Practical Reporting Tools for Small Businesses

Your business generates more data than you probably realize. From your customers’ purchase history and social media interactions to website form fills and email engagements, there’s a lot to process. With the right reporting tools in place, you can quickly make sense of—and act on—all your valuable business data.

Data reporting tools help you visualize information by creating custom reports, so it’s easier for you to monitor the key performance indicators (KPIs) most important to your business. They’re a major time-saver, too. Instead of spending hours parsing through raw data in spreadsheets, reporting tools make data analysis work for you. Let’s take a deeper look at what these reporting solutions do, how they can help your business, and how to pick the best reporting tools for your company’s needs.

What is a reporting tool?

Reporting tools are software programs that take information from data sources and create reports that are easier to understand at a glance. You don’t need to be a big brand to tap into the power of big data. Reporting tools help small, medium, and large companies alike get the most from their data.

Using reporting tools, you can automatically generate reports that put your business’s performance in perspective. This technology takes the guesswork (and a lot of the legwork) out of the reporting process, allowing you to make data-driven decisions with ease. Here are just a few of the different types of reporting tools you might benefit from:

Business intelligence (BI) tools

Business intelligence tools are like a general dashboard for your company. They aggregate diverse data sources, such as Google Workspace, customer relationship management (CRM) systems like HubSpot or Salesforce, cloud databases, web data hubs like Google Analytics, and social media platforms like Facebook. A business intelligence platform analyzes all sources, creating custom reports and easy-to-read visual charts that give you an overall view of your company. 

Corporate performance management (CPM) systems

CPM tools are similar to BI reporting tools, but they go a bit deeper than the general overview provided by BI tools and focus more on business performance. They help you define, understand, and improve your specific KPIs—such as revenue growth, conversion rates, order fulfillment time, customer satisfaction scores, and more. CPM tools present data that shows how you’re progressing toward KPI goals—and where you specifically need to focus your energies to achieve them. 

Marketing analytics software 

Marketing analytics reporting tools draw from multiple marketing channels, such as social media platforms, ecommerce platforms, email, paid advertising, your website, and more. Marketing reporting tools turn your marketing data into insightful reports that show how well you’re reaching customers.

Information technology (IT) reporting tools

IT reporting tools make sure your networking infrastructure is running smoothly. IT business tools are like looking under the hood of your company, drawing from multiple sources of data to track figures like how many people are logged into your systems.

Benefits of using reporting tools 

Reporting tools gather data from all over your business, analyze that information, and then generate reports that give you a useful visual performance overview. This helps you achieve data integration from every corner of your business.

After initial data collection, pulling information from various channels and sources into one place, these tools generate data visualizations with actionable insights. Many reporting tools use automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to generate reports quickly, giving small and medium-sized business users detailed analysis. Benefits include:

• Time saved. What used to take hours is now possible with just a few clicks, thanks to automated reporting workflows. For smaller businesses, these tools put the power of a team of data scientists at your fingertips.

• Custom reports. Every small and medium-sized business has different data reporting needs. By using reporting tools, you can customize your dashboard to the KPIs you’re tracking and get an at-a-glance view of the metrics that matter most to you.

• Timely information. By using the right reporting tools, you know you’re making decisions based on the most up-to-date, accurate data. 

• Forecasting. Advanced reporting tools use AI to perform further analysis. With AI-fueled predictive analytics on your side, you can review your customers’ buying trends over time and draw informed predictions from that data. 

• Visualization. Reporting software is an effective data visualization tool, turning raw data into easy-to-understand charts and graphs. You can even generate interactive reports for a deeper look into how your business is performing.

How to pick a reporting tool

• Assess what fits your specific business
• Look for easy-to-use software
• Consider your organizational structure
• Study the key features

There is no lack of project management software, reporting systems, and analytics tools to choose from, but how can you decide which one is best for your business? Here are some key strategies you can use to pick the ideal option:

Assess what fits your specific business

Take a close look at the reporting features and analytics capabilities of the tools you’re considering. Maybe you don’t need all the bells and whistles if you or your team are already pretty adept at data analysis. Maybe you’re growing rapidly and need a solution that can scale with you. Choose the reporting platform that’s right for your specific business operations (and your specific industry), including the ability to grant access to multiple users. 

Look for easy-to-use software

Not everyone has a background in analyzing data, and that’s fine. Try a few tools out and see which one you’d feel most comfortable using every day. While some reporting tools are for more advanced business users who are well-versed in data analysis, others have benefits for those not quite so tech-savvy, like predictive AI, drag-and-drop features (versus needing to know how to code to manually get the graphs you need), chart templates, and clear, easy-to-understand dashboards. 

Consider your organizational structure

If you’re a small organization or a solopreneur, you don’t need tools fit for enterprise-level companies. For smaller teams working fairly independently, look for a solution that includes self-service analytics, so you can get what you need without a steep learning curve. 

Study the key features

While the reporting tools you consider might differ in terms of how well they fit a small business or an enterprise company, the one you choose should have these key features:

• Dataset integration. Your point-of-sale data might be in one database, your marketing data might be in another. For a complete view of your performance, make sure the reporting tool you go with can connect to the data sources you use regularly.

• Ability to handle large data sets. Choose a reporting platform that can grow with you. Go with a solution that is a fit for your current business size and can easily scale.

• Flexible visual reporting options. Whether you’re a team of one or have multiple people to report to, pick a platform that features data visualization you can understand at a glance. Especially if you have C-level executives you regularly present to, having these insights in an interactive, customizable dashboard is key.

Practical reporting tools for small businesses 

• Shopify Analytics
• Zoho Analytics
• Looker Studio
• Microsoft Power BI
• Hubspot

Get started by exploring the features and pricing of these tools to see which one is the best fit for you:

Shopify Analytics

Shopify Analytics is a comprehensive analytics platform that allows you to quickly gauge your business’s performance and make data-driven decisions. You can monitor sales across all your channels, track your conversion rate, and see where your web traffic is coming from. You can customize your dashboard and tailor it to the KPIs most important to you, as well as compare data to see how you’re performing versus similar businesses across Shopify.

Pricing: Shopify Analytics is included with a Shopify account, which starts at $29 per month.

Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is a self-service analytics platform that uses agentic AI (i.e., autonomous AI systems capable of making decisions or taking actions with minimal human input) to generate insightful visual reports from raw data. Its AI features offer forecasting and recommendations based on customer data.

Pricing: Zoho Analytics plans start at $48 per month for five users.

Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, is a basic self-service business intelligence platform that connects to Google Workspace apps like Google Sheets to generate interactive dashboards and reports. It features an easy-to-use interface and ready-made templates. Looker Studio is cloud-based, meaning you don’t need to download additional software, and you can also use it as an IT reporting tool.

Pricing: Looker Studio is free to use, but more collaborative features and Google Cloud support come with Looker Studio Pro ($9 per user per project per month).

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is one of the more widely used reporting tools for small businesses due to its native connectivity with Microsoft 365 and data visualization capabilities. One of the key benefits is its ability to handle large amounts of data, and it features a community of users ready to help troubleshoot issues. However, going beyond data visualization may require a bit of a learning curve for novice users.

Pricing: Power BI has a free level for basic interactive reports, but you’ll need to upgrade to share with others, with paid plans starting at $14 per user per month.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a marketing reporting tool and CRM platform. It’s a bit more robust than entry-level tools like Looker Studio or Microsoft Power BI, and it offers a way for small businesses to organize data from customer interactions in HubSpot’s Smart CRM. HubSpot features AI and automation to help with tasks like syncing customer data and customer email follow-ups.

Pricing: HubSpot has free basic marketing tools, and paid plans start at $9 per user per month.