Growth Suite: Client Reports

Hooray! You’ve built your client’s site and taken it live. What’s next? We highly recommend setting up an automated Client Report to keep the line of communication open, increase your MRR, and showcase your agency’s value.

What exactly is a Client Report, you may ask? It’s a recurring, customizable, agency-branded document that contains the site information most valuable to your clients – everything from page visits to site optimization details.

Before you get started, check out our demo Client Report here.

Video Walkthrough

Create a new Client Report

1. Click the Clients option in the main menu.
   
2. Navigate to the Reports tab and click Create New Report in the upper corner.
   

   Note

   Alternatively, you can start a new report from the Reports tab on an individual Client page.
3. Click Create New Report to get started (you can also select from an existing template if you’ve created one already, in which case you can skip to this section of the help article).

Customize look & feel

Client Reports can be customized with your agency’s logo and colors, and a welcome message. As you enter information, the panel on the right hand side will display a live preview.

1. Choose a cover style. You can selected from Branded style by uploading your agency’s logo, or Illustration style. Enter the hex value of your agency’s main color to complete the custom look.
   
2. Enter a title for your report and add an optional welcome message.
3. Select which header and footer information you’d like to include and optionally upload your logo to appear in the header.
   
4. Click Next Step to move to the next section.

Note

You can now add images and links to the Client Reports in the custom section.

Define report contents

Client Reports allow you to provide your clients with information relevant to their needs, including Flywheel hosting stats like site backup info and plugin updates, and Google Analytics data (with the free Google Analytics Add-on enabled).

This section is customizable as well – use the checkboxes to exclude certain data points or reorder them with a simple click and drag. The preview pane helps you visualize what each page of the report will look like as you go.

Available content (all optional)

Flywheel Hosting stats: WordPress updates (including WP core updates, theme updates, and plugin updates), Backups, Security, Site Optimization

Google Analytics (requires Google Analytics Add-on): Users, Sessions, Average time on site, Bounce rate, Conversion rate, Traffic Sources, Devices, Page visits, Top goals

1. Select the data to include in your report using the checkboxes and toggles.
2. If you wish, reorder the content by clicking and dragging.
3. Optionally, click Save as template to save all the customizations you’ve made so far for later use.
4. Click Next step to continue.

Preview & schedule the report

Now you’re ready to select a client and site to populate the report and set the report period. Client Reports are recurring and will automatically be sent to your client at the frequency you’ve chosen.

Use the arrows in the preview pane to cycle through each page of the report.

1. Select the client and site.
   
2. Add an optional custom section (e.g. new blog posts added, hero image updated, COVID banner added, etc). You can also add these later, once the report has been generated.
   
3. Set the report frequency (monthly or quarterly) and the report start date.
   
4. Set your notification preferences. Receive an email when the report is ready, a notification in Flywheel’s communication center, or both!
   
5. When you’re ready, click Schedule Report. You’re all set!

Report generation timeline

Now that your report is scheduled, Flywheel collects data throughout the report period. The report is generated when this period concludes.

For example, if you create a new Client Report on June 15th and select the monthly frequency, you’ll be notified that the first report is available on July 15th, which will include data from June 15th-July 14th.

Grace Period

Once you’re notified that the report is ready, Flywheel holds onto it for up to three business days, which we call the “grace period”. This gives you the opportunity to review the data in the report and add custom notes before it goes out to your client.

Once reviewed and approved by you, your client will get the report within 24 hours. If you do nothing, the report will be sent once the grace period concludes. Continuing the example from above, this means the report generated July 15th will send to your client on July 18th.

Review & approve the report

Now that your report is ready, you can review it and make last minute changes before approving. This step is optional – if you’re confident your report is looking good and choose not to alter it, the report will automatically deliver to your client three days later.

1. Add an optional custom message.
   
2. Show, hide, or rearrange any reporting sections. Changes made here will not affect future reports – if you wish to make the changes permanent, edit the report instead (see How to edit or cancel an active report below).
   
3. Review your final report preview.
   
4. When you’re satisfied, click Send Report, and your client will receive it within 24 hours.
5. If you’d rather not send this particular report, click Don’t Send This Report.

Report is emailed to your client

Your clients receive reports via email (originating from [email protected]), which includes a link to the report that expires within 7 days. Accessing a report this way doesn’t require them to login to their Client Portal, and clients can share this link with their team or other parties at their discretion.

Viewing report history

Your clients can also login to their Client Portal to view or download all current and previous reports.

How to edit or cancel an active report

You can easily edit or cancel an active client report from the Growth Suite dashboard.

1. From the individual client’s page, navigate to the Reports tab.
2. On the right sidebar, you’ll see the scheduled reports for the client.
3. Click the 3-dot menu for the report you want to alter, and click Edit or Cancel.

Need help?

If you have any questions our Happiness Engineers are here to help!