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The reports clients find most useful
Each report should answer a question someone in the client's business actually asks. The table lists the common types, who reads them and how often to send them.
| Report | What it shows | Main reader | Suggested cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly service summary | Tickets opened and closed, open backlog, recurring issues, satisfaction feedback, with a short explanation | Office or operations manager | Monthly |
| Quarterly business review | Executive summary, last quarter's commitments, risks, roadmap, budget and decisions | Owner, finance lead | Quarterly |
| Security and backup summary | Security alerts and how they were handled, backup success, Microsoft 365 security settings, open security risks | Owner, insurer contact | Monthly or quarterly |
| Device lifecycle and warranty | Device inventory, age, warranty end dates, devices due for replacement, devices no longer checking in | Finance, operations | Quarterly, and before budget planning |
| Compliance status | Checks passed and failed against the agreed standard, evidence, open remediation items | Owner, compliance lead | Quarterly, and before audits or insurance renewals |
| Security awareness training | Completion by person or course, overdue training, phishing simulation results where used | HR, owner | Monthly or quarterly |
| Licence report | Licences owned against licences assigned, unassigned or unused licences, renewals | Finance | Quarterly, and before renewals |
| Budget against actual | Planned spend, actual spend, upcoming costs, forecast changes | Finance lead | Quarterly |
| Roadmap update | Planned projects and upgrades by quarter, with status and cost | Owner, finance | Quarterly |
| Project completion | What was delivered, what changed, open items, next steps | Project sponsor | At the end of each project |
Which reports to start with
If you send nothing today, start with two:
- A monthly service summary. It shows clients what you did and what keeps recurring, and it is easy to automate from the PSA.
- A quarterly review. It is where decisions happen. What a QBR should include has the section outline.
Add a security summary next, because owners and cyber insurers often ask about it, then device lifecycle and budget reports once you have a roadmap to attach them to. Compliance and training reports matter most for clients in regulated industries or with cyber insurance requirements.
What makes a client report worth reading
- One reader, one purpose. A finance lead and an office manager need different reports.
- A short explanation first. Two or three sentences on what changed and why, before any chart.
- Trends over time. This month against last month, or this quarter against the same quarter last year.
- Plain language. "Devices missing security updates", not "patch compliance". "Staff who have not finished training", not "LMS completion rate".
- A next step. Every report should say what you are doing about what it shows, or what you need the client to decide.
- A consistent format. Same sections, same order, same definitions, so clients can find things quickly.
Reports to avoid sending
- Raw tool exports. RMM or security console exports carry another vendor's branding and terms the client does not use.
- Activity without outcomes. "We closed 214 tickets" means little without what drove them and whether the problem is fixed.
- Internal metrics. Technician utilisation, margin and internal client health scores are for your team.
- Reports nobody asked for. If no one reads a report after a few cycles, ask why before sending it again.
Send it, or let clients look it up?
Some information is better on demand than on a schedule. Clients ask "are backups working?" or "how many open tickets do we have?" at random moments, so a dashboard or portal page answers them better than a monthly PDF. Keep scheduled reports for interpretation and decisions, and give clients a place to check current status between them. See whether clients need a live dashboard, and which metrics to include for the figures behind each report.
How MSPortal covers these reports
MSPortal builds each of these from data it syncs from your PSA, RMM, Microsoft 365, security, backup and training integrations, plus its own compliance, Planner and budget records. In the reporting module:
- Full reports offer report types including QBR, monthly, weekly, security review, ticket deep dive, project completion, client recommendations and custom. AI drafts the narrative with sources cited, for your team to review before publishing.
- Blocks cover each report in the table: ticket summaries and satisfaction, device inventory and warranty timelines, a device appendix, compliance score and progress over time, a compliance report listing every item, Microsoft 365 licences, backup and security tools such as Huntress, training, Planner and quarterly roadmap, and budget detail and forecast.
- Security awareness reporting appears when a Phin, BSN or CyberHoot integration is connected.
- Other tools' reports can be emailed to a company's import address and shown in a report.
Reports can be scheduled per client, held for approval and published to the client's branded portal or emailed. A parent company report can cover every location in one document. For compliance reporting specifically, see the compliance feature and how MSPs show clients their compliance status. The block list is in the reporting guide.
Related questions
What is the most important report an MSP sends?
The quarterly business review, because it is where the client makes decisions about risk, spending and projects. A monthly service summary is a close second, because it keeps clients informed between reviews and is the report most people actually open.
Should MSPs send security reports to clients?
Yes. Owners, boards and cyber insurers often ask about security. A short summary of alerts handled, backup success, account security settings and open risks, explained in plain language, answers those questions before they are asked.
How many reports should an MSP send each month?
Usually one: a short service summary, with a security summary monthly or quarterly depending on the client. More reports do not mean better service. Fewer, clearer reports with a dashboard for current status work better for most clients.
What should a monthly MSP report include?
Tickets opened and closed, the open backlog, recurring issues and what is being done about them, satisfaction feedback, and a brief security and backup status. Start with two or three sentences explaining the month, and end with any action needed from the client.