ERP Report Inventory Worksheet
Most companies cannot say how many reports their ERP produces, who reads them or which are obsolete. This worksheet gives you a single list to fill in once and sort many ways, then export to Excel for the review meeting.
| Report ID | Report name | System | Type | Business owner | Runs per month | Minutes per run | Distinct users | Hours per month | Last used | Decision | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 hrs | |||||||||||
3 hrs | |||||||||||
2 hrs | |||||||||||
0 hrs | |||||||||||
1 hrs |
Pull the first list from your ERP's report or job audit log, then add the spreadsheets people keep on their own drives. Hours per month is runs times minutes per run divided by 60.
Analyze your report usage
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How to fill in the report inventory
Start with the reports your ERP can list for you: scheduled jobs, saved queries, custom report definitions and the audit or usage log. Then add the shadow reports, the spreadsheets and macros that finance and operations rebuild every week from exports. Give each a short ID, the business owner (not the developer), the number of runs per month, a typical run time and the number of distinct users. Leave decision as Review until you have talked to the owner.
- One row per report, not per variant, note variants in the name
- Owner is the person who would complain if it disappeared
- Include spreadsheets that are fed by an ERP export
What the numbers tell you
Runs per month and distinct users separate living reports from dead ones. A report with zero runs in twelve months is a retirement candidate. A report run daily by one person for five minutes is a candidate for scheduling. Reports with many users but long run times may need an index or a data extract. The hours column adds up the human cost, the first number executives usually care about when you propose consolidation.
Using the decision column
Keep means leave alone. Merge means another report already covers most of the content and the two should become one. Retire means archive the definition and remove it from menus after a notice period. Review means the owner has not confirmed. Aim to have no rows in Review before you run the rationalization checklist, because the checklist assumes owners have answered.
Common mistakes
People list only standard reports and miss the custom ones where the risk lives. They accept a developer as the owner, then nobody can say whether the report is needed. They skip the last used date, so retirement debates run on opinion. Finally, they forget to record the data source, which matters later if you migrate ERPs and need to rebuild the reports.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I get a list of ERP reports?
Most ERPs have a report or job definition list and a log of executions. Ask your administrator for scheduled jobs, saved queries and user-created report definitions. Then survey departments for spreadsheets and macros that are fed by exports.
How do I estimate minutes per run?
Use the log if it records elapsed time. Otherwise ask the owner for a typical run and include the time to export and format the result. Estimates are fine for ranking reports against each other.
How often should the inventory be updated?
Do a full pass once a year and before any upgrade or ERP migration. Between those, add rows whenever a new custom report is released so the list does not go stale.
Is this the same as a data dictionary?
No. A data dictionary describes fields and tables. A report inventory describes outputs, owners and usage. Both help in a migration, but you can build the report inventory without the dictionary.
If your report list is long and hard to read, Netray can help analyze usage logs and map reports to the underlying tables so the rebuild or retirement decisions are quicker.
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