Getting started with Reports

Create professional energy reports from ready-made templates, build your own layouts, and automate recurring reports for your buildings.

This article explains how to:

• Introduction
• Permissions by user role
• Create a report from an existing template.
• Create your own report template.
• Use Financials blocks.
• Automate recurring reports.
• Need help?

Introduction

Open New Reports within the Analysis section. The actions and tabs available to you depend on your user role. You need permission to create reports, edit templates or manage automations to follow the corresponding steps below. If an option is missing, contact your account administrator.

Reports uses three related concepts:

You do not need to build a template yourself to create a report. You can use a platform template or a template shared with you within your account.

Permissions by user role

Your user role determines which actions you can perform in Reports. The table below shows the current permissions.

Current rollout restrictions: Client users can see already created report instances, but cannot create them.

A "Yes" means the role permits the action; it does not automatically give access to every report, template or location. Access to individual resources also depends on their sharing settings and your data permissions. Superadmins can additionally view report templates created by other users in the account.

For shared templates, Can view allows an eligible user to use the template to create reports, while Can edit also allows changes to the template. Receiving a published report does not require access to its source template.

Receiving reports by email

All eight roles can receive report emails and view reports through the links in those emails, including Client, Utility client, Minimal and Dashboards users who cannot currently access the Reports section.

Recipients must be existing users in the account and be selected for email delivery. They can open the emailed report link without logging in and download a PDF. Receiving a link does not grant permission to create reports, edit templates or manage automations.

Create a report from an existing template

Use this workflow when you need a one-off report, such as a monthly building review or a report for a customer meeting.

1. Start a new report. Open Reports and choose the option to create a new report.
2. Choose a template. Select an available platform generic template, one of your own templates, or a template shared with you by a colleague.
3. Set the report context. Choose the location, the start and end dates of the reporting period, and the report language. Select a logo if the template's page settings enable one.
4. Choose who can view the report. Publish it for yourself or select other users where your permissions allow. 
   Note: Manager users can publish reports only for themselves for now.
5. Publish and open the report. Check that its location, dates and content are correct. You can then download a PDF from the report view.

Example: To prepare an August report for one building, select a template, choose that building, and set the period to 1-31 August. Blocks that follow the report context will use those dates. Analytics blocks with a rolling or fixed period may show a different range, as explained below.

Creating a report from a template does not require permission to edit that template. Similarly, someone receiving a published report does not need access to its source template to view the report.

What happens when you reopen a report?

The report period stays the same, but its data is fetched when you open it. Late readings or corrections can therefore change the values displayed in an existing report.

A report is not a frozen historical snapshot. If you need to preserve the exact version you reviewed or sent to a customer, download the PDF and store it. PDFs are generated on demand and are not stored by the platform.

Create your own report template

Create a template when you want to choose the content, layout and branding of your reports and reuse them for different buildings or periods.

1. Open Templates and start a new template. Give it a name and description.

2. Add your content. Use Add Widget to insert Analytics, Readings, Financials or text blocks. Use the table below to choose the right block for each part of your report.

   

3. Configure your Analytics blocks. Choose the data and visualisation, and decide whether each block should use the report period, a rolling period or fixed dates.
4. Arrange the layout. Drag blocks into position and resize them to organise the report.
5. Customise the header and footer. Include the information you need, such as a logo, report period, template name, location, page number or generation date.
6. Save the template. Once the template is saved you can use it to create reports
7. Share the template if needed. Where your permissions allow, share it with a user group or make it available across your account. When sharing with a group, choose whether its members can view or edit the template.

Making a template available to your account does not make it public on the internet. User-created templates cannot be shared across accounts, including accounts in the same organisation.

Choose the right content blocks

You can combine all three in one template. For example, use an Analytics chart to show consumption trends, a financial to summarise costs, and a text block to explain the report's purpose.

Set the period for an Analytics block

Each Analytics block can use one of three period options:

Use By context for blocks that should follow each report's reporting period. Use Rolling for views such as year-to-date, and Fixed when you deliberately want to keep the same reference dates.

Add images

You can insert an image into a text block using its URL.

Some externally hosted images may appear in the browser report but be missing from the downloaded PDF because their host does not permit the access required (CORS Policy). Check your downloaded PDF before distributing it and check with your image hosting provider if the image is missing.

Understanding Business insights blocks

Business insights are ready-made report components that require no configuration within the block. Each one displays a predefined table, chart or set of KPIs using the report's location, period and language.

They are useful when you want standard information, such as a cost breakdown or contract summary, without building the analysis yourself.

Examples

Availability depends on the component and your account's capabilities. Financial Business Insights require the corresponding Financials capabilities and use the relevant underlying contract, cost and consumption information. Some specialised blocks are included in Spacewell templates but are not available to add individually.

Add a Business Insight to a template

1. Open a template you can edit.
2. Select Add Widget and choose a Business insight element from the modal menu.
3. Position and resize the block in your layout.
4. Add any other blocks you need, then save the template.
5. Create a report instance or an automation from the template. The Business Insight will draw on the context of each resulting report to determine the data to plot, based on location hierarchy, categories configuration and period.

You can add multiple Business Insights, and move, resize or remove them. Business Insights will target different categories depending on selection:

• Financials/Electricity: Consumption/import category
• Financials/Gas: Consumption category
• Financials/Thermal: Consumption category
• Financials/Water: Consumption category

Unlike an Analytics block, a Business Insight does not let you change its columns, calculations, visualisation, sorting or filters. It cannot be exported individually; download the report PDF to include it in an export.

Example: A Bill Simulation report can combine contract information, a cost breakdown and total KPIs. When you create a report for a different building or period, those blocks use the new report context without needing to be configured again.

Automate recurring reports

Use an automation to create reports regularly without publishing each one manually. An automation can cover multiple locations and send report links by email.

1. Open Automations and create an automation.
2. Select the template. Choose the layout that every report generated by the automation should use.
3. Choose the reporting scope. Select the locations and, where needed, use tags to filter the data. Set the report language and logo where available.
4. Set the schedule. Choose the automation's start and end dates and the reporting frequency, such as monthly. The automation's active date range determines how long it runs; each report has its own reporting period.
5. Set a publication delay if needed. Choose how many days to wait after the reporting period before creating the report. This gives late-arriving readings more time to enter the platform, but does not guarantee complete data.
6. Choose publication visibility and email recipients. Set who can access the generated reports and, if you want email delivery, select the users to notify. Report visibility and email notifications are separate settings.
7. Review and save. Check the template, locations, dates, frequency, delay and recipients carefully before saving.

Example: For monthly reports covering several buildings, select those locations and a monthly frequency. Add a delay if meter readings usually arrive after month-end. Each report will cover its intended reporting period; delaying publication does not move that period forward.

What recipients receive

Recipients receive an email containing a link to view their report. They can open the link without logging in and download a PDF from the report view.

Email distribution has the following limits:

• Recipients must be existing platform users in the account. You cannot enter arbitrary external email addresses.
• An automation can email up to 100 users. Mailing lists and user groups are not supported for email distribution.
• Emails contain links, not PDF attachments. The email content cannot be customised.
• You cannot manually resend an email from an existing report instance.

Sharing a template with a user group is different from selecting the email recipients of an automation.

Historical reports

If the automation's date range includes past reporting periods, it creates the corresponding historical report instances. Historical instances are not sent by email.

Change, stop or delete an automation

Automations cannot currently be edited after creation, including their recipient settings. Review the configuration before saving.

To change a schedule or configuration while keeping historical reports, stop the existing automation and create a replacement.

Deleting an automation cannot be undone. Recreating a similar automation does not restore the deleted instances.

Need help?

If you cannot find an option, first check with your account administrator that your role permits the action. If a report or Financial is empty, check the selected location and dates, the availability of the underlying readings or Financials information, and your access to that data.

For further assistance, contact our support team. Include the report or template name, the affected location and period, and whether the problem occurs in the browser, the downloaded PDF or email delivery.