A monthly board report, emailed as a PDF

Build a printable report of last month's numbers, and have Halo email it to the board as a PDF on the same day every month.

A finance lead sends the board the same pack every month, built by hand from exports. Here it's one report, always current, that Halo prints and emails by itself.

The question

How did last month go, and how does that compare with last year? The board wants one document: the headline numbers, the trend, where it came from, and a line or two on what happened.

The data you need

One table of orders is enough, at one row per order or per day:

  • a date

  • revenue

  • orders

  • a region and a sales channel

Connect your database, or upload a file if the numbers live in a spreadsheet. Then run discovery so Halo knows what each column means.

The dataset

Build a dataset on the orders table, and name its fields for people: Revenue, Orders, Region, Channel, Order date. Add one calculated field the board always asks about:

Dividing by zero gives no value rather than an error, so this needs no guard.

If the source is slow or busy on the first of the month, give the dataset an extract that refreshes before the email goes out. See Extracts and caching.

The charts

Four charts cover it. Save each one, so the next report can reuse it.

The headline. A scorecard of revenue. In the chart editor, under Compare, pick Same period last year. Scorecards say by how much, and in which direction.

A scorecard with its comparison.

The trend. A line of revenue by month over two years, so seasonality doesn't read as news.

Where it came from. Revenue by region, largest first.

What moved it. A waterfall from last year's revenue to this year's.

Each step shows what added or took away from revenue.

Not sure which type suits your numbers? See Choosing a chart.

The report

  1. In Reports, press New report. Pick the Paged document layout: letter pages with margins, made to print.

  2. Place the scorecards and charts. See Layouts and pages.

  3. Add a date filter that defaults to last month, so each run shows the month that just ended.

    What last month means today. Your organization's calendar sets the fiscal year.

  4. Add text with the context a chart can't give. Text and images covers live values, so a sentence's numbers stay current.

  5. Choose Print in the report's … menu to check it on paper. Download PDF appears there once it's published. See Printing and PDFs.

  6. Publish it. Emails send the published version, as it is when each one goes, so your draft changes stay out until you publish them.

Halo AI can draft this report from a sentence if you'd like a start, then you adjust it in the editor.

Send it

  1. Open the published report, then Schedule email… in its … menu.

  2. Under Repeats, pick Monthly, on a weekday, then the first Monday, or Monthly, on a day. Set the time and Time zone. Halo shows the next runs, so you can check it.

  3. Add people:

    • Members and groups for people in Halo. A group such as Board keeps the list in one place. Members who can't open the report are skipped, and row policies apply to each person.

    • Other email addresses for directors outside Halo. They see what a public link shows, so datasets with row policies show them no rows. This needs the Share publicly permission.

  4. Under Send it as, keep PDF: the published report, every page, as it prints.

  5. Write a Subject and an optional Message, which goes above the report. Add a written summary has Halo AI open with a paragraph on what changed. Directors outside Halo get it only once someone approves it. See Written summary.

  6. Press Schedule it.

Email schedules in the same menu lists a report's schedules and how each last went. Send now sends one straight away, which is worth doing once to yourself first. Everything you've scheduled is also in Settings, Schedules. See Scheduled email for the rest.

How it reads each month

On the morning it's due, Halo renders the report with the filter on last month, as each member would see it, and sends the PDF. If a run fails, the schedule shows it, and you get a notification. There's no pack to build, and everyone gets the same numbers.

If directors need to go back and read what March said, publish it by period. Each month then becomes an edition, with its own permanent link and an archive to browse.