Help Center / Reports

Build Reports

Premium

Learn how reports are structured, create the first working draft, and get to a first export.

Use Reports when the numbers are ready and you need something you can share: a board pack, monthly operating review, lender update, investor deck, or similar report.

Before you build, make sure the source data, statement formats, and KPIs already look right. Reports is where you assemble the finished document; fix the numbers upstream.

Understand how a report is put together

A report has four parts:

  1. Report - the overall file, period range, period columns, and export settings
  2. Section - a group of related pages, such as "Executive Summary" or "Financial Statements"
  3. Page - a single canvas inside a section
  4. Widget - the content placed on a page

Start from blank or from a template

+ New Report starts from scratch; Templates gives you a starting layout. Use a template when you already know the layout you want; start blank to build section by section.

Build the first draft

The left rail toggles between two modes, and you move between them as you build: use Sections to add and order sections and pages, then click the page you want active; switch to Widgets to drag content onto that active page. Build the outline first, then fill pages with widgets.

Choose the page type first

There are two page types:

  • Flow Page for full-page content such as Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, Trial Balance, Drivers, and KPI Dashboard
  • Grid Page for mixed pages that use tables, charts, KPI scorecards, and text blocks

Finish the first pass before polishing

Once the outline and first widgets are in place, make the report-level changes:

  • use Settings for items that apply to the whole report, such as period, source, palette, cover page, headers, footers, and table of contents
  • use widget settings to refine source, comparison, structure, and display
  • set report-level period, source, and default period columns before fine-tuning individual widgets

Verify by exporting one PDF and reading it start to finish before you keep polishing. Only the exported PDF tells you whether the document is ready to share.

Watch out for

  • Each page type takes its own widgets — flow widgets on flow pages, grid widgets on grid pages. If you cannot add a widget where you expect, check the active page type first.
  • Document structure lives in the Sections rail. If content keeps landing in the wrong place, the destination page probably is not the active one.