With the evolution of mobile technology, establishing a mobile office has become a significant trend in enterprise management. In the realm of reporting, the demand for mobile reporting has emerged as a crucial necessity for modern enterprise management.

However, during the development of mobile reports, developers frequently encounter the following challenges:

• How can reports designed on PCs be adaptively displayed on the mobile side?
• What strategies can be employed to present data more hierarchically within a limited screen space?
• Seeking enhanced interaction with data – what methods can be implemented for a more dynamic experience?

This article addresses these challenges, providing insights into efficient mobile report design and recommending powerful mobile reporting tools to simplify your work.

1. What is Mobile Reporting?

Mobile Reporting allows users to access the reports and does operations on mobile terminals such as tablets or mobile phones.

It gives you a secure way to view reports, track KPIs, update data, and make decisions anytime and anywhere, helping you respond to quick changes in the business.  

2. Mobile Reporting Design Tips

Step 1: Adjust the Size of Mobile Reports 

When designing a mobile template in a PC designer, there may be many problems in the setting of component layout and component size due to the difference in screen size.

Before designing reports, it is better to adjust the canvas size to fit the mobile phone size. In this way, the style of template content on the PC is closer to the mobile phone effect, which reduces unnecessary adjustments later. 

In FineReport, select the mobile attribute and check [Set as mobile canvas size]; the designer will automatically adjust it to the size that is suitable for the 4.7-inch phone screen (375*560).

Step 2: Design the Mobile Report Layout

The flow layout design is the most popular app layout on the C-end, also applicable to the data presented on the B-end.

Place all key indicators in a tiled manner, which is simple to develop and provides a quick overview of the content. It is better to summarize the performance in the beginning so that the managers can catch the current progress and status of indicators at a glance, then fully express each indicator the managers care about to find problems or insights. 

Step 3: Rich the Mobile Reporting Widgets 

Due to the limited screen size, if the flow layout is used, the template would be longer and longer when it continues adding the content, which requires a lot of slide movement for reading. You can make the data more three-dimensional by adding interactive actions to the entire template or a single component.

For example, you can use the tab to segment the data into several parts. The segmentation logic can be at the same or different levels.

Step 4: Modify the Details of Mobile Reports

How to improve your mobile reporting templates while presenting the data? This can be a little bit difficult for developers. Here are some tips. 

1. Banner

It is common to use the banner to improve the beauty of the mobile template. 

Generally, the banner will be placed at the top. Here are some structures:

Report Title + Company’s logo

User Name + Company’s logo

Report Title + Main Index 

2. Index card

Due to the limit of screen size, we should make good use of every inch of the mobile space. The index card can help you display the data in a reasonable structure.

3. Combination 

We usually use widgets to visualize the data; similarly, we can also take advantage of the report blocks. In each block, you can combine colors, progress bars, and growth trends to make the data more prominent.

4. Color Matching 

Don’t ignore the consistency of colors when selecting the colors.

In the color table, extracting the color according to some rules and apply to their report or chart, can achieve color coordination of the visual effect. For example, you can select the colors of the same color system horizontally. 

Or select color vertically 

Or select color diagonally

Step 5: Preview the Mobile Reports 

Finally, a mobile report template is completed. You can preview on the mobile terminal by scanning the QR code with your mobile phone. When the network is not good, you can open the offline mode and view the report offline. Besides, you can set a regular message push to notify the managers to check the reports on mobile.

1) Click the arrow under the Preview button in the report designer and select [Mobile Preview].

2) A page containing a QR code appears in the browser.

Scan the QR code with your mobile phone to view the report. The mobile phone and the current PC should be in the same network environment.

3. Mobile Reporting Tools 

FineReport makes the templates used in the tutorials above. FineReport is a reporting software that provides a mobile reporting solution called FineMobile.  

FineMobile’s function experience is as cool as that of the PC side. It mainly has four unique advantages for mobile devices. 

1. Interactive 

FineReport provides excellent interactive operations to deal with dynamic reports.

Drilling &linkage: The mobile side supports data analysis functions such as drilling down and data linkage between charts.

Parameter query: On the mobile side, users can use the query button under the bottom funnel button for data filter and display.

Pinch-Zoom Gesture: FineMobile supports pinch-zoom gesture. You can click zooming to view the details.

2. Rich features

Message Push: FineReport supports integrating with Line or other apps. You can set the timing frequency and trigger conditions to push messages to realize real-time data notifications and warnings.

Annotation Sharing: Users can make annotations and share them with colleagues by email or Line for further discussion on the mobile terminals.

Offline Viewing: When the network environment is not good, the offline mode will be enabled.

3. Data collection on the mobile side 

Scanning & Inputting: You can scan a QR code or barcode with a mobile phone camera to achieve data queries and data entry. 

Mobile Data Entry: FineMobile supports various types of widgets for users to collect data anytime and anywhere, as well as supports data validation and submission for temporary storage.

Photo Uploading: You can upload, and submit photos with mobile phone cameras.

4. Security guarantee

To escort mobile data security, FineMobile inherits data permission settings from the PC side, binds MAC addresses to mobile devices, and supports VPN channel encryption. 

4. Summary of Mobile Reporting

FineReport is free for personal use, you can download it for a free trial.

To install the FineMobile, you can search for ‘Data Analyst’ in the APP Store,

or download the APP by scanning the QR code on our official website: https://www.finereport.com/en/

FineReport has been implemented and utilized by nearly 38,000 enterprises or institutions in their reporting projects. Embark on your exciting data journey with FineReport!

For enterprise users, connect with us to receive an exclusive quote on our premium enterprise edition, designed to propel your business with cutting-edge solutions tailored to your specific needs in dynamic reporting.

Also, please feel free to make an appointment for a live demo with our product experts. We will be more clear about your needs and see how FineReport can help you and your organization transform data into value.