Begin - Introduction to Reporting in Arbor

This article introduces the reporting features in Arbor, guiding users through the Begin, Build, Boost journey. It covers built-in reporting options, the Custom Report Writer, and how to create, edit, and schedule reports. It also highlights the differences between built-in reports and custom reports, including bulk actions and customizability, and offers information on training and support.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Built-in enrolment reporting and statistics
• 04:30 - Printable student class lists
• 08:00 - Built-in demographics reporting
• 10:30 - Built-in medical reporting
• 12:00 - What Custom Report Writer can be used for
• 13:30 - Using the Custom Report Writer Overview
• 14:30 - Creating a new report
• 17:30 - Viewing a report
• 18:40 - Editing a report
• 21:30 - Scheduling a report
• 25:00 - Using reports to send Communications
• 27:00 - Q&A

What features are included in my package?

We have loads of different features that you can use with reporting. To find out how to upgrade your package, get in touch with our Partnership Team by emailing customersales@arbor-education.com 

What are the ways to create reports in Arbor?

In Arbor, there are two ways of creating reports.

Built-in reporting

The great thing about Arbor is that you can use the area of the system you want to report on rather than having to create a report like you would have done in the Reporting area of your previous MIS.

In most areas of Arbor, you can find tables of data for reporting purposes!

For example, you can just jump straight to the Students > Attendance > Absentees reporting pages for out-of-the-box pre-built tables, that you can filter using built-in demographic groupings like Pupil Premium vs Not.

When downloading reports outside of Arbor, you can customise some additional fields to include: Customising the download with Unique Student Identifiers

The Custom Report Writer

If you do decide that you need a bespoke report, you can use our Custom Report Writer. With the Custom report Writer, you can create a custom table compiling any data points that exist in Arbor.

Just like in other MISs, in just a few clicks you can set up a pre-built report, import a report or create a brand new one from scratch.

For example, the Custom Report Writer can help to: 

• Create a termly report of students with 100% attendance
• Analyse standardised and summative assessment marks to track overall progress
• Identify missing staff information that needs to be updated

The Custom Report Writer can also help you create the reports you need to integrate your Arbor data with 3rd party applications. Take a look at our articles here for full instructions.

So which should we use?

Which solution we'd recommend all depends on what you want to do with your report!

Bulk actions

Our built-in pages often have Bulk Actions you can use to follow-up with your data, such as adding students to an Intervention or Custom Group, or sending an email to the student's guardians.

These actions are only available in Custom Report Writer reports about Students, so if you need to follow up, we recommend first exploring our built-in reports.

Customisability

For our built-in reporting, you can add additional fields to be output when downloading to live feed or excel, including Arbor Student ID, Year group(s), Registration form(s), UPN, ULN or UCI: Customising the download with Unique Student Identifiers

With Custom Report Writer you can completely customise the columns shown in your table which we'll see more about later on in the Boost section of our guidance.

Sharing your reports

With Custom Report Writer you can schedule your report to be sent out regularly, whereas for built-in reports, staff would need to visit the URL/page of that report each time they want to access the information.