Reporting Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some frequently asked questions about DailyStory's reporting.

How often do reports update?

Unless otherwise noted, all reports are snapshot reports rather than representation of live data.

When a report is first requested it is built and saved. Anywhere from 5-20 minutes later it is rebuilt and saved again. During this snapshot period data in the report can lag live data by up to 5-20 minutes.

The reports run against live tables that are actively logging data. The priority is writing the log not reading the log.

How this works

It's important to understand how reports update. Below is an example using the sent emails report:

1. Joe logs in at 7:55 am and views the sent emails report.
2. If the report is not already built, the report is run and saved. Joe is then shown that report.
3. Mary logs in at 8:10 am and views the sent emails report. Most likely, she is given the same report that was generated for Joe at 7:55 am.
4. Eventually the report expires and is removed. The next viewer starts this process again

That email report does not reflect live data. Rather it is a snapshot in time.

Delays in reporting for scheduled messages

In addition to how reports update, it's also important to understand how data flows in and out of the system.

When a message is scheduled, such as an email or SMS, for a specific time there are a series of things that happen. For example, an email:

• Email is scheduled to send to 10,000 recipients at 8:00 am
• At 7:45 am the message starts queueing; this is the preparation process to process the 10,000 messages to be sent.
• Messages are scheduled starting at 8:00 am with a staggered delivery window; typically 20 minutes per-25,000 messages.
• This means the 10,000 messages will be delivered between 8:00 am and 8:20 am.
• Once a message is delivered a sent receipt is written to DailyStory's logs.
• DailyStory then waits for a delivery receipt; this receipt tells DailyStory that the message was "delivered"
• Subsequent data flows into the report over the next minutes, hours and days for opens and clicks.

Depending on current volume and load DailyStory is under this can further delay processing of sent, delivery, open and click receipts. Therefore when viewing reports it's important to understand that the report captures a snapshot of the current state of the associated report log. There are many factors that influence when the report is fully up-to-date. The further away from the scheduled send time the more accurate the report becomes.

Delays in reporting for automated messages

Scheduled messages have nuances around reporting due to volume. Messages sent via an automation have nuances related to the timing and execution of automations and related dependencies such as external data.

Automation scheduler

Automations run on a automatic schedule or a user-defined schedule. The automatic schedule runs automations every 5 minutes, but every automation is not guaranteed to run every 5 minutes. Whether or not the automation is run depends upon the last outcome of an automation. If an automation is not eligible it may not run again for 20-30 minutes.

An example of an automation that may only run once every 30 minutes is an automation that runs multiple times with no records to process. Automations that don't process data get prioritized lower than automations that are actively moving records through the workflow.

Automation triggers

Automations are driven by triggers. A common trigger is "When added to segment". This tells an automation to run when a contact is added to a segment.

Similar to the automation scheduler, segments are updated on a schedule. The smaller the segment or the higher change frequency - adding or removing contacts - the segment has, the more often the system attempts to update it. The larger the segment or the lower the change frequency the less frequently the system attempt to update the segment.

This change frequency of the segment also directly impacts when the automation is triggered.

Sending messages through an automation

When a contact is run through an automation and encounters a send action, such as sending an SMS, the message is added to the sending queue. This sending queue is processed first in / first out. Under heavy sending volume it may take up to 20 minutes to send the message as there may be other messages queued ahead of it.

Once a message is sent, all of the other mechanisms described in the "Delays in reporting" section above apply. Receipts must be processed and reports are built/saved.