Reports turn Slate data into aggregate views: counts, comparisons, rates, charts, and pivot-style analyses. A report can answer questions such as how many records belong to a population, how totals change across terms or years, and which groups have the strongest or weakest activity.
Reports share the Queries / Reports menu with queries because both tools rely on the same Slate data model, query bases, exports, filters, and joins. The output is different: queries list records; reports summarize records.
Reports and queries
A query returns rows of records and the details selected as exports. Queries support lists, recipient groups, operational exports, record-level review, and troubleshooting for why a record is or is not included.
A report aggregates records into tables, charts, and other report parts. Reports answer questions about populations, trends, and comparisons rather than questions about a single record list. The report builder is organized around views, parts, rows, columns, and report settings described in Report Builder Overview: Structure and Navigation.
📖 Report Builder Overview: Structure and Navigation
Building and rendering reports
Reports are built from one or more parts. Each part defines the population being analyzed and the rows, columns, charts, Data Explorer elements, or query-backed components that appear in the rendered report.
Creating, Editing, and Rendering Reports covers the core report lifecycle: creating a report, editing report details, adding parts, rendering the report, and exporting results. Report Permissions explains how access controls affect who can view or manage a report.
What reports can show
Reports can summarize data across the same lifecycles and business processes that queries can reach. A report might compare funnel counts across entry terms, show year-over-year giving totals, break down engagement by geography, or summarize student success activity by class standing.
Several articles focus on common report patterns. Using Reports to Compare Data covers side-by-side comparisons, Reporting on Multi-Valued Fields explains reporting against fields that can hold more than one value, and specific examples such as Create a Week of the Year Report, Create a Communications Report, and Creating a Cluster Report show how those concepts appear in finished reports.
Calculations, filters, and presentation
Reports can calculate values beyond simple counts. Formulas in Reports explains calculated rows and rates, while Parameters in Reports covers user-selected values that change a rendered report.
Presentation and interaction settings shape how readers work with report output. Pinned Filters in Reports keeps important filters visible in rendered reports, and Customizing Colors in Reports explains color choices for report visuals.
Interactive exploration
Data Explorer adds pivot-style analysis to reports. It can reorganize report data across rows, columns, values, and filters so readers can move from a summary to a more focused slice of the data.
Data Explorer explains how Data Explorer parts work in reports.
Widgets and specialized report outputs
Report output can appear outside a single rendered report. Widgets introduces report widgets, and Report Widgets for Student Success covers widgets designed for Student Success contexts.
Some reporting articles focus on specialized outputs or audience-specific reporting, such as Geo-Spatial Prospecting for Advancement and the VSE Survey Report. These examples show how the same report builder concepts can support more specific reporting obligations or planning workflows.