About this lab#
This is a guided course, not a reference. You start with an empty Windows server, install Reportworq, and finish with a working reporting system that emails a board pack to the people who need it. Every lab is a task you actually perform, in order, with the reason for each step alongside the step itself.
The worked example throughout is Timberline Harvest Co., Reportworq's own demo company. Its workbooks, planning model, and reports are the material you build with, so the reports you produce are the reports a real finance team would recognize, not toy examples. See the Timberline Demo System guide for what the company is and what is in it.
Who this is for#
Anyone standing Reportworq up for the first time, on their own server or a trial one: the administrator who installs it, and the report author who then builds on it. The labs assume you know Excel well and your planning system reasonably well. They assume nothing about Reportworq.
If you already have a running server and only want to look at what Reportworq can do, the Timberline guide is the faster route. Come here when you want to build it yourself and understand why each piece is set the way it is.
How every lab reads#
The labs share one shape, so you always know where you are:
| Heading | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| What you are doing | The task in business terms, the way somebody would ask for it |
| What this shows you | The Reportworq capability the lab is really about |
| Before you start | Prerequisites, and what an earlier lab must have left in place |
| Part A: the source file | What is in the workbook and why it is built that way |
| Part B: in Reportworq | The job itself, step by step, with the exact control labels |
| Part C: what you got | Where the output lands and how to read it |
| Why it works this way | The design decision behind the step, and the trap people fall into |
| Try this | One deliberate change, so you prove you understood it |
| Going deeper | Links into the other guides, for the full detail |
Install and setup labs use Parts A to C for the stages of the install rather than for a workbook, but the rest of the shape holds.
The labs#
Work through them in order. Each one assumes the one before it.
| Lab | What you build | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Lab 1: Install Reportworq on Windows | A running server and the service account your jobs will use | Available |
| Lab 2: First-run setup and licensing | The repository, the Timberline demo content, your license, and your first sign-in | Available |
| Lab 3: Connect your data and your source files | A report provider and a data-source connection | Planned |
| Lab 4: Your first report, one output | The Financial Statements pack: one workbook, one parameter, one output per market | Planned |
| Lab 5: One deck, a section per division | The board pack: Excel to PowerPoint, and a page per item | Planned |
| Lab 6: A file per division | The divisional pack: cascading parameters, and one output per item | Planned |
| Lab 7: An email people actually read | The dashboard email body, with a chart and a live table | Planned |
| Lab 8: Depth and AI commentary | The sales pack: several parameters, generated tabs, and AI-written commentary | Planned |
| Lab 9: Put it on a schedule | Scheduling, holds, and watching a run in Activity | Planned |
How this fits with the other guides#
The labs are deliberately narrow. They walk one correct path and explain it. When you need the full picture, the other guides carry it:
- Administrator Guide is the complete install reference, including Linux, containers, and every option the labs skip.
- User Guide is the reference for reports, parameters, bursting, distribution and scheduling.
- Timberline Demo System describes the finished reports the labs build toward.
Going deeper. Each lab ends with its own links into those guides, at the exact point where you have just done the thing they describe.
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