Analytics is Deputy's new reporting and analytics tool, allowing managers to view and analyse scheduling and timesheet data.

Analytics allows managers to view, tailor and bookmark pre-configured reports and visualizations.

If the answer to the question you seek is not answered by one of Deputy's default set of reports you might like to use Analytics+ (a paid product) to build a custom report yourself. Any custom reports you create will appear at the top of the list under the My Reports heading.

• Introduction to Report building
• Create a new custom report from a blank template
• Copy and modify a default report to make a new custom report
• Report states
• Add elements to build a report
  • Data elements
  • Control elements
  • UI elements
  • Layout elements
• Tips to help format the layout of your report
• Editing an existing custom report
• Renaming a custom report
• Make a copy of a custom report
• Sharing a custom report
• Deleting custom reports
• Including a data refresh timestamp in a custom report
• What happens to my custom reports when I cancel an add on subscription

 

Introduction to Report building

Before we build our report, let's look at why we might run a report and what elements make a good report.

We usually run a report because we want to find the answer to a question we have about patterns or outliers in data. As a report builder, each custom report you build can be thought of like a blank canvas where you can add all the pieces of the puzzle that the report user will need to find the answer to that question.

There are four main categories of elements available for you to add when building a report:

Element category	What are they?	Examples include
Data elements	These elements are built directly from a specific data source that you select according to the type of report you are building.   Read more about Deputy Datasets.	a table a pivot table a chart Note: No matter how the data is displayed in the element you select, the underlying data from the data source is always column-based.
Control elements	These elements are added to allow the report user to manipulate data elements in the report	data filters parameter selectors
UI (User interface) elements	These elements add additional context, styling, and navigation to reports	buttons dividers images spacers embeds text
Layout elements	These control how the information is presented	containers modal

 

Therefore, every report is built upon one or more selected data sources to provide the data elements whether they be represented as a table, visualization, chart or plain columns of data.

The control elements are added to help the user filter and manipulate the data to find the relevant data they need

The UI and layout elements make the report easier for users to understand and navigate.

Note: If you don't want to start with a 'blank canvas' to build a new report you can also copy a default report and modify it to customise it to your business needs.

Let's look at creating a custom report using both approaches:

• Create a brand new report from scratch
• Copy and modify an existing default report to customise it

 

Create a new custom report from a blank template

1. From the left-hand side menu click the + icon.

2. Give your report a name, click on Blank template and click Create report.

A blank report will open in 'edit' state and you are now you are ready to add your data elements.

 

Copy and modify a default report to make a new custom report

If you would rather base the report on an existing default one, open the report you wish to duplicate and then click Make a copy.

Or click on the + icon.

When using the + option you will be asked to name your report and select which template you would like to base the new report on.

A duplicate copy of the report will be opened in 'edit state' and you can now make customisations to build your report.

Any reports you create will be listed at the top of the left-hand side menu under the My Reports header. 

You can also rename or delete any custom report if required.

 

Read more about Creating a copy of a Deputy Analytics report to customise including some worked examples.

 

Report states

All Deputy default reports included in Deputy Analytics are published and may not be edited, only copied. 

Be aware that custom reports, however, can exist in two states:

1. Published

Published reports are listed on the left-hand side under the My Reports section header and are ready for report users to view and manipulate the data as required or export reports.

2. Editing

While you are building a new custom report, or when you click on the Edit button to change an existing custom report you built previouslythen you will see that the report shows the status as Editing.  Once you make changes to the custom report, such as adding or deleting an element,t then you can Publish the changes.

Note: while building or amending a custom report, if you click away from the Reports tab in Deputy or close the browser before you click Publish, then any work you have done to build that report in this session may be saved.

 

Adding elements to build a report

In the Editing state of the report we can use the toolbar at the bottom of the screen to start adding elements to the custom report.

As introduced earlier there are three elements to building reports.

The first element we need to add to build a report is a data element.

Data Elements

When building your new report, you can bring the relevant data as a flat table or as charts into the dashboard.

1. From the elements toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select from:

• Table/ Pivot table OR
• one of the charts

In the example below, we will choose a table.

You will be presented with a list of Deputy datasets. Read more about how to find the dataset you need.

If you know the Deputy dataset you want to use to build your table, just click on the name of the dataset to select it, and the entire dataset will be added to your custom report as a table.

If you would prefer to preview what kind of data is contained in the dataset, click Preview.

2. A new window will pop up with the dataset and you can select specifically which data columns from the dataset you wish to add to your table.

Initially, all columns in the dataset will be selected, but if you only want to add some of the data columns, you could click Select all, to deselect all columns 

As you click the tick boxes, the columns will appear on the right. When you have added all the columns you need, click Add.

The table you created will be added to the report.

3. You can continue to add more data elements to the page if required, such as a chart or pivot table by repeating step 1.

If you would like the new element to be dependent on the element you just added, you can click on the add graph icon at the top right of the element:

4. If you would like to add a new data element based on a different data source, then select another element from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

7. Select the new data element you would like to add to your dashboard.

In this example a Bar chart has been selected.

You will be presented with a list of Deputy datasets.

If you know the Deputy dataset you want to use to build your chart just click on the name of the dataset to select it and the entire data set will be added to your custom report.

If you would prefer to preview what kind of data is contained in the dataset, click Preview and select to add specific columns as shown in step 2 above.

9. For the new chart you have created, you can customise:

• the type of chart you wish to use and how it is displayed
• The X and Y axis data (see below)
• Colors, tooltips, trellis and label

Setting the X and Y axis:

You can choose which columns of data from your dataset represent the X and Y axis on your chart by dragging them into place as shown below.

Or an alternative way is to click on the plus icon and search for the name of the column you wish to add using a text search then click to select and add that data column.

You can continue to add as many data elements to your report as you think the report user will need to find the information they need.

 

Control Elements

Once you have your data on your dashboard, it's time to add control elements that allow report users to filter and manipulate the data and make it more meaningful to them.

Users viewing reports can change the value of a control element to automatically update the data displayed in any elements targeted by that control.

 Select Controls from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and click on the control you would like to add. 

There are several control elements available to add to reports:

• List Values
• Text Input
• Text Area
• Segmented
• Date
• Date Range
• Number input
• Number range
• Slider
• Range Slider
• Switch
• Checkbox
• Top N
• Drill down
• Legend

Once you have added the control element to the dashboard, you can hover over it and when the mouse pointer turns into a hand you can click and drag it into your preferred position within the report.

Click to select the new control element, in this example, the date range filter, and click on Targets on the right-hand side panel. Click on Add filter target and select which data elements in your report you wish the control element to control.

 

Once you have added your data elements and your control elements then you can use the UI elements to improve the appearance of the report.

 

UI (user interface) elements

Add the following UI Elements to your reports to personalise the look of your reports and make them easier to understand.

Select UI from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and click on the element to add it to your dashboard.

Text

Use the Text element to add text to the report such as a Report Heading or disclaimer via a free text field, modify the display of the text by changing the Font, size, style, colour and alignment as well as the background colour.

 

Image

Use the Image element to add your branding to reports by uploading your own image files (BMP, JPEG, PNG etc) to your reports.

 

Button

The Button element allows you to create an onscreen button that can be linked to various actions. Change the style of the button by changing the colour, shape and text that is displayed.

Then, using the Actions area, choose what you want to happen when the button is clicked, actions available are - launch a specified URL, navigate the report, modify or refresh an element as well as download or email the report.

 

Divider

Using a Divider allows you to visually separate areas of a report by adding a vertical or horizontal line with a customisable colour and thickness.

 

Embed

An embed element adds a webpage, video, or other report to a page. Any iFrame-enabled URL can be embedded. Use control variables within your embed URL to customize what content is displayed according to different inputs.

 

Plugin

For advanced users only.

 

Page Break

Insert a page break to force a new page to begin. This will be of assistance when creating a report with printing or exporting a PDF in mind.

 

Layout elements 

Layout elements allow you to control how other elements in the report are presented:

Container (border)

Add a container (or border) as a new element to your report, then add a new data element such as a chart or table within the container:

You can format the styling of the container so that the chart or table will have a border.

 

Tabbed Container

A tabbed container works similarly to a container, except you have the option to show tabs within the container that the user can click to view the different options within the container.

If you don't need 3 tabs but want to remove or add one, you can do this in the Properties tab of the tabbed container. You can also click on the Format tab to change the look of the container.

 

 

Modal (pop up)

Rather than add a data element to the main space in a report, you can also choose to add a data element as a modal or pop up so that the data will appear when a button is clicked on the report.

Add the modal as a new data element to the report then select the chart or table to add within the modal element.

When the report is published, the user can view the chart by clicking a button to open the pop up modal.

 

 

Tips to help format the layout of your report

Once you have added the data, controller, layout,and UI elements of your report there are ways you can adjust how your report looks.

Firstly, if you click on the Page layout tab you can get a clear idea of all the different elements you have added to make up your report. In the below example, the report contains:

• a UI element as text
• a control element as a date range
• a data element as a table
• a UI element as a divider
• a data element as a chart
• a data element as a chart within a container

While in Editing state, on the right-hand side you can see all the elements you have added. 

You can click and drag to move them around the page to display in the preferred order or resize them to use up the preferred amount of space.

Once you have finished building your report don't forget to Publish.

Now, you can click on your custom report name under the My Reports section to view, filter and export the report required.

Read more about common functionality in every report.

 

Editing a custom report

You can make further customisations or add additional elements to any custom reports you have created.

1. Select the published custom report you wish to edit and click on the Edit button on the top right-hand side of the page.

2. If you click on the Page overview drop-down on the far left-hand side, you can see which elements have already been added to this report.

Click on an existing element to amend it's configuration.

Or use the toolbar at the bottom of the screen to add a new element and configure it.

3. Once you are happy with the edits you have made to your custom report don't forget to click Publish so the changes you made are saved.

 

Renaming a custom report

You can rename a custom report to make it more meaningful. Or perhaps you want to rename a report you copied to differentiate it from the original Deputy default report.

Just click on the title of the custom report (you can see the pencil icon appear next to the title field to let you know it's editable) and type the new name. The new name will take effect when you hit enter or return.

 

 

Copy a custom report

If you need to make a copy of a custom report you've already created, open the custom report, click on the ellipsis on the top right-hand side of the screen and select Make a copy in the drop-down menu.

 

Sharing a custom report

You can share a custom report you've created (any report under 'My Reports' with others in your Deputy account with Analytics access. You can give them view or edit access.

1. Select the custom report under 'My Reports' that you want to share, click on the ellipsis (...) on the top right of the screen and select Share.

2. Select a name from the drop-down  list or scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and select Anyone with Analytics access to share with everyone in your Deputy account with access to Analytics.

3. Once you have selected who can access your report you can decide whether they can have View or Edit access. If you have added someone in error simply Remove them.

4. If you remove access they will no longer be able to view or edit the report you have shared and any unsaved changes they may have made will be lost. Click Remove access if you wish to remove access.

5. If you want to check which team members can access a report at any time, select the report under My Reports, click on the ellipsis (...) on the top right of the screen and select Share.

You can see which team members have view and edit access in each report.

 

If a report has been shared with you, it will appear under the Shared With Me header on the left-hand side.

Depending on the permission rights you have been assigned by the creator of the report, you will either be able to view or edit the report. In the example below the person viewing this report, has been given edit access to the shared report but note that they are unable to delete the report in the same way they would be able to delete a report they had created themselves.

 

Deleting a report

To delete a custom report that is no longer needed:

1. Click to open the custom report you wish to delete (under My Reports at the top of the list on the left-hand side)

2. Click the three dots icon on the top right of the screen and select Delete.

3. You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the report. Click Delete.

 

Including a data refresh timestamp in a custom report

Deputy default reports automatically include a timestamp to indicate the last time the data was updated.

If you would like to incorporate this element into your custom reports, you can utlise the element from from a copy of a Deputy report. The element you copy will be filtered for the dataset used in the copied report. However, if you custom report references a different data set, simply filter for that dataset instead.

In this example the copied report is referencing a 'Journal' dataset, but we can use the filter to instead select the 'Employees' dataset as that's the dataset we are deciding to use in the custom report we are building.

Now, when the custom report is viewed, displaying information from the 'Employees' dataset in the chart or table created for the custom report, the viewer will have a timestamp of the last time the employee dataset was refreshed.

 

What happens to my custom reports when I cancel an add-on subscription

• lose access to full Analytics+ functionality, including:
  • the ability to make a copy of reports to edit and save as custom reports
  • the ability to create custom reports from scratch
  • access to any custom reports you previously created

If you have cancelled a Deputy HR add-on subscription and have used HR only datasets to build custom report, you will lose access to the HR data in those reports. Data not related to HR will still be available in those custom reports.

Your customer report based on the HR dataset might get errors similar to these: