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4 Types of Report Automation Tools in 2024 & Selection Tips

Reporting is a critical task in businesses which ensures that critical data is available to stakeholders so they can analyze past performance and predict future trends. However, a survey on companies that do not use automation revealed that 76% of the reporting time is spent on creating manual reports and quality assurance, leaving only 24% of the time to analyze the reports and infer valuable insights from them.

Report automation tools can automate data extraction and update, data visualization, report generation, and sending the report at a programmed schedule, freeing up employees’ time to analyze business trends and predict market forecasts. However, it is important to choose a report automation tool based on the type, cost, integrations, and the team’s programming skills.

In this research, we explore types of report automation tools and how to select the best one.

1. Code-based tools

Code-based reporting tools allow the reporting team to have full control over the reporting system, and customize the reports based on business and client requirements. However, code-based tools require time to script and debug reporting codes. Code based tools may require a team which has a high level of coding and scripting experience, especially if the reporting need is complex.

Some code-based tools include SQL and SQL based platforms like Tableau.

Pros: Customizable

Cons: Requires coding skills for advanced functionality

2. Low-code/ No-code tools

Low-code/no-code development tools rely on GUI elements and drag-and-drop functionalities to complete business processes. For report automation, these processes include:

  • pulling data from business sources (email, sheets, social media)
  • creating and updating datasets
  • generating reports
  • sending reports to designated contacts

Low-code/no-code reporting tools are easier to use and don’t require programming skills to set up reporting functionalities, however, customization is limited to the built-in reporting functions. There are many low-code/no-code development tools, for example some RPA tools also fall under this bucket.

Explore RPA for reporting in more detail.

Pros: Easy to learn

Cons: Limited customization capabilities

3. Business intelligence tools

Business intelligence (BI) tools enable easy access to business data to extract insights and predictions about business performance. Using BI tools for report automation enable aggregation, analysis, and visualization of business data into static reports as well as real-time interactive dashboards.

BI tools provide a robust and customized data analysis from multiple platforms, but require training/experience to use and interpret output reports.

Pros:

  • Customizable
  • Easy visualizations

Cons: Requires training for advanced functionality.

4. KPI dashboards

KPI dashboard tools track different business metrics (e.g. projects, budgets, sales, forecasts, team’s performance) among different departments, and provide real-time and time-range visualizations about business performance. KPI reporting dashboards have 3 types:

  1. Strategic dashboards: They focus on finance and process-based KPIs to highlight system weaknesses, investment opportunities, and help in budgeting.
  2. Operational dashboards: These dashboards focus on sales, marketing, and customer service operations to investigate market trends and company performance.
  3. Analytical dashboards: These dashboards contain historical data about the company’s performance over time. Analytical dashboards provide a detailed view of the financial status of the company and performance among peers in the market in order to optimize operations and predict market trends.

KPI tools are easier to set up and use than BI tools, and can be free in some cases. However, they are less customizable, and may require training to use as a power user. For example, in the web analytics domain, Google Analytics and Matomo are common solutions.

Pros:

  • Easy to use
  • Easy to build complex dashboards

Cons: Limited customization capabilities in some tools.

In all categories, we observe

  • some freemium or open source options
  • need to get used to the user interface and formats of the specific tool

How to select a report automation tool?

Before choosing the right tool for report automation, it is important to determine the reporting needs of the business, including:

  • Current reports and their usage levels
  • Time spent on reporting by department
  • Time and cost of correcting reporting errors
  • Tracked KPIs
  • Report schedules (daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly)

It is also critical to have a budget for reporting that fits business requirements and team skills.

When choosing a type of report automation tool, it is important to consider the following:

  • Data formats: Business data can come in different formats (e.g. excel sheets, JPEGs, text). For example, most invoices are JPEG images, while website traffic data is typically in more structured formats. Therefore, depending on your use case, it is important to choose a tool that can process structured and unstructured data. For example, BI tools may be a better fit for marketing reports which extract data from websites and company’s channels, whereas RPA tools can easily integrate or offer off-the-shelf AI algorithms such as OCR and NLP to extract information from unstructured data like financial statements and invoices
  • Data sources: Integrations are important in reporting as reports aggregate data from many different sources. Choosing a tool that offers out of the box integrations to your data sources will make it easier to use that tool.
  • Level of customization: Financial or HR reports, which measure updated data of the same metrics on a regular basis, will not require as much customization as client reports which measure different metrics for different clients.
  • Team programming skills: Businesses must choose among code-based tools for departments with team members who have coding skills and experience, whereas they must choose dashboard tools for departments with less technical skills.

Once you’ve chosen the tool type for report automation, it is also relevant to consider prices, company ranks, market shares, and community comments and reviews. We recommend you check out our data-driven lists of relevant tools:

For more on automation

To learn about different automation case studies in business, feel free to read our articles:

Hyperautomation is an end-to-end automation approach that is popular right now. Feel free to read our article on hyperautomation applications.

If you are ready to invest in an off-the-shelf automation solution for your business, feel free to explore our data-driven list of RPA vendors, and let us guide you through the process:

Find the Right Vendors

This article was drafted by former AIMultiple industry analyst Alamira Jouman Hajjar.

Access Cem's 2 decades of B2B tech experience as a tech consultant, enterprise leader, startup entrepreneur & industry analyst. Leverage insights informing top Fortune 500 every month.
Cem Dilmegani
Principal Analyst
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Cem Dilmegani
Principal Analyst

Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 60% of Fortune 500 every month.

Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE, NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and media that referenced AIMultiple.

Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised businesses on their enterprise software, automation, cloud, AI / ML and other technology related decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.

He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.

Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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