Run and schedule reports

You can open any report you have the permission for, read it on screen, and download it. When the same report needs to reach the same people every week or month, a schedule sends it for you as a PDF. This page shows how to do both.

Before you begin

• Running a report needs report:read plus the permission of the data it reads. See Reports.
• Creating a schedule needs report:schedule.
• Schedules send email through your Outpost’s outgoing email. Set it up first. See Configure outgoing email.

Run a report

1. Go to Reports > All reports. On the MSP plan, use the client’s Reports for one client, or the practice-level Reports for reports across clients.
2. Select a report’s card. A dimmed card says which permission it Requires.
3. The report opens on screen. On a practice-level report, choose clients in Clients and select Run to narrow it.
4. Select Download PDF or Download CSV.

To run a saved custom report, find it under Custom reports on All reports and select PDF or CSV beside it.

In a CSV, money is written as a whole number of cents, so an accounting package can import it. On screen and in a PDF, money is shown as an amount.

Schedule a report

1. Go to Reports > Schedules and select New schedule.
2. In Name, enter a name, such as Monday morning board pack.
3. Under Report, choose A saved report or A built-in report, then pick the report.
4. On the practice-level Schedules, choose the clients in Clients, or leave every client.
5. In Schedule, enter a five-field cron expression: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. For example, 0 7 * * 1 is 07:00 every Monday.
6. In Time zone, choose the zone the schedule runs in. The time follows that zone through daylight saving changes.
7. In If a run is missed, choose what happens when the server was off at the due time: Send it once on the next chance or Skip it and wait for the next.
8. In Grace seconds, enter how late a run may still be sent. A run later than this is skipped even with Send it once on the next chance, so a 06:00 report is not sent in the afternoon. With no grace set, the limit is one hour.
9. Under Recipients, enter each address in Add recipient and select Add. A schedule needs at least one address and can have up to 20.
10. Leave Enabled selected, and select Create schedule.

Each delivery is an email with the report attached as a PDF named for the report and the date.

Manage schedules

The Schedules list shows each schedule’s Runs, State, Next run, Last run, and Recipients. For each schedule:

• History lists every run with when it was Due, when it Ran, its Status, how many Recipients it reached, and the PDF size.
• Edit changes it. Select Save changes when done.
• Pause stops it until you select Resume.
• Run now sends it straight away, after you confirm Send to all its recipients.
• Delete removes it.

Every change to a schedule is recorded in the audit log with its recipients.

Who a schedule runs as

A schedule runs with the permissions of the person who created it. Outpost pauses a schedule and shows why when:

• The user who created this schedule no longer exists.
• The user who created this schedule is disabled.
• The user who created this schedule cannot sign in.
• The creator no longer has a permission the report needs.

To restart a paused schedule, have someone with the right permissions create it again, or restore the creator’s access and select Resume.

Verify

Create a schedule with your own address as the only recipient and select Run now, then Send. The email arrives with the PDF attached, and History shows the run.

If something goes wrong

Symptom	Cause	Fix
That is not an IANA time zone name.	The time zone is an offset such as +02:00.	Choose a named zone such as America/Chicago.
A schedule can send to at most 20 addresses.	Too many recipients.	Send to a distribution list address instead.
A schedule shows Paused.	Its creator was removed, disabled, or lost a permission.	See Who a schedule runs as.
No email arrives.	Outgoing email is not set up or is failing.	Check History, then test your provider. See Configure outgoing email.

Next steps

• Build a custom report
• Report datasets