Learning Insights

Good reporting should make life easier, not harder. A small amount of time spent getting it right can save you hassle later, free up time for other things, and help you show that the effort going into learning is actually paying off. That is what this guide is for.

Let’s be honest, reporting often ends up as one of these:

This guide is here to stop that.

It shows you a simple way to get a clear view of learning activity, quickly, in a format you can actually use and share with confidence. That might be for a quick check, a manager conversation, or combining learning data with the other measures you already track.

Watch this for a quick sense of why good reporting is worth your time, and how it can make your job easier, sharper and more effective.

There are three main ways to make use of your learning data. Each has its place.

You do not need to be technical to use any of these well. You just need to be clear on what question you are trying to answer, and who it is for.

Before you pull a report, stop and ask what you actually want to know.

A good question makes it much easier to choose the right approach and get something useful back.

Quick checks

Manager conversations

Proving investment

Bigger picture

Once you know the question, it becomes much easier to choose the simplest way to answer it.

This is a short watch with a few simple habits that can help you stay focused, ask better questions and get more value from the data you already have.

If you want a quick view without building anything, start with a dashboard. It is a visual way of seeing what’s going on, built into the platform.

These are great for everyday checks, quick updates, keeping managers in the loop, and spotting when something does not look right in the platform.

Use them when you want to answer:

Report Builder lets you pick the data you want, arrange it in a way that works for you, and then narrow it down to exactly what you need. You can then view it there, which is often all you need, or export it if you want to use it elsewhere.

You can build reports around:

You can then add as many rules as you need to focus on a particular part of the picture.

That makes it easier to do simple counts, checks and comparisons. It also helps you check that the right learning is going to the right people, that everything is set up as expected, and what is happening across the platform.

Use learning data in the tools you already use

Once you have the exact view you need in Report Builder, getting that data out is simple.

You can export it quickly and use it in tools like Excel or Google Sheets, or in any other tool that can import a CSV file, which is a very common format. That is often all you need for sorting, sharing and straightforward analysis.

For many people, that will work just fine.

If you use tools like Power BI, Tableau or Looker Studio, there are also more automated and more advanced ways to bring learning data into those. Those options are there if you need them, but a simple export is often enough.

The goal is simple. Learning data should not sit in a corner on its own.

Sometimes you do not want to build anything. You just want the answers in a clean format you can use.

That is where the Google Sheet comes in.

It takes a Report Builder export and turns it into a clearer view of:

It is designed for people who are not spreadsheet experts, but if you are, it is still a great starting point. It does the heavy lifting for you.

You can still filter in Report Builder first, so the sheet only shows the data you want to focus on. That could be by organisation structure, courses, course type, people, job roles, or any combination that matters to you. That means you stay in control without wading through everything.

And yes, it looks clever. No, you do not need to understand how it does it.

We have chosen Google Sheets because it is powerful, online and easy to access across different systems. You do not need a Microsoft Excel licence to open it, which makes it easier for more people to use, share and work from the same version.

The Google Sheet also lets us use advanced formulas to do the heavy lifting in the background. You do not need to understand those formulas to use the dashboard, but they are there if you want to look, learn from them or adapt the approach for your own reporting.

The Google Sheet can handle up to 50,000 rows of exported data. If your export is larger than this, use filters in Report Builder before exporting. For example, you could filter by organisation group, course type, date range, active users, or mandatory learning.

Open the Google Sheet here.

You will need to be signed in to a Google account to make your own copy of the Google Sheet. This gives Google somewhere to save your copy and lets you edit it with your own export.

A Google account is free and can usually be created with any email address, not just a Gmail address. If you are using a work device or work email, your organisation may have its own rules about this.

Once copied, the Google Sheet is yours to use.

When you open it, start with the Instructions sheet. It explains how to prepare your export, where to paste your data, and which sheets to use. It is a quick read, and it will save you time once you start using the Google Sheet.
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Watch this to get a simple walkthrough of how to take your export, add it to the Learning Insights Dashboard Google Sheet, and start getting useful results quickly.

The Google Sheet is simple to use, but a few basics are worth keeping in mind:

If those stay right, the Google Sheet will do the rest.

You do not need to do everything at once.

Start with one question. Pick the simplest tool that answers it.

Use dashboards for quick checks, Report Builder when you need detail, and the Sheet when you want a clear, shareable view without building your own reporting setup.

That is usually more than enough to turn learning data into something useful.
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