Reporting in SPOTLIGHT

In SPOTLIGHT, you can run reports based on standard geographies or custom-built areas.

You can find a step-by-step guide on how to run reports here.

Inputs Required:

• Areas (see Creating Areas in SPOTLIGHT opens in new window for more information)

There are four sections to this article:

1. Select Reports
2. Select Areas
3. View Results
4. Exporting Reports

Select Reports

When you log into SPOTLIGHT, you will land on the Select Reports page, also referred to as the Reporting page.

1. The vintage year of the data used in the reports can be changed if other years are available. The active vintage is the one that is highlighted in red.
   
   
2. Select your desired report by clicking the checkmark. You can select all the reports in a bundle by clicking the checkmark next to the bundle name or choosing individual reports from within the bundle.
   
   There are ways to customize this Reporting page to suit your needs by selecting favourite reports or reordering reports in a bundle. Learn how in Customizing the Reporting Page in SPOTLIGHT.opens in new window
   
   
3. Once all your reports are selected, click the Next button at the top or the Next icon  at the bottom of the page to move to the Select Areas page.

Select Areas

On the Select Areas page, you can Create New Areas opens in new window or choose from a list of previously created areas for your reports.

1. Click Select Existing Areas to view a list of your areas.
   
   
2. Select your area(s) of interest by clicking on the checkmark. 
   
   Tip: You can search for an existing area by typing the name into the Filter your areas box. Particularly useful if there are multiple pages.
   
   Tip: Select more than one area to batch run your reports.
3. Select a benchmark area.
   
   A benchmark is a point of reference compared to your area of interest. Benchmark data is used as the denominator in the index calculations in the reports. Not sure what to use as your benchmark? Learn how in this Environics Analytics Community article. opens in new window
   
   
4. Input a descriptive name for your report to differentiate it from other reports on the Results page. This will help to find the report at a later date.
   
   
   
   Note: Completed reports can be renamed on the results page by clicking on the gear icon to the right of the report.
5. Click the Next icon at the top or bottom of the page to run your reports.

View Results

On the View Results page, you are provided with confirmation that you have successfully built and submitted your reports. The run time will be dependent on the number of reports and areas selected. Once completed, an email alert will be sent to the address associated with the account.

1. To find your completed reports, click on the link in the email. When logged into SPOTLIGHT, click the Results link in the banner at the top of any page or, if on the View Results page, click the red Results link in the middle of the page.
   
   
   
   Tip: When your reports have completed running, the Results link at the top of the page will indicate the number of unopened reports on the results page. 
2. On the results page, report names and details written in bold text are new and have not been viewed. Click the report's name or the gear icon to the right to open it.
   
   Note: If the report has this icon in the left column , it has not yet finished processing and will not open.
   
   Note: Completed reports can be batch deleted by clicking the checkmark to the left of the reports then the gear icon at the top of the page. It is highly recommended to download and save your reports before deleting them. Find out how in Navigating and Downloading SPOTLIGHT reports.opens in new window

Exporting Reports

Many navigation and download features are built into the reports when viewed in the SPOTLIGHT interface. Here we will focus solely on exporting reports as PDFs. For a full explanation of all these features, please review the Navigating and Downloading SPOTLIGHT reports opens in new window article. 

1. Once a report is open, expand the side panel by clicking on the arrow or pushpin. The pushpin option allows you to view both the side panel and the report page without any overlay.
   
   
2. Click Download Data > Batch Reports, Side-by-Side, or Long File.
   
   
   • Batch Reports: outputs are formatted reports, one per data slice (available output formats include PDF and XLSX)
   • Side-by-Side: outputs a single formatted report with each data slice side-by-side (available output formats include PDF and XLSX)
   • Long File: outputs as an unformatted table with each data slice stacked one below the other (available output formats include XLSX, CSV, and ACCDB)
   
   Note: Not all reports support all three download options. Reports containing images, icons, and graphs can only be downloaded as batch reports. Tabular reports will be able to download as either side-by-side or long file, or both. 
3. Choose the file type that you would like to download. Once you've made a selection, click Create. There are several additional options for PDFs to customize the download before submitting. Access these options by clicking the down arrow next to Create.
   
   
4. The PDF Options dialog box contains the following settings:
   • Document Size: allows you to change the page size of the output PDF
   • Orientation: this will enable you to change the orientation of the output PDF pages. If this is set to the default, Automatic, the pages will adjust to fit the report pages best.
   • Margins: allows you to adjust the size of the margins
   • Zoom: allows you to increase the size of the contents on the page. It is recommended to keep the zoom level to 100%.
   • Merge Documents: combines all reports into a single PDF if multiple trade areas were used. Keeping this off will provide a separate PDF for each trade area.
   • Title Page: will add a title page to the PDF output
   • Table of Contents: will add a table of contents to the PDF output
   
   
5. Make any necessary changes and click OK.
   
   A message prompt will flash in the bottom-right corner of your screen, confirming that the report is processing. Another message prompt will appear once the files are ready for download. Click the download button.
   
   
   
   If you miss the message prompt to download your report, navigate to the Results page. You will find an icon specific to the file type chosen in the Type column for your report. Click the icon to open the file.
   
   
   
   Please see the Navigating and Downloading SPOTLIGHT reports opens in new window article to learn about all report features.