Scheduling & Automation

Scheduling & Automation

Automation is a powerful feature that keeps your dashboards up-to-date and ensures stakeholders receive timely reports without manual intervention. This guide covers everything you need to know about dashboard automation in Querri.

Setting Up Scheduled Refreshes

Scheduled refreshes ensure your dashboard data stays current automatically.

Creating a Refresh Schedule

1. Open Dashboard Settings: Navigate to your dashboard and click the settings icon
2. Select “Automation”: Find the automation section in settings
3. Click “New Schedule”: Create a new automated refresh
4. Configure schedule: Set frequency, time, and options
5. Activate: Turn on the schedule to start automation

Refresh Frequency Options

Choose how often your dashboard should update:

Hourly:

Example: Every hour at :00
Use case: Real-time operational dashboards
Cron: 0 * * * *

Daily:

Example: Every day at 8:00 AM
Use case: Morning executive summaries
Cron: 0 8 * * *

Weekly:

Example: Every Monday at 9:00 AM
Use case: Weekly performance reviews
Cron: 0 9 * * 1

Monthly:

Example: First day of month at 10:00 AM
Use case: Monthly business reviews
Cron: 0 10 1 * *

Custom:

Example: Every weekday at 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM
Use case: Beginning and end of business day
Cron: 0 6,18 * * 1-5

Advanced Scheduling

For more complex schedules, use cron expressions (covered in detail in Scheduling Basics):

Multiple times per day:

Every 4 hours: 0 */4 * * *
Every 6 hours: 0 0,6,12,18 * * *

Business hours only:

Every hour from 9 AM to 5 PM on weekdays: 0 9-17 * * 1-5

End of quarter:

Last day of March, June, September, December: 0 0 31 3,6,9,12 *

Timezone Settings

Ensure your schedules run at the right time:

1. Set dashboard timezone: Choose the timezone for your schedule
2. Consider user locations: If viewers are in different timezones, choose UTC or the primary audience’s timezone
3. Daylight saving time: Querri automatically handles DST transitions

Example:

Dashboard: Sales Performance
Timezone: America/New_York
Schedule: Daily at 8:00 AM EST/EDT
Cron: 0 8 * * *

Refresh Options

Configure what happens during each refresh:

Full Refresh:

• Updates all widgets
• Runs all data queries
• Clears cache
• Longest execution time

Partial Refresh:

• Updates only changed widgets
• Skips cached data
• Faster execution
• May miss some updates

Smart Refresh:

• Detects which data has changed
• Only refreshes affected widgets
• Balances speed and accuracy
• Recommended for most dashboards

Email Reports

Automatically deliver dashboard insights to stakeholders’ inboxes.

Creating an Email Report

1. Open Automation Settings: Navigate to dashboard automation
2. Click “New Email Report”: Create a new automated report
3. Configure schedule: Set when reports should be sent
4. Add recipients: Enter email addresses
5. Choose format: Select PDF, PNG, or HTML
6. Customize message: Add context and instructions
7. Activate: Enable the email report

Report Formats

PDF Reports:

• Best for: Formal reports, archiving, printing
• Includes: All widgets, filters used, metadata
• Customization: Header, footer, page breaks, branding
• File size: Medium to large

PNG Images:

• Best for: Quick visual updates, email previews
• Includes: Screenshot of dashboard
• Customization: Resolution, dimensions
• File size: Small to medium

Interactive HTML:

• Best for: Recipients who want to explore data
• Includes: Embedded dashboard with limited interactivity
• Customization: Filter controls, responsive design
• File size: Medium to large

Email Customization

Make your reports professional and informative:

Subject line templates:

[Dashboard Name] - [Date]
Daily Sales Report - January 15, 2024

[Dashboard Name] - [Period]
Weekly Marketing Performance - Week 3

Custom with variables:
Sales Dashboard - ${revenue} revenue this week

Message body:

Hi Team,

Here's your weekly sales performance report for ${date_range}.

Key highlights:
• Total revenue: ${total_revenue}
• Top region: ${top_region}
• Growth vs last week: ${growth_pct}

View the full dashboard: ${dashboard_link}

Best regards,
Querri Automation

Attachments:

• Include PDF report as attachment
• Add data exports (CSV, Excel)
• Attach supporting documents

Distribution Lists

Manage recipients efficiently:

Individual recipients:

john.doe@company.com
jane.smith@company.com

Group lists:

List name: Executive Team
Members: CEO, CFO, COO, CTO

List name: Regional Managers
Members: All regional sales managers

Dynamic lists:

Based on data: Email top 10 salespeople
Based on roles: Email all users with "Manager" role
Based on performance: Email teams that exceeded targets

Conditional Delivery

Send reports only when certain conditions are met:

Threshold-based:

Send only if: revenue > $100,000
Send only if: error_rate > 5%
Send only if: customer_satisfaction < 80%

Change-based:

Send only if: revenue changed > 10% from last period
Send only if: new_customers > 50

Alert-based:

Send only if: anomaly detected
Send only if: goal not met
Send only if: system error occurred

Automated Exports

Save dashboard data automatically for archiving, backup, or external use.

Export Formats

CSV (Comma-Separated Values):

• Universal compatibility
• Easy to import into other tools
• Good for raw data
• Lightweight files

Excel (XLSX):

• Multiple worksheets for different widgets
• Formatted numbers and dates
• Charts and formatting
• Good for business users

JSON:

• Machine-readable format
• Good for APIs and integrations
• Preserves data structure
• Good for developers

SQL Dump:

• Direct database export
• Good for backups
• Includes schema and data
• Good for data teams

Export Destinations

Cloud Storage:

• Amazon S3
• Google Cloud Storage
• Azure Blob Storage
• Dropbox Business

File Servers:

• Network drives
• FTP/SFTP servers
• WebDAV

Data Warehouses:

• Snowflake
• BigQuery
• Redshift
• Databricks

Collaboration Tools:

• Google Drive
• Microsoft OneDrive
• SharePoint
• Confluence

Export Scheduling

Set up regular automated exports:

Schedule: Daily at 2:00 AM
Format: CSV
Destination: s3://company-bucket/dashboards/sales/
Filename: sales_dashboard_{YYYY-MM-DD}.csv
Retention: Keep last 90 days

Incremental Exports

For large datasets, use incremental exports:

Export type: Incremental
Filter: created_at > last_export_timestamp
Merge strategy: Append new records
Checkpoint: Store last export timestamp

Monitoring Dashboard Jobs

Keep track of your automated tasks to ensure they’re running successfully.

Execution History

View a log of all automation runs:

Job Details:

• Job name and type
• Start time and duration
• Status (Success, Failed, Running, Skipped)
• Data rows processed
• Error messages (if any)

Filtering and Search:

Filter by: Status = Failed
Filter by: Date range = Last 7 days
Filter by: Job type = Email Report
Search: "Sales Dashboard"

Success/Failure Tracking

Monitor the health of your automations:

Success Metrics:

• Success rate percentage
• Average execution time
• Data freshness
• Delivery rate (for emails)

Failure Analysis:

Common failure reasons:
• Data source timeout
• Query error
• Network connectivity issue
• Permission denied
• Insufficient resources

Trends:

• Track success rate over time
• Identify patterns in failures
• Monitor performance degradation

Alerts and Notifications

Get notified when something goes wrong:

Notification Channels:

• Email
• Slack
• Microsoft Teams
• SMS (for critical alerts)
• Webhook (for custom integrations)

Alert Conditions:

Alert when:
• Job fails 3 times in a row
• Execution time exceeds 10 minutes
• Data export size is unusually large or small
• No data returned from query
• Email bounce rate exceeds 10%

Alert Templates:

Subject: Dashboard Automation Failed: ${dashboard_name}

Dashboard: ${dashboard_name}
Job Type: ${job_type}
Failed At: ${timestamp}
Error: ${error_message}
Retry Attempt: ${retry_count}

Action Required: Please review the dashboard configuration.

View Details: ${job_details_link}

Troubleshooting Failed Runs

When an automation fails, follow these steps:

1. Check the error message:

Error: "Connection timeout to data source 'Sales_DB'"
Solution: Verify database is accessible and credentials are valid

2. Review execution logs:

• Look for warnings before the failure
• Check which step failed
• Examine query performance

3. Test manually:

• Run the dashboard refresh manually
• Check if data sources are accessible
• Verify all widgets load correctly

4. Common fixes:

Connection errors:
✓ Verify credentials
✓ Check firewall rules
✓ Confirm data source is online

Query errors:
✓ Validate SQL syntax
✓ Check column names
✓ Verify data types

Email delivery errors:
✓ Confirm email addresses are valid
✓ Check spam filters
✓ Verify email service is configured

5. Retry settings:

Retry policy:
Attempts: 3
Delay: 5 minutes between attempts
Backoff: Exponential (5 min, 15 min, 45 min)

Performance Optimization

Ensure your automations run efficiently:

Query Optimization:

• Add appropriate indexes
• Limit result sets
• Use aggregated tables
• Avoid complex joins

Scheduling Best Practices:

• Stagger multiple automations
• Avoid peak usage times
• Schedule heavy jobs during off-hours
• Use incremental updates when possible

Resource Management:

• Set execution timeouts
• Limit concurrent jobs
• Monitor resource usage
• Scale infrastructure as needed

Automation Best Practices

1. Start Simple

Begin with basic automations and add complexity as needed:

• Single daily refresh before adding multiple schedules
• One email recipient before distribution lists
• Manual testing before full automation

2. Document Your Automations

Keep records of what’s automated and why:

Dashboard: Sales Performance
Automation: Daily email report
Recipients: Regional managers
Schedule: 8:00 AM weekdays
Purpose: Daily standup preparation
Owner: Sales Operations team
Last modified: 2024-01-15

3. Monitor Regularly

Review automation health weekly:

• Check success rates
• Review execution times
• Verify recipients are correct
• Update schedules as needs change

4. Plan for Failures

Have contingency plans:

• Set up alerts for failures
• Document troubleshooting steps
• Have manual backup processes
• Assign ownership for issues

5. Consider Costs

Automation can increase resource usage:

• Database query costs
• Storage costs for exports
• Email delivery costs
• Processing costs

Balance automation frequency with actual needs.

Next Steps

• Scheduling Basics - Master cron expressions and advanced scheduling
• Automated Reports - Deep dive into email report customization
• Monitoring Automations - Advanced monitoring and alerting

Automate your dashboards to save time and ensure timely, reliable insights for your team!