For a long time, accurately tracking data about your business performance was difficult and it was downright impossible to do it in real-time. When important decisions needed to be made, leaders had to use the best information they had, but it was often weeks, months or even years old.

While historical data certainly has value in decision-making, it’s important to also have up-to-date figures to identify new trends or challenges as they arise.

Data reporting is a means by which your data is aggregated and processed so you can easily spot trends, bottlenecks, gaps and unexpected successes. It is often used in conjunction with data visualization to make information easy to understand at a glance.