In many organisations, a report starts with an extraction. Data comes out of the software, gets pasted into a workbook, the formulas are rebuilt, the file is sent round. The table is right on the day it is produced; the following week it all has to be done again, and two versions of the same figure turn up at the review meeting.
AlibeeZ keeps the gesture and removes the extraction. You compose your table the way you would have in Excel, but inside the application, on its own figures. The panel above shows a report being built: margin by office.
What the panel shows
On the left, the tray of available columns. Four are already in the table: project, client, days spent, gross margin. Three are waiting to go in: remaining effort, daily rate, and “Clearance level”, badged as a custom field.
On the right, the “Margin by office” report, with its toolbar: filters, grouping, pivot table, chart. Projects are grouped by office:
| Office and project | Days | Margin |
|---|---|---|
| Lyon office | 210 | 29% |
| Aurora | 124 | 31% |
| Helios | 86 | 27% |
| Nantes office | 270 | 31% |
| Verso | 212 | 34% |
| Kepler | 58 | 19% |
| Total | 480 | 30% |
In the illustration, subtotals are computed from the rows, and a group’s margin is weighted by days: a small project does not count as much as a large one. Under the table, a chart shows margin by office. At the foot, the possible outputs (Excel, CSV, pin to the home screen) and one line that sums up the point: no export to re-run, the data is fresh every time it opens.
Composing a report
The panel is deliberately shown half-built, because that is where the feature lies: a report is not picked from a fixed list, it is assembled.
Columns
You pick the columns from the application’s data: days spent, remaining effort, gross margin, daily rate, and many more. Your own fields are among them. A field created from the admin area, such as the “Clearance level” described in the article on custom fields, appears in the tray just like the native columns.
Filters and groupings
Filters narrow the scope, groupings structure the table, like the grouping by office in the panel. To slice along your own axes, historised tags join the analysis, with one advantage: a report on a past period counts with the values of that period. The article on historised tags explains how.
Pivot table and chart
You cross-tabulate in a pivot table and pull out a chart. The chart is not a second source: it is the same figures as the table, shown differently, which is why they share one frame in the panel.
You do not have to start from a blank page: AlibeeZ also offers pre-configured reports, alongside configurable dashboards.
Figures read the moment you open the report
This is the difference from the workbook. An AlibeeZ report reads the application’s data the moment you open it. There is no gap between the report and reality, and nothing to refresh by hand.
That freshness comes from how the data is kept upstream. Indicators are recomputed on every entry: an hour booked, an expense approved or a contract amendment updates both forecast and actual, with no overnight batch to wait for. The report simply reads what is already right.
And because timesheets, invoices and margins all come from the same base, the figure in the report is the one used for invoicing too. There is no second version to reconcile.
What you do with a report next
- Export it to Excel or CSV, when the table has to go to someone who does not use AlibeeZ or feed another process.
- Pin it to the home screen, so the people who need it see it when they log in. The home screen has a space for your pinned reports, next to your alerts and announcements: the article on alerts and the home screen describes it.
- Automate its distribution, so it arrives without anyone having to produce it.
- Carry it on in your BI tool: if your finance team works in Power BI or Looker Studio, the automatic export sends the AlibeeZ data there (time, leave, staffing, projects, margins, invoicing, client exposure), with no monthly export and no second source.
A report shows, an alert warns. In the panel, Kepler stands at 19% margin; an alert on “margin below 20%” sent to management control means nobody has to wait for someone to open the table to notice.
What it changes
- tables composed by your own teams, with your columns and your axes, without asking the vendor;
- no more weekly extraction to re-run: the report is current when it opens;
- one number per question, from the base that also produces the invoicing;
- your custom fields and tags available like any other column.
Going further: the figures your reports read are explained in the article on margin and forecast and in the one on consumed effort. To decide which indicators to track, read the three key indicators for organisations.
Frequently asked questions
Are AlibeeZ reports up to date?
Yes. They read the application’s data the moment you open them, and indicators are recomputed on every entry. There is no gap between the report and reality, and no export to re-run.
Do we need AlibeeZ to create a report?
No. Reports are among the levers that are entirely yours: you pick the columns, filters and groupings, and cross-tabulate in a pivot table or a chart. Pre-configured reports are also available as a starting point.
Can a report be exported to Excel?
Yes, to Excel or CSV. You can also pin a report to the home screen, or feed Power BI and Looker Studio through the automatic export of AlibeeZ data.
Do custom fields show up in reports?
Yes. A field added from the admin area joins the available columns of the report builder, just like native data.