With the increased demand for data and reporting, reporting tools are critical in the workplace. I’ve compiled a list of the 22 best reporting tools for 2022, ranging from free and open-source to commercial and enterprise-scale, and covering professional enterprise reporting software; BI suites with reporting capabilities; marketing reporting platforms; financial reporting systems; and sales reporting tools. In this reporting tools list, I emphasised the merits, drawbacks, pricing, and appropriate users of these solutions. Finally, you may look at the comparison of various reporting tools. In addition, I prepared a checklist to help you select the best reporting tool.
The list is lengthy, so use the table of contents for a fast glance.
What are the tools for reporting?
Before we get into the evaluations, let’s go over some fundamental definitions of reporting tools.
Reporting tools enable you to extract and dynamically show data in the form of charts, tables, and other visualisations, allowing users to transform data into actionable information and uncover insights. In other words, reporting software may be viewed as having many styles of dynamic data.
It also lets you browse across the report’s many hierarchical and graphical features. With the press of a button, you may dive through multiple data levels in the generated dynamic reports. You may also explore, sort, filter, and examine the data according to your needs.
There are two sorts of reporting software in general.
The first is reporting software, which mostly deals with fixed reports. The IT department will first define the picking-number formula and arithmetic logic for constructing the fixed reports. The background includes information about difficult operations. At the forefront, businesspeople may browse, add, remove, or edit data on the web. It does not entail changing the report structure. In daily report development, the fixed report is the most prevalent. This reporting solution is appropriate for IT departments and reports developers in various departments.
Self-service reporting is another form of reporting tool that works as a function of BI tools. Businesspeople can drag fields to build reports that have no predetermined structure. It is capable of handling basic temporary queries. This reporting tool is appropriate for data analysts or business analysts. The addition of selfservice reporting has made people even more involved by giving decisionmakers the ability to make and change reports directly. This lets them move businesses forward while taking some of the pressure off developers and report developers.
Also Check: Top 10 Best Business Intelligence Tools & Software In 2022
Excel vs. Reporting Software
Excel reporting is still the most popular programme used by businesses to create reports. People who work with reports often know how hard it is to use Excel as a tool for making reports.
For starters, manually creating reports is error-prone and time-consuming. Second, detecting errors in Excel in real time is difficult. When the data is incorrect, the query in Excel takes a long time. However, using reporting tools, you can analyse the data easily by using simple queries and widgets. Finally, Excel spreadsheets are displayed in a limited number of ways. Even though Excel spreadsheets have gotten a lot better at some of their functions, they are still not as good as reporting tools.
Reporting Tools vs. BI Software
Many BI software packages have data reporting features. Many people mix up reporting software with business intelligence software, but they are not the same thing.
To summarise, a reporting tool is primarily used to present data, whereas a BI tool focuses on data analysis.
As previously stated, reporting tools are typically used by IT departments or report developers. They utilise reporting software to create reports, chart reports, electronic invoices, process sheets, receipts, and other documents. These display your previous and present state.
Business intelligence software is largely used by executives and data analysts. The essence of business intelligence software is “data plus business insight.” The ‘data’ component is similar to the reporting software in that it involves statistics and data display. “Business knowledge” entails doing in-depth data analysis and smart data forecasting using BI capabilities like OLAP analysis, data mining, and so on. It explains why the stats are as they are and how to enhance performance in the future.
However, when it comes to reporting, BI software falls short in terms of the variety of report types, graphic diversity, and print function.
As an example, see FineReport. FineReport delivers three reports as reporting software: General Report, Aggregation Report, and Dashboard. The aggregate report, for example, allows users to generate irregular reports by dragging and dropping aggregating chunks. Users may also export or print the reports in a variety of formats, including Excel, Word, and PDF. These features distinguish reporting tools in the reporting industry.
22 Best Reporting Tools For The Small Business (2022)
Here are some of the best reporting tools for your business to try in 2022.
#1. Izenda
Izenda is an analytics reporting solution that is built into apps or portals and lets end users create reports on their own.
From within their apps, users can create charts and grids, apply filters, and integrate drill-downs. Its drag-and-drop interface also makes it simple to generate ad-hoc reports, dashboards, and visualisations.
Izenda also allows a smooth interaction with Ruby, Python, Java,.NET, PHP, and other applications owing to its 3-tier embedded design with an open source front end. The main limitation is that you need to know a lot about SQL to make complex reports and dashboards.
#2. Crystal Reports
SAP Crystal Reports is a SQL-based on-premise reporting solution. Its pixel reporting skills are flawless. The system works perfectly and gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to customising reports.
The programme supports hundreds of source connections, allowing you to create reports from everywhere-big data, Excel, XML, Salesforce data, and so on.
If you have foreign branches that require reporting in languages other than English, Crystal Reports should be on your radar because it offers output in over a dozen formats and 28 languages.
To create visually appealing reports, however, a proprietary language and technological expertise are required. Furthermore, reports claim that it frequently crashes following a software update.
#3. FineReport
FineReport is a 100% Java reporting solution created for organisations to deal with the needs for different, frequent, and sophisticated reports. Basic features such as comprehensive database support, report scheduling, different exporting formats, and security guarantees meet the demands of the organisation. Non-technical users will like the low-code and excel-like designer.
When compared to other reporting tools, the most impressive feature is data input capabilities for writing data back to the database using web forms. Collecting new data from several divisions or departments saves time in this manner.
Furthermore, FineReport, being an enterprise-scale reporting software, has powerful APIs for customising and connecting with other applications. As a result, it is adaptable enough to interact with third-party systems such as CRM, OA, ERP, and so on.
Furthermore, the data visualisation package provides a wide range of visualisation possibilities, including 3D charts, maps, GIS linkages, and dashboards.
Some of the best things about it are how easy it is to use, how simple it is to enter data, how many APIs it has, and how it looks on mobile devices and dashboards.
#4. JasperReports
The JasperReports Library is a Java-based open-source reporting solution. Because this reporting engine is developed purely in Java, it may be integrated into any Java application.
You may run JasperReports solo or add it to the classpath of your app to make it part of the hosting application.
JasperReports is great for sharing because it lets you export files in 10 different formats, such as PDF, Excel, and HTML for fully interactive web content. It also offers printing and automated reporting through email.
However, because it is open-source software, the learning curve for non-technical users is steep, and some functionalities are not obvious. Another downside is that it can only be integrated into Java programmes, and integration is time-consuming.
#5. Tableau
Tableau is the most popular BI application, with excellent visualisation and reporting features.
It has a strong visualisation engine and an easy-to-use interface for swiftly transforming data into visually appealing charts, reports, and dashboards. Furthermore, the programme gives users hundreds of graphical modification possibilities and interaction approaches.
Tableau also has a vibrant community and a forum where you can find a wealth of tutorials, instructions, and tips. The sole advantage is that the cost is exorbitant and the flexibility is so limited that it is impossible to adapt or integrate into a company’s IT infrastructure.
#6. Cumul.io
Cumul.io is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for making reports and dashboards for your own software or a client site.
It is an excellent choice for SaaS and corporate firms that value data-driven insights but do not want to waste time creating a dashboard component from scratch.
The ease of use and short learning curve allowed non-technical individuals to dive immediately into data visualisation. Cumul.io, being a SaaS reporting solution, also provides connections to cloud data like Google Drive and apps like Google Analytics, Mailchimp, Salesforce, and Teamleader. The visual aspects, on the other hand, may be improved.
#7. BOARD
BOARD is a self-service reporting platform that combines BI and reporting technologies into a single system.
The main idea behind this programme is that it is all-in-one and provides a single architecture for BI, reporting, analytics, and performance management. Also, the “ALL IN ONE” design means you don’t need another tool to set up your CPM environment.
BOARD has a wide range of data input options, and its ability to “slice and dice” data and analyse various datasets is strong. Furthermore, owing to the NLR and NLG technologies, you may get reports in spoken language.
#8. Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a cutting-edge business intelligence (BI) and data reporting platform that blends visualisation, machine learning, and collaboration. It is outstanding in its narrative powers, which allow readers to drill down into the details and go behind the numbers to make better decisions.
Yellowfin Signals uses automated AI-driven methodologies to detect and transmit automatic warnings regarding significant signal changes in the organisation.
As a reporting tool, the Yellowfin Story and Present function lets building management and financial reports and presentations come from the same place.
However, it does not enable interfacing with multiple systems like Quickbooks or SAP, and the only supported language is English.
#9. Sisense
Sisense is a great choice if you want a way to report on big data that uses machine learning and has tools for automating tasks.
Sisense is a flexible corporate analytics platform that offers complete reporting options. It provides end customers with the information they require through real-time reporting.
On that topic, Sisense’s in-chip design reduces the time required for data intake, cleaning, and report production. It also provides Visual ETL and UI for data linkages and ETL modelling.
Sisense may be installed in a private cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid configuration utilising Windows or Linux. The deployment procedure is simple and quick.
However, assessments indicate that certain undiscovered flaws exist in widgets, dashboards, and filters. Moreover, Cube’s management rationale is getting antiquated. It requires a redesign, new languages, and a more robust, fault-tolerant incremental build system.
#10. Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a SaaS business intelligence platform that includes one of the most effective reporting modules available. Zoho Reports is the former.
The programme is best suited for non-technologists. Its user-friendly design makes it exceedingly simple to produce reports from any data.
Zoho Analytics provides AI, ML, and NLP technologies for augmented analytics dubbed Zia, which allows users to extract data by just asking a question.
It also offers 500+ out-of-the-box connectors for your company’s tools, such as prominent marketing, finance, and e-commerce analytics software. Furthermore, data may be imported from databases even when they are behind firewalls.
The disadvantages are that there is a restriction on the number of email addresses that may be used while scheduling reports, and the changes are not adequately defined.
#11. Agency Analytics
Agency Analytics is a marketing campaign-focused report generator that generates several sorts of reports and dashboards for SEO audits and campaign monitoring. It focuses on assisting digital marketing businesses in creating automated reports for their clients.
Because AgencyAnalytics integrates with over 50 marketing platforms, You may combine many campaigns from different channels to obtain a complete picture.
Furthermore, your marketing team may use its SEO tracking tools, such as rank tracking, site audits, and backlinks, to create SEO reports.
Finally, Agency Analytics’ system allows you to submit your logo, use your brand’s colour palette, and use your own domain. It is simple to create customer-facing reports. However, the backlinks of rivals are not shown in the backlink area.
#12. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the best web-based reporting tools for keeping track of what users do in digital marketing.
The basic version is free, but it is capable of tracking campaign performance metrics such as traffic acquisitions, referrals, and user interactions. As a result, you can make rapid changes to your content or channel strategy based on real-time data.
It’s simple to set up as long as you have backend access to your website. And the UI is simple enough for non-tech people to get the most out of this platform.
You may also export traffic reports to Excel, PDF, and Google Sheets. Set up a scheduled email to distribute the reports to your staff or clients.
Furthermore, the Analytics Intelligence tool alerts you to information that you might overlook. For example, if your web page takes a long time to load, Google Analytics will notify you so that you may optimise your website.
#13. Supermetrics
Supermetrics is a cloud-based reporting solution for digital marketers that deals with marketing data for PPC, SEO, social, and web analytics.
With cross-platform reporting tools, you can analyse traffic, conversion rate, and CPC across campaigns on a single dashboard.
The most striking Supermetrics function is automation. It is constantly scrubbing each linked marketing platform to pull in real-time data. Depending on your requirements, you may email your reports weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
As a result, you do not need to examine the platform. All you have to do is schedule reports to be gathered, filtered, and delivered to your mailbox. Supermetrics’ flaws are a lack of storage and scalability.
#14. TapReports
TapClicks provides a suite of marketing data tools that automate and expedite the marketing process. TapReports is a part of the TapClicks package that focuses on reporting tasks. It helps agencies keep in touch with their clients and give them custom marketing reports.
TapReports has more than 100 data connections that can quickly pull in data without the help of a support team or an IT consultant. This makes it possible for customers to get aggregated marketing data and visual reports for all channels in a short amount of time.
TapReports also provides an online workspace for numerous users to interact and work on campaigns together. Clients or the marketing team may offer input and comments at the same time, assisting with a campaign organisation. TapReports is a great choice if you want to use tools to make reports automatically for digital marketing.
#15. Host Analytics
Host Analytics is a cloud-based financial planning and analysis tool that can be used, among other things, for budgeting, planning, reporting, and forecasting.
Host Analytics has a lot of formatting options that make it easy to make financial and management reports that look good in presentations.
Also, the ad-hoc analysis in Host Analytics is flexible; you can dig deeper into the data with a point-and-click to get more detailed insights. Once the reports are prepared in Excel, they are available from anywhere.
Don’t be concerned about data security. The programme provides data confidentiality, integrity, and a comprehensive audit trail by depending on the Planful platform. Modelling and PCR must collaborate to achieve accurate, up-to-date reporting.
#16. DashThis
When compared to other marketing reporting tools, Dash focuses on data visualisation. This programme provides nine widget chart styles and sophisticated widget customization, in addition to unique URLs and a totally customizable white-label dashboard, to produce appealing dashboards and reports that appear as if you designed them yourself.
You may also use the 50+ pre-built dashboard themes to expedite your reporting. Just pick a template, choose how often you want to report (monthly, quarterly, etc.), put in your data, and you’re ready to go! Like its competitors, DashThis lets you connect to a wide range of platforms, such as Instagram, Ahrefs, Moz, and others.
#17. Prophix Software
When you add more business people to the reporting process, you’ll need the right tools to get useful information from the data.
Prophix is a financial management system that is used for budgeting, analysis, planning, and management reporting. It may be used in the cloud as well as on-premises.
Prohix’s performance reporting tools help you increase productivity and cooperation, improve efficiency, and make better decisions.
The solution has an interface that looks like a spreadsheet and lets users look at and organise financial data.
Prohix Software is more collaborative than other financial reporting systems. You can improve your reports by adding cell comments, line item details, and row notes to add the important information your business needs to succeed.
#18. insightsoftware
With flexible, real-time, drillable reporting, insight software gives finance-owned solutions that include a reporting tool to speed up time-sensitive procedures and find and fix errors quickly.
It also lets you drag and drop the data you want to study into powerful business intelligence dashboards in Excel.
Instead of spending hours copying and pasting financial data into Excel, insight software connects directly to your backend ERP and EPM software systems. Because of this, out-of-the-box financial reporting software solutions are easy to use and set up, and you may be able to get quick access to correct data in just a few hours.
It also lets you filter on a lot more data and drag other fields into the report to address typical queries like revenue trends, vendor expenditure, Capex spending, daily cash flow tracking, weekly forecasts, and so on.
#19. Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct is a financial management and accounting reporting software that is based in the cloud and can be used to analyse and report on finances in real-time.
Sage Intacct’s financial reports let you quickly slice and dice the information that is important to investors, executives, sales, finance, and other departments.
When questions come up, you can use custom reports, dashboards, or visualisations to dig deeper into the data and find answers that will help you make decisions with confidence.
Furthermore, Sage Intacct’s revolutionary general ledger captures the business context of your transactions, operational metrics, and budgets across 10 dimensions. You may rapidly view or generate reports that monitor real-time company performance by business drivers in this manner, without having to manage a complex account chart.
#20. Quickbooks
Quickbooks is accounting and report-writing software that assists small and large businesses in managing costs, projects, invoices, reports, and other data.
In terms of reporting, Quickbooks has 200+ built-in templates for modifying, where you may apply filters, add or move data points, or add custom fields to save time when generating financial reports like balance sheets, cash flow statements, and profit and loss statements.
#21. Datahug (SAP Sales Cloud)
Datahug, in more detail, is a sales CRM with reporting capabilities. Datahug connects several sales operations by automating multiple laborious procedures. It may significantly boost productivity by gathering and evaluating data.
Gmail, for example, may be utilised as a software reporting component. Datahug collects information like open email rates to assist the team in identifying potentially interested audiences. It gives sales managers a full picture of how well sales are going and how well each salesperson is doing.
#22. Aviso
Aviso is a comprehensive sales management software with AI capabilities. It provides an easy-to-use interface for managing all of your pipelines.
Aviso serves leaders, managers, and salespeople by merging technologies like the cloud, machine learning, and data science to provide proactive guidance and predictions.
The fundamental trends of the sales trend, funnel, and profit and loss will be highlighted in Aviso’s reporting. To better manage the customer base, the operation team may better grasp customer relationship intelligence. And the sales manager may keep track of each sales representative’s activity in real time.
FAQs
Why do reporting tools exist?
Reporting tools are software programmes that assist firms in tracking, measuring, and analysing data. Reporting tools, for example, may be used to track sales data, consumer behaviour, financial performance, and more. They can also be used to produce reports for distribution to decision-makers.
Is Excel a reporting tool?
Excel is an excellent data management and analysis tool, but it is ineffective as a reporting tool. Connecting Excel to a reporting software like Databox allows you to build efficient reports utilising your Excel data and any other tools your team utilises.
What is an HR reporting tool?
HR reporting software is a one-stop shop for actionable data on HR operations. Using an HR reporting system, you can make reports on many different parts of your employees’ profiles, your recruiting efforts, their availability and time off, and much more.
Is Jira a reporting tool?
JIRA provides reporting in a variety of forms. project reports that can be accessed from the selected project’s home screen, Gadgets can be added and grouped into dashboards, and for each filter, the issue navigator provides a variety of output formats that can be used in third-party reporting tools.