How To Automate Weekly Reports
Automate the numbers and write the story yourself. Pick three to five figures that drive decisions, keep them in one sheet or dashboard that pulls data on its own, and schedule it to email itself every Monday; Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) and Power BI both can. Then add three sentences: what changed, why it changed, and what happens next.
How To Do It
These steps work with the tools you already have, whatever you use.
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Pick The Few Numbers That Matter
New leads, deals won, revenue billed, open support tickets: whatever someone acts on. Ask each reader which decision a number helps them make, and cut the rest.
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Keep One Source Of Truth
Put the numbers in one Google Sheets or Excel file. In Excel, Power Query pulls data from other files and refreshes with Data › Refresh All. In Sheets, IMPORTRANGE pulls from other sheets.
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Schedule Delivery
In Data Studio, schedule email delivery of a report from the Share menu; it arrives as a PDF with a link. In Power BI, subscribe people to a report. Most CRMs can also email a dashboard on a schedule.
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Write Three Sentences
What changed, why, and what you’re doing about it. “Leads fell 20 this week because the Google ad paused Tuesday; it’s back on.” Numbers alone don’t tell anyone what to do.
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Send It To The Same Place Every Week
Same day, same time, same channel or email thread. People read reports they can count on.
What To Watch Out For
- Scheduled reports go out even when a data source breaks, and charts can show errors. Glance at it before you forward it.
- Compare with last week and the same week last year so the reader knows whether a number is good.
- A report nobody reads is noise. If no one has replied in a month, ask whether it’s still needed.
- Free tools have sending limits; Data Studio caps scheduled emails per day and month.
How Octopus Prime Does It
Your Octopus Prime agent can gather the numbers from the apps you use, fill in your sheet, and draft the summary for you to finish, on a repeating task.
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Write The Recipe Once
In a project file, list each number and where it lives: “Revenue billed from QuickBooks, new leads from HubSpot, site visits from Google Analytics.”
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Make It A Repeating Task
Every Friday at 4 p.m., the agent wakes up, opens each app with your login, and copies the numbers into your sheet.
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A Draft In The Channel
It posts the numbers and a short draft summary in the project channel, flagging anything that jumped or dropped.
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You Add The Why, Then It Sends
Edit the summary, and the agent emails it to the usual list. Sending waits for your OK.
From $10/month 30 days free No credit card
Questions
Can Excel send a report automatically?
Not by itself. Power Automate can email a file on a schedule, and Power BI can send report subscriptions.
Can Google Sheets email a report every week?
Sheets’ notification settings only email you when something changes. For a scheduled report, use Data Studio’s scheduled delivery or a small Apps Script.
What should a weekly report include?
Three to five numbers with last week for comparison, plus three sentences on what changed, why and what’s next.
Does the agent need special access to my apps?
No. It uses the same apps you do through its own browser, with your login kept in the Vault.
Let your agent do the steps. You approve what matters.
From $10/month 30 days free No credit card
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