with increasing demands (and stay sane)? The key to saving your time and energy is determining which reports can be 'canned,' or automatically generated based on pre-set specifications. Different stakeholders demand different information in different formats and with different delivery requirements - a reality that can translate into a nightmare if you’ve been tasked with preparing reports to distribute the information.

Another word for running a report