To schedule a report, save it in your reporting tool, open its schedule or subscription settings, choose how often it should run and at what time, add the recipients, and pick a format, such as a PDF attachment or a link. Send a test first, then check that the first few deliveries arrive on time with the right data.
Sylus lets you generate a report by asking in plain English, schedule it to land in your inbox daily, weekly or monthly, and send reports and AI-written summaries to email or Slack.
Key takeaways
A scheduled report is a saved report that refreshes and delivers itself on a fixed timetable.
Match the cadence to the decision: daily for operations, weekly for team performance, monthly and quarterly for management and the board.
Most delivery problems come from permissions, time zones, failed data refreshes and spam filters, not from the schedule itself.
Use alerts for changes that can’t wait for the next scheduled report.
What is a scheduled report?
A scheduled report is a report set up to run automatically at fixed times, such as every Monday at 8am or on the first working day of each month, and to deliver itself to a list of recipients. Each run refreshes the data, so recipients get the latest numbers without anyone exporting, formatting or sending anything.
Scheduled reports are the delivery side of report automation: once a report is built and its metrics are agreed, scheduling makes sure it reaches the right people at the right time.
What is a periodic report?
A periodic report is a report produced at regular intervals that summarises performance over a defined period, such as a week, month or quarter. Monthly management accounts, a weekly sales report and a quarterly board pack are all periodic reports. A good periodic report usually contains:
The period covered, stated clearly, with the date the data was taken.
The key metrics for that period against target.
Comparisons with the previous period and the same period last year.
A short commentary on what changed and why.
Actions or decisions that follow from the numbers.
Scheduling is how periodic reports get delivered without manual effort.
How do you schedule a report and send it by email?
Build and save the report. Make sure it uses agreed metric definitions and the filters each audience needs.
Open the schedule or subscription settings. Most tools call this “schedule”, “subscribe” or “deliver”.
Set the frequency and time. Choose daily, weekly, monthly or a custom schedule, and set the time in the recipients’ time zone.
Add recipients. Add people individually or as a group or distribution list, and check that each has permission to see the data.
Choose the format. A PDF or image attachment for reading on the go, a link to the live report for people who want to explore, or both.
Write a clear subject line and short message, so recipients know what the report is and why it matters.
Send a test to yourself and one recipient before turning the schedule on.
Check the first deliveries and confirm the numbers match a trusted source.
Which delivery settings matter most?
Time zone. A report scheduled for 8am in one time zone can arrive in the middle of the night for a team elsewhere. Schedule by the recipients’ location.
Timing after data refresh. Schedule delivery after the overnight data load or month-end close, or recipients get yesterday’s numbers.
Filters per recipient. A regional manager should get their region, not the whole company. Use saved filters or separate schedules.
Permissions. Recipients outside the tool, or without access to the underlying data, may get an empty report or no report at all.
Format and size. Large attachments can be blocked by email servers. Send a link or a summary for big reports.
Frequency. More often isn’t better. A daily email nobody reads trains people to ignore all of them.
How often should reports be scheduled?
Report cadence | Typical audience | Example metrics | Delivery channel |
|---|---|---|---|
Daily | Operations, sales and support team leads | Orders, revenue yesterday, stockouts, open tickets, cash balance | Short email or Slack summary with a link |
Weekly | Department heads and managers | Bookings against target, pipeline, marketing spend and leads, receivables | Email with PDF or link, plus a Slack summary |
Monthly | Leadership team and finance | P&L, budget against actual, gross margin, cash flow, headcount | Email with a PDF management pack and commentary |
Quarterly | Board and investors | Revenue growth, profitability, strategic KPIs, outlook | Email with a reviewed board pack |
How do scheduled reports work in common tools?
Power BI: subscriptions email a report or dashboard hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or after a data refresh. Subscribing yourself needs a Pro or Premium Per User licence, or a workspace on Premium capacity, and subscribing others needs a paid licence. Microsoft notes that more than 200 subscribers can cause delivery issues, and subscriptions end after a year unless extended.
Tableau: subscriptions send a view as a PNG image, a PDF or both, either when the data refreshes or on a schedule. A subscription is suspended after repeated failures until its owner resumes it. Tableau Pulse sends metric digests by email, Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio): scheduled delivery emails the report as a PDF with a link, to up to 50 recipient addresses per schedule. The free version allows one schedule per report, at most daily; Data Studio Pro adds hourly schedules and delivery to Slack and Google Chat.
Metabase: dashboard subscriptions send to email or Slack hourly, daily, weekly or monthly, with optional CSV, Excel or PDF attachments and an option not to send when there are no results.
Sylus: generate a report by asking in plain English, schedule it to land in your inbox daily, weekly or monthly, and send reports and AI-written summaries to email or Slack.
If your team is weighing a traditional BI tool against an AI analyst for this, our Sylus vs Power BI comparison and Power BI alternative page set out the differences, and our guide to AI reporting tools compares scheduling and AI summaries across tools.
Can you get an alert when a metric changes?
Yes, and for some metrics it is better than a scheduled report. A scheduled report arrives at a fixed time whether or not anything important happened. An alert arrives only when a metric crosses a threshold or moves outside its normal range, such as daily sales dropping sharply, refunds spiking, or a key customer’s orders stopping.
Set alerts for the few metrics where a fast response matters, send them to the person who can act, and review them regularly so they stay meaningful. In Sylus you can get an alert the moment a metric spikes or drops, by email or Slack.
Why didn’t my scheduled report arrive?
Start with the schedule’s run history or status, then work through the usual causes:
The data refresh failed, so the report didn’t run or ran with old data. Fix the refresh first.
The subscription was paused or disabled. Tools switch off subscriptions after repeated failures or sign-in problems: Tableau suspends a subscription after repeated failures, and Power BI can disable one after a password reset or authentication issue, according to Microsoft’s troubleshooting guide.
The recipient can’t see the data. Missing permissions or an expired licence can stop delivery or produce an empty report.
Spam filters or inbox rules caught the email. Check junk folders and allow the sender address the tool uses.
The attachment was too large. Email size limits can block big PDFs or images. Send a link or a short summary instead.
Time zone or timing. The report ran at the scheduled time in a different time zone, or before the day’s data load finished.
The subscription expired, or its owner left the company. Re-create it under an active owner.
If the report arrives but the numbers look wrong, check the filters and the time of the last data refresh.
What is the difference between a scheduled report and a live dashboard?
A live dashboard is always available and always current: people open it when they want to check something. A scheduled report comes to them at a set time with a fixed snapshot and, ideally, a short explanation. Many teams use both: a dashboard for monitoring and a scheduled report to make sure the key numbers are seen and discussed.
Frequently asked questions
What is a scheduled report?
A scheduled report is a saved report that runs automatically at set times, such as every Monday morning or the first day of each month, refreshes its data and delivers itself to a list of recipients by email or chat.
How do I send a report by email automatically?
Save the report, open its schedule or subscription settings, choose the frequency and time, add recipients who have access to the data, and pick a format such as a PDF or a link. Send a test first and check the first few deliveries.
What is a periodic report?
A periodic report summarises performance over a regular period, such as a week, month or quarter. It usually shows key metrics against target, comparisons with earlier periods, a short commentary and the actions that follow.
Can I get an alert when a metric changes?
Yes. Many reporting tools can send an alert by email or chat when a metric crosses a threshold or moves outside its normal range, so urgent changes don’t wait for the next scheduled report.
Why didn’t my scheduled report arrive?
The most common causes are a failed data refresh, recipients without permission to see the data, emails caught by spam filters or size limits, a paused or expired subscription, and time-zone mistakes. Check the schedule’s run history first.