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Tutorial

Runbook: Build Your First AI Report

Account: VITAG (Vitagen Labs)
Navigation: Operations → Reporting → AI Reports

When to Use This Runbook​

Use when you want custom business insights that aren't available in the built-in report library — answered in plain English, no SQL required. Also use this when setting up a recurring dashboard from saved reports.

Who handles this: Owner, or anyone with Reports access.

Reference: 12-reporting-analytics.md for a full reference on the reporting system.

Step 1: Open the AI Report Builder​

  1. Go to Operations → Reporting in the left sidebar

  2. Click AI Reports

  3. The AI Report Builder opens with a chat interface

The prompt reads: "Let's unlock the insights hiding in your ecommerce data! Just tell me what you're looking to learn..."

Step 2: Ask Your First Question​

Type your question in plain language. Be specific about:

  • What you want to measure (revenue, orders, subscriptions, customers, products)

  • What time period (last 30 days, this month, Q1, year-to-date)

  • How you want it displayed (table, bar chart, line chart, pie chart)

Start with this sequence for VITAG — run these 5 reports in order:

Report 1: Revenue baseline

"Show me daily revenue for the past 30 days as a line chart."

This establishes your revenue trend and flags any unusual days (big spike = successful campaign; big drop = potential issue).

Report 2: Best sellers

"What are my top 10 products by revenue this month? Show as a bar chart."

Tells you what's driving the business. If one product is 80% of revenue, that's a concentration risk worth knowing.

Report 3: Subscription health

"How many active auto orders (subscriptions) do I have right now, and what is the total monthly recurring revenue?"

For a subscription supplement brand, this is the most important number in the business.

Report 4: Traffic attribution

"Show me revenue by UTM source for the past 30 days as a pie chart."

Tells you which ad channels (Google, Meta, TikTok, email, organic) are producing revenue — essential for ad spend decisions.

Report 5: Failed billing exposure

"Show me how many auto orders have a failed billing status in the past 7 days and the total value at risk."

Tells you how much subscription revenue is currently in danger. Any number above zero needs immediate action (see recover-failed-subscription-billing.md).

Step 3: Refine If Needed​

If the report doesn't look right, type a follow-up to the AI:

  • "Can you break that down by week instead of day?"

  • "Show the same data but only for orders over $50"

  • "Add the number of orders to this chart alongside revenue"

  • "Switch to a table view instead of a chart"

The AI will regenerate the report with your refinement applied.

Step 4: Save the Report​

  1. Once the report looks correct, click Save

  2. Name it clearly: use a format that includes what it shows and when:

    • ✅ "Daily Revenue — Rolling 30 Days"

    • ✅ "Top Products by Revenue — Monthly"

    • ✅ "Active Subscriptions + MRR — Current"

    • ❌ "Report 1" (useless name in 3 months)

  3. The saved report appears in your AI Reports list and is available to add to a dashboard

Step 5: Build a Dashboard​

After saving multiple reports, combine them into a dashboard:

  1. Go to Operations → Reporting → Reports Dashboards

  2. Click New Dashboard

  3. Name it: "VITAG Daily Operations" (or "Marketing Performance", "Subscription Health")

  4. Click Add Report to add each of your saved reports as tiles

  5. Arrange tiles in the layout that makes sense — most important metrics at the top

  6. Save

Open this dashboard every morning to see the business at a glance. No individual reports to run — everything refreshes automatically.

Useful Prompts by Business Question​

Keep this section as a reference library of prompts that work:

Revenue

  • "Show me daily revenue for the past 30 days as a line chart"

  • "What's my revenue this month compared to last month?"

  • "Show total revenue by state for the past month as a map"

Subscriptions

  • "How many active auto orders do I have and what is the MRR?"

  • "Show subscription churn rate by month for the past 6 months"

  • "Which products have the highest subscription cancellation rate in the last 90 days?"

  • "Show me subscriptions that have been active for more than 12 months" (your highest-LTV customers)

Products

  • "What are my top 10 products by revenue this quarter?"

  • "Which products have been ordered most in the last 7 days?"

  • "What percentage of orders include Product X and Product Y together?" (cross-sell insight)

Customers

  • "What is the average number of orders per customer in the past 6 months?"

  • "How many new customers vs. returning customers placed orders this month?"

  • "What is the average order value for new customers vs. returning customers?"

Marketing / Attribution

  • "Show revenue by UTM source for the past 30 days as a pie chart"

  • "Which UTM campaign has the highest average order value?"

  • "Show me orders from email vs. paid ads vs. organic this month"

Operational

  • "How many orders are in processing right now?"

  • "Show me failed billing auto orders from the past 7 days"

  • "What is my refund rate by month for the past 6 months?"

Scheduling a Report for Email Delivery​

Any saved AI report can be scheduled to email automatically:

  1. Go to Operations → Reporting → Schedule Reports

  2. Click Add Scheduled Report

  3. Select your saved report

  4. Set frequency (daily, weekly, monthly), time, and recipient email addresses

  5. Save

Recommended schedules for VITAG:

ReportFrequencyTimeRecipient
Daily RevenueDaily7:00 AMOwner
Failed BillingDaily8:00 AMOwner + CS lead
Top ProductsWeekly (Monday)8:00 AMOwner + Marketing
MRR + Active SubscriptionsWeekly (Monday)8:00 AMOwner
Revenue by UTM SourceWeekly (Monday)8:00 AMMarketing

Troubleshooting​

IssueSolution
AI returns an error or no dataThe time range may have no data yet (e.g., asking for 6 months of data on a brand new account). Try a shorter window.
Numbers don't match what you expectCheck the date field — the report may be filtering on order date vs. ship date vs. payment date. Specify in your prompt: "based on order date"
Chart is hard to readAsk the AI to switch chart types: "show this as a table instead" or "show as a bar chart sorted by highest revenue"
Report takes very long to generateVery large date ranges with complex queries take time. If it times out, break into smaller ranges (e.g., month by month).
Saved report shows stale dataAI reports run fresh each time you open them — they always show current data. The "saved" part is just the query, not a cached result.
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