Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

An Overview of Project’s Reports

Although the information in graphical and visual reports overlaps a little, you use each type of report for different reasons. With the program’s new graphical reports, you can produce dashboard views of project data to make project status easy to see. Project information can appear in several formats within a single graphical report. For example, the Cost Overview report includes one chart comparing progress and cost, another chart showing actual and remaining cost for top-level tasks, and a table that displays numerical cost values for top-level tasks.

Visual reports, on the other hand, are ideal when you want to look at project performance from different angles. For example, you can run a visual report to check work status month by month, then flip the report to look at work hours by task, and then switch to evaluating work hours by resource. Visual reports can summarize results at the project level, and then drill down to details by task, resource, or time. Visual report tools let you change the fields, resources, and timeframe you see. Visual reports are Excel pivot tables or Visio pivot diagrams that present project information. (To use an Excel or Visio visual report, you need to have Excel or Visio, installed on your computer.)

How you run a report depends on which type it is:

• To run a graphical report, head to the Report tab’s View Reports section, click a report category (explained below), and then choose the report.

• To run a visual report ...