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Understanding Custom Reports

Create your own Custom Reports for personalized insights.

Abby Garland avatar
Written by Abby Garland
Updated over a week ago

With the Custom Reports feature, you can easily build personalized reports, custom metrics, and dashboards tailored to your data needs. You have full flexibility to access raw data from any connected channel.

How to create a Custom Report:

This video details how to set up your first Custom Report step-by-step. In this example, we're creating a simple Total Sales report, broken down & filtered by sales channel.

Step 1: Add Metrics

  • From the left side menu launch the Custom Report builder

  • Select from a ready made template or choose metrics manually.

    • Access all available metrics from the right sidebar (search or drop-down).

    • Add up to 20 metrics per report.

    • Create Custom Metrics for advanced control over filtering and calculations.

  • Rearrange columns by dragging and dropping.

Pro Tip: You can utilize Ask Polar, our innovative AI assistant, to create reports and gain insights into any data-related questions for sources that are currently connected to Polar. You can read about this feature in more depth here.

Step 2: Apply Breakdowns and Filters

  • Click Breakdowns to add up to five Breakdowns or Custom Dimensions (e.g., Sales Channel, Product Title, or Order ID).

  • Click Filters to add rules on any metrics or dimensions to help narrow down data.

  • Select a date range using the date picker in the top right corner

  • Apply saved Views at any time.

In the example below, we break down the data by sales channel and filter it to show only web channel data.

Step 3: Apply Comparisons

Metric comparisons allow you to track performance trends over time. This helps you quickly identify growth, declines, or shifts, making it easier to adjust your strategies based on up-to-date data.

  • To see performance trends click Compare.

  • Select the Metrics you would like to compare.

  • Choose from one of the available time comparisons:

    • Custom date range

    • Previous period

    • Previous year

    • Shifted period

    • BFCM2023/22/21/20

Step 4: Lock the Date Range / Granularity

Locking the date range or granularity of your report ensures consistent tracking and comparison of data over time. By using this feature, you prevent accidental changes, allowing for more reliable insights and analysis.

  • Select the lock date range or lock granularity icon in the top left

  • Choose your date range or granularity from the options provided

  • Select Apply

When the lock is enabled on the report:

  • In the dashboards section the report's date / granularity will not follow the global date picker's change

  • In edit mode the global date picker will show as disabled

  • Schedules will adhere to the locked ranges

Step 5: Organize Your Reports

You can download your report as a .csv file directly in the editor.


Or, you can save and organize reports into dashboards for an at-a-glance view:

  • Create dashboards for different teams, regions, or products.

  • Rearrange reports by dragging and dropping in the sidebar.

  • Duplicate or rename reports as needed.

  • Download reports into a .csv file

Step 6: Schedule Reports

If you want to receive your Custom Reports automatically via Slack or email, you can add them to Schedules. For more information on setting up Schedules, check out this article.

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