Custom reports help turn Rocketlane data into insights you can act on. Create reports tailored to your team’s needs, track KPIs, monitor delivery health, and analyze profitability or engagement using data across projects, people, tasks, and time tracking.

In this article

• When to Use
• Create a Report
• Select the Report Type
• Select a Data Source
  • Projects
  • Tasks
  • People and Roles
  • Time tracking
• Data Source Map
• Build a Tabular report
• Build a Pivot Table Report
• Use Filters in Reports
• Add Cards, Charts, and Conditional Highlighting
• Export Reports
• Scheduled exports:
• Schedule a Report Export

When to Use

Custom reports are useful when tracking and analyzing:

• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Project progress and delivery trends
• Portfolio profitability and margins
• Team utilization and billable hours
• Customer engagement and operational health

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Note: To create custom reports, the user must have Create and Edit report permissions.

Create a Report

Creating a report follows six steps:

1. Select the report type: Tabular or Pivot table.
2. Select the data source (Projects, Tasks, People/Roles, Time tracking).
3. Select the fields to include.
4. Build the report table.
5. Add cards, charts, and conditional highlighting.
6. Save the report.

Select the Report Type

Choose between a tabular report and a pivot table based on how the data needs to be analyzed.

Select a Data Source

A data source defines the foundation of the report. Start by identifying the main theme of the report, then select the source that matches what the report is centered on.

Rocketlane provides pre-built data sources to simplify reporting:

Projects

Use Projects to analyze project-level outcomes and business impact, such as:

• Profitability
• Time-to-value
• Portfolio performance across regions or products

Tasks

Use Tasks when analysis needs task-level detail, such as:

• Billable tasks
• Overdue tasks
• Tasks grouped by billing type or status

People and Roles

Use People and Roles to understand team performance and utilization, such as:

• Utilization and billable utilization
• Billable hours and allocated hours
• Margins and productivity by role or user

Time tracking

Use Time tracking to understand where time is spent and how that impacts cost and profitability, such as:

• Tracked hours by category (meetings, migrations, configuration)
• Cost, profit, and margins by time entry category

Data Source Map

Data sources and fields are connected through relationships. The fields available in a report depend on the selected source and which related objects can be reached from it.

Identify the focus first

Before selecting fields, determine what the report is trying to measure:

• Projects and financial outcomes
• Task health and execution
• People performance and utilization

Understand People and Project connections

The link between people and projects is membership. Because membership is the connecting relationship:

• Project-based reports can show user fields such as username to reflect the members involved.
• People-based reports can show project name to reflect which projects users are associated with.

Example use cases:

• Add Username to a project report to understand margins or tracked time by user within projects.
• Add Project name to a people report to view utilization alongside project associations.

Build a Tabular report

Tabular reports display selected fields as columns and are best suited for listing records in detail.

Example: Create a task health report.

1. Click Create report.
2. Select Tabular.
3. Select Tasks as the data source.
4. Select the fields to include, for example:
   • Priority
   • Status
   • Type
5. Click Create.

Note: After adding fields, a time range filter appears. Adjust the time range to view data for a specific period.

Build a Pivot Table Report

Pivot reports are designed for analyzing trends and comparing metrics across multiple dimensions.

Example: Analyze financial contribution for projects.

1. Click Create report.
2. Select Pivot table.
3. Enter the report name.
4. Select Projects as the source.
5. Add values the pivot should represent, for example:
   • Margin
   • Actual cost
   • Actual revenue
6. Add fields for Rows, for example:
   • Region
7. Add fields for Columns, for example:
   • Project name

Note: Up to two fields can be added for rows and columns.

Tip: Pivot tables include a Time period option to view trends by week, month, or quarter.
 

Use Filters in Reports

Filters help narrow reports to specific segments and improve readability.

Examples of common filter use cases:

• Region-based reporting (EU vs NA vs APAC)
• Team-based reporting
• Product or service line breakdowns

Filters can also be saved as views so the same report can be reused for different segments.

Time period filter

A time range filter appears once fields are added. Adjust it to report on a specific time frame.

Add Cards, Charts, and Conditional Highlighting

Cards, charts, and conditional highlighting help communicate key insights visually. The selected data source remains consistent across tables, cards, and charts within the same report.

Add cards

1. Click Cards.
2. Enter a name for the card.
3. Select the field the card should display.
4. Set the unit (time or currency), and add a prefix if required.
5. Add filters to refine the metric.
6. Click Create.

Add charts

1. Click Charts.
2. Enter a name for the chart.
3. Select the chart type (column or line).
4. Select fields for the Y-axis, and choose an aggregation (SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE).
5. Select the field for the X-axis to group results (for example Username).
6. Add filters if needed.
7. Click Create.

Note: Grouping is not available when multiple fields are added to the Y-axis.

Add conditional highlighting

Conditional highlighting helps draw attention to values that require action.

Single color rules:

1. Click Conditional highlighting.
2. Select the field to highlight.
3. Select Single color.
4. Define the rule (for example billable utilization greater than 50%).
5. Select a color.
6. Click Create.
7. Create additional rules and reorder them as needed.

Multi color rules:

1. Click Conditional highlighting.
2. Select the field to highlight.
3. Select Multi color.
4. Select one of the following:
   • Smart highlight to automatically highlight maximum and minimum values
   • Custom highlight to define your own minimum and maximum values
5. Select a color palette.
6. Click Create.

Reorder the rules to ensure the most important highlights appear first.

Reminder: Utilize filters to examine a more detailed subset of data within your reports.

Export Reports

Reports can be shared externally either as a one-time export or through scheduled exports.

One-time export:

1. Open the report.
2. Click Share.
3. Select Export.

This exports the current view of the report as a CSV file.

Scheduled exports:

Scheduled exports deliver reports automatically on a defined cadence.

Scope

• Available only for custom reports (tabular and pivot).
• Supported formats:
  • PDF for cards and charts
  • CSV for tables
  • PDF + CSV to include both

Delivery and limits

• Files up to 5 MB are sent as email attachments.
• Larger files are delivered via a link that expires after 7 days.
• Each organization can have up to 10 active scheduled exports.

CSV size constraints

• Tabular reports are capped at 10,000 rows.
• Pivot reports are capped at 5,000 rows.
• For larger datasets, apply additional filters or surface key metrics using cards or charts.

Schedule a Report Export

1. Open the custom report.
2. Click Share.
3. Click Schedule export.

The Schedule report dialog includes:

Schedules remaining: Shows how many scheduled exports are still available for the organization (for example 10 of 10).

Basic info:

• Select a view: Choose which saved view to schedule.
  • If the report has only one view (Default View), this field appears greyed out.
• Repeats every: Set the frequency (for example every 1 week).
• On this day of the week: Select one or more days (Mon–Sun).
• Starts on / at / Time zone: Select the start date, time, and time zone.

Email recipient info: Send the export by email to Rocketlane users or external recipients.

• To: Select primary recipients.
• Add Cc: Add optional recipients.
• Email subject: Edit the email subject line.
• Email body: Add an optional message.

Report format

• CSV: Sends the table data as CSV.
• PDF: Sends cards and charts as PDF.
• CSV and PDF: Sends both.

PDF options are available only when the report contains cards or charts.

After entering the details, click Save. The scheduled export is created and the report is delivered automatically by email based on the configured cadence.