SmartyGrants Scheduled Reports: Keep Everyone in the Loop

By Kate Caldecott

SmartyGrants’ reporting tool is both powerful and flexible. You can grab a canned Round Snapshot or task list to see what needs to be done. You can create your own templates, award letters, contract acceptance letters, etc.

With the newly added scheduling option, SmartyGrants now allows you to “set it and forget it,” creating useful reports once and then scheduling them to run (and be emailed to the right people) on a future date and/or on a recurring schedule.

Scheduled Reports for Workflow Management

SmartyGrants includes a default “task list” report which can be run in either Word or Excel. This report gives snapshot of what’s been done and what needs to be done, making it a great tool for helping individuals manage their work. (See this article for more information on using SmartyGrants’ workflow tools).

You can also use task lists for training or supervising new program officers. Regularly scheduled task reports make it easy to see where progress has been made, what’s urgent and what items are causing bottlenecks.

Of course, task reports only work if you are logging tasks into the system. See the help hub to learn more about stages and tasks.

For Monitoring

Scheduled reports are a great way to build ongoing monitoring into your processes. You can preschedule reports so that they trigger needed actions, that will improve your outcomes:

• Scheduling a Round Snapshot report (that includes unsubmitted applications) for a week before the round closes.
  
  
• You can then reach out to potential applicants with unsubmitted applications to see if they require assistance.
 You can schedule Allocation and Payment reports to coincide with your organisation’s financial reporting period, making it easy to reconcile SmartyGrants’ information against your fiscal system.

  
  
• Taking a regular look at the Open and Unsubmitted forms report is also recommended, and is particularly useful for chasing down unsubmitted acquittal forms.

  
  
• Finally, you can create and schedule an evaluation report to run for when you’ve received those acquittal forms. What were the anticipated outcomes? What were the real outcomes? Prescheduling these reports so that you have the information you need when it’s time to decide what adjustments you may want to make to your program.

For Progress Reports, Updates and Oversight

Scheduled reports are also an easy way to keep leadership informed. You can create a multi-program report template and set it to be automatically sent to your boss every month (just in time for the board meeting). This keeps everyone informed (and ensures that your and your team’s work is visible!).

While scheduling a report in SmartyGrants is pretty straight forwards, learning to use the reporting tool, and creating meaningful reports takes time and thought. Begin with the desired end in mind and invest the time to create and schedule reports that run on a useful interval. Make doing this part of your annual plan.

You can always run ad-hoc reports as needed, but having pre-scheduled reports arrive automatically serves as a trigger to make sure important details don’t get overlooked. If you would like assistance setting up your reports, please contact me at Kate@katecaldecott.com.au or 0447 227 598.