So, you wanna write Autotask Live Reports? Here’s how.
So, You Wanna Write Autotask Live Reports?
Here is your Road Map.
Greetings fellow Autotask Warriors and Gladiator Community Members! Welcome back. I so enjoy our weekly time here together, and I hope you do too.
I enjoy talking and working with you so much that I’ve decided to come back to the weekly Ask the Experts Calls on Thursdays and Fridays so I can directly answer your questions. If you’re a member of my Gladiator Community, you can get the link from there and come ask your questions live.
Anything about Autotask is fair game – even how to build these reports I talk about every week. We’ve also added a weekly blog thread so you can hop in and ask questions about the article you are reading now. No promises, but if you ask, my coaches might just show you how to build your workflow rules, get you the filters and sorts, and even help build those Live Reports.
Speaking of Autotask reporting…
…you’ve probably noticed that the built-in reports don’t always cut it for you. They are great to have, especially when starting out, but at some point in your MSP career, you need more information.
Info like:
Whether your Techs are putting in all their time
Or that they are entering hours in real-time
Or even (gasp)…that your Clients are profitable
While we do a lot of coaching and have multiple MSP programs, we also write a LOT of Autotask LiveReports. LiveReports is Autotask’s system for writing custom reports from their database.
How I sort our Autotask Reports
I have sorted our reports into “Standard” and “Advanced.”
The Standard ones are the ones I often talk about here as they provide needed information and aren’t too hard to write.
The Advanced ones can take 100 hours to write and give you very detailed information. Our newest will pull pretty much every metric you can think of and tell you how profitable your MSP is.
Why the history lesson? Because I have been getting more and more requests from MSPs to train their Team, so I am teaching a Bootcamp. And since I can’t fit all of you in the bootcamp, I thought we would take a break this week from telling you what Live Reports you need, to some guidance on how to actually write them.
Heads up: It takes a very long time to get good at this, and many MSPs prefer to just write us a check. So, if you don’t have immediate success, don’t panic. You’ll get there with a lot of time and patience.
Start With Autotask’s Video Training
I suggest you start first with the video training included in Autotask.
Head to the “hamburger” menu and go down to Reports.
From there, look for LiveReports and choose LiveReports Designer. (Note, you will need the appropriate permissions to access – see the Autotask help article “ADMIN: Configuring LiveReports access and security” for more information).
Now, you can see a list of existing reports in the left window and training resources in the right column.
The Creating a LiveReport document gives you the basics of writing reports, including some critical basics like what a filter is and how sorts work. You will also learn about Express and Standard reports. We always recommend starting with Express Reports and then converting to Standard. Over time, you may skip right to Standard, but starting with Express will make things a bit easier.
Once you have gone over how to create a Live Report, you need to read the document “LiveReports Concepts You Need to Understand.” There is a lot here. In short, these reports are about getting you the data you need.
There are very specific ways to pull that data and manipulate it. Knowing where and how to get the data is much of the battle of writing Live Reports. Bookmark that, as you will refer to it often. I would also suggest going through he “Data Field Dictionary.” Over time, you will find yourself referring to it less and less, but sometimes it can be very helpful when you are stuck.
Learn from Emma Barker, a Top Autotask Report Writer
Those of you who love YouTube, the suffering of documentation reading is over. With the basics in your brain, you can now start learning to write.
The videos have been moved behind the Kaseya paywall, so you’ll need to use your KaseyaOne or Autotask login once you click on “Training Videos.” The videos are located at Home->Help&Learning->Datto Training Resources. I strongly suggest searching for “PSA LiveReports Video Tutorial Series.”
The videos were recorded by Emma Barker who is one of the best Report Writers on the planet - so it’s well worth your time. Watch them in order and also open the accompanying Job Aid.
One of our team members watched each video once and then went back with the LiveReports Designer open and followed along, building each report along with Emma. He found it helped a lot. Once you have done that, look at the reports you have created. Can you see changes that would make them more useful in your business?
Do it!
Your Turn! Go Write Your Own Report…
Now it’s your turn to write something. Take a look in your MSP and see if there is some basic information that would be helpful. Perhaps you’d like a report on how much money Client A brings in vs what you spend? Or, you’d like to know what percentage of his 40 hours Bob the Tech is actually billing? The sea is endless here, so start small and work your way up.
I suggest opening up Excel and mapping everything out – the sorts, the filters, the layout, etc. Then use the mockup to create the report, starting with an Express Report and then converting to Standard.
Remember to refer back to the “LiveReports concepts you need to understand” article for help using the best data categories. I find “Billing Items” and “Service Desk” are my most used, with Resource Utilization a close 3rd.
Speed Pass à If you are a Gladiator Community Member you have access to report mockups and help from the Community and my LiveReport Writing Team. You can also ask questions on the Gladiator only calls Thursday and Friday.
Run it
If you haven’t already, read the help article “Running a LiveReport.” You need to know about the security requirements to run a report and the various ways you and your co-workers can run them. If you have just become the “LiveReports Guru” for your team, then you will likely just publish and schedule them (see below).
Schedule it!
Last part is to go back to the menu and read “Publish and Schedule LiveReports.” That will utilize the automation of Autotask to make your nice, spiffy report show up when you want it – usually every Monday, or the first Tuesday of each month. The automation is key and the Executive and Service Delivery Management Team will love you for it.
The End. Now what?
There you have it. That is the method I suggest most MSPs learn to write Live Reports. This is also how my Team does it, although we add dozens of hours of 1-on-1 mentoring from myself or an experienced Writer.
As mentioned above, this is a skill that takes hundreds, if not a thousand hours to get really good at. And, like any skill, you need to keep in practice. From time to time, we are looking for part time help and you can always email info@agmspcoaching to enquire about openings, our next LiveReports Boot Camp, or to buy a report from our expert team.
Until next time,
Steve & Co.