Reports give you visual breakdowns of data sitting in ServiceNow tables — incident counts by priority, change success rates over time, or user assignments by department. This guide walks you through building one using the Report Designer and getting it where others can see it.
What reports replace
Before ServiceNow reports, analysts exported data to Excel or built SQL queries to answer basic questions like 'how many incidents did we close last month' or 'which departments create the most requests.' The people asking these questions — managers, team leads, and executives — either waited days for custom extracts or logged into ServiceNow to run manual filters and count rows themselves. Reports eliminate that by turning table data into charts and graphs that auto-refresh, so stakeholders get current answers without bothering the platform team.
How Report Designer works
Report Designer pulls live data from any table you can access and turns it into bar charts, pie charts, trend lines, or filtered lists. You pick the table, choose how to group the data (by priority, assignment group, created date, etc.), set filters to narrow the scope, then select a visualization type. The report runs against current data every time someone opens it — no scheduled refresh needed unless you specifically configure one. Most reports start simple (incident count by state) then add complexity (incident count by state, grouped by assignment group, filtered to this month only).
From personal reports to dashboards
Once your basic report works, the next step is publishing it to groups or roles so the right people can find it without hunting through your personal reports. Well-designed reports get embedded into dashboards as homepage widgets, scheduled to email automatically, or linked from related forms. Advanced reports use calculated fields, drill-down capabilities, and role-based filters so different users see data relevant to their scope. The best reports answer a specific business question and update automatically as new data comes in.
Before you start
- •Read access to the table you want to report on
- •report_admin role or admin role for publishing to groups
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Step by step
Open Report Designer
Navigate to Reports > Create New. Report Designer opens with a blank configuration. The interface shows table selection at the top, visualization options in the middle, and field configuration at the bottom.
Bookmark this page if you create reports regularly — it's faster than navigating through the application menu each time.
Select your data source
Click the Table dropdown and choose the table containing your data. For incident reports use 'Incident [incident]', for change requests use 'Change Request [change_request]', etc. The table picker shows both display names and technical names in brackets. Once selected, available fields populate in the configuration area below.
Extended tables like 'Problem Task' inherit fields from their parent table 'Task' — you'll see fields from both.
Choose visualization type
Select your report type from the Type dropdown: List shows filtered records in table format, Bar chart displays counts or sums grouped by a field, Pie chart shows proportional breakdowns, and Line/Area charts track trends over time. For counting records by category (incidents by priority), choose Bar. For tracking volume over time (tickets created per month), choose Line.
List reports work well for operational data you'll export to Excel, while charts work better for executive dashboards.
Configure grouping and metrics
Set the Group By field to categorize your data — Priority for incident severity breakdown, Assignment Group for workload distribution, or Created for time-based trends. For charts, the Metric dropdown controls what gets measured: Count shows record volume, Average calculates field averages, Sum totals numeric values. Most reports use Count to show 'how many records per group'.
Add filters and conditions
Click Add Filter to limit which records appear in your report. Common filters include State (to show only active incidents), Created (for date ranges like 'last 30 days'), or Assignment Group (for team-specific views). Use 'is' for exact matches, 'contains' for partial text matches, and date operators like 'on or after' for time ranges. Multiple filters combine with AND logic.
Configure display options
For List reports, select which columns to display by choosing fields in the Fields section — Name, Priority, State, Assignment Group are common choices. For charts, set the chart title in the Title field and adjust the color scheme if needed. Leave 'Max records' at the default unless you specifically need to limit results.
Save and publish the report
Click Run to preview your report, then Save once it looks correct. Enter a descriptive Name like 'Incidents by Priority - Last 30 Days' and choose whether to save for Personal use (only you can see it) or publish to a Group or Role. For shared reports, select the appropriate group from the 'Available for' dropdown, then click Save.
Best practices
Always add date filters to reports that will be used regularly — 'all time' reports get slower as your data grows and rarely answer the business question being asked.
Use descriptive names that include the time period and key filters — 'Incident Report' tells you nothing, while 'P1/P2 Incidents by Team - Current Month' is immediately clear.
Don't publish reports to 'Everyone' unless they truly apply to all users — create role-based copies instead so people see data relevant to their scope.
Test your reports with the actual user roles who will consume them — admins see all data, but end users may see empty reports due to ACL restrictions.
Keep chart groupings under 10-15 categories or they become unreadable — use filters to focus on the most important segments.
Test Your Knowledge
Quick 3-question quiz — see how your ServiceNow skills stack up.
A list view on a table with millions of records is slow. Best fix?
Select an answer to continue