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Automated Reports |
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Often there is a need to create numerous graphical and tabular reports that are identical in every way, except that the data for each report:
One client of mine has 180 stores and needs to create a report which contains 50 pages of graphs and tables for each store every quarter. Not only would the task be very time consuming, but it would be very prone to error if it were done manually. By automating the process, it takes much less time to create the reports and manual typo errors are eliminated. I have developed a process in which I calculate all the statistics in a statistics package. These statistics can include not only simple means and percentages and differences, but correlations, trend lines and coefficients, statistical significance levels, etc. After the statistics are calculated, they are pulled into a database and transferred to a spreadsheet (i.e. Excel). The numbers in the spreadsheet and/or graphs created in the spreadsheet are linked to a word processing program (i.e. Word) to create the final document. The final document can be printed and/or saved in most popular formats such as a Word (.doc) file or an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file. These files can then be transmitted via e-mail or posted on the web. Along with the tables and graphs, we typically include other pages such as:
We don't have a boilerplate format that we are married to. We work with each client to lay out each table and graph on each page the way the client wants it. Once the final report is laid out, we adapt our programs to generate the data that is required by the tables and/or graphs. By the way, for the client mentioned above with 50 page reports for 180 stores, we ship electronic copies of the reports 5 business days after receiving the final data, and hard copy the next week. Like most automated process there are setup fees, but those fees are
soon recovered by the cost savings (and quality) of an automated system. |
