Masterclass Insights and Reporting Masterclass
Identity & metadata
Video title Insights and Reporting Masterclass
Date November 2025
Video type Masterclass / Training
Audience Management; Operations; Admin; Leadership
AI-optimized summary block
What this video covers This masterclass explains how to use Steelhead’s reporting and insights tools to turn shop data into actionable dashboards, configure reports, and drive better decision-making across the business.
Problem it solves Shops collect massive amounts of data but struggle to turn it into clear, actionable insights without spending hours building manual reports.
Key capabilities shown • Real-time reporting and database regeneration
• Configurable dashboards and KPIs
• Custom chart and table configuration
• Global filters and saved report views
• Dashboard creation and personalization
• Automatic data updates from shop activity
• Sharing insights across teams
Core theme Turn raw shop data into clear, actionable insights that drive performance and accountability.
Full transcript
Speaker Voice over / Instructor
Transcript Insights and Reporting Masterclass November 2025 :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0} One thing that has come up before with insights or just reporting in general — we have so much data that we're capturing in our digital system in Steelhead. So it's very important to understand how we can use that data to drive decisions or to improve our business. Chad, an owner at Powder Coating Technologies, mentioned at one point that he started producing weekly reports and presenting them to his operators. His operators quickly realized they had an objective, a goal, and a target to reach. They could see this data each day — or actually instantly — as operators were stepping parts through production, or as the admin team was shipping parts or invoicing for work. What Chad found was that by showing this data to his team, it incentivized them to work harder, gave them a sense of purpose and a goal, and his team actually improved and worked hard to meet — and ended up exceeding — those goals. So if we can find the right reports and use them in the right ways, it's extremely powerful. The other beautiful thing when we jump into Steelhead reporting is we don't have to spend so much time trying to create all these different reports manually. Once we get the configuration dialed in, these reports automatically update with the data as parts are being processed or as things are happening in Steelhead. So now we don't have to spend all that time creating reports — we can spend that time analyzing the reports to make better decisions. First thing to know when you open up reporting: how current is this data? At the very top you'll see when the reporting data was last refreshed. It automatically regenerates every single night, but if you want up-to-the-minute data (especially if you're looking at something that happened today), you can go into “Manage Databases” and click “Regenerate the database.” It'll give you a time estimate — usually just a minute or two — and then you'll have fully up-to-date data. Dashboards are something we can fully configure. I usually start by showing the finished dashboards first — these are the end product you want to get to when you're setting up insights for yourself or your team. Then we'll go into how to configure a single report and finally how to add that configured report back into a dashboard. Right now I'm looking at pre-built dashboards for Production KPIs, Quality KPIs, Sales & Finance KPIs, etc. Each dashboard is made up of individual reports. You can unlock any dashboard, resize reports, move them around, make the most important ones huge in the top left — whatever makes sense for you — then lock it again when you're happy. So how do we actually configure an individual reports and get them onto a dashboard? On the left side of the reporting tile you have all your insights listed. There's a ton of pre-built reports across every department. My goal here is to show you how to configure them, not to explain every single piece of data. Let’s take “Invoices by Customer” as an example. You can hide the sidebar (the three lines — some people call it the hamburger menu) to get a cleaner full-screen view. Two main things you can configure: The chart at the top The data table at the bottom For the chart, click the little configure icon in the top right. You can change the chart type (tree map, horizontal bar, vertical bar, line, pie, etc.), change how it's sorted, add filters, split the data by another field, etc. You can also apply global filters at the very top — date range, customer, etc. — and those filters are “sticky,” meaning they stay applied as you flip through different reports. For the data table, you can: Change grouping (e.g., group by customer → invoice instead of going all the way down to line-item level) Add/remove/reorder columns Change how columns are aggregated (sum, count, unique values, etc.) Order the table however you want Once you get a report looking exactly how you like it, you can: Save the configuration (give it your name so you know it's yours) Star/favorite it so it loads by default every time you open that report Add it directly to any dashboard (or create a brand-new personal dashboard) Example flow I just did: Configured “Invoices by Customer” as a clean horizontal bar chart + a simple table grouped by customer → invoice with just the columns I care about Saved the configuration as “Invoices by Customer – Leander” Starred it so it auto-loads Created a new dashboard called “Leander Reports” Added this report to the dashboard, made it huge, saved & locked the layout Now every time I log in, I can go straight to my personal dashboard and instantly see the exact view I care about — no digging required. All of this data feeds in automatically and in real time (or as real-time as your last regeneration). When operators move parts through production, when invoices are sent, when parts are shipped — it's all captured instantly and flows into these reports without anyone having to manually log anything into spreadsheets. You can do the exact same thing with any report — Processed Parts, Rework by Month, On-Time Delivery, whatever matters to you. Configure it once, save it, put it on a dashboard, share the dashboard with your team, and suddenly everyone is looking at the same live numbers and working toward the same goals. That's the real power: turn all the data you're already capturing in Steelhead into automatic, beautiful, actionable reports that drive better decisions and motivate your whole team.
Taxonomy tags
Feature/module Insights; Reporting; Dashboards
Workflow category Reporting; Management; Analytics
Theme Data-driven decisions; KPIs; Performance tracking