Analytics & Reporting is how you read your business data in xMatix. You can run a report, watch a dashboard, get either one by email on a schedule, or print a single record as a finished document. A report is a saved query: the entity it reads, the related entities it joins, its columns, groups, summaries and filters. It runs live every time you open it. A dashboard places KPI, chart, table, report, map, button and text tiles on one canvas, and each tile loads its data for the person viewing it. A subscription emails you a report or dashboard on a schedule. A print template turns one record, such as an invoice or a purchase order, into a PDF. Everything here follows the same access model as the rest of xMatix: you see what you have been granted, and nothing more.
Overview
Choose the right tool
| You want to… | Use | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| List, sort, group and export live records | A grid report | Reports in the app → New report |
| Cross-tabulate one dimension against another | A grid report with bucketing, or a dashboard pivot table tile | Reports → New report, or Dashboards |
| Watch several numbers on one screen | A dashboard | Dashboards in the app → New dashboard, or From Entity for a starter layout over one entity |
| Get a report or dashboard by email without opening the app | A subscription | Subscribe on a report, or the bell on a dashboard, in the library or the viewer |
| Look at records that were archived out of the working system | The Live / Archived switch in the report or dashboard viewer | Shown when every entity the report or tile reads has an archive rule |
| Change how a report or financial statement looks as a PDF | A report print template | Setup → Feature Hub → Platform → Report print templates |
| Print a record as a designed page | A print template, printed by the record's Print or Preview button | Setup → Entities → the entity → Layouts (Type Print) |
| Compute a governed, pre-aggregated table once and reuse it | A dataset in Data Studio | The Data Studio app |
Reports and dashboards are definitions, not copies of data. They store what to read and how to show it, never the numbers. Each time one opens, xMatix runs the query under the viewer's own access, so two people can open the same report and see different rows.
What's in this section
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Reports | The report library: folders, favourites, row actions, and what happens when a report runs |
| Create a report | The report wizard from start to finish: data source, relationships, fields, columns, grouping, summaries, bucketing, filters and details |
| Report designer (removed) | What replaced the removed banded designer and Document Prints list |
| Dashboards | The dashboard library, the viewer and its toolbar, tile sources, filters, pages, caching, sharing and delivery |
| Create a dashboard | The dashboard designer: tiles, sources, the filter bar, pages, alerts, saving and sharing |
| Subscriptions | Scheduling a report or dashboard by email: formats, schedules, recipients, and what is checked when it sends |
| Sharing & access | Who can see a report or dashboard, the visibility rule, and per-page dashboard access |
| Document prints | Print templates for records: printing, previewing and sharing a record, and creating, styling and assigning templates |
| Troubleshooting | Missing or empty reports, blank dashboards, and subscription emails that never arrive or arrive at the wrong hour |
How xMatix handles it
Reports and dashboards live in every app
Most apps (Sales, Finance, Service and others) carry a Reports and a Dashboards item in their navigation. Both open a library. It has scopes on the left (for example Favourites, My Reports and All Reports), a folder tree, and a strip of the items you opened most recently. On a desktop-sized screen the page header offers New report or New dashboard. The library loads in pages of 50 rows as you scroll, and search, sorting and column filters run on the server, so large libraries stay fast.
Live and Data Studio content are kept apart by app
There are two kinds of report and dashboard:
- Live content reads the operational database, the same records you work with every day. Every app except Data Studio shows only Live reports and dashboards, and its New report and New dashboard build Live ones. A Live dashboard's tiles read an Entity or a Report.
- Data Studio content reads the analytics store that Data Studio builds: entities copied there, data models, datasets and external entities. Only the Data Studio app shows these reports and dashboards, and only users who hold Data Studio see them. Holding Data Studio means your organization's licence includes it, the Data Studio module is switched on, and your security profile grants the Data Studio product.
A user without Data Studio sees only Live content, in every app. Because each app shows only its own side, a Data Studio dashboard does not appear in the Sales app's list, and the reverse is also true. An administrator who wants both sides in every list can turn on Show Live / Data Studio tabs (see Configuration).
Archived rows are a reader's choice
When an archive rule has moved old records out of the working system, a Live report or dashboard can still read them. The viewer shows a Live / Archived switch beside the filters of a report, and before Refresh on a dashboard. Choosing Archived reads the archive instead of current records, and downloads and drill-downs follow the choice. The switch appears only when every entity the report reads (related entities included), or an entity a tile reads, has an archive rule. No Data Studio licence is needed to use it. See Archived records.
New content starts private
A new or cloned report or dashboard is visible only to its creator. It becomes visible to others only when someone shares it with All users or with selected roles, profiles or teams through Edit → Visibility. Dashboards can also limit each page (tab) to some roles, profiles or teams. Sharing decides who can open something, never which rows they see inside it. A dashboard's tiles load under the viewer's access, so a dashboard shared without the reports behind its tiles shows broken tiles. The full rule is on Sharing & access.
Exports, PDFs and email
- A report's toolbar menu exports the current result, with your filters applied, to Excel or PDF. A dashboard exports as a PDF or a PNG image of what is on screen, and many tiles can be downloaded on their own.
- A subscription sends a report as PDF, Excel, CSV or Embedded in the message body. It sends a dashboard as a PDF, rendered as you, with your access.
- How a report or financial statement looks as a PDF (paper, orientation, letterhead, notes, sign-off) comes from a report print template. Without one, every PDF uses the standard look.
- Records (invoices, orders, challans, payslips) print from print templates, not from reports. The old Document Prints list and banded report designer were removed, and links to the Document Prints list now open Reports. See Document prints.
Where Data Studio begins
Use a Live report or an entity-backed dashboard for a current operational question: it reads current records the moment it opens. Move to Data Studio when one governed definition should be computed once and serve many readers, when the workload belongs in the analytics store rather than the working system, or when you need dataset row security rules. Data Studio is where datasets and data models are defined, built and refreshed on a schedule, and where archive rules move cold history out of the working system.
Permissions
| To… | You need |
|---|---|
| See and open a report or dashboard | It is active, and you created it or it is shared with you (all users, or one of your roles, profiles or teams). It must also read only products your organization is licensed for. There is no administrator bypass in the libraries. |
| Open one page (tab) of a dashboard | The page is not limited, or it is limited to one of your roles, profiles or teams |
| See the rows inside a report or tile | Your usual read access to the entity, its fields and its records; for dataset tiles, a dataset row security rule that covers you |
| Create, edit or clone a report or dashboard definition | The analytics administration capability (setup.metadata.analytics.manage). The server checks report and dashboard definitions against it. |
| Change a report's or dashboard's Visibility | The analytics administration capability and the security administration capability (setup.security.manage) |
| Share many reports or dashboards with a role, profile or team at once | Security administration: Setup → Access control → the role, profile or team → Reports or Dashboards tab |
| See Data Studio reports and dashboards | Data Studio in your organization's licence and your security profile, with the Data Studio module switched on |
| Install Data Studio dashboard Templates | The analytics administration capability |
| Manage report print templates | The analytics administration capability |
Configuration
| Setting | Where | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Report and dashboard sharing | Edit on the row in Reports or Dashboards → Visibility | Who sees and opens the item |
| Bulk sharing by group | Setup → Access control → a role, profile or team → Reports / Dashboards tabs | Every item that group can see, including private ones offered for adding |
| Per-page dashboard access | The dashboard designer's page sharing | Which roles, profiles or teams can open each page |
| Report print templates | Setup → Feature Hub → Platform → Report print templates | How reports and financial statements look as PDF (on Preview, export and PDF subscriptions) |
| Record print templates | Setup → Entities → the entity → Layouts (Type Print) | What a record's Print or Preview button produces |
| Archive rules | Data Studio → archive rules | Whether the Live / Archived switch appears, and what Archived reads |
| Show Live / Data Studio tabs | Data Studio module setting, group Reports and dashboards (off by default). Data Studio has no Settings item in the Setup menu, so the Setup Copilot can change it for you. | On: the Reports and Dashboards lists show a Live / Data Studio switch in every app (each app still opens on its own side), and New report / New dashboard offer both. Applies to users who hold Data Studio. Users pick it up when they next sign in or reload. |
Common problems
"A report or dashboard I used yesterday is missing"
It is almost always unshared, inactive, or on the other side of the Live / Data Studio split. Check its Visibility first. Then check which app you opened the list from: Data Studio content appears only in the Data Studio app. See Troubleshooting and Sharing & access.
"The dashboard opens but its tiles are empty"
Tiles load under your own access. A tile built on a report you cannot see, or on records you cannot read, has nothing to show. Share the report behind the tile with the same audience as the dashboard.
"I cannot find Document Prints any more"
It was removed. A record now prints from its Print or Preview button, using a print template. See Document prints.
"There is no Live / Archived switch"
One of the entities the report reads, or that the tile reads, has no archive rule, or the report is a Data Studio report. Data Studio reports choose their own table.
Common questions
What is the difference between a report and a dashboard?
A report answers one question as a grid. It lists, groups and summarises records from one entity and the entities related to it, and you can export it to Excel or PDF. A dashboard brings many answers onto one screen as tiles, which can be KPIs, charts, tables, maps or embedded reports, and adds a filter bar, pages and alerts. Build a report when people need the rows. Build a dashboard when they need to watch several numbers at once. A dashboard tile can be a report, so the two often work together.
Why does my colleague see different numbers in the same report?
A report stores its definition, not its results. Each time it opens, it runs under the viewer's own access: their record security, field permissions and company scope. Two people opening the same report can therefore see different rows and totals. The same is true of dashboard tiles and of a subscription email, which is produced as the subscriber.
Do I need Data Studio to build reports and dashboards?
No. Every app's Reports and Dashboards build Live content that reads current records, and the Live / Archived switch works without Data Studio. You need Data Studio only to build on the analytics store: datasets, data models, external entities and the copied entities. That content lives in the Data Studio app.
Can I get a financial statement by email?
Yes. Finance statements have their own Subscribe button in the statement header, and it emails the statement as a PDF. See Financial statements.