Defining custom report templates using Impact Reports

Impact Reports is a subscription-based service that allows you to define a one-click report template, tailored to your needs.

Impact Reports are available as a subscription add-on. Maintenance for existing report templates is determined by your subscription to Impact Reports.

Note

Impact Reports are useful if you need to regularly report out using a custom template for your Projects or Results data.

For ad-hoc or one-time reporting of the Projects data, consider using a default pre-built report or custom issues report. For more information, see Downloading pre-built and custom reports.

Benefits

Reporting is a critical part of communicating the status of governance, risk, and compliance programs to the business. Reports are a valued part of a team’s work, but they are time-intensive, and often require manual copying and pasting effort. Reporting discoveries to different stakeholders also requires different levels of detail to meet the expectations of multiple audiences.

Impact Reports provide a variety of benefits:

  • Deliver tailored and consistent reports Impact Reports can include your specific corporate branding (logos and colors) and desired styling.
  • Access real-time data Once an Impact Report is ready, you can download it, populated with the most recent data.
  • Avoid time-consuming manual data entry Impact Reports allow you to automate the reporting process and save time compiling information that exists in the Projects or the Results app.
  • Improve accuracy Using Impact Reports, you can ensure process consistency and precision, and avoid errors associated with copying and pasting data.
  • Customize your reports In the Results app, you can generate a report on:
    • A single table. Once the report is available, you can choose a few records and generate a report on only the selected records. You can also apply table filters, if required, before generating the report.
    • Multiple tables. You can request for an Impact Report based on multiple tables across different collections. You can also bring in data from other apps of Diligent One into the Results tables and generate a report on it.

How it works

An Impact Report is a one-click report template that is created in collaboration with a Diligent consultant. Impact Reports are available in the Projects app and the Results app. You can work with a Diligent consultant to define the specific type of report you want. Once an Impact Report is ready, you can download it from the Projects app or the Results app, based on your requirement.

Example reports

Other example use cases

  • Audit Planning Memo
  • Audit Preparation Report
  • Follow-up Report
  • Final SOX/ICFR Report
  • Financial Audit Review Report
  • Fraud Investigation Review Report
  • Issue Management Report
  • IT Compliance Report
  • IT Audit Report

Supported formats and file types

Impact Reports are supported in the following formats and file types:

Projects app Results app
  • Word.docx
  • PDF.pdf
  • PowerPoint.pptx
  • Excel.xlsx
  • Word.docx
  • PDF.pdf
  • PowerPoint.pptx

General guidelines for report formats

Review the general guidelines below to help you choose which format is most appropriate for the type of report you need. Diligent consultants can also provide guidance, as needed.

Format Description Example scenario
Word

Word and PDF documents are intended for longer reports that:

  • display detailed information
  • contain continuously expanding content, such as a table where rows are dynamically added as you create new items
  • require page breaks

You need to present a summary of all issues. Your report contains significant portions of text and spans multiple pages.

The report must contain:

  • a title page
  • a table of contents
  • rich text fields, such as an executive summary and recommendation
  • a table with one row per issue
  • charts showing issues by severity and owner
  • a detailed page view of each issue, presenting the most critical information
  • an appendix
PDF You need to present information from a Word document in PDF.
PowerPoint

PowerPoint documents are intended for high-level reports that:

  • act as a visual aid
  • have discrete content that can fit on a single slide
  • contain continuously expanding content associated with a single item type and presented on a single slide

You need a report to supplement a presentation. The report should include high-level summary information about a single issue, and display one issue per slide.

For each issue you add, you want a single issue per slide dynamically added to the report.

The report must contain:

  • a title page
  • a slide with project summary (start and end date, overall conclusion, number of issues)
  • a slide with charts showing issues by severity and owner
  • a high-level view of each issue (one per slide)
Excel

Excel documents are intended for reports contained in a spreadsheet.

You need a report template to automatically perform calculations or analyze trends associated with multiple issues. You also want to add calculations after you download the report.
Note

Excel format is supported for Impact Reports in the Projects app only.

Limitations

The following table shows the Impact Report limitations in the Projects app and the Results app.

App Limitation Description

Projects and Results

PowerPoint format

PowerPoint reports only support plain text fields (not rich text fields).

Videos and interactive visuals are not supported

Impact Reports are designed to display static text, logos, images, and charts. However, videos and interactive visuals can be added after you download the report.

Projects

 

 

Excel format

Excel reports do not support most types of rich text formatting. However, you can add any desired formatting after downloading the report.

Reporting is limited to a single project

You cannot use Impact Reports to report on aggregate information across multiple projects.

Data must originate from fields in Projects

Impact Reports that present information from other Diligent One apps are not supported.

Certain data from Projects cannot be reported on

You need a report template to automatically perform calculations or analyze trends associated with multiple issues. You also want to add calculations after you download the report.

Results

Excel format

Excel format is not supported for Impact Reports in the Results app.

Survey and Event report are not supported

Impact Reports in the Results app are designed to display data analytic tables only.

Permissions

  • Projects app Impact Reports are only accessible to users assigned the Professional Manager, Professional User, Oversight Executive, or Oversight Reviewer role in the Projects app.
  • Results app Impact Reports are only accessible to users assigned the Professional Manager, Professional User, Oversight Executive, Oversight Reviewer, or Contributor User role in the collection that contains the table configured for an Impact Report. Note that the Contributor User can only access the assigned records in the collection.

Submit a request for an Impact Report

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects app homepage opens.

  2. Under Planning and results, click Impact Reports.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • If this is your first request for a report template, click Get started with Impact Reports.
    • If you have existing report templates under Impact Reports, and want to request additional report templates for your organization, click Get more Impact Reports.

      The Impact Reports request form opens.

  4. Provide a description of the report template you want created.
  5. Optional. Attach an example of the report template you want created.
  6. Click Get a quote.

    Result The request is sent to Diligent. Your account representative will contact you to gather additional requirements and connect you with a Diligent consultant who will create your report template. Once the report template is created, you can download it.

You can work with your Diligent consultant or contact Support to define and request the specific type of report you want. You can request an Impact Report configured to a single table or multiple tables in different collections.

Download an Impact Report

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects homepage opens.

  2. Under Planning and results, click Impact Reports.

    The Impact Reports page opens with the requested report template(s) available to download. If the report template is not yet available to download, a Pending... status is displayed.

    Tip

    Report templates are also accessible in all projects within the Diligent One instance. There are two ways you can access report templates in a project:

    • Click the Results tab > Fieldwork Reports.
    • Click the Issuestab.
  3. Select a project to download the report template with data specific to a project.

    You can select an active or archived project from the list. Enter a keyword or phrase in the search box to find a particular project. Impact Reports are sorted alphabetically.

  4. Optional. View report template details by selecting the arrownext to the appropriate report template.

    The description of the report template and date the report template was last updated by Diligent displays.

  5. Click the appropriate report template format to download the report template.

    Result The report, populated with the most recent data from Projects, is saved to your local computer.

Based on the type of Impact Report you had requested, you can download it in the Results app.

  1. Open the Results app.

    The Results app homepage opens.

  2. Open the collection, and then the table that contains your report.
  3. Optional. If you want to run the report on a few selected records, choose the records from the table.
  4. Optional. Apply any filters in the table.

  5. Click More Actions and then click Download Report

    Note

    The Download Report option appears only for the table that is configured for an Impact Report.

    If you had requested an Impact Report and you do not see the Download Report option, contact Support for assistance.

    The Download Report panel opens.

  6. Select the Generate report for option.
    1. All records (filtered) Will include all filtered records in the table. This option will respect the filters applied and include only those records that meet the filter criteria.
      Note

      If you want to include all the records, remove the filters applied in the table and then generate the report.

    2. Selected records Will include only those records that you have selected in the table.
  7. Select the type of report. This is the template for your report.
  8. Select the format of your report. For example, Word, PDF, PowerPoint.
  9. Click one of the following buttons:
    1. Download Downloads the report to your machine.
    2. Email Report Emails the report to your registered email ID.
    Tip

    Use the Email option for a large report, to avoid waiting for a long time to download.

  1. Open the Results app.

    The Results app homepage opens.

  2. In the upper right, click Download Report.

    Note

    The Download Report option appears only if the Results app has an Impact Report configured.

    If you had requested an Impact Report and you do not see the Download Report option, contact Support for assistance.

    The Download Report panel opens.

  3. Select the type of report. This is the template for your report.
  4. Select the format of your report. For example, Word, PDF, PowerPoint.
  5. Click Email Report.

    Result The Impact Report is sent to your registered email ID.