Don’t Let Autotask Live Report Writing Haunt you: Use these Guidelines…

live report

Oct 28

Why is it like pulling teeth to get information out of the Autotask PSA software? Is it true that MSPs struggle to find information they need in Autotask to run their business? And why does it take months to learn how to write simple reports and years to write advanced reports?

Information like:

· per customer profitability

· per tech real-time time entry (RTTE)

· advanced SLA performance

· advanced resource utilization (ARU)

· reactive hours per endpoint per month (RHEM)

· tech balanced score card

· and much, much more

Here are four things you might not know about Autotask Live Reports:

1) Autotask didn’t write the Live Report software; it was an acquisition and therefore not fully understood by Autotask developers.

2) Sort does more than just sort the report; it also links SQL lookup tables.

3) The reason for categories is to prevent an Autotask Live Report writer from calling for data in tables that do not connect.

4) Autotask Live Reports is a bottom-up report writer, which means you need to think from the lowest report element up, not drill down from the top of the report.

When I started to learn how to write live reports, it took me several weeks (260 hours, to be more accurate) just to get reports to run. It was a painful process.

1) Getting all excited thinking of some valuable information that we knew was in Autotask

2) Writing the first draft only to find out a field we needed was not in that category.

3) Finally getting the report the way we needed it, only to find out some selected fields were empty, even though we knew they contained data. Hint: it turned out to be a linking problem, not an empty field problem.

4) Getting all the data to appear, only to run into calculation errors. Hint: Autotask date fields are text fields.

5) Having reports running and serving us well for years, only to have them stop working one day, or running on Greenwich Mean Time, caused by a maintenance release.

It took even longer to learn how to write advanced reports. I’m sure you can add to the list, based on your experiences with Autotask Live Reports.

Here are the 6 steps I use when writing any Live Report:

1) Start with a mockup.

2) Find the fields I need, so I know I am in the right category

3) Write as much of the report as I can as an express report

4) Convert the express report to a standard report when needed

5) Finish the report

6) Publish and schedule the report to run when needed

There are several tools I use when writing Live Reports:

1) Autotask-provided system reports – they’re never what I need, but they provide tips on how to do things.

2) Live Report functions and formulas – this is a syntax guide on how to code the functions and formulas.

3) Googling Excel formulas – they almost all work in Live Reports, but most with a different syntax.

4) Excedrin – you know, for the headaches Live Reports give you.

There is one other way to write Live Reports that isn’t scary at all. In fact, it’s a much easier, economical, painless, and faster way to get them written: Outsource to someone who knows what they’re doing, or as our raving fans say “Someone who’s been there, done that.” Advanced Global is the best group of Autotask Live Report writers on the planet. If the report can be written, we’re happy to write them for you. We do it all the time for MSPs from around the world, one reason why we know what we’re doing. The other reason is that we work in a collaborative environment with team members working on Live Reports full-time.

Let us know what information you’re looking for by scheduling a call with us here.

Or to get started right away…