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Running & previewing reports

You don't have to wait for the schedule. From the Reports screen you can check the report on screen, email a test to yourself, send it now, or open a previously saved month. Click Reports in the top menu to begin.

Report month picker

At the top right is a Report month dropdown:

  • Live (now) — pulls current data from Cove. This is the default and gives you the Preview / Send test / Run & send buttons.
  • A saved month (for example "June 2026 — saved") — opens the snapshot the app captured for that month. Because Cove can only return live data, past months come from these saved snapshots (the app captures one automatically on the 1st of each month). Selecting a saved month shows its totals and per-company breakdown, with Download PDF/.xlsx and Re-send — no live Cove pull.

Preview (check it on screen first)

With Live (now) selected:

  1. Click Preview.
  2. The status line shows "Building live preview…" while it gathers current data from Cove.
  3. A summary panel appears showing the report month, totals (devices, companies, M365 billable users, failed, stale), and each company with its device count.

Preview does not email anyone. Use it to sanity-check the numbers before sending. From the preview panel you can also Download .xlsx or Download PDF to save the report locally without emailing it.

Note

Preview pulls live data, so it takes a few seconds. If it shows an error instead, the app may not be able to reach Cove — see FAQ or tell your administrator.

Send test to me

  1. Click Send test to me.
  2. The app builds the full report and emails it only to you (the address you signed in with).
  3. The status line confirms "Test sent to \<your email>."

Use this to check the real formatting and that email delivery works, without notifying the whole recipient list.

Run & send now (choose who gets it)

  1. Click Run & send now. A recipient picker opens.
  2. Tick the saved recipients you want, and/or type extra addresses in Other addresses (comma-separated). Nothing is selected by default, so a manual run never blasts the whole scheduled list unless you choose to.
  3. Click Send (N) — N is how many addresses you picked.
  4. The status line shows "Running and sending…", then confirms it sent to N recipient(s).

This sends a live report only to the addresses you picked, right now. It is separate from the automatic monthly send and never suppresses it. Re-send (on the Reports and History screens) opens the same picker, so you can re-send a saved report to a different set of people.

On-demand runs are clearly labeled

A manual send is marked "On-demand report" with the date/time it ran and a note that it is not the automatic monthly report — in the email subject, the email body, and the PDF. The scheduled monthly email always sends the snapshot captured on the 1st (the automatic run), never a manual one, so the two can't be confused.

Warning

If it reports an error (for example "No 'To' recipients configured" or a Microsoft 365 problem), nothing partial is sent — fix the issue and try again. Microsoft 365 connection problems are resolved by an administrator.

All report runs

Below the picker, the All report runs table lists every run — scheduled and manual:

  • Ran — the exact date and time the run happened, in your local time.
  • Reporting period — the month the report covers, e.g. "June 2026". (A run on July 1 covering June shows "June 2026" here even though it ran in July.)
  • Trigger — cron (automatic) or manual (a button press).
  • Status — success, failed, or running.
  • Devices, plus PDF / xlsx / Re-send links for any saved run.

Administrators also see a Delete action on each row. Deleting removes the run and its saved PDF/xlsx permanently (useful for clearing out test runs). The same table and delete option appear on the History screen.

Info

Running or previewing a report never changes anything in Cove. It only reads your backup data and produces a report.