Scheduling reports for automatic distribution


 

Reports are the PDF, CSV, or XLS snapshots of dashboards. As a tenant administrator or editor, set up a schedule to send reports to external or internal email addresses. By scheduling the reports, the tenant administrators can make sure that the reports are sent automatically to the appropriate set of recipients by the scheduled time. The recipients can evaluate the data in the reports and take corrective actions.

Important

The default format for dashboard reports is PDF, but you can also generate reports in CSV or XLS formats.

  • In the PDF report, you will see a snapshot of the dashboard as it appears in the portal. If you want to see the complete data of a panel, you must resize the panel to display the required data. 
  • You can use the CSV format only for table-type panels in a dashboard. If a dashboard contains multiple panels with only a few table-type panels amongst them, the CSV report is created only for the table-type panels in the dashboard. If a dashboard contains no table-type panels, the CSV report is not created. In this case, the scheduled email is sent without the report attachment. To avoid this scenario, send a test email while scheduling the report to ensure that the recipients receive the attachment.
  • You can use the XLS format for all types of dashboard panels, such as table-type, charts, and so on. Each dashboard panel is exported as a separate tab in the XLS report.

On the BMC Helix Dashboards home page, use the Scheduled Reports page to create report schedules.

Scenario

 

Susan is a Service Desk Manager in an organization that provides enterprise monitoring software. Susan's responsibilities include sending out incident assignment reports to the internal and external stakeholders of their software. Her company uses BMC Helix Dashboards to create dashboards that provide insight about all performance parameters of their software. Susan uses the report scheduling feature of BMC Helix Dashboards to send the dashboard reports to all stakeholders on a schedule. The stakeholders can analyze the incident monitoring reports and take corrective actions for the performance metrics. With this feature, Susan can perform the following tasks:

  • Create a PDF, CSV or XLS report of her dashboards. 
  • Create a schedule for the report to be sent to the stakeholders.
  • Add or update the list of the stakeholders who would receive the report.
  • Limit the number of recipients of scheduled reports. 

Susan can also send a test email to a few recipients to verify that the report is sent correctly.

By default, each licensed account can configure up to 1000 schedules per tenant. However, the trial accounts can only configure up to 100 schedules per tenant. 

You can also configure the formats of reports to be shared. For more information, see To configure variable for supported report formats.

Scheduling reports through email

While creating a report schedule, specify the email addresses of recipients to whom you want to send the report. You can select either static or dynamic recipients.
Static recipients: Add or select recipient email addresses manually.
Dynamic recipients: Reuse the recipient email addresses that are already defined in another dashboard.

Before you begin

Make sure that the dashboard from where you want to fetch the recipient email addresses meets the following prerequisites:

  • The dashboard from where you want to fetch the list is tagged with Dynamic Recipients. For more information, see the To add descriptions and tags to dashboards section in Configuring dashboards with additional customizations.
  • The dashboard must be configured with the Table or BMC Table visualization. The first column of the table must include the recipients' email addresses.
  • Make sure that you are an administrator or have the Report scheduler and Dynamic recipients permissions. For more information, see Roles and permissions.

To schedule reports through email

Refer to the following video (5.12) to see how you can schedule reports through email:

icon_play.png https://youtu.be/EqBlc90lKgM

  1. From the navigation menu,​​​ click Report Scheduler > New scheduled report.
  2. Enter the name and the description of the report. Select a dashboard that you want to use for the report.
  3. Specify any of the following types for generating the report: PDF, CSV, XLSX, or HTML.
    The default is PDF.
  4. Select the schedule type as Email.
  5. Under Mail Settings, select Static recipients or Dynamic recipients.
  6.  Based on the option you select, perform one of the following steps:
    • To send a report schedule to static recipients:
      1. From the Recipients list, select the recipients or add new recipients.
      2. From the BCC Recipients list, select the recipients or add new recipients to whom you want to send the report without disclosing their email addresses to other recipients.Screenshot 2025-07-09 130653.png
        Important
        • If you delete a user in BMC Helix Portal, the email address of the user is removed from the recipient list.
        • The Recipients and BCC Recipients lists do not display the email addresses of the users who were removed from the BMC Helix Portal.
        ​​​​​​
  7. To send the report to dynamic recipients:
    1. From the List of recipients field, select Dynamic recipients. 
    2. (Optional) Enable the Send as BCC toggle to send the report to dynamic recipients without disclosing their email addresses to other recipients.
    3. From the Recipient dashboard(View dashboard) list, select the required dashboard.Screenshot 2025-07-08 162440.png
      Important
      • The maximum limit of dynamic recipients is 100. 
      • Email domain checks are applicable for the dynamic recipients schedule.
  8. ​​​Add the subject and the custom message for your email.

  9. Specify whether you want to compress the report to be shared (in the CSV or XLSX format) as an email attachment. The maximum permissible attachment size is 30 MB. By default, compression is enabled for CSV files and disabled for XLSX files.
  10. In Filter Settings, configure the following options:
    • Select the time range. For example, filter the data in the dashboard by days, months, year, fiscal quarter, fiscal year, previous week, previous month, and so on.
    • Select variables to add data into the subject and message body of the email. You can either select the default variable or create your own custom variables.
  11. Select the orientation and the layout for the PDF report.
    These options appear only when PDF is selected as the report type.
  12. In Schedule, configure the following options:
    ​​​​

    • Time zone
    • Frequency of the schedule
    • Time to send out the report
      • Weekdays
      • At specific hours
      • At specific minutes
    • Append date to the report file
    • Append time to the report file.
      The date and timestamps are appended to the report file name in the following format: <filename><MM-DD-YYY> <HH:mm:ss>. For example, Event data report 10-18-2022 17-43-25.pdf. 
      Do not send empty reports.
      Select this check box to send out reports only when they contain data.
  13. Save the report schedule. 

 

To schedule reports through FTP or SFTP server

Refer to the following video (2.53) to see how you can schedule reports through FTP or SFTP server:

icon_play.png https://youtu.be/e4fq46yFIaQ

  1. From the navigation menu menu_icon.png, click Report scheduler.
  2. Click New scheduled report.
  3. Enter the name and the description of the report.
  4. Select a dashboard for which you will receive the report.
  5. Specify any one of the following types to be used for generating the report: PDF, CSV, and XLSX. The default is PDF.
    The HTML report type is not supported for scheduling reports through FTP.
  6. Select FTP as the Schedule Type.
    Based on the Schedule Type selected, you can send the report either through an email or by FTP. By default, the reports are sent to the recipients by email.
  7. Enter the location of the FTP Server Directory.
  8. Select the required server from the FTP Servers listed.
    The FTP configured as the default in Settings appears readily. The default option is zipped for CSV and individual for XLSX.

    Important

    Before sharing reports through FTP or SFTP servers, you must configure the FTP or SFTP server:

    1. On the Scheduled Reports page, click Settings tab.
    2. Under FTP connections, click New FTP connection.
    3. Select the Protocol and specify the Server, Port, User, and Password.
    4. Click Submit.
    5. (Optional) To add a new FTP configuration, click New FTP connection.
      A maximum of 20 configurations can be added.
  9. (Optional) From the FTP connections listed, click Actions image-2024-5-24_17-56-36.pngand select the option as required:
    • To set an FTP as default, click Set as default.

      Important

      • When you configure multiple FTP connections, the FTP connection you configured first is set as the default.
      • All existing report schedules are automatically mapped to the default FTP server. You must change the default FTP server to the applicable server if required.
      • While you are creating or updating a report schedule, the report schedule is mapped to the selected FTP server.
    • To edit the FTP, click Edit.
    • To delete the FTP, click Delete.
       
  10. In Filter Settings, configure the following options:
    • Select the time range. 
      For example, filter the data in the dashboard by days, months, year, fiscal quarter, fiscal year, previous week, previous month, and so on.
    • Select variables to add data into the subject and message body of the email.
      You can either select the default variable or create your own custom variables.
  11. Select the orientation and the layout for the PDF report.
    The orientation options are only visible when PDF is selected as the report type.
  12. In Schedule, configure the following options:
    • Time zone
    • Frequency of the schedule
    • Time to send out the report
      • Weekdays
      • At specific hours
      • At specific minutes
    • Append date to the report file
    • Append time to the report file.
      The date and time stamps are appended to the report file name in the following format: <filename><MM-DD-YYY> <HH:mm:ss>For example, Event data report 10-18-2022 17-43-25.pdf.
    • Do not send empty reports
      Select this check box to send out reports only when they contain data.
  13. Save the report schedule. 

 

To monitor and manage report schedules

Refer to the following video (2.29) to learn how you can monitor and manage report schedules.

icon_play.pnghttp://youtube.com/watch?v=pFgeC-60gOM

As a tenant administrator, use the report schedule administration console to monitor and manage the scheduled reports in your account.

  1. From the navigation menu menu_icon.png, click Report Scheduler.
  2. Click History.
    The scheduled reports are listed by the name of dashboards. You can sort them alphabetically, by the state of the report, and the report type.
  3. From the list of scheduled reports, select the appropriate report folder.
  4. From the list, select a preconfigured report.
    An overview of the report is displayed. For example, the report ID, the creator, the last run, its next run, and so on.
    You can perform the following actions:
    • Edit a report
    • Delete a report
      When you click Delete, the Delete Schedule Reports window displays the number of selected reports that will be deleted. To confirm deletion, type Delete in the entry field.
    • Download the report
    • View and edit the dashboard for which the report has been scheduled
    • Run the report before its next scheduled run
    • Disable the report
    • View the last 10 run schedules
      RS_success.png

      If a scheduled report is empty and you have disabled the run for empty reports, the run is skipped, and the failure reason is displayed:

      RS_skipped.png

Important

  • A tenant administrator can view, delete, re-run, and disable the reports created by other users. The tenant administrator can also view the schedule history of all the reports.
  • If you delete a user in BMC Helix Portal, all the report schedules created by the user remain active, but with no data in them.

Alternatively, a tenant administrator can access an overview of the report schedule from the report scheduler home page.

  1. Hover over the Report scheduler icon and select History.
  2. From the list of scheduled reports, select the appropriate report folder.
  3. Click View more info view_more_info_22_4_01.png to see the overview of the report schedule: 
    • Created by
    • Created at
    • Updated at
    • Last run time
    • Next run time

To change the ownership of a report schedule

As an administrator or user with report management permissions, transfer the ownership of a report schedule to another user. This ownership transfer from the existing user is useful in the following scenarios:

  • The user no longer works in the organization.
  • The role of the user is changed.
Important

The new owner must have the report access.

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Report Scheduler and then click Manage Ownership.
  2. (For Managed Service Provider users only) From the Company/Organization list, select the organization that contains the report schedule for which you want to transfer the ownership.
    Screenshot 2025-06-25 133535.png


    Unassigned indicates the report schedules that do not have an owner.

     
  3. From the Current Owner list, select the existing report owner.
    The current owner owns all the displayed reports.
  4. From the New Owner list, select the user to whom you want to transfer the report schedule ownership.
  5. Select the reports you want to reassign to the new owner.
  6. Click Reassign.
    Screenshot 2025-06-25 134630.png

    ​​​​

    A confirmation message appears, indicating that the reassigned report schedules will be based on the data permissions of the new owner.

  7. Click Reassign

To download a report

As a tenant administrator or an editor, download the report copies in the same format as was used during scheduling the automatic distribution. You can download a copy of the report before the automatic distribution is run

  1. Hover over the Report scheduler icon and select History.
  2. Select the appropriate report folder from the list of scheduled reports.
  3. From the list, select a preconfigured report.
  4. Click Download to save a copy of the last run.
    The Download button is enabled only after the first run of the schedule.
  5. If you want to download the last 10 schedule runs, click Show last ten schedules, and click the Download download_report_copy_22_4.png icon next to each run.
    The report will be downloaded on your computer.

    Important

    You can download reports for last ten schedules only. 

 

 

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