Troubleshooting Scheduled Reports

Some users run into issues when setting up or editing scheduled reports, so we created this article to hopefully help out. 

Note - You must be on a paid plan of Report Toaster to have access to Scheduled Reports.

For more information on creating Scheduled Reports, you may want to check out our main guide here. 

Below are some quick tips to get the most out of this feature.

Check your Junk Inbox/Spam Settings 

We can't stress this enough:

This is the #1 cause of issues with Scheduled Reports

I.e.  the Scheduled Report was sent, but it gets caught in a spam filter (or other company firewall setting) and ends up in the junk inbox. 

If you can see the Scheduled Report did in fact send (see Last Run Date and History, below) but you haven't received the email, then this is almost always the cause. 

An easy way to test this is to setup another Scheduled Report to run 2 minutes from now, choose a different email as the recipient, and check it's coming through.

If you do receive the email, then you know the service is working correctly. You can experiment with different devices and inboxes to make sure this is working as intended.

Create a Scheduled Report from a Saved My Report 

In other words, be sure to save the report you're working on to My Reports and then create the Scheduled Report from the 3-dot dropdown next to the report itself. 

This will ensure that the Scheduled Report will automatically have the correct settings from the report you saved (e.g. the date range, sort, filters etc)

The report will also automatically update for the next scheduled report if you make any further changes (providing you save the report again). 

Check Start at, Next Run, Last Run, and End At Dates/Times

After setting up a Scheduled Report, be sure to check that the date range you have set for the 'Next Run' is a time in the future. 

If you just setup a Scheduled Report, then the Schedule / Start at and Next run fields should have the same values: 

Once this time has passed, be sure to refresh the app.

You should now see that date in the Last Run field, and now the Next Run field will show the time it is next due to send. This means the report was sent successfully. 

Note - If you set an 'End at' date on a Scheduled Report, it will stop running after this date.

It goes without saying then -  if you believe you are missing a report, check that an End at date wasn't set prior to the date of expected delivery.

Check Timezone

Normally, Report Toaster uses the same Timezone for your store, so for most users, this isn't a problem. 

However, for users setting up a Scheduled Report when running Multistore and/or operating stores across several timezones, be sure to check that the Start at and Next run times are in the future for the store in question..

Also, make sure that both the date range of the report and the interval the Scheduled Report is using aligns correctly with the appropriate local time.

Check History 

After a report has run successfully, you can find it in the History tab.

This keeps an audit trail of all your previously sent Scheduled Reports, so if you can't find a particular report (or simply want to download it again), this is the best place to go. 

A report appearing in History (after the allotted time) means it has been sent correctly - so you can use this to check whether or not a report was sent as expected. 

Check Skip Empty Reports

This is an option you can select when setting up a Scheduled Report.

When checked, this means that the Scheduler will not run if there is no data to show. 

For example - suppose I set up a Scheduled Report to run daily that shows all orders tagged VIP.

If no order was tagged VIP that day, there would be no data to show - and so the Scheduled Report would not run. 

Often this is quite a useful feature to have if you are setting up a report to essentially run as an alert (e.g. Out of Stock Products, scheduled to run Daily)

If a report has been skipped, you can see this reflected in the History tab (see screenshot above).

If the Status says "No data, skipping delivery" this means the Scheduled Report did not send because there was nothing to show. 

Compare Intervals vs. the Date Range on the Saved Report 

Most of the time, you want the Interval on the Scheduled Report to match the date range on the report itself.

For example, let's say you were wanting a Scheduled Report to run every 1 week. 

Then you probably want your report itself to cover a similar interval - e.g. Last 7 days (or perhaps 'Last Week' if you were setting it up to run first thing on Monday. 

Often, users will change the date range on the report and forget to save the changes, or forget to update the interval on the Scheduler.

So it's a good idea to refresh your browser after making changes (to be sure you saved them correctly) and check that the date range on the report fits with the interval you have selected for the Scheduler. 

Check Recipients

If some of your recipients received the report but others didn't, this is often a good place to start checking.

If your Scheduled Report is setup to have recipients, you should see them appear here:

By clicking on the Recipients tab at the top, you can then check the contact details for each recipient and see if they are correct.

This is a great way to spot typos or amend the details if a recipient's contact info has changed: 

Remember, you can setup Scheduled Reports to run without Recipients.

This is useful if you want to create a log of something over time without necessarily sending somebody an email every time. 

We Are Here to Help!

If you are still experiencing issues with Scheduled Reports or would like our help with setting them up, then feel free to email us at support@cloudlab.com and we'd be glad to assist. 

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