Running Reports with AnalyticsHQ

Overview

Report Builder has had a substantial upgrade. It looks and works differently to the tool you're used to, and unlocks functionality administrators have been asking for: asking a question in plain English and getting a real answer back, building and sharing complete dashboards rather than single charts, reporting on statistics at the individual game level for the first time, and bringing your own data in alongside your PlayHQ data.

This article covers everything you need to run reports in the new tool — from asking the Report Assistant a question, to building a report manually field by field, to finding and managing everything you and your colleagues have saved.

The four big upgrades

1. Ask, don't build. The built-in assistant is now a genuinely capable analyst. Ask it a question about your organisation's data in plain language — no need to know field names, dataset names, or how the data is structured — and it will work out how to answer it. For most questions, this should be the first thing you try. See Asking the Report Assistant a question below.
2. New statistics datasets. You can now report on game-level statistics, not just career-level totals — tracking a participant's performance within a single season and across multiple seasons.
3. A much more powerful report builder. Beyond the assistant, the manual builder is significantly more capable: more visualisation types, more customisation, and the flexibility to assemble complete dashboards, schedule them, and work in a built-in spreadsheet with Excel-style formulas. See Building a report manually below.
4. Bring your own data. Upload your own datasets — anything outside PlayHQ — and analyse them using the same report builder tools.

How the old tool compares

Not sure where to start? If you have a question, or want to build something but don't know exactly what yet, start with the Report Assistant. If you already know exactly what you want to build from scratch, go straight to building a report manually. If you're looking for a report you or a colleague already saved, see the Reports Hub.

Before you start, make sure you have AnalyticsHQ access on your Organisation Administrator account. 

Asking the Report Assistant a Question

The assistant is the fastest way to get an answer or build a report in Report Builder 2.0, and for most people it should be the first thing you try — whether you want a quick data extract, an answer to an analytical question, or a full report. You don't need to know which dataset holds what you're after, or what any field is called: just describe what you want in plain language.

What you can ask

The assistant can help with a wide range of requests. A few examples:

• A data extract: "Show me everyone who's registered over the past few days, with their names and email addresses."
• An analytical question: "How are our registrations trending this year compared to last year?"
• A reporting request: "Build me a report which breaks down our registrants this year by their demographic characteristics."

Asking your first question

1. Open the assistant

   Go to Admin Portal > Reports — the Report Assistant is the first thing you see.

   

2. Type your question

   Describe what you want, as you would to a colleague, and send it.

    

3. Wait for the assistant to work

   You'll see it run exploratory queries on the page as it works out how to answer you. This can take up to 60 seconds for more complex questions — that's expected.

    

4. Review the result

   The assistant will return an output — a report or a data tile — along with a written summary.

If nothing appears immediately, the assistant is still working. Complex questions can take up to a minute to answer.

Understanding the response

Check what the assistant actually did before relying on the answer. Look at the filters or scope shown alongside the result e.g. organisation, date range and so on, to confirm it matches what you asked for. If something looks off e.g. an unexpected row count, the wrong date range, try being more specific, or name a record you know should or shouldn't appear, to prompt the assistant to double-check itself. 

Continuing the conversation or exploring further

Once you have a result, you have three options:

• Keep the conversation going. Ask a follow-up question — the assistant will also suggest some for you.
• Download the result, if all you needed was the data.
• Select Explore on a result tile to open it in the full report builder for further editing.

For a lot of questions, the conversation itself is the whole job — there's nothing further you need to do.

Downloading results from a conversation

To work with a result outside the platform, select Download on the output tile and choose CSV or Excel. The file exports the data as shown in the tile, including any filters applied in the conversation.

Saving results from a conversation

To keep a result for later, select Explore on the output tile. This opens the result in the regular report builder, where you can save it as a workbook or a dashboard — see Building a report manually below for what those mean. Once saved, it will appear in the Reports Hub alongside anything you build manually. 

Building a Report Manually

Building a report manually is the best option when you already know exactly what you're looking for and want to build it from scratch. If you're not sure what you need yet, or don't want to start from a blank page, try asking the assistant first — see Asking the Report Assistant a question above.

Choosing a topic

Every report starts with a topic. Topics are grouped into domains, and each topic corresponds to a dataset — for example, registrations, statistics, or finance. Related topics have also been joined together in predefined ways so that you can query across multiple datasets.

Picking a topic scopes what you can see. Once you've chosen a topic, your report (and any question you ask from within it) is limited to that dataset. If a field you expect isn't there, you may be in the wrong topic rather than missing data.

Some fields share a name across different topics. For example, "Season" can appear in more than one topic. If a report isn't behaving as expected, check which topic the field actually belongs to. 

Selecting fields, applying filters and choosing a visualisation

1. Pick your fields

   From the panel on the left, choose the dimensions (what you're grouping by) and measures (what you're counting or summing) you need.

2. Apply filters

   Use the filter bar along the top of the report to narrow the result — by date range, organisation, or any other field.

3. Choose a visualisation

   Select how you want to see the result — a table, a chart, or another visualisation type.

Downloads default to only the first 1,000 rows. If you export looks shorter than expected, increase the row limit before downloading to make sure you're not missing data. 

Saving as a workbook or a dashboard

• Workbook: a single saved report or analysis.
• Dashboard: a collection of workbooks assembled into one shareable view.

Both are saved to the Reports Hub, where you or your colleagues can reopen, edit, share, schedule or download them.

Scheduling a dashboard

Once saved, a dashboard can be scheduled to be delivered automatically — for example, emailed on a weekly cadence — so you don't need to log in to check it manually.

Reporting on custom registration questions

If your organisation collects custom registration questions, you can report on the answers directly — something that wasn't previously possible. Select the relevant topic and your custom questions will appear alongside standard registration fields.

Uploading your own data

You can upload your own datasets — anything from outside PlayHQ — and use the same report builder tools to analyse them.

Uploaded data sits alongside your PlayHQ data, not joined into it. You can view both, but you can't currently combine an uploaded dataset with a PlayHQ topic in a single report. 

Finding and Managing your Reports in the Reports Hub

The Reports Hub is where every saved report, dashboard and workbook lives — whether it came from a conversation with the assistant or from building manually. It's also where all of your organisation's pre-built reports from the previous system now live.

Who can see what you save

Content you save is visible to users who have access to your organisation. It is not visible to users outside your organisation.

Opening and copying a legacy report

This is the least intuitive step in the whole flow - take it slowly. Opening a legacy report gives you two options: download the data directly, or make a copy to edit yourself. Take a moment to check which one you actually need before choosing. 

1. Open the Report

   Find it in the Reports Hub and open it. 

   

2. Choose what you need

   To just get the data, download it directly. To make changes, look for the Explore control — this is what lets you make an editable copy.

    

3. Make your copy

   Selecting Explore creates a copy of the report that you can edit freely, without affecting the original.

What happened to your existing Reports

Two things happened, and they're worth separating clearly:

• All pre-built reports have been rebuilt and are available in the Reports Hub from day one — nothing to do on your part.
• Your own saved reports: if you'd used a saved report recently, it came across automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

What permissions do I need to use Report Builder 2.0? You need AnalyticsHQ access on your Organisation Administrator account. If you're not sure whether you have this, contact your organisation's primary administrator or contact Support.

Does this change what data I have access to? No — it's the same underlying data. What's changed is the tool you use to work with it, plus the new statistics datasets and custom-question reporting described above.

Do I need to know which dataset to use? No — that's the point of the assistant. If you want more control over which data you're working with, build a report manually instead.

Does the assistant know about my organisation specifically? Yes — it's been set up with context about PlayHQ and will scope its answers to your organisation's data.

What if the assistant gets it wrong? Rephrase your question with more detail, or point out specifically what looks wrong — the assistant can usually correct itself when challenged.

What's the difference between a workbook and a dashboard? A workbook is a single report; a dashboard brings several workbooks together into one shareable view.

Can I combine multiple datasets in one report? Yes, where they have a predefined relationship to one another. Your own uploaded data is the exception — it can't currently be combined with a PlayHQ topic in a single report.

Can I edit a report after saving it? Yes. For a legacy report, you'll need to make a copy first using Explore — see Opening and copying a legacy report above.

Can I share a saved report outside my organisation? No — visibility is limited to users with access to your organisation.

I can't find a report I used to have — what do I do? See What happened to your existing reports above, and contact Support if you need an older report restored.