Build Reports in Process HQ

This page applies primarily to business users. It describes how to create and configure reports in Process HQ.

To learn how to edit, share, or delete a report, see Manage Reports and Dashboards.

About reports

Reports empower business users to independently explore and analyze business data. Customize reports with different visualizations, easy-to-configure filters, and useful interactive elements, then share them with colleagues and add them to dashboards.

In Process HQ, you can build reports from:

• Datasets: Build reports from datasets to visualize and explore your organization's data.
• Processes: Build reports from processes to understand how well your processes are performing, create KPIs to measure performance, and create scorecards to measure your overall progress toward business goals.

When to use Process HQ reports

Reports in Process HQ are the best way to meet your organization's reporting needs. However, you should build reports in Appian Designer instead if you need to:

• Show reports in Appian Portals.
• Display reports alongside other interfaces.
• Follow specific brand guidelines.

Developers can also create Process HQ reports in Appian Designer, then deploy them to environments to kickstart your reporting experience.

Prerequisites for building reports

Before you begin creating a report, make sure that:

• Report Creator role: You have the Report Creator role.
• Source data access (dataset reports): You have access to the source data for any datasets you want to use in reports.
• Business process permission (process reports): You have at least Viewer permission for the business process for any processes you want to use in reports.

Create a report from a dataset

You can create reports from datasets to visualize and explore your organization's data. System administrators can create a report from any dataset in the data catalog.

There are several ways to start building a report from a dataset:

• Partner with AI to generate a report from a natural-language request.
• Use a guided experience if you're exploring less familiar data.
• Start from the data catalog if you already know which dataset you want to use.

After creating the report, choose a report design, select fields, and filter the data. Then click SAVE.

By default, you are assigned Owner permissions to any report you create, and all other users are assigned No Access. Share the report with your colleagues when you're ready.

Create a report with AI

The Process HQ Assistant can create and save a report for you from a natural-language request, based on your available datasets. Describe the report you want, and the agent generates it across any chart type, then saves it so you can edit it further. The chat shows an inline chart preview of the report, with a link to open the full report in a new tab.

To create a report with AI:

1. In the chat, ask for the report you'd like to see. For example, "Show me a report of orders by customer for the last month."

2. Review the chart preview the chat generates. The preview shows the report name, description, and visualization, and the agent saves the report for you.

3. Continue chatting to refine your report. You can ask to add or remove fields, change the chart type, apply filters, and more. The preview updates to show the latest version.

4. To make further edits yourself, open the report and edit the report data manually.

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Create a report with the guided experience

If you're exploring less familiar data, you can take advantage of a guided experience to create a report from a dataset.

To create a report with a guided experience:

1. Go to the Home page and click CREATE REPORT.

2. Go to the Guided Experience tab.

3. Pick and format report data using autocomplete suggestions. As you select different options, you'll see a real-time preview of the report.

4. When you're ready, click CREATE REPORT.

   

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5. Continue configuring the report: choose a report design, select fields, and add interactive elements.

Create a report from the data catalog

If you're already familiar with the data you want to use for your report, you can start by selecting a specific dataset in the data catalog.

To create a report from the data catalog:

1. Go to the Data Catalog page.

2. From the Datasets tab, decide which dataset you want to start with. You can use the toolbar to:
   • Search by dataset name or description.
   • Filter by Source Type (Database, Salesforce, or Web service).
   • Filter by Source Name.

3. Click the dataset. The dataset details appear.

   

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4. Review the fields and data in the dataset to confirm it meets your needs.
5. Click CREATE REPORT.

Selecting a dataset for your report

When you create a report, the dataset you select determines what data can be included in your report.

Before selecting a dataset, you should:

• Identify what question you want the report to answer.
• Consider what information you need to see.
• Review the dataset's fields, data, and related reports and dashboards.

Example

You have a Customers dataset and an Orders dataset, where the Customers dataset has a one-to-many relationship with Orders (each customer can have many orders).

To decide which dataset to use in this scenario, think of the question you want the report to answer:

• Select the Customers dataset (the "one" side) if you want to know which customers have spent the most money on orders.
• Select the Orders dataset (the "many side") if you want to see how many orders have been placed in the last month.

Choose a dataset report design

In the DESIGN section of the report builder, click one of the available report designs. Dataset reports can use any of the general report designs, as well as dataset-specific designs like KPI, Heatmap, and Scatter.

If your selected design includes a chart, you can add and adjust the following options:

• Reference lines
• Chart legend
• Data labels
• Tooltips
• Chart color

Select dataset fields

In the FIELDS section, use the dropdown to select fields from the dataset and related datasets.

After selecting fields, you can:

• Click the icon next to a field to remove it.
• To edit a field's display name:
  1. Click the pencil icon next to the field name.
  2. In the Edit Display Name dialog, enter a new display name for the field in the Display Name field.
  3. Click OK.
• Drag and drop columns in the grid to rearrange them.
• Click the menu to sort, move, or remove columns, aggregate the column's data, or change the format for the values in the column.

Filter dataset report data

To filter the data in your report:

1. In the DATASET FILTERS section, click ADD DATASET FILTERS.
2. In the dialog, click Add Dataset Filter.
3. Use the Field, Operator, and Value fields to build your filter condition.
4. Click Add Dataset Filter to add another filter condition.
5. When you've added all of the criteria you want, click ADD.

Add interactive elements to a dataset report

Every chart in a report is interactive. For example, you can click on any section of a chart in your report to quickly filter the report data.

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You can also add the following design elements to let report viewers interact with the data and take action from the context of the report.

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#	Design Element	Description
1	Report Filters	Display interactive filters on a report so report viewers can filter the data to best fit their needs. User filters configured on the dataset's underlying record type are not available in reports in Process HQ.
2	Actions	Display record actions from the base record type in a grid header.
3	Link to Row Details	Displays a link to the record's summary view in a grid. This option will only provide links to records in the base record type; it cannot provide links to related records. The summary view page is determined by the default start page configured in the Admin Console.
4	Show Export or Download Button	Depending on the selected design: Displays an export to Excel button on a grid design. The data will download as a .xlsx file. Displays an image download button on a chart design. The image will download as a PNG file.
5	Drilldown Reports	Select a Drilldown Report that's based on the same dataset. When users click a section of the chart, they'll see the selected drilldown report with the data filtered by the section of the chart they clicked.

Create a report from a process

You can create reports from processes to understand how well your processes are performing, create KPIs to measure performance, and create scorecards to measure your overall progress toward business goals.

To start building a process report:

1. Go to the Data Catalog page.

2. From the Processes tab, decide which process you want to start with. You can use the toolbar to search by process name or description.

3. Click the process. The process details appear.

   

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4. Review the process details to confirm it meets your needs. To view more information about a process, explore the process from the Process Insights page.
5. Click CREATE REPORT.

After starting the report, choose a report design, select fields, filter the data, and add interactive elements. Then click SAVE.

By default, you are assigned Owner permissions to any report you create, and all other users are assigned No Access. Share the report with your colleagues when you're ready.

Choose a process report design

In the DESIGN section of the report builder, click one of the available report designs. Process reports can use process-specific designs as well as any of the general report designs.

The design you choose determines what fields are available and how you configure the report.

If your selected design includes a chart, you can add and adjust the following options:

• Reference lines
• Chart legend
• Data labels
• Tooltips
• Chart color

Select process fields

The fields available to you depend on the report design you select.

For process-specific designs, like a Duration KPI or Scorecard, the report builder guides you through the fields and configuration specific to that design.

For general report designs, like a Grid or Bar chart, you can choose between Cases and Events in the FIELDS section. This selection determines the structure of your report and the process filters available to you, so choose the source that best fits your analysis even if you need data from both cases and events.

• Case Fields treat each case as a row. Use case fields when you want to analyze case-level metrics, such as case duration or case attributes.

• Event Fields treat each event occurrence as a row, so you can use event-level data, such as activity name, activity timestamps, and activity duration, as groupings for charts.

  Note:  Activity duration is only available when the event data has both a start and end timestamp. Without both timestamps, activity duration does not appear as a selectable field. For more information, see capturing the right timestamps.

After selecting fields, you can:

• Click the icon next to a field to remove it.
• Drag and drop columns in the grid to rearrange them.
• Click the menu to sort, move, or remove columns, aggregate the column's data, or change the format for the values in the column.

Filter process report data

The report design and field source you choose determine which process filters are available.

Filter by cases

Case filters are available when you select a process-specific design, or when you select a general report design with Cases selected in FIELDS.

To filter by case data:

1. In the PROCESS FILTERS section, click ADD PROCESS FILTERS.

2. In the dialog, click ADD FILTER. The filter conditions appear.

   

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3. Select a Filter Type:

   Option	Description
   Characteristic	Filter cases by a specific attribute, activity, or sequence.
   Duration	Filter by case duration or sequence duration.

4. Based on your Filter Type, select the specific characteristic or duration type to filter by.
5. In the Limit this report to cases where: section, configure the operator and values.

6. Click SAVE FILTER to save the filter condition, or click SAVE AND ADD ANOTHER to save and add another filter condition.

   Note:  Case filter conditions combine with AND logic.

7. Click ADD to apply the filters to the report.

Filter by events

Event filters are available when you select a general report design with Events selected in FIELDS.

To filter by event data:

1. In the PROCESS FILTERS section, click ADD PROCESS FILTERS.

2. In the dialog, click ADD FILTER. The filter conditions appear.

   

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3. Select Attribute to filter by a specific attribute value, or select Activity to filter by events that include or exclude a specific activity.
4. Configure the operator and values.
5. Click SAVE FILTER to save the filter condition.

6. (Optional) If you want to add more filters, click ADD FILTER and repeat the previous steps. This button appears after you save an initial filter condition.

   Note:  Event filter conditions combine with AND logic.

7. Click ADD to apply the filters to the report.

Add interactive elements to a process report

You can add the following interactive elements to a process report:

• Report Filters: Display interactive date range filters so report viewers can filter the data by timeframe.
• Show Export or Download Button: Display an export to Excel button on a grid design, or an image download button on a chart design.

Report security

When you create a report, the following access levels are assigned by default:

• Owner access is assigned to the user who creates the report.
• No Access is assigned to the Process HQ Users system group.

For reports created from a process, users must have at least Viewer permissions for the underlying business process.

When you share a report with another user, the user's access level for the report controls which actions the user can take.

The following table describes the actions users can take based on access level:

Action
	Owner	Editor	Viewer	No Access
See a report on the Home page	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
View a report	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Edit a report	Yes	Yes	No	No
View report properties	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Edit report properties	Yes	Yes	No	No
Duplicate a report	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
See which users a report is shared with	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit which users a report is shared with	Yes	Yes	No	No
Favorite a report	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Delete a report	Yes	No	No	No

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