Reports & PDF distribution | ATX AnalyticsTable Handbook

Reports & PDF distributionEvery chart type, pivots, timelines and annotations on the sheet — composed into a branded, traceable PDF that runs on a schedule. The Reports tab puts presentation objects directly on the sheet, beside the numbers they describe. Its Charts group has one button per chart type — Column, Bar, Line, Area, Pie, Combo, Heatmap, Waterfall, Histogram, Forecast, Clusters and Key drivers — and the Pivot group adds pivot tables and project timelines; nine annotation shapes complete it. Every chart on a sheet is the same object as a dashboard chart, reading a grid range, a pinned query or a database table. Annotations anchor to cells rather than to coordinates, so a note stays attached to the figure it explains when rows move. Distribution is the PDF report (Export → PDF report): an ordered list of blocks — ranges, pins, SQL, any chart, a whole dashboard, text — printed as one document with a cover, a table of contents, branding, security options and an appendix tracing every figure to its source, written to a local, network or cloud destination and scheduled like any other export.

What it does

Charts on the sheet — one button per type: Column, Bar, Line, Area, Pie, Combo, Heatmap, Waterfall, Histogram, Forecast, Clusters and Key drivers — the same engine and settings as the dashboard
Three sources for every sheet chart and pivot: a grid range (including one on another sheet), a pinned query chosen by name, or a database table read straight from a connection
Comparison charts — column, bar, line, area, pie and combo (columns and lines together, each series its own type)
Heatmaps in rows × columns or matrix layout, with date grouping by month, weekday or hour, a configurable colour scale and midpoint, conditional colour rules, totals and outlier flags
Waterfall bridges from an opening figure to a closing one, with totals, subtotals, breakdown and a variance mode for actual against budget
Histograms — select a column first and it binds at once; bins, normal and density curves, percentiles, spec limits and statistics
Forecasts — select a date | amount block and both columns bind, with the period guessed from the dates; prediction intervals, scenarios and accuracy printed under the chart
Pivot tables floating over the sheet, beside the rows they summarise
Project timelines bound to a table, with milestones, phases, title, footer and branding
Nine annotation shapes — line, arrow, double arrow, elbow line, rectangle, ellipse, block arrow, text box and speech bubble — with colour, fill, transparency, connector tails, z-order and cell anchoring
PDF report blocks: a cell range printed with its formatting, a whole sheet, a pinned query, SQL results, a database table, any chart, pivot, timeline or shape from a sheet, a whole dashboard as one picture, text, label-and-value lists, page breaks, an AI explanation box that explains one table, chart, pivot or dashboard from its own numbers, and a data story
PDF page and branding: A3 to Tabloid, portrait or landscape, cover page with logo, table of contents, headers and footers with {page}, {pages}, {date} and other tokens, repeated table headers, row caps and fonts and colours
PDF security: a classification banner, a diagonal watermark, a password to open the file, and print, copy, change and comment permissions
Destination folder and file name accept ${param} — positions_${today}.pdf writes a dated file each run — to a local or network folder or a cloud storage connection
An appendix listing every block's source, row count, the parameter values used and when the report was generated
Ask Greg can propose a saved PDF report from ranges, pins, charts, dashboards, SQL and text blocks — placing it does not print it

How it works

Report objects live on the sheet beside the data, so the numbers and their presentation stay in one reviewable artefact.
Selecting a range before clicking a chart button binds the new chart to it; a single cell or no selection gives an unbound chart whose source is chosen in its settings.
A shape anchored to a cell records which point of the shape attaches to which cell and how far off it sits, so edits do not scatter the annotations.
Export → PDF report opens the designer: the order of the block list is the order of the printed document, and each block has a title, caption, heading level and a start-on-a-new-page toggle.
A schedule stores only which report to print, never a copy: an unattended run re-reads every block — queries re-run, histograms re-count, forecasts re-fit — so the PDF holds the numbers as at the moment it ran.
A block whose sheet, pin or object has been deleted says so in the designer and prints a visible note rather than a silent gap.

Practices that keep it reliable

Anchor every annotation — an unanchored callout is a future support ticket
Pick the chart by the question the page answers; a forecast with its test forecast drawn over history earns more trust in a board pack than a bare projection
Put the reconciliation detail in the PDF appendix rather than on the headline page
Use ${param} in the file name so every scheduled run writes its own dated PDF instead of overwriting yesterday's
Schedule the PDF after the export and backup steps in the same sequence, so it always reads settled values

In a regulated environment

Branding and page setup are part of the saved configuration, so a distributed report looks the same regardless of who ran it.
PDF security options cover the distribution case where the recipient is outside the organisation — permissions are only enforced when an owner password is set.
The appendix makes a printed figure traceable months later: source, row count, parameters and generation time for every block.
Polish and other Central European characters print correctly — the PDF writer embeds its own font.

Screens

A report sheet — charts, annotations and the numbers they describe, in one place.
Reports — the Pivot, Charts and Shapes groups: summaries, chart types and annotation shapes for the sheet.
Export → PDF report — blocks, page setup, branding, security, appendix, destination and schedule.
Project timelines — milestones and phases bound to a table, not drawn by hand.
Design — number formats, conditional formatting, colour scales, data bars and icon sets.

Related guides

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