Custom Reporting Simplified with Unanet’s Refreshable Web Queries and Built-In Reports

Custom reporting is something that every organization wants, but the investment can be overwhelming. It requires significant resources, including staff time and an administrative budget. Not only does the investment feel like a lot, but it can also be overwhelming just to consider what your organization really needs from a custom reporting environment. Typically, an organization using Unanet would consult a professional specializing in Power BI reporting or Analytics Studio. But does it have to be so complicated and so expensive?

Government contractors need the right insights into their projects, as these insights can be crucial to their business. But this can also be a moving target as your organization evolves, and you need reporting that’s flexible enough to keep up. Unanet offers robust reporting across different areas that can transform complex data into practical insights in no time. Whether you’re running built-in reports, using refreshable web queries (RWQs), or Unanet’s Analytics reports, Unanet helps you streamline reporting processes and workflows to stay ahead of the curve. Let’s dive into these options.

Choosing the Right Reporting Approach in Unanet

Not every reporting need requires the same level of complexity, and selecting the right approach depends largely on how your Unanet system is structured and how your organization uses its data. Built-in reports are often sufficient when reporting questions align with standard project, cost, and financial structures, and the system has been configured to support those needs. When additional flexibility is required to combine data or present information differently, Refreshable Web Queries extend reporting capabilities without replacing sound system design. Analytics+ serves a more targeted role, supporting exception monitoring, customer-specific requests, and focused validation beyond standard reporting.

Using Built-In Reports as Your First Reporting Option

We encourage our clients to get the most from the built-in reports in the Unanet Reports Dashboard and the new ones in Analytics. Sometimes, built-in reports are the quickest and most efficient way to get the answers we need. Your Unanet system should be configured so that built-in reports are usable and valuable. Your implementation consultant should consider how your business operates and how the work breakdown structures for your projects should be designed to ensure the built-in reports are sufficient. If the answer to your business decision questions must be derived from advanced reporting, you might have a structural misstep within your accounting system.

How Built-In Reports Support Core Business Decisions

Built-in reports often provide the fastest path to reliable information when your Unanet system is properly configured. When aligned to your project structure and business processes, they can answer many management and compliance questions without additional customization.

• Immediate availability: Built-in reports are ready to roll and save time compared to building reports from scratch
• Configurable filtering: Built-in reports offer criteria filters by project, organization, and date range
• Usability: Built-in reports are user-friendly and interactive
• Role-based scalability: Reports scale across users when permissions are properly configured
• Controlled sharing: Reports and saved criteria can be shared based on role-based access to information

If advanced reporting is required to answer basic management questions, it may indicate underlying Unanet system configuration issues rather than a reporting limitation.

Extending Unanet Reporting with Refreshable Web Queries (RWQs)

Imagine a report that updates itself in real time with information from your Unanet system, in a format your staff, customers, or other stakeholders are comfortable with. Refreshable Web Queries in Unanet allow you to pull real-time data into Excel and combine it with other elements for more information and/or a better view. The flexibility in that kind of report to analyze and manipulate data from one or more reports is the power of Refreshable Web Queries.

How Refreshable Web Queries Support Flexible and Timely Analysis

When built-in reports need added flexibility, Refreshable Web Queries extend Unanet’s reporting capabilities without requiring complex development. They allow organizations to work with current system data in familiar tools while maintaining data integrity.

• Real-time data access: They provide real-time access, which means they are always up to date with your latest Unanet data
• Excel integration: Refreshable Web Queries are seamless in Excel; you can enhance them with pivot tables and formatting, or combine information on other tabs
• Report consolidation: Through reports like Unanet’s Periodic Cost Summary and Status report, paired with Project Status Report information, organizations can see all contract-related metrics on one report rather than running multiple reports
• Simplified validation: Troubleshooting is simplified with Refreshable Web Queries in Excel, where spotting discrepancies in the reports aids in streamlining validations

Using Analytics+ for Exception-Based and Ad Hoc Reporting

Unanet’s basic Analytics+ package for reporting allows qualified users to create custom reports that can be saved, shared, exported, or emailed on a schedule. These reports may serve specialized roles by bringing in relevant data for custom reporting, or they may help monitor areas of your system that are otherwise harder to visualize.

• Are you missing a bill rate on a Labor Category?
• Do you have the incorrect Cost Element assigned to a specific project type?
• Do you need to send your customer a list of clock-in and clock-out timestamps each month?

These are all things that can be easily designed in Unanet Analytics to help your back-office staff be more efficient in their processes.

Building a Practical and Scalable Reporting Approach in Unanet

With Unanet’s built-in reports, Refreshable Web Queries, and Analytics+ reporting, organizations can take a practical, scalable approach to reporting without unnecessary complexity. When these tools are used intentionally and aligned with the system’s design, raw data can be transformed into meaningful insights that support stronger business decisions, audit support, internal validation, and consistent customer reporting. The goal is not to produce more reports, but to ensure the correct information is available to the right people based on how the business operates and how projects and costs are structured within Unanet.

Redstone Government Consulting works with government contractors to evaluate reporting needs and assess system configuration within Unanet. Our team supports Unanet implementations and optimizations and helps align reporting tools with compliance and operational requirements, so organizations improve visibility without overinvesting in custom reporting.