A reporting automation checklist asks whether the figures, definitions, owners and review behind one management report are firm enough to hand to a scheduled build. The eight checks below fall into four groups. For each one, you write down what you found before you give it a mark. The marks describe only the past periods you looked at in this one report, and nothing wider. Think of it as a readiness look at a single report before any talk of reporting automation or tools. For the larger goal, Signisys keeps a use-case page on reports built without hand work.
Last reviewed 2026-11-02 by Manish Sharma.
Reporting Automation Checklist: The Report Under Test
You mark one report of your own here, and nobody audits it. Three words need a plain meaning first, and the checks then mean the same thing to all readers.
A management report is the pack the firm’s managers read each period. By metric, this page means any figure with a name on that report, such as a monthly total. A source is the place where a figure first lands, whether that is a system, a spreadsheet or a paper form.
The checks sit in four groups. That grouping is a Signisys working method, and it is not a published standard. Each group then settles one question with two checks.
Before you start marking, gather your notes for one or two past periods of the report.
Reporting Automation Checklist: No Dated Note, No Clear
Start from the note. A check with no dated note in the file can reach Snagged and no higher. Signisys uses the three marks below as a working method on one report at a time.
Clear (2): you found the item, it passed the test in each sampled period, and the note records that with a date. Snagged (1): you found the item, but it passed the test in only part of the sample, or it passed with nothing written down. Halted (0): you could not find the item, or it failed the test.
Choose one or two past periods as the sample, and write them at the top of the sheet. Periods outside the sample stay unmarked; assume nothing about them.
With eight checks, the top total is 16. If this report gives a check nothing to look at, write N/A beside it with a one-line reason, and mark the other seven out of 14. This page names no target total and draws no bands, as a score on one report says little about another.
Where Do the Figures Start Out?
The first group asks where each figure first lands, and how it travels from there into the pack today.
| Check | What the owner shows | Marked Clear if |
|---|---|---|
| Check 1: A named source for each figure | The list of figures, with the system, spreadsheet or paper form behind each one | The owner has named a source for each figure, and a colleague has found one value in each source and dated the note |
| Check 2: No figure held on one person’s computer | A short note of how each figure reaches the report today | The owner’s note shows that no figure rests on a private file, or that a written route moves each such file to a shared place |
A figure can live in two systems at once, such as a headcount kept by both HR and payroll. Deciding which copy to trust is a separate job, covered at data from separate systems in one view. For check 1, note which system you took the figure from, and move on.
Does Each Metric Mean One Thing?
The second group asks whether the people who read each metric agree on one meaning for it, and whether someone else could produce it.
| Check | What the owner shows | Marked Clear if |
|---|---|---|
| Check 3: One written definition per metric | A sentence for each metric stating what it counts and over what period | The manager who reads the metric has agreed its sentence, and the note gives the date |
| Check 4: A rebuild by a colleague | The hand steps from source to metric | A colleague who has not built the report follows the steps, reaches the same value and dates the note |
Check 4 is the harder test of the two. If only the builder can follow the steps, a scheduled build would carry the same gap forward, and the gap might go unnoticed until the builder left. A longer look at how such a gap can hold up the work is in the stages a pack passes through before it is sent.
Whose Name Goes on the Report?
The third group asks who owns the report, and who tells that owner before a source changes.
| Check | What the owner shows | Marked Clear if |
|---|---|---|
| Check 5: A named report owner | The owner’s name, shown where readers see it | The owner can say who reads the report and which decision it supports |
| Check 6: A contact for each source | The list of sources, each with a named contact | Someone from another team has asked each contact how news of a change would reach the report owner |
Public guidance for analysts points the same way. The Analysis Function’s guidance for government analysts asks for an audit trail kept with version control software and for any manual step that cannot be avoided to be documented. The page carries no date; the read date here is 2 November 2026. For check 6, that record matters. A source contact who can see each hand step may be better placed to judge how a change would land on the report.
Is Anyone Reviewing the Report Before It Goes Out?
The last group asks whether someone looks the report over before managers see it, and whether readers know what to expect and when.
| Check | What the owner shows | Marked Clear if |
|---|---|---|
| Check 7: A written review step | What the reviewer compares, and against what | The reviewer is someone other than the builder, and the step names the figures compared |
| Check 8: A delivery note | The readers, the due date, the format and the person to tell when a run is late | Each reader on the list confirms that the note matches what they receive |
A review that lives only in someone’s habits gives you nothing to show for check 7; it comes out Halted. Write the step down first, and then mark it at the next period.
Reporting Automation Checklist: A To-Do List for the Report Owner
Once each check has a mark, turn the Halted and Snagged ones into a short to-do list for the report owner. Then put the Halted checks at the top. Above the list, write the sample periods and the date of marking.
As a Signisys working method, Sources and Metrics come before Owners and Review and delivery among the Halted checks. The reasoning is that a scheduled build repeats whatever its sources and definitions say, errors included. For the work that follows the marking, read a method for building one report once and running it on a set date.
When you read the total, take it for what it is. It describes the sampled periods of this report on the day you marked them. It makes no prediction about the build, and it ranks the firm against nobody. A separate comparison picks up the next question once the sheet is marked: which kind of reporting tool suits which report.
After a change, mark the report again. File the old to-do list with the new one, so the owner can see which checks moved.
A Private Hospital’s Monthly Board Pack, One Check Marked Three Ways
We made this example up. The hospital has no name, no figures appear, and Signisys did no work for it. Its finance head wants the monthly board pack produced on a schedule, and starts with check 4.
Here is how the mark could fall. Clear would mean a colleague from the planning team rebuilds last month’s outpatient visits by department from the written steps, gets the same value and dates the note. Snagged would mean the steps work, but nobody wrote down the date. Halted would mean the colleague gets a different value, as one step lives only in the builder’s head, such as leaving out cancelled appointments.
In this telling, check 4 comes out Halted. The finance head adds the missing step to the written list and asks the same colleague to try again the following week. Until then, check 4 stays at the top of the to-do list.
Check 3 comes out Snagged. The department heads agreed the meaning of an outpatient visit by email, but nobody filed the date with the sentence. Once the finance head files it, the next marking can give Clear.
Picking the Next Report to Mark
The same eight checks work on whichever report you mark next. Pick it by the same test as the first: a report someone still assembles by hand at each period end. Keep the dated notes filed with each report, where a colleague can find them without asking. If the firm would like help, Signisys can walk through the eight checks with the report’s owner, on a report the firm picks.
Signisys sells data and AI services, which its reporting and data integration page as well as its overview of analytics and AI work describe, and the box that follows is Signisys promoting its own service.
FAQ: More on the Reporting Automation Checklist
Is the reporting automation checklist an audit of the report?
Does the reporting automation checklist suit a report built in a spreadsheet?
Should the reporting automation checklist go through one report or several?
What if our report has no review step at all?
Can the person who builds the report also mark it?
Security Insights, Delivered.
Practical, vendor-neutral analysis of threats, tools, and architecture decisions.