Building informative dashboards in Sigma Computing can help you communicate key information to your organization. However, we may get caught up doing our everyday work and find it difficult to monitor key results.
Fortunately, Sigma offers a great tool that automates alerts based on a schedule or whether certain conditions on a single data element are met.
In this post, we will go over the components you will need to set up your automated reports successfully, including:
- What are the 3 Sigma Account Types?
- What Access is Required to Export Sigma Reports?
- What are the Available Export Formats and Methods of Export Delivery for Sigma?
- How to Share Reports in Sigma Computing
- How to Schedule Reports in Sigma Computing
- How to Override a Sigma Report Export to Export Now
What are the 3 Sigma Account Types?
Sigma offers three default account types for access: Admin, Creator, and Viewer. Depending on your account type, you will have different Sigma navigation and content interaction options. Admins can edit account types if they choose to or even edit the default options. The default accounts offer the following:
Admin
Can access, view, and edit all documents that exist in tier organizations. You can manage system settings, integrations, teams, connections, users, and authentication through the admin portal.
Creator
Can access all editing features, as well as all modeling and workbook-created content. They can create their own analysis from data that they have been given access to by an Admin.
Viewer
Can only view the documents that they have been given access to by an Admin. As its name implies, they are limited to only viewing these documents within their Sigma instance, with the ability to have some interaction through dashboard controls.
If you would like to learn more about how to create custom account types we have a great blog covering this process: Learn How to Create a Custom Account Type In Sigma
What Access is Required to Export Sigma Reports?
In order to set up exports, you must have adequate access, as the section above explains in more detail. The exporting and scheduling feature requires you to have either an Admin or Creator account type. Another option would be to have a custom account type with the appropriate permissions.
You must also have Can Edit or Can Explore access for that particular workbook on your account.
What are the Available Export Formats and Methods of Export Delivery for Sigma?
Sigma offers some flexibility on the formats available to export your workbooks. You can select how much of your information to show in your attachment, in what format, what layout, and whether to offer a link to the workbook or not. Listed below, you will find the formats available and options that will limit or expand the receiver’s ability to view and explore your workbook:
Destination
Gives you the option to send your export through different delivery methods: Email, Slack, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and the ability to add it to Cloud Storage.
Attachment
Format As
This option depends on what you select in Destination. However, you can select either a PDF or an Image version of the report. Google Sheets will give you the option of that unique format.
Layout
This section is a bit simpler as it just offers Landscape or Portrait.
How to Share Reports in Sigma Computing
Once you have created a report or workbook in your Sigma instance, make sure to click the Publish button on the top right of your workspace to save all your work. You are now ready to export your reports.
- Click the dropdown carrot next to your file name on the top left of your workspace
- Click “Share”
Once you select Share, you can either send the report to someone in your Sigma organization by typing in their name or by turning on the “Allow sharing by link” button and clicking Copy Link to share the link with someone.
How to Schedule Reports in Sigma Computing
After creating a report or workbook in your Sigma instance, it is important to save your work by clicking the Publish button located at the top right corner of your workspace. By doing so, you can then proceed to schedule your reports. Please note that you don’t have to do it again if you completed this step in the previous exporting section.
- Click the dropdown carrot next to your file name on the top left of your workspace
- Click “Schedule exports…”
- Click “Add Schedule”
- Give your schedule a name for future reference
- Select your destination: Email, Slack, Google Sheets, Google Drive, or Cloud Storage
- Specify who you want to send it to
- Email: requires an email address
- Slack: allows you to send the public channels in your organization by default. However, to send reports to private channels, you can integrate the Sigma app into your organization’s Slack (this may have to be approved by your Slack Admin)
- Google Sheets: Requires you to authorize Sigma to export to your Google Sheets
- Google Drive: Requires you to authorize Sigma to export to your Google Drive
- Cloud Storage: Requires you to integrate your cloud storage to Sigma
- Add the Subject to your message
- Add a personalized message
- Select whether you want to send the full report or individual tabs
- Select the format you would like to send it in
- Select the layout
- Check the box for whether you want to include a link to your workbook or not
- Select the cadence of when you want to export the report and the timezone, what days, how often, and at what time
- You can then select to send Always or, based on the criteria. For the three criteria options, you must select a data element being evaluated to meet those criteria in your data. The criteria options are:
- If there’s no data
- If there’s data
- If a condition is met
- Here you will be checking a particular column for a certain value
- Click Create Schedule
*After you set up any criteria options, you can click the “Test Condition” button to see if any values currently meet that criteria.
What Are Some Useful Ideas for Alerts?
- A member of the Sales team hits their target based on a threshold.
- If a new item is added to your workbook and a category is blank, you can receive an alert to input the information through an input table.
- You received a low rating on a product and need to follow up with the customer.
- Human resources added some new hires to the system, and you receive an alert to set up their row-level security.
How to Override a Sigma Report Export to Export Now
Once you have scheduled a report to be exported, you have the ability to override the schedule and send it right away in the same format that you have scheduled. It should be noted that using the Send Now feature will bypass these conditions and, thus, is not a recommended way to test.
- Click the dropdown carrot next to your file name on the top left of your workspace
- Click “Schedule exports…”
1. Click Send now
Best Practices for Sharing and Scheduling Reports in Sigma Computing
- Make sure to have either Creator or Admin access
- If you are scheduling a report based on a conditional format, make sure to know what conditions are the ones that need to be met for the report to send
- If you are scheduling to send your report through a private Slack channel, make sure to integrate the Sigma app into your organization’s Slack
- If you want to test whether a condition is being met to send your report, click Test Condition. Only use the Send Now feature when you are sure that you want your source to receive the scheduled report right away
Conclusion
Scheduling reports in Sigma Computing can save you time, alert you of important conditions to you and your organization, and offer assistance when you are too busy to monitor reports.
Make sure you have clear results in mind when scheduling your reports so that they offer as much value as they have the potential to. Even better, this automation feature can play a personal assistant role and have your reports ready when you arrive at work in the morning.
Looking for help maximizing the value of Sigma Computing? phData can assist! As Sigma’s largest consulting partner, phData has the expertise and experience to help your organization get the most out of Sigma. Contact us today to learn how we can noticeably help.
FAQs
Sigma offers a Live Edit option that is the perfect teamwork tool This feature is helpful because it is familiar to an offering we are all used to: Google Docs. Live edits in Sigma function very similarly; you see real-time updates your colleague makes, see who has the workbook open, and see where each user clicks. To learn more about Live Edit check out our phData blog: How to Work Collaboratively with Your Team using Sigma Computing
