In any business intelligence, Reporting is an introduction part that focus on visualizing the data with the different formats like graphs, tables, charts etc. Visualizations within the context of reporting are a graphical representation of data, the goal of which is to accurately present information in a form that is digestible to end users. Unlike in the past, visualizations are created for the reason of reporting were static, means data can’t be operated on the visualization itself. As the needs of business have changed over time, so reporting has too evolved. In this fast changing business cycles today, the more and more interactivity has become essential to take fast decisions.

Data manipulation, such as drilling down to different semantic layers of data, slicing and dicing of information through sorting and filtering, and a vast array of others, which in the past was reserved only for technically experienced data analysts and scientists, can now be put in the hands of non-technical end users either through an external tool or within an application itself.

In recent years, end user interactivity has been taken a step further with adhoc reporting. Adhoc reporting allows end users to create reports from scratch as well as further edit and manipulate pre-built or canned reports. The ability to create, edit and save reports for future use has empowered end users more than ever before allowing for quicker visualization of pertinent business data.

More advanced reporting systems allow for paginated reports, pixel perfect reports, as well as a variety of delivery methods meant to make development teams and administrative staff’s life easier. Paginated reports are reports that are separated into different pages allowing them to be easily printed. Pixel perfect reports are reports where each individual element of the report can be customized down to the pixel level in both size and location and are often used for situations which require detail perfect reports such as tax or regulatory documents.

Another large part of reporting is the ability to deliver reports in a variety of different formats, such as the ability to export to .pdf, .csv or excel, send via email, or upload to FTP as well as many others. The ability schedule reports to run at a given time or time period is also an important feature which allows teams to run and send reports without manual creation or intervention. Report bursting is another essential feature of enterprise reporting where a single report can be sent to multiple users with different levels of data permission allowing them to receive a report customized to the data they need to are allowed to see, this saves the time and energy needed to create individual reports for every person with a different permission set.