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If you’ve never used a reporting tool before, it can be intimidating to

get started. It’s true that reporting tools can help you make effective,
data-backed decisions—but how do you pick the right one for your
team? What features will help you make better decisions? How do you
go about setting up a reporting tool? Is there such a thing as too much
information?

You can find and build reporting at various levels of your organization.
Business and strategy teams might implement organization-wide
reporting, while sales teams need sales-specific reporting. But as a
team lead, it doesn’t matter what department you’re in—instead, you
need a way to view all of your team’s information and connect it back
to their key workflows. Collecting, digesting, and analyzing project
data is no easy feat—which is where reporting tools come in.

In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to
find the best reporting tool for your team. From data analytics to the
end-user experience, here’s how reporting tools can help you analyze
project data and hit your team’s key performance indicators (KPIs).

What is a reporting tool?

A reporting tool helps you organize, analyze, and visualize relevant
data. With reporting software, you can make information easier to
parse, so your teams can make data-backed decisions confidently and
quickly. As a whole, reporting tools are one of the best ways to
process data in order to understand the relative health or progress of
various initiatives.

Some reporting platforms also offer:

 APIs and connectors, to automate and connect reporting across your most important
business tools.
 Embedded analytics, which create reports in the tools you’re already using to reduce app
switching.
 Forecasting, to take in current information and extrapolate performance at the end of a
project.
 Enterprise reporting, with additional security measures in place to ensure the right
information is being distributed to the right people.
Create a project reporting template

What are business intelligence (BI)

tools?
Business intelligence (BI) tools, like reporting tools, take in and
analyze information. In addition to analyzing the information, BI tools
also transform and interpret data to draw meaningful insights. These
tools are built to aggregate a wide range of information from across
your organization, so you can make broader and longer-term strategic
decisions. Business intelligence managers will often build dashboards
using SQL or data analysis to draw specific information and findings
from their data.

Put simply, reporting software can help you understand the current
status of your data and the health of various initiatives, while business
intelligence tools can help you dig into why those things are happening
in the first place.

Read: Guide to executive dashboards: 10 reporting tips and benefits

The three types of reporting

tools
Before we talk about the what and how of reporting, it’s important to
understand the why. Accessing data is important—and aggregating the
information you need is the key to making good business decisions. In
order to select the right reporting tool for your organization, it’s
important to understand what you want out of reporting in the first
place.

The first step is understanding which type of reporting tool you’re

looking for. There are three main types of reporting tools:

 Tools that report on specific types of information. For example, Google Analytics can
give you insight into SEO and website traffic. Similarly, a CRM like Salesforce reports
on how your leads and opportunities are progressing.
 Tools that aggregate any type of data. For example, Microsoft’s Power BI and Google
Data Studio allow you to import information from a variety of data sources to create
collective reports.
 Tools that connect to your work. For example, Universal Reporting software offers a
single point of reference for keeping track of how work across your organization is
progressing. By connecting that work to business critical goals, senior leaders have real-
time visibility and actionable insights on all projects in one place.
Read: How to create a CRM strategy: 6 steps (with examples)
FAQ: Which tool should I use?
The type of reporting tool you invest in depends on your specific
team’s needs. If you’re driving organization-wide reporting, you likely
want to use a tool like Zoho Analytics to report on wide swathes of
data in the most customizable way possible. Alternatively, if you just
want to know about a specific initiative—like how many users are
engaging with your social media accounts—you’re better off with a
specific reporting tool, like Hootsuite.

But as a team lead, one of the most powerful things to report on is

project data. This type of reporting—universal reporting—creates a
single point of reference for keeping track of how work across your
organization is progressing towards business critical goals. Universal
reporting tools give you up-to-date dashboards across teams and
projects—with information on workloads, budget, timing, and more—
that don’t require manual updating or maintenance. Since these tools
are connected to the work that’s happening, while it is happening,
they’re always up-to-date.

Universal reporting is often overlooked, but is critical for driving

impact. In this article, we’ll focus on universal reporting and how you
can use these tools to ensure your team gets their highest-impact
work done.

Don’t have a lot of data? Consider using a decision matrix instead

The benefits of universal
reporting tools
Siloed reporting tools, or high-level, broad-scale reporting tools lack
one thing: a direct connection to your team’s data. Without a
connection between the work you’re doing and your reporting
software, you either need to invest in a connector software or build
robust, time-intensive APIs. Worse, that means your data and reporting
aren’t connected to the work they’re representing. If team members
want to learn more about the data the report covers, they have to go
digging for information, schedule a status meeting, or re-create that
information manually.

This is already a problem—according to our research, the average

knowledge worker switches between 10 apps up to 25 times per day.
Additionally, knowledge workers are spending 13% of their time on
work that’s already been completed. With the right reporting tool, you
can address these issues—while also empowering your team to do
their best work.
Universal reporting tools gather and organize project data into visual
resources that can inform your decision-making process. This level of insight
can be critical for making important decisions quickly.
Good universal reporting tools give you:

 Real-time updates and insight into raw data

 A way to visualize information—and share that information
 A way to drill down into the specifics
 A way to speed up the reporting process (through things like automation and templates)
 Customizable reports with the exact parameters you need
 Better, informed decision making
Your time together should be spent securing
resources, having active discussions, and
removing roadblocks from your projects, not,
‘Here's what I did and why.’”
—MICHAEL GAMBER, DIRECTOR OF VOLUNTEER RELATIONS & TRAINING, NEW
YORK CARES

Read: New York Cares helps millions in need with Asana

5 common universal reporting

features
The universal reporting tool you select should have some, if not all, of
these features. All told, these five features can help you get the most
out of your data analytics tool.

Visualization software
Data visualization software is the bulk of most reporting tools—
including universal reporting. This helps you quickly parse information
by turning data into charts, graphs, and maps.

Self-service reporting
Self-service reporting options have simple functionality and drag-and-
drop features that make them easy for any team to set up. This can be
helpful if you’re only reporting across one or two data sets, and if you
only need basic information in your reports. Self-service reporting tools
typically have templates the report designer can use to quickly spin up
a report.

Dashboards
Dashboards are typically built into visualization reporting tools to
allow you to see and track work from every angle. To create a
dashboard, drag and drop various relevant widgets. Then, every time
you reload the dashboards, the widgets will auto populate with the
most recent information. This is great for in-the-moment spot checks
or keeping a pulse on how work is progressing in real-time.

Static reports
Static reports are a great way to snapshot data from a specific point in
time. For example, if you want to capture data after a product launch
or marketing campaign, you can create and save a report for historical
data analysis in the future, or export that report as an Microsoft Excel
file or .csv. Most reporting tools will offer this feature in some way.
However, beware of tools that only offer static reports since they may
quickly become out of date. Ensure you also have a way to access
real-time data reports.

Ad-hoc reporting
Ad-hoc reporting is a single, one-time report that a reporting or
business analytics team might generate for a specific query or metric.
Ad hoc-reports are highly customized, but also typically narrow in
scope. They offer a very detailed look into specialized data.

Things to look for in a universal

reporting tool
A reporting tool should effectively connect your work to your reports.
Without that level of connection, you have to switch between apps and
search for information in order to find the data you’re looking for.

We’re all familiar with searching through email for that one update, or
scheduling a meeting to debrief on a project’s status. At Asana, we
call these activities—like chasing information or following up on the
status of work—”work about work.” The average knowledge worker
spends 60% of their time on work about work. With a universal reporting
tool, you can aggregate information and draw clear conclusions in
order to reduce work about work. If team members need to draw
additional insights, they can click through to the underlying work—
since it is all in the same tool—and address the root of the problem.
Report across teams and projects with Asana

Real-time reporting
Unless you’re specifically creating a static report, all of your reporting
should be in real time, so you’re acting on the most relevant data.
Without real-time updates, you might be making decisions based on
outdated data.

In complex organizations, you need some way to

keep everybody on the same page. When you let
silos develop because there’s no organization-
wide view into what’s going on—that’s the worst
possible way of working. Asana gives us a single
platform across every team to share work, to
communicate, and to follow up with each other.”
—BILL CRIM, CEO, UNITED WAY OF SALT LAKE
Read: United Way of Salt Lake increases community impact with
Asana

Interactive dashboards
Interactive reports are critical in order for you to access the
information you actually need. With these dashboards, you can also
drill down into more detail if you see something amiss. If numbers are
off—or up—interactive dashboards give you the opportunity to drill
down into that information and understand why that might be. As a
result, you and your team members can make well-informed, data-
driven business decisions.

Customization
Make sure the universal reporting tool you choose lets you build
reports the way you want to. If the structure is too rigid, the report
might yield interesting data—that doesn’t necessarily apply to your
needs.

When you’re looking for a universal reporting tool, ask yourself:

 How can data be visualized in this report?

 Is there more than one option to visualize or present data?
 Can I export, print, or share reports?
 How do other people access these reports?
Out-of-the-box templates
This depends on your organization’s size and scale, but if you’re
getting started with universal reporting, look for a tool that offers out-
of-the-box templates and guidance about what you can report on. That
way, you can immediately start seeing results.

Integrations
A good universal reporting tool must have a robust set of integrations.
Your organization doesn’t just use one business tool—you need a
connected ecosystem of tools in order to do your best work. That’s
why Asana integrates with over 200 business tools including Tableau, Power
BI, and Looker.

The entire process was all over the place. We had

information in Google Docs, Excel sheets, to-do
lists, and even tracked some client stuff in
Basecamp. Finding and actioning on tasks took
so much time, and was way too disjointed.”
—MARK WEBSTER, COO, AUTHORITY HACKER

Read: Authority Hacker empowers their global team with Asana

Pricing
Of course, make sure the universal reporting tool you select is within
your budget. However, when looking at pricing, don’t just look at how
much the tool costs—also look at how much you’re getting out of it. A
universal reporting solution with a built in project portfolio
management and work management software, for example, might be more
valuable than a straight reporting tool—because you’re getting more
bang for your buck.

Usability
You’ll be using this tool frequently. Before investing fully in a universal
reporting tool, check to see if you can trial it. Roll the tool out to some
key team members and stakeholders. Ask yourselves the following:
 Is the user interface easy to use?
 Is the tool user-friendly?
 Can non-technical users find the information they need easily?
 How well does it integrate with your current tools?
 How often are reports generated?
Unlock visibility and enhance
impact with universal reporting
tools
Good universal reporting tools empower your team to make data-
backed decisions. When there’s less guesswork and more guidance,
team members can focus on their highest-impact work.

If you’re ready to get started, try Asana’s Universal Reporting to get real-
time visibility and actionable insights on all projects in one place. With
Universal Reporting, you can have up-to-date dashboards across teams
and projects—with information on workloads, budget, timing, and more
—that don’t require manual updating or maintenance. Because the
dashboards are connected to the work in Asana, they’re accurate and
current so you don’t need to search or ask around for updates. Get
started today.