Reporting

Read time 9 min Level Intermediate Prerequisites A client with coverage logged, and a report template designed in Report Designer

In a nutshell: Reporting is where you turn captured results into client-ready output. Three tabs cover three audiences -- CLIENT REPORT, RETAINER REPORT, STORY REPORTING. A Client Report runs from a template you designed in Report Designer, assembled here section by section: set the period, switch on the sections you want, preview, then Click & Deliver Report and the finished PDF lands in your inbox. The Client portal handles the live, always-on view that runs alongside the formal PDFs.

What you will learn

The three tabs and the audience each one serves.
How a Client Report is built -- from a template designed in Report Designer to a delivered PDF in your inbox.
The section sub-tabs inside a Client Report and what each one contributes.
How the formal PDF and the Client portal complement each other.
Why CQI and the Success Score are the substantive measures -- and how to frame AVE if a client asks.

The mental model

Reporting is the output step. The thinking about what a Client Report contains happens upstream: a Client Report's layout, sections and styling are a template built on the separate Report Designer page. On the Reporting page you pick a client, choose a reporting period, switch on the sections you want for this run, preview, and deliver. Acme PR Corp generates the Globex Wellbeing Index 2026 client report from here once the launch fortnight is done.

The flow: design a template in Report Designer → pick client, period and sections on Reporting → Preview → Click & Deliver Report → PDF lands in your inbox.

Three tabs split the audience, not the format:

CLIENT REPORT -- the flagship full report for a client.
RETAINER REPORT -- a lighter retainer-period summary.
STORY REPORTING -- a single-Story report for handing over one launch.

And alongside every formal PDF, the Client portal gives clients a live, always-on view of their coverage. The PDF is the delivered moment; the portal is the running picture.

The three tabs

CLIENT REPORT: The flagship report. Select the client, set the REPORTING PERIOD, complete SOCIAL SETUP if you want social sections populated, work through the section sub-tabs your template enables, then GENERATE. Templates come from Report Designer.
RETAINER REPORT: A lighter retainer-focused report. Sub-tabs: REPORTING PERIOD, EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, TIMESHEETS, PREVIEW, GENERATE REPORT. Built around the retainer client, period and an executive summary you write, with interview, content and social coverage for the period folded in. Ideal for monthly retainer touchpoints; Client Report is the move when you want full template flexibility.
STORY REPORTING: A report scoped to one Story rather than the whole client relationship. Perfect for handing over the results of a single launch on its own.

Building a Client Report, section by section

Inside CLIENT REPORT, once you have picked the client and the period, a row of section sub-tabs appears. Which sub-tabs you see depends on the template; the full set includes:

REPORTING PERIOD -- the date window the report covers.
SOCIAL SETUP -- connect Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn so social sections can draw data.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY -- the rich-text narrative for the front of the report.
FACEBOOK REPORT, INSTAGRAM REPORT, LINKEDIN REPORT -- per-platform social sections, each with its own executive-summary text.
SHARE OF VOICE REPORT -- compare the client's coverage volume against the search folders you nominate.
SENTIMENT REPORT -- the sentiment picture for the period, driven by your monitoring analysis.
INDUSTRY SECTOR REPORT -- coverage broken down by sector.
KPI REPORT -- progress against the client's KPIs.
IMAGE LIBRARY and REPORT IMAGES -- hero images and gallery shots for the report.
CANVAS PAGES -- custom-designed pages bound into the report.
GENERATE -- the final sub-tab. Preview the assembled report, then Click & Deliver Report to queue it and have the PDF emailed to you.

The sub-tabs are how you tune what is in this run -- switching the template's sections on or off for this specific report. Template structure itself lives on Report Designer.

Why deliver-by-email rather than render-in-browser? Long reports with social sections, share-of-voice charts and image galleries take real time to assemble. Queueing them frees you to keep working and lands the finished PDF in your inbox when it is ready -- ready to forward to a client without a re-render in between.

The Client portal alongside the PDF

Two client-facing surfaces, both useful, each for a different moment:

The delivered PDF is the formal milestone -- the monthly, quarterly or campaign-end document with the executive summary, the charts and the narrative the client expects in their inbox.
The Client portal is the always-on view. The client logs in (or opens the link) and sees live coverage charts that update as coverage is logged. Useful between formal deliveries, when the client wants to check in.

Set both up -- one for the boardroom, one for the day-to-day. They reinforce each other rather than compete.

The measurement framework: anchor on Barcelona, not AVE

Reporting is where measurement meets the client -- the moment your numbers either build trust or undermine it. The framework that makes numbers stand up is the Barcelona Principles, set by AMEC (the Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication), refreshed in 2020 to version 3.0. Seven principles that move PR measurement from outputs to outcomes. The full picture lives in The Barcelona Principles in Practice (Course 3); the summary you need for a client conversation is here.

Why AVE retired

You may still see Estimated AVE (Advertising Value Equivalence) surfaced as a headline figure in legacy templates. AVE multiplies coverage by a notional ad rate -- and the Barcelona Principles explicitly retire it. Four reasons:

It treats earned and paid as equivalent. Editorial endorsement has different credibility, different reach pattern, different conversion behaviour from paid advertising.
It ignores tone. A scathing front-page expose calculates the same AVE as a glowing feature.
It rewards volume over value. Inflated by low-tier coverage that boosts the figure but does not move the dial.
It uses notional ad rates that are themselves often discounted or untransparent.

What to anchor on instead

Two measures, both fixed and both rooted in the Barcelona framework:

CQI -- Coverage Quality Index -- 35% outlet tier, 35% sentiment, 30% message pull-through. The Barcelona BP5 (quality of outputs) measure on every piece of coverage.
Success Score -- 25% CQI, 25% Coverage, 25% KPIs, 25% Completion. The Barcelona BP6 (measurement and evaluation) headline for the whole Story.

When a client asks about AVE, frame it as a contested industry proxy and walk them to CQI and Success Score. Both stand up in a boardroom. Both align to the language the global PR measurement industry uses.

Try this: Open Reporting > CLIENT REPORT, pick your most active client and set REPORTING PERIOD to last month. Walk the section sub-tabs your template enables -- write a tight EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, check the SHARE OF VOICE and SENTIMENT sections, drop a hero image into IMAGE LIBRARY. Go to GENERATE, hit Preview to confirm the assembled report looks right, then Click & Deliver Report. Check your inbox for the finished PDF and forward it to the client.

Frequently asked

What are the three tabs for?: Three audiences: CLIENT REPORT (the full client view), RETAINER REPORT (the retainer-period view) and STORY REPORTING (one launch on its own).
Where do I design or edit the template?: On Report Designer, reached from the REPORT menu. Reporting consumes the templates Report Designer produces.
How do I get the finished PDF?: On the GENERATE sub-tab: Preview first, then Click & Deliver Report. The PDF is emailed to your inbox, ready to forward.
How does the Client portal fit in?: The portal is the live, always-on view for clients between formal PDF deliveries. Coverage charts update as coverage is logged. Use both: the PDF for the moment, the portal for the running picture.
Why both a Retainer Report and a Client Report?: Retainer Report is lighter and built around the retainer period and an executive summary, with timesheets included. Client Report is the fuller, template-driven format with more chart options and finer filtering. Pick the one that fits the cadence.
How should I handle AVE if a client asks?: Frame it as a contested industry proxy and point them at the measures that hold up: CQI (35/35/30) and Success Score (25/25/25/25), which roll up under the AMEC Barcelona outcome principles.
What does Social Setup do?: It connects Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn so the per-platform report sections can be populated. Skip it if the report does not include social.

Key takeaways

Three tabs serve three audiences: CLIENT REPORT, RETAINER REPORT, STORY REPORTING.
A Client Report runs from a template designed in Report Designer; Reporting assembles it section by section.
GENERATE = Preview, then Click & Deliver Report. The PDF arrives in your inbox.
The PDF is the formal milestone; the Client portal is the always-on view. Both serve the client -- use them together.
Anchor measurement conversations on CQI and Success Score rather than AVE.