{"id":10526,"date":"2020-08-14T16:32:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T08:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/?p=10526"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:35:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:35:32","slug":"reporting-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/reporting-system.html","title":{"rendered":"Reporting System: Key Features, Design Tips &#038; Top Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When discussing the reporting system, folders loaded with spreadsheets, graphs, and commentaries may come to mind. With the development of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/enterprise-reporting.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">enterprise informatization<\/a><\/strong>, various types of data are produced, and the demand for reports systems surges day by day. Many enterprises are eager to establish a reporting system to address the challenges of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/report-generation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report generation<\/a><\/strong> and management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s discover how to choose a great <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/best-reporting-tools-list.html\" target=\"_blank\">reporting software<\/a><\/strong> and design the architecture to efficiently build a reporting system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Report-System-Sample.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"741\" src=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Report-System-Sample-1024x741.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Report-System-Sample-1024x741.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Report-System-Sample-300x217.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Report-System-Sample-768x556.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Report-System-Sample-1536x1112.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Report-System-Sample-360x261.jpeg 360w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Report-System-Sample.jpeg 1597w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Report System-<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\">FineReport<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-cyan-blue-to-vivid-purple-gradient-background has-text-color has-background\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fanruan.com\/en\/finereport\/download-trial-b\" style=\"border-radius:50px;color:#fffffa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Try FineReport For Free<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"toc_transparent no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#1_What_is_a_Reporting_System\">1. What is a Reporting System?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#2_Software_to_Build_a_Reporting_System\">2. Software to Build a Reporting System<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#3_How_to_Design_a_Reporting_System\">3. How to Design a Reporting System?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#4_A_Summary_of_Reporting_System\">4. A Summary of Reporting System<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h2><span id=\"1_What_is_a_Reporting_System\">1. What is a Reporting System?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-color\">The reporting system, also known as a reports system, is a broad term encompassing various applications that extract data from databases, organize this data into reports, and manage and distribute these reports to decision-makers. <\/span><\/strong>This facilitates better-informed business choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A good reporting system should be convenient for report developers to generate reports. And it is supposed to provide a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/reports-portal.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>reporting portal<\/strong><\/a> for managers to manage and distribute reports. Making operation and maintenance easy is also of great importance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span id=\"2_Software_to_Build_a_Reporting_System\">2. Software to Build a Reporting System<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two ways for enterprises to build <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/best-reporting-tools-list.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>reporting systems<\/strong><\/a>. One is using open-source tools and code such as Python to develop systems. The other is to use commercial <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/best-reporting-tools-list.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reporting tools<\/a><\/strong>, such as <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FineReport<\/a><\/strong> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/crystal-reports-alternatives-and-comparison-with-finereport.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Crystal Reports<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the help of open-source tools, it is more efficient to develop reports than before using <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/product-functions\/2019s-best-reporting-tool-that-reaches-far-beyond-excel.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Excel<\/a><\/strong>. For open-source reporting tools, you can refer to this article\uff1a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/free-and-open-source-reporting-tools.html\" target=\"_blank\">Top 10 Free and Open Source Reporting Tools in 2020<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, there is no service guarantee. When meeting technical difficulties or bugs, it will pose a threat to the stability of the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using commercial reporting tools is common in enterprises to build reporting systems. It can save you time in developing reports and free you from the burden of operation and maintenance. For popular reporting tools on the market, you can refer to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/best-reporting-tools-list.html\" target=\"_blank\">Best Reporting Tools List in 2020 and How to Choose<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span id=\"3_How_to_Design_a_Reporting_System\">3. How to Design a Reporting System?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on the process from data to knowledge, a standard reporting system&#8217;s functional structure is shown below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"378\" src=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022702I-1024x378.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022702I-1024x378.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022702I-300x111.png 300w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022702I-768x283.png 768w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022702I.png 1642w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It is composed of three functional parts: the underlying data, data analysis, and data presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The underlying data is in charge of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/management-reporting.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">data management<\/a><\/strong>, covering data collection, ETL, building a data warehouse, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The data analysis part is responsible for extracting data from the data warehouse, using the query, OLAP, and data mining to analyze data, and forming the data conclusion with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/data-visualization\/top-16-types-of-chart-in-data-visualization.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">data visualization<\/a><\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the end, at the data presentation level, display data insights in the form of reports and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/data-visualization\/top-16-types-of-chart-in-data-visualization.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">visual charts<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-color\">Take <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FineReport<\/a> as an example, which is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/best-reporting-tools-list.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reporting software<\/a> that has been adopted by 11,000+ companies in building their reporting systems.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FineReport is developed using a three-tier architecture, connected to the data source through a relational database interface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"663\" src=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022703I-1024x663.png\" alt=\"reporting system architecture \" class=\"wp-image-9483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022703I-1024x663.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022703I-300x194.png 300w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/2020022703I-768x497.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>All business processing is done in the designer (the middle tier) and finally presented to the user through the parsing server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"482\" src=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2-1024x482.png\" alt=\"reporting system structure\" class=\"wp-image-10488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2-1024x482.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2-300x141.png 300w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2-768x362.png 768w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/image-2.png 1456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-color\">The data layer<\/span> <\/strong>of<strong>&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/\">FineReport<\/a>&nbsp;<\/strong>supports multiple data sources and&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/features\/data-integration\"><strong>data integration<\/strong><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-color\">The application layer<\/span><\/strong> of FineReport is in charge of the main functions and business logic. You can design, generate, and manage reports in this part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FineReport can display <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/dynamic-reports-interactive-reports.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>dynamic reports<\/strong><\/a> and dashboards on the PC, mobile, and TV screens <span class=\"has-inline-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-color\"><strong>in the presentation layer<\/strong> <\/span>because the charts in FineReport are developed by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/html-report.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HTML5<\/a><\/strong>, which can be used cross-platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, when you generate a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/sales-report.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sales report<\/a><\/strong> with the sales data stored in the CRM, the presentation layers will send API calls to the data layer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The data layer will run the query and return the outcomes in the form of a web page to the application layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, the application layer will send the page to the browser, where the presentation layer shows the reports on a laptop or other devices.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With this reporting system architecture, you only need to install the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/reporting-tools\/report-designing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report designer<\/a><\/strong>. The project will be deployed to the server.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this way, other users can directly access the report as long as there is a browser on the computer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"673\" height=\"573\" src=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/2020051101I.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10066\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/2020051101I.png 673w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/2020051101I-300x255.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 673px) 100vw, 673px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides, once the report requirements change, it is very convenient to design locally and then publish it to the remote server by switching the working directory or directly editing the report files on the remote server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For companies, it only needs to deploy the project once, and then it can be designed directly and remotely, making migrating reports convenient and improving efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span id=\"4_A_Summary_of_Reporting_System\">4. A Summary of Reporting System<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>An effective reporting system is crucial for the business. The process of building a reporting system requires choosing an <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>efficient reporting software<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>FinReport used above has been adopted by 11000+ companies in building their reporting systems. You can download it for a <strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-color\">free trial<\/span><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fanruan.com\/en\/finereport\/download-trial-b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"337\" src=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/finereport-en-1024x337.png\" alt=\"Free Trial of FineReport\" class=\"wp-image-13464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/finereport-en-1024x337.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/finereport-en-300x99.png 300w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/finereport-en-768x253.png 768w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/finereport-en-1536x505.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/finereport-en.png 1720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A good reporting system should be convenient for report developers generating reports. And it is supposed to provide a report portal for managers to manage and distribute reports. Making operation and maintenance easy is also of great importance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[138],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[4628,5462,5461,5456,5466,5452,5463,4634,5453,5454,5455,5440,5394,2660,1944,5445,418,371,774],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10526"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19849,"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10526\/revisions\/19849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10526"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finereport.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}