Getting Started with Custom Reporting

Projectworks now supports custom reporting through Metabase, allowing you to create, save, and share your own reports using live data from your environment. This gives you greater flexibility to answer specific business questions, analyze trends, and build dashboards tailored to your workflows.

This guide is designed to help both internal teams and clients get started with custom reporting, from basic concepts to building your own reports, and understanding the language used in data and reporting tools.

Why Custom Reporting Matters

Standard reports provide consistent, repeatable insights. But every organization has unique questions. Custom reporting helps you:

Track metrics that matter to your business
Visualize trends across clients, projects, and consultants
Build dashboards for leadership, finance, or operations
Reduce reliance on exported spreadsheets

If you've ever exported data from Projectworks to Excel to create a custom pivot table or chart, this feature is for you.

Understanding Reporting Concepts

Before diving into Metabase, it's important to understand the basic building blocks of a report. If you're used to Excel, many of these concepts will feel familiar.

Reporting Lingo: Translating Terms with Excel Analogies

Reporting Term	What It Means	Excel Analogy
Table	A collection of related data	An Excel worksheet (or structured table), e.g., `Time Entries`
Row	A single record in a table	One row in your spreadsheet e.g., a single time entry
Field (Column)	A specific piece of data for every row	A column like `Client`, `Consultant`, `Hours`, or `Date`
Filter	Limits which/what data you see	Using Excel’s Filter tool or applying formulas like `=IF()`
Group By	Buckets data by shared values	Creating row groups in a Pivot Table, like grouping by `Project`
Aggregate (Sum, Count, Avg)	Crunches data within a group	Functions like `SUM()`, `COUNT()`, `AVERAGE()` in a Pivot Table
Join	Combines data from multiple tables using a shared field	Using `VLOOKUP` or `XLOOKUP` to match fields from different sheets
Dashboard	A visual summary of key reports	A summary tab with charts, slicers, and key figures in Excel

Metabase Reports - a few key concepts

Metabase Reports are made up of data that is extracted from the Metabase database via a query. These queries are saved as Questions, which can be added to a Dashboard. A Dashboard is displayed as a Report that can be accessed via Projectworks.

Term	Definition	Reporting User Access Level required	Metabase report access required
Report	A Report is how a Dashboard is displayed in Projectworks. A User with access to a Report can see this in the Reports list when they navigate to the “Reports (Beta)” tab Tags can be added to a Report by Users who have the “Can Manage” Reporting User Level Access.	Can View	Must have: User Level Access to a Role with Access; OR Individual Access
Dashboard	Questions can saved to a Dashboard. Dashboards saved in the: Projectworks Collection; or Company Collection; are displayed in Projectworks as a Report. If no Questions are added to a Dashboard and you access the Report via Projectworks, the report will be empty. Filters can be added to a Dashboard, so that the Report can be filtered by the User accessing it. Access to Dashboards saved in the: Projectworks Collection; or Company Collection; can be shared with: Roles with Access (i.e. Projectworks' Access Levels); and/ or Individuals. Dashboards that are saved to “Your personal collection” are only visable to in “Your personal collection”	Can Edit	n/a
Question	A query on the Projectworks data is saved as a Question to form the basis of a Report in Projectworks. A Question: can be saved as a Question only; can be saved as a new Dashboard; or be added to an existing Dashboard. A saved Question can be used as the basis of an alternate Question. Questions saved to “Your personal collection” can only be accessed by you. Questions saved in the: Projectworks Collection; or Company Collection; can be accessed by other users who have the “Can Edit” Reporting User Level Access.	Can Edit	n/a
Visualization	The visual representation of a Question. This can be selected when a User is creating or editing a Question. If a User has access to a Dashboard, this is how the Question will be displayed in the Projectworks Report.	Can Edit	n/a
Collection	A Collection is how Questions and Dashboards are grouped. When you are creating a Question or Dashboard, you can save them to: “Your personal collection”, which keeps the Question and Dashboard private; or The Company Collection; The Projectworks Collection cannot be edited, but you can: Add a Question from the Projectworks Collection to a Dashboard; Use a Question from the Projectworks Collection as the basis of another Question.	Can Edit	n/a

Access Controls

Custom report access is controlled by Users Access Levels and Metabase report access

Users Access Levels access determines if users can see the:
- 'Reports (Beta)' tab - user has ‘Can View’ Reporting access
- ‘Manage Reports’ button - user has ‘Can Manage’ Reporting access, or
- ‘Create Reports’ button - user has ‘Can Edit’ Reporting access.
Metabase report access controls the specific Dashboards users can see either through
- their Role; or
- as an individual.

Users MUST have the ‘Can View’ permission to be able to have either ‘Can Manage’ and/or ‘Can Edit' permission

Individual permission trumps the Roles with Access permission; i.e if your User Access Level does not have access to a Report, you can be given individual access to the Report.

Users Access Levels is managed via Admin → Access Levels → Reporting

Metabase report access is managed via ‘Manage Reports’ via the ‘Reports (Beta)’ tab.

Navigate to the Reports (New) page;
Select “Manage Reports” button;
Select the three dot menu on any available Report;
Select “Manage” option;
A modal pop up that allows you to select Roles with Access (User Level Access) and individual users to be granted access to the report.