Zoho Reports: Get Business Class Reports On A Freelance Budget

Everyone in business is looking to cut costs whenever is possible. Many new businesses may not have the initial funds to get everything they want when they first start out. Accounting and other reporting software isn’t usually top of the list of things to pay for. Zoho Reports helps you save money and still have a super professional report to share.

Like a lot of cloud applications, this service is free with limited features. The thing is, all the features and limitations present with the free version, it shouldn’t affect many freelancers or small business owners. Read on to take a look to see what Zoho Repots is going to do for you.

There are many reasons why you need a good looking report. Board meetings, loan applications or even meetings with potential investors. Having the information you want to share displayed in a professional manner can mean the difference between looking organized or not.

Creating an account

Zoho lets you sign in with your login credentials from other sites. Google Apps, Facebook, Yahoo and Google are all options. This means one less password to remember.

Importing data

If you are a larger company, you may want to keep your data in constant sync with your database. This can be done, but may cost you. If you do not need a constant sync, the free account lets you import information 3 times. This should be enough to get you through the presentation or meeting.

zoho-reports-import-data

Right after you import your data, you can have a report auto generated.

zoho-reports-auto-generate

What do the charts look like?

Here is a sample of a chart I made with a sample spreadsheet. It shows all the things you would need. You can see Zoho read the information in the fields and created a graph with a legend or key.

zoho-reports-graph

Drag and drop customizing

Even though your chart may be the most artful report you have ever created, the person reading it may not make it through the whole thing. For that reason, you will want to customize the report to display the most important information first.

Making a custom report is as easy as dragging the graphs and charts where you want them to be.

Sharing your reports

One problem you may have run into, is how do you share the report? Sure you can email it, but does the recipient have the same software you used to create it? The same version?

Sharing via email can cause a lot of headaches when trying to share your report. Zoho Reports gives you a couple of really easy ways to share your reports.

Embedding the your report into a web page or blog is one option. By adding the code provided, you can see a current view of the report.

zoho-reports-embed-code

Another option for sharing your report is by email. The difference here is, you can make the chart public or share it with a few users. The people you share the link with only need to sign into Zoho Reports to see the report.

zoho-reports-share

What else?

There are so many features and options that they cannot all be listed. I picked out a few I thought you may be interested in.

What can your small business use a professional report for?

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Trevor Dobrygoski Avatar

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