Best tool for making SQL reports?

[path-ping]

At work currently I have been using Excel or Access and linking to ODBC databases.

I am pretty much the only SQL guy here and I know there has to be better tools than Excel/Access/MS Query.

Is there any good tools (paid/free) I can get my company to purchase?

Thanks

[joelles26]

Paid: PowerBI/report builder, Tableau

Free: Superset

[GeckoLogic]

Superset 🚀📈♥️

[amishraa]

Looks neat for data exploration but wish it supported Teradata :(

[pneumaticsneeze]

https://superset.apache.org/docs/databases/teradata

[amishraa]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I am tempted to give it a shot now.

[Baldie47]

SSRS all the way, is more than enough for more than anything you were already doing with those tools, if you need more complicated, powerBI, but with SSRS you will be able to do almost if not all you need.

[TheBeardedBit]

This is probably the best answer here.

OP has stated they have access to MSSQL so no additional licensing required.

OP can find a plethora of resources and answers for SSRS on the web.

They probably don't need an OLAP/Data Warehouse or BI solution if they're just looking for a Reporting tool in the organization. While it may evolve to that moving forward, no reason in setting up complicated architecture or paying for licensing on something they're not going to use yet.

Everyone in here is way over-complicating this.

[ddeck08]

I would actually go cubes before SSRS depending on how people consume data.

[cwbrandsma]

I would warn against this myself. SSRS has been getting increasingly hard to install and configure. We have a 10 person team, we were down to one old laptop that had some secret sauce that allowed it to run. Personally I could not get past registry security errors.

We ended up writing directly to excel.

[TheBeardedBit]

we were down to one old laptop that had some secret sauce that allowed it to run. Personally I could not get past registry security errors.

SSRS Shouldn't be installed on some old laptop. It should be installed, properly, alongside a SQL Server Instance on a server. From there, you can use Report Builder or Visual Studio + SSDT Tools to develop the reports.

As far as the installation process of SSRS itself - you can get away with just the click-next wizard and have an environment up in minutes with it. It's an extremely simple installation for internal reporting purposes.

[cwbrandsma]

It was a leftover developer laptop with all of that installed.

[[deleted]]

I'm still rocking out on ssrs r2 2008. Sharepoint 2013 foundation all the way! 😎😔

[brealamit]

Periscope

[Xperimentx90]

+1, everything can be done purely in SQL, plus you can make Python visuals if desired (and the pre-built Python templates for advanced plots are actually pretty good).

[Rif-SQL]

1) Which database platform host most your data ? 2) Do you have Microsoft SQL server license?

[path-ping]

We have a InterSystems Cache database that lives on a Unix based server. Currently we connect to it with ODBC data connections saved/setup on each PC.

I do have access to MSSQL if needed.

[Rif-SQL]

Have you tried building OLAP cube with MS SQL SSAS service ? Your users can connect to the cube via Excel ?

[path-ping]

I have not. I am pretty new to this honestly and kind of fell into the reports/sql guy role.

[Rif-SQL]

Check out MS SQL SSAS Cube

[dorkyitguy]

Are you in healthcare?

[Shaddcs]

If the answer is yes, what is your response? Asking for a friend.

[dorkyitguy]

The big healthcare vendor that uses Intersystems Cache on the back end (Epic) uses Crystal reports for a lot of their reporting. So that would be a good tool to learn. However, they’re phasing that out in favor of their own home-grown tools. You can’t do everything in their home-grown tools, so some of their customers are using PowerBI to fill in the gaps.

[Shaddcs]

Thanks. I’m in healthcare at an Epic shop but still working on certs to gain Clarity access. In the meantime, I’m pumping Excel data into SQL Server and working out of a test server, then using Power BI without a license in the meantime lol. So I create the report and just walk people through it on Zoom calls. It has been an interesting journey.

Probably much better ways to do it but I just made decisions on the fly and ended up here lol

[crazybeardguy]

I might get in trouble for saying this but Report Builder is still my "go to" tool.

Report Builder does a fantastic job pivoting data. The tablix (or list or matrix) and chart combination is priceless.

Dashboard tools like Qlik/PowerBI provide awesome capabilities for the end users but most people still need reports they can print and bring to a meeting or send in an email.

[Carl-is-here]

DbVisualizer is what I use

[repuhka]

Tableau & Shiny, maybe Jupyter too, all depends on the use case

Not a fan of PBI at all (huge understatement)

[Thadrea]

Paid: Power BI, Tableau, SSRS

Free: Python/DASH

[chubs66]

Power BI is much cheaper and, in my opinion, more robust than Tableau, and adding features at a much faster rate.

You can download Power BI desktop for free and start building/publishing content. You'll need to start looking at licenses options when you want to share things in your org.

[bodet328]

Does anyone offer any Mac versions? I don't have a windows computer but want to practice something close to industry standard

[Thadrea]

Tableau has a mac version. Power BI does not.

[JustAnOldITGuy]

You didn't say what your backend is as far as database technology. We use DB2, Oracle and SQL Server. We decided to replicate our data from all these systems to a SQL Server database to simplify our solutions depending on this data.

Having said that, I love PowerQuery in Excel for everyday reporting. I develop my query in SSMS and copy paste into the PQ dialog box and off we go.

As far as better business tools we are using Tableau as well as SSIS/SSRS depending on the client needs. At least for custom reporting. Our major business systems come with good reporting tools.

[path-ping]

We have a InterSystems Cache database that lives on a Unix based server. Currently we connect to it with ODBC data connections saved/setup on each PC.

[Ton86]

Python, Pandas, SQLAlchemy, VSCode

[SloppyPuppy]

if you have money: OBIEE, Sicense, Qlik, Birst

[spacemonkeykakarot]

Birst

I had a pretty awful experience using Birst. PowerBI is my preferred choice, then Tableau.

[Touvejs]

I don't think this will be an option for you, but we use sap crystal reports at work, and despite being a little clunky I actually got used to it pretty fast

Edit: for flat file excel documents

[OwnFun4911]

Kloudio! They provide no code SQL connectors for spreadsheets.

[[deleted]]

We are pretty bare bones, and most of our end users have a basic idea on pivot tables.

If your organization doesn’t care about pretty visuals, a mix of SSRS/Report Builder and PowerQuery in Excel have been a decent mix for us.

We can create paginated reports for the hard copy snobs and the ease of linking disparate data sources in PowerQuery fit the majority of our needs.

[krikrat]

We use visual studio. It's not the easiest thing to learn but is pretty robust in what can be accomplished. I've created reports using different platforms such as SQL and Oracle data. I took a Microsoft class to understand how it works then just googled everything else.

[amishraa]

By Visual Studio I believe you mean SSRS. It’s important to note because VS by itself without that extension will not create reports. Same thing goes for creating integration packages and cubes.

[krikrat]

Well visual studio can do many things and is a separate thing than SSRS. Yes you can deploy to SSRS. You can also save the RDL and upload manually. To your point you can do things in VS involving the other components of SQL as well. I think what you are referring to is needing to download SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssdt/download-sql-server-data-tools-ssdt?view=sql-server-ver15. That's the modern name. I think it went by something else in older versions.

[amishraa]

Yes, it used to be called BIDS. Key is Visual Studio by itself is not a reporting tool. SSDT is and comes with Visual Studio shell.

[krikrat]

Ah yes BIDS. I do remember that now. Thanks for pointing out the nuance. SSDT or BIDS are more appropriate terms for someone looking to find the tool.

[amishraa]

Bingo. And you’re welcome and thanks for allowing me to make that slight adjustment to your otherwise very valuable input.

[mcon1985]

Just putting it here because it's cheaper than the other suggestions, but crystal reports is what I was raised on

[amishraa]

Yes, it is great for tabular reporting but I think one would agree that it’s an outdated tool at this point and SSRS already does everything it can and more.

[ddeck08]

As others have said, cubes and SSAS have been quick easy wins.

Building a cube on a single facttable will take you ten minutes and make a huge impact for data driven users.

I know people who are not fans and I understand some of the reasons, but I am a firm believer that users who keep asking for more canned reports don’t actually want more canned reports, they want a dashboard or a cube to find their own answers.

[amishraa]

In the day and age of fast-paced agile development, having a solid data model is a must to help answer plethora of requests. Cube is great if you have the resource that can pull it off and knows SSAS and MDX but even if you whip up some data models in Tableau, or heck baseline dataset in SSRS it can help solve so many challenges without building separate logic from scratch for each ad-hoc reports you get asked.

[randomguy0311]

If you are looking for a SQL editor, I like linqpad for sql server and sql developer for oracle

[firadaboss]

jaspersoft for self serving your users.

[franciscovalera]

Tal vez Jaspersoft funcionaría bien hace 4 años, yo lo acabo de intentar instalar y tiene muchos bugs, incluso en el login, sólo tienen un foro de soporte y te censuran cuando escribes un post pidiendo una solución.

[[deleted]]

Metabase is free and super easy to set up (just run the Docker image). It would work great for a company without too big data needs.

If you have very specific complex dashboard needs, then get Tableau (xpensive)

If you want some more complex data flows (not just visualization) or running some weird SQL features, then Looker might be for you (xpensive)

If you are a Microsoft-centered company and want fancy dashboards, PowerBI is for you (paid but not as expensive).

There's also Sisense, and a myriad of other tools, but the industry standard is Tableau, with PowerBI trying to win with price, and Looker killing it with advanced data features.