Scheduled Delivery
Scheduled delivery runs a saved query on a clock, renders the result, and either emails it or files it as a document.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Query Builder — the saved query being delivered
Architect Panel → Automation:
- Tasks — where the BI schedule task is enabled
- Task Log — what ran, and whether it was delivered
Delivery is driven by a scheduled task that ships disabled — enable it under Automation → Tasks. A schedule that never fires is almost always this.
Why schedule rather than let people look
Because most people will not look. A weekly figure that arrives in an inbox gets read; the same figure behind a login gets checked in the first fortnight and then forgotten.
Scheduling is also the right answer for genuinely heavy queries — run them overnight and deliver the result, rather than making somebody wait for a dashboard block at nine in the morning.
Email or file
- Email — right for a figure somebody should act on: a Monday morning backlog, a month-end summary.
- File as a document — right for anything that needs keeping: a board pack appendix, a regulatory return, a monthly snapshot you may need to produce later.
Filing has a real advantage for anything that might be questioned: it preserves what the figures were on the day, which a live dashboard cannot.
Emailing data is an export
Treat it as one. An emailed report leaves the permission model the moment it is sent, gets forwarded, and sits in inboxes and on phones indefinitely.
Be deliberate about the recipients, and think twice before scheduling anything containing personal data or small-number breakdowns. "It is only going to the management team" is not a control — it is a hope about what happens next.
Choose a sensible cadence
Match the schedule to the decision it supports. A daily report about a monthly trend is noise, and noise gets filtered into a folder nobody opens. If a report has never once changed what anybody did, stop sending it.
Worked example
A service manager receives an open-cases-by-age report at 7am each Monday, which is when the weekly allocation meeting happens. The same query is filed monthly as a document for the performance pack, so the board sees the figures as they stood at month end rather than as they are today.
Recommendations
- Enable the schedule task first, and check the Task Log after the first run.
- Time delivery to the decision, not to a round hour.
- File anything that may be questioned later rather than only emailing it.
- Review recipients annually — distribution lists outlive the people on them.