How to Create a Daily Report in Looker
A daily report isn't just another task to check off your list, it's the heartbeat of your business operations. Having a consistent pulse on your key metrics allows you to spot trends, catch problems early, and make quick, informed decisions instead of waiting until the end of the week. This guide will walk you through setting up and automating a daily report in Looker so you can get the insights you need delivered straight to you without any manual effort.
Why a Daily Report is a Game-Changer
In a fast-moving business, yesterday’s data can feel like ancient history. Daily reports keep you grounded in the present. Think about it: an ad campaign could be draining your budget with poor results, a broken checkout flow could be tanking sales, or a viral social media post could be sending a flood of valuable traffic your way. Without a daily check-in, you could miss these critical events for days.
The main hurdles are time and complexity. Nobody has an extra hour every morning to dig through data and build a report from scratch. This is where automation comes in. By setting up a daily report once, you can have your most important numbers delivered to your inbox or Slack channel automatically, making data a simple, effortless part of your daily routine. It turns data analysis from a chore into a quick, glanceable update that prepares you for the day ahead.
Before You Build: What Belongs in Your Daily Report?
Jumping straight into Looker without a plan is like going to the grocery store without a list. You’ll end up with a lot of stuff you don’t need. A focused daily report is far more effective than a cluttered dashboard. Before you build, take a few minutes to define what truly matters.
1. Identify Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
What are the 3-5 metrics that tell you if you had a good or bad day? Your daily KPIs should be a direct reflection of your most immediate goals. Don’t try to track everything, focus on the vital signs.
An e-commerce manager might track: Daily Revenue, Conversion Rate, Add to Carts, and Average Order Value.
A marketing team leader might focus on: Ad Spend, Leads Generated, Cost Per Lead (CPL), and Website Sessions.
A sales manager could monitor: New Deals Created, Demos Booked, and Calls Made.
Choose metrics that are actionable. Knowing the number of clicks is fine, but knowing the cost per lead tells you more about performance and lets you decide whether to adjust your campaign spend.
2. Keep it Scannable and Simple
Complexity is the enemy of a daily report. The goal isn’t deep exploration, it's a quick, high-level overview. Stick to visualizations that can be understood in seconds.
Single Value Visualizations: Perfect for displaying a big, bold KPI like "Yesterday's Revenue."
Line Charts: Excellent for showing a trend over the past 7 or 14 days, giving context to yesterday's number.
Simple Tables: Useful for breaking down a key metric by a single dimension, like "Sales by Campaign."
Resist the urge to pack in complex pivot tables or multi-axis charts. Save those for your more in-depth weekly or monthly analyses.
Step-by-Step: Creating a Daily Report in Looker
With your KPIs defined, you’re ready to build the report in Looker. We’ll build a simple report showing daily new users over the last 14 days, which is a common and useful metric for many businesses.
Step 1: Start with an Explore
In Looker, every report starts from an "Explore." Think of an Explore as a data playground your analytics team has set up for you. It’s where you can access specific sets of data (like website events, user data, or sales records) to build reports.
From the main navigation in Looker, click on Explore.
Find the Explore that contains the data you need. For our example, we'll use an Explore that might be named "Users" or "Website Activity."
If you're ever unsure which Explore to use, ask your data team. Just tell them what you're trying to report on (e.g., "I want to see daily signups"), and they can point you in the right direction.
Step 2: Select Your Dimensions and Measures
Once you're in an Explore, you'll see a list of fields on the left side of the screen. These are broken down into two main types:
Dimensions: These are the things you can group your data by (blue columns). Think of them as attributes or labels, like a date, a country, or a campaign name.
Measures: These are the numbers you want to calculate (orange columns). They are quantifiable metrics, like a count of users, a sum of revenue, or an average session duration.
For our example report on daily new users:
Under Dimensions, find a date field, such as Created Date. Click on it to add it to your report.
Under Measures, find a relevant metric, like User Count. Click it to add it.
Now, click the Run button in the top right corner. You'll likely see a big table of data showing the total count of users for every single date you have in your database.
Step 3: Filter for the Correct Timeframe
The raw data isn't a daily report yet. We need to filter it to show only the recent, relevant period.
Find the Filters section above your results.
Our dimension is Created Date, so we'll filter on that field. Click the "Filter" button next to Created Date.
In the filter dropdown, select "is in the past."
Enter "14" and choose "complete days" from the dropdown. This will show you data for the last 14 full days, which is great for seeing a short-term trend leading up to yesterday.
Click Run again to apply the filter. Your table will now be much smaller and more focused.
Step 4: Visualize Your Report
A table of numbers is useful, but a chart is often easier to interpret at a glance.
Click on the Visualization tab (next to the "Data" tab).
Looker has lots of chart options. For our trended data, a Line chart is a perfect choice. Select it from the chart types.
Looker will generate a preview. You can use the "Edit" menu to customize colors, labels, and axes if you wish.
Step 5: Save Your Report as a "Look"
Once your visualization looks right, you need to save it. In Looker, a saved, single report is called a "Look."
Click the gear icon in the top right corner.
Select Save > As a new Look.
Give your Look a descriptive title, like "Daily New Users (Last 14 Days)."
Add a short description if you'd like, and choose which folder to save it in (your personal folder is a good start).
Click Save.
Nice work! You’ve just built and saved your first custom report in Looker.
Automating Your Report for Daily Delivery
This is where the magic happens. A saved report is good, but an automatically delivered report is great. Let's set up a schedule to have this report emailed to us every morning.
With your saved Look open, click the gear icon again.
This time, select Schedule Delivery. A new window will pop up.
Under Recurrence, select "Daily." You can then choose a specific time, such as 8:00 AM, and set the correct time zone. You can also specify certain days of the week (e.g., weekdays only).
Under Destination, choose Email. Enter your email address and any team members you want to receive the report.
In Format, you have a few good choices:
Inline Visualization: This puts the chart directly into the body of the email. It's the most "glanceable" option and is perfect for a quick, visual update.
PDF or PNG Attachment: This attaches the chart as an image or an easy-to-share file.
CSV Attachment: This attaches the raw data in a spreadsheet format, which is useful if you want to do any further analysis. For a simple daily check-in, the inline option is usually best.
Click Send Test to receive an example email and verify everything looks correct.
Once you're satisfied, click Save.
That's it! Your report is now fully automated. Every morning at 8:00 AM, Looker will run the report for you and send the updated chart straight to your inbox.
Bonus Tip: Schedule to Slack
If your team lives in Slack, emailing reports can feel outdated. Looker integrates with Slack, allowing you to send scheduled reports directly to a channel. To do this, your Looker admin first needs to configure the Slack integration. Once that's done, "Slack" will appear as an option under Destination in the scheduling menu. You can send it to a channel like #marketing-kpis or #daily-sales-updates to keep everyone on the same page.
Final Thoughts
This article took you through the entire process of planning your metrics, building a visual report in a Looker Explore, and setting up an automated daily delivery. Turning data into a simple, scheduled habit frees you up to act on insights instead of getting stuck wrestling with reports, giving you a powerful advantage in steering your business day-to-day.
Of course, getting all your data into a Looker-ready format can be a big project in itself. We created Graphed because we believe getting answers from your data shouldn't be so complex. You can connect sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, and your ad platforms in a few clicks. Then, instead of navigating menus, you just ask questions in plain English, like "Show me daily revenue from Facebook Ads over the last 30 days," and we automatically create the dashboard for you. It's all about getting to the insights faster, without needing to be a data expert.