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10 Best Reporting Tools & Software Of 2023

The Best Reporting Tools List

Here’s a shortlist of the best reporting tools:

  1. 1. Xero — Best for reporting on project quotes, time, and financials
  2. 2. QuickBooks Online — Best reporting software for small business accounting
  3. 3. Zoho Analytics — Best reporting tool for easy-to-read charts
  4. 4. MeisterTask — Best reporting tool for agile teams
  5. 5. datapine — Best reporting software for complex data
  6. 6. Whatagraph — Best reporting tool for marketing agencies
  7. 7. Tableau — Best reporting software for embedded analytics
  8. 8. ProWorkflow — Best reporting software for graphical data reports
  9. 9. Projectworks — Best for human resources, time, and financial reporting
  10. 10. Thoughtspot — Best reporting tool for beginners

Reporting at its core is the aggregation of data displayed in a format that is easily digestible. Good reporting tools will give you a graph, chart or any visual representation of information that is meant to help you make decisions. You can get an actionable insight when the representation is accurate and relevant to your needs.

Also, reporting is about the complexity of data. With non-complex data, you can get by with semi-manual reports built in a spreadsheet, like a Google Sheet. However, as the complexity increases, you require other tools that aggregate data for you. Heck, some of them are even using AI and machine learning to help us make sense of information!

Finally, if you are dealing with company-wide information, you might be using a big data analytics platform, but that’s a topic of its own. Whether you are using a BI tool, project management software or analytics platform, remember that the tool has to adjust to your operation, have the processing power to handle multiple sources of data, and report on what is important to you.

Overviews Of The 10 Reporting Tools

Here’s a brief description of each of the reporting apps. Feel free to check out how I picked the software on this list at any time.

1

Xero

Best for reporting on project quotes, time, and financials

Xero is a cloud-based accounting software platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Xero offers a wide range of accounting features to help businesses manage their finances effectively, making it perfect for small teams that need to be able to perform many functions on one platform. Users can automate recurring tasks, generate financial statements, and gain insights into their business's financial health.

Xero also incorporates smart categorization features into its expense reporting. It employs machine learning algorithms to automatically categorize expenses based on previous patterns, reducing the time and effort required for manual categorization. This feature enhances accuracy, saves valuable time, and streamlines the expense tracking process, freeing up time for small teams to take on bigger projects.

Xero integrates with tools like Stripe, Shopify, Square, Trello, HubSpot, Deputy, Float, Unleashed, and WorkflowMax.

Pricing starts at $17/month. A free trial is available.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 603

Free trial available

From $17 per month

2

QuickBooks Online

Best reporting software for small business accounting

QuickBooks is an accounting solution that helps small businesses track their expenses, manage their invoicing, and report on their financials. The software tracks your transaction details, helping you keep accurate records. Based on the finances you track in the system, you can view how much you're spending in each expense category from your dashboard.

The platform offers a simple, low-cost expense reporting solution for small- and medium-sized businesses. Receipts are sorted automatically, and you can reclassify transactions in bulk. You can also generate invoices, and even set up recurring invoices for repeat clients or customers.

QuickBooks Online integrates with over 450 business apps like Square, Stripe, Paychex, Insightly CRM, Mailchimp, Shopify, eBay, BigCommerce, Magento, Squarespace, Etsy, Katana, and ProjectWorks. Pricing starts from $30 per month, and a 30-day free trial is available.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4 2809

30-day free trial

From $30/month

3

Zoho Analytics

Best reporting tool for easy-to-read charts

Zoho Analytics is an analytics and reporting tool to help you convert raw business data into comprehensive reports and dashboards. You can use it to collect, enrich, and filter data to make it easier to analyze. It has an AI assistant feature to help you generate insights, spot patterns, and forecast trends. Zoho Analytics has a mobile app version that works on iOS and Android.

Zoho Analytics lets you use charts, widgets, and pivot tables ensuring you can present data in the best possible way. Zoho Analytics allows you to collaborate with other users to build and share custom reports and dashboards. Its user permission settings give you control over who can view and edit your data according to need and/or authority.

Zoho Analytics cost starts at $24/month/up to 2 users. They offer a 15-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 146

15-day free trial + free demo

From $24/month

4

MeisterTask

Best reporting tool for agile teams

MeisterTask is a task and project management tool designed primarily for agile teams. The tool offers a variety of reporting features for monitoring team productivity, as well as custom dashboards and the ability for team members to create personal agendas organized to fit their way of working. MeisterTask is intuitive and simple to use, with a clean interface

Users can view progress reports, time reports, and safety reports. View and download reports showing tasks that are completed, overdue, or upcoming. Project managers and team leads can also get reports on how much time team members are tracking, as well as reports related to data security, privacy, and compliance.

MeisterTask integrates with sister software MindMeister as well as Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, Zendesk, Google Drive, and more.

MeisterTask costs from $8.25/user/month. They also offer a freemium plan.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.6 171

Free trial available

From $8.25/month (billed annually)

5

datapine

Best reporting software for complex data

Datapine is a great reporting software as it offers business users an uncomplicated and secure way to monitor as well as communicate key performance indicators (KPIs) effectively and quickly within one central analytics platform. This empowers everyone within the company to access at any time up-to-date, accurate information to make the right, data-driven decisions.

Datapine belongs to a new generation of reporting tools and offers, thanks to its ease-of-use, access to advanced analytics features even for non-technical users. Different data sources (flat files, databases, CRM and ERP-systems, social platforms, etc.) that are needed for the reports, can be integrated with a few clicks.

Customized, visual KPIs can be built via drag and drop and stored on dynamic, interactive dashboards. These professional KPI dashboards are also the core of datapine’s BI reporting solution. They offer a wealth of modern dashboard functionalities such as sophisticated global filter, predictive analytics as well as AI-based and interactive dashboard features.

Moreover, you can choose from over 80 professional dashboard templates for different business functions and industries. Finally, the dashboards can be shared in multiple ways such as automatic email reports, sharing live dashboards via URL or embedding them in external applications.

Datapine offers a 14-day free trial without any limitations with custom pricing starting at $250 per account.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.6 27

14-day trial

From $249/month

6

Whatagraph

Best reporting tool for marketing agencies

Whatagraph is a reporting tool for marketing agencies and in-house marketing teams that helps you get the right data in front of your customers and in a way they understand.

With this tool, you can create reports in minutes thanks to their 95+ templates and connectors to multiple data sources. Also, you can make these reports customized to your client by changing the colors and adding their logo.

Once you are done making it pretty, Whatagraph lets you automate report delivery so your clients can get their weekly, monthly or quarterly reports, and all you have to do is set the time interval! No more '$!@, I forgot to send the report' moments.

Whatagraph integrates with over 40 tools. These include Facebook, Shopify, Mailchimp, Salesforce, and Tik Tok Ads. All of them can be used as data sources for your reports.

Whatagraph has a 7-day free trial, and pricing starts at $199 per month, which gets you 25 data sources and 5 users, with unlimited reports.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 200

7-day free trial

From $199/month

7

Tableau

Best reporting software for embedded analytics

Tableau is a visual analytics platform for exploring, understanding, and managing business data. It uses a drag and drop method to create reports using the available data visualizations and widgets.Tableau uses interactive data visualizations so you can create visually-compelling reports that viewers can click to explore.

If you need to build powerful dashboards quickly, Tableau is the best reporting tool for you because of its embedded analytics features. The embedded analytics are customizable through an API so you can insert data collection and reporting functionality into your pre-existing workflow. This can also help you personalize your customers’ data experience.

Tableau integrates with other business tools, including Google Cloud, Microsoft SQL Server, Google Sheets, Hive, and SAP.

Tableau pricing starts at $12/user/month, and they offer a 14-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 1860

14-day free trial

From $70/user/month

8

ProWorkflow

Best reporting software for graphical data reports

Created in 2002, ProWorkflow was designed as a project management solution that supported analytics and reporting needs. When you log in to this tool, you immediately see a user-friendly dashboard showing a graphical summary of your current stats for active, completed, and upcoming work.

Standard reports provide detailed information on workload and performance as well as your projects, tasks, time, and financial data. Custom reports let you build your own report, select the filters and data that you need, and even share the report with your team.

Visually, the reporting screens and downloads aren’t much to look at. The data is solid and easy to read but if you are looking for some added physical pizzaz, you might need to deploy some manual graphic design intervention.

Key features you can tap into include: resource reports on staff and time, workload breakdown reports, time summary reports, individual project reports, general project reports, task reports, and the ability to export reports to multiple formats.

ProWorkflow integrates with tools like Xero, Quickbooks, KashFlow, FreshBooks, MYOB AccountRight, Box Storage, DropBox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and hundreds more through Zapier.

ProWorkflow costs from $10/user/month, which includes a maximum of 10 active projects.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 45

14-day free trial

From $20/user/month

9

Projectworks

Best for human resources, time, and financial reporting

Projectworks is a business operations platform that offers business intelligence insights to improve company efficiency and profit margins. The tool is designed for professional services companies, with resource management, time tracking, expense reporting, and invoicing functionalities.

This software offers reporting and analytics based on project, resource, and financial management data. Users can track time spent on various tasks and projects, manage expense reports and invoicing, and allocate resources all in one place. This makes for dynamic and informative reporting dashboards, with insights on planned vs. actual time and money spent, project costs, and capacity and revenue forecasting. Customizable templates are available in the platform so users can create meaningful dashboards for their use case.

The platform integrates with common workplace tools like Azure DevOps, Hubspot, Jira, MYOB, QuickBooks, and Xero. Users can unlock additional integrations through a paid Zapier account.

Pricing is available upon request, and users a free trial can be requested on the website.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 65

Free trial available

From $370 /month (for up to 10 users)

10

Thoughtspot

Best reporting tool for beginners

ThoughSpot is a developer-friendly platform that allows users to create custom data apps to integrate with their existing cloud system. The software also allows users to share charts, dashboards, and data models with groups and individuals inside and outside of their company.

ThoughtSpot is an excellent option for beginners who need a reporting tool because it utilizes artificial intelligence to assist users. It assists users by spotting anomalies and trends to help save analysts' time.

ThoughSpot has dozens of built-in charts with advanced configurations you can use to present your data in a way that tells a story. ThoughtSpot has a drag and drop feature so you can arrange, customize, and pin charts and tables easily. ThoughtSpot sends real-time alerts and notifications on email or mobile when it detects changes in key metrics that may require human intervention.

ThoughtSpot provides customized pricing upon customer request. They offer a free 30-day trial.

Need expert help selecting the right tool?

We’ve joined up with Crozdesk.com to give all our readers (yes, you!) access to Crozdesk’s software advisors. Just use the form below to share your needs, and they will contact you at no cost or commitment. You will then be matched and connected to a shortlist of vendors that best fit your company, and you can access exclusive software discounts!

The Best Reporting Tools Comparison Chart

Here is a table you can use to compare all the tools we just covered in the overviews.

Tool Free Option Price
1
Xero

Best for reporting on project quotes, time, and financials

Free trial available

From $17 per month Visit Website
2
QuickBooks Online

Best reporting software for small business accounting

30-day free trial

From $30/month Visit Website
3
Zoho Analytics

Best reporting tool for easy-to-read charts

15-day free trial + free demo

From $24/month Visit Website
4
MeisterTask

Best reporting tool for agile teams

Free trial available

From $8.25/month (billed annually) Visit Website
5
datapine

Best reporting software for complex data

14-day trial

From $249/month Visit Website
6
Whatagraph

Best reporting tool for marketing agencies

7-day free trial

From $199/month Visit Website
7
Tableau

Best reporting software for embedded analytics

14-day free trial

From $70/user/month Visit Website
8
ProWorkflow

Best reporting software for graphical data reports

14-day free trial

From $20/user/month Visit Website
9
Projectworks

Best for human resources, time, and financial reporting

Free trial available

From $370 /month (for up to 10 users) Visit Website
10
Thoughtspot

Best reporting tool for beginners

Not available

Visit Website

Other Dashboard Reporting Tools

Here are a few more auto-reporting tools that didn’t make the top list. If you need additional suggestions for the handy ad hoc report tool, check these out.

  1. SegMetrics

    Best reporting tool for marketing and sales teams

  2. FanRuan Software

    Best reporting software for enterprises

  3. Google Data Studio

    Best for sharing & collaboration

  4. Power BI for Office 365

    Best reporting platform for scaling organizations

  5. Reportei

    Best for quickly generating digital marketing dashboards and reports

  6. Octoboard

    Best reporting software for automated reporting

  7. DashThis

    Unlimited users, data sources, and integrations in all plans.

  8. ClickUp

    Best reporting dashboards that promote collaboration

  9. Jira Software

    Best reporting tool with issue tracking & release management

  10. Wrike

    Best for collaboration on project reporting

  11. Hive

    Best reporting tool with interactive dashboards

  12. Klipfolio

    Connect hundreds of data sources, including spreadsheets, files, databases, and web services applications to build data visualizations.

  13. Board

    Explore your data, run effective analysis, build interactive dashboards, and create impactful reports.

  14. Funnel

    Automatically collect all the data you need from any data source and feed it directly to your data warehouse, dashboard solution, or any other tool you’re using.

  15. Looker

    Connect with Redshift, Snowflake, BigQuery, as well as 50+ supported SQL dialects to build embedded visualizations and data science workflows.

  16. Smartsheet

    Connect and integrate with tools and apps you already use to glean real-time insights into the work that teams are doing across the organization.

  17. Domo

    Works with your data lakes, data warehouses, ETL tools, and more, to deliver data insights with built-in collaboration and productivity tools.

  18. Mixpanel

    Behavioral analytics tool to analyze website site user engagement, monitor KPIs, and easily generate reports.

  19. Planview Clarizen

    Capture and track all your project and team data in real-time, including effort, status, issues, and change requests.

  20. Sisense

    API-first cloud technology with interactive dashboards, self-service analytics, and white-labeled BI apps for your use.

  21. Qlik

    Combines all your data and makes it analysis-ready for everyone to freely explore, amplified by machine intelligence for better results.

  22. TapClicks

    Marketing report tool (TapReports) and marketing performance analytics (TapAnalytics) with a clean, streamlined UI.

  23. Plot.ly

    A framework for teams to collaborate in the development, testing, and deployment of analytic web apps, no Javascript required.

  24. Dundas

    Best reporting tool for end-to-end data visualization

  25. Knowi

    Best reporting tool for natural language processing

  26. InetSoft

    Data intelligence that unites business intelligence (BI) and machine learning (ML) to extract value from your data.

  27. Periscope

    Explore and analyze data using SQL, Python, and R with rapidly prototype machine learning models, including sentiment and text analysis using NLP.

  28. AgencyAnalytics

    Integrate with more than 30 platforms to build a complete marketing dashboard and optimize your work with SEO reporting software.

  29. ClicData

    A cloud-based business intelligence platform offering a built-in data warehouse and ETL features that allow data processing and management as well as a dashboard designer and automated reporting tools.

  30. Supermetrics

    Centralize all your marketing data in their marketing data warehouse, build dashboards and reports with ad-hoc analysis.

  31. LiveReport

    Best for integrations

  32. Workamajig

    Gain insights from your management dashboard to pinpoint efficiencies or bottlenecks and create relevant reports based on user needs.

How I Picked the Reporting Software on This List

I started by doing extensive research on the most popular BI tools on the market, based on user reviews and available features. Then, I weighed factors that make a tool a good option for project reporting. After reducing the number of tools, I selected the ones that came out on top and evaluated them using the criteria below.

User Interface (UI)

I look at how the information is displayed. A report is no good if it’s in a cluttered interface with distracting elements and information overload.

Usability

I analyze the different options in which you can get a report. Whether that is through a screen where we set parameters and get a custom report in return to the dashboards and the capacity to export them.

Integrations

I review how many integrations are available for the tool. This analysis will include pre-built integrations that you can use right away and also the tool API available to make custom integrations.

Pricing

I looked at the tool’s pricing structure. Some of these tools are free, others have low-cost. Likewise, I look at free trials and free versions of the software so you can try them out for yourself.

Reporting Tools FAQs

Find answers to common questions other people ask about this topic.

best reporting tools and software logos list

What's Next?

Reporting is a big part of our jobs. Therefore, I encourage you to read how to set up a PM dashboard the right way. You can also check out how to build a project status report that puts a smile on your client's face.

Related tool lists:

We also share some stories with you through our Insider Membership newsletter. It’s a weekly email with information on all things DPM + reflections, stories, and fun facts about our profession.

By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 20 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony. Ben's a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner and productivity nut.

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