Generate your first report

Turn an existing dashboard into a polished, presentation-ready report with an AI-written narrative and a .pptx export. Takes about 5 minutes.

SMAQ's Report AI reads a dashboard, generates a written narrative for each chart, and arranges everything into a slide deck you can edit and export.

Prerequisites

• A project with at least one dashboard built (see Build your first dashboard).

• Editor or Owner role.

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Step 1 — Configure the source dashboard

The report is generated from the current state of the dashboard — applied filters, selected date range, hidden/shown items. Get it right before you generate:

1. Open the dashboard.

2. Set the date range to what you want the report to cover (e.g. "Last 30 days" or a fixed custom range).

3. Apply any global filters (region, channel, campaign, etc.).

4. Hide any charts you don't want in the report by toggling them off in Edit mode.

Step 2 — Pick a report theme (optional)

By default the report uses your project's default report theme. To customize:

1. Go to Settings → Report Theme.

2. Either upload a PowerPoint template (.pptx) and SMAQ will extract the style, or pick from the built-in themes.

3. Save.

Future reports will use this theme by default. You can also override per-report from the report page.

See Report themes for the full theme workflow.

[Screenshot needed] Report Theme settings tab with a custom uploaded template and the preview pane visible.

Step 3 — Generate the report

1. Back on the dashboard, click Generate Report AI in the dashboard header.

2. A progress overlay shows the AI working through the charts.

3. When done (usually 60 seconds depending on the content of the dashboard), you'll be redirected to the report page.

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Step 4 — Edit the report

The report opens in the report editor. You can:

• Edit titles, body text, and section headings.

• Reorder slides by dragging.

• Delete slides you don't need.

• Add new sections or text blocks.

• Re-run AI on a specific slide if the narrative needs another pass.

Step 5 — Export to .pptx

1. Click Export in the top-right.

2. Choose PowerPoint (.pptx).

3. The file downloads to your machine. Open it in PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides — the layout is preserved.

Tips

• Use clear chart titles on the source dashboard. The Report AI uses the title as anchor context — vague titles produce vague narratives.

• Date range is everything. A report for "Last 7 days" reads completely differently from one for "Last 90 days." Pick deliberately.

• Re-generate, don't rebuild. If the dashboard changes, click Generate Report AI again — it overwrites the previous report. Faster than editing slide by slide.

What's next

• Reports overview — list view, scheduling, additional export formats.

• Generate report from dashboard — the deeper feature reference.