Are you up for a data challenge?  

What's your highest value report, the one that takes the most time or is read by the most people. The one you can't afford to get wrong because of a silly copy/paste error, or because you didn't fill your formulas all the way down? 

Let's automate that one!

4 Step Analytics Canvas AUTOMATION Challenge 

No developers writing code, no macros, scripts, or expensive consultants. You will create a fully automated reporting process on your own that you can update and change whenever you want.

1. Get your data together 

Determine what data you need and how you're going to get it. Is your data in a Google Sheet, a database, or an API? If you download it from a website, can you request an automated extract to your Google Drive? Start by bringing some of that data into Canvas and getting to know it with the Data Profiler.

2. Write out the steps you take

Do you have to remove one column, rename another, and apply some formulas to clean and prep your data before you can really analyze it? Write out the steps as best you can, including where you get the data from, what filters and calculations to apply, and where the data needs to go when you're done processing it. Is it an Excel dashboard sent to an email, a .hyper file published to Tableau Server, a JSON file uploaded to an S3 bucket, or something else?

3. Connect the blocks

For every step you wrote down, find a data transformation block in Canvas to perform that task. If you're adding data from files, try a cloud file connector like Dropbox. This ensures your canvas can run from anywhere and the report won't be dependent on you or the files on your machine.

That's it, the hardest part is over!  And all you had to do was drag and drop blocks and connect them together to create a visual workflow.

4. Automate

The moment you've been waiting for. Finally you can automate a reporting process from end to end.  Simply upload your canvas to our cloud, set your schedule, and we'll take care of the rest.  Or, keep things behind your corporate firewall and automate using your own laptop or server with our Server Automation add-on.  

Whether or not you go forward with Canvas, being able to use ETL software to automate a reporting routine is a defining step for anyone who works with data.  Use the documentation found in the links above, or contact us and we'll help you through this challenge and ensure you succeed.