ServiceNow Reports

Reports in ServiceNow turn raw ticket data into meaningful visual information. Managers, team leads, and executives use reports to understand how the IT team performs, where bottlenecks exist, and whether service levels are being met. ServiceNow's built-in report builder requires no coding — anyone with the right role can create powerful reports in minutes.

Why Reports Matter

Without reports: "How did the team do last month?"
  → Unknown. Open incidents get counted manually in spreadsheets.

With reports: One click shows:
  → 342 incidents created last month
  → 298 resolved within SLA (87% compliance)
  → 12 incidents still open
  → Most common category: Network (45%)
  → Average resolution time: 6.2 hours

Types of Reports in ServiceNow

List Report

Displays records in a table format — similar to a list view. Best for detailed exports or when stakeholders need to see individual records, not just summaries. A list report of all open P1 incidents shows each incident's number, description, age, and assigned team in a clean table.

Bar Chart

Shows counts of records grouped by a field value. A bar chart of incidents by category shows which category generates the most tickets at a glance. Horizontal and vertical orientations are both available.

Pie Chart

Shows proportional distribution. A pie chart of incidents by state shows the percentage of tickets that are New, In Progress, On Hold, and Resolved. Best when showing how a total breaks down into parts.

Line Chart

Shows trends over time. A line chart of incidents created per week over the last 6 months reveals whether incident volume is increasing, decreasing, or stable. Time-based analysis always benefits from a line chart.

Gauge

A single large number on a dial — like a speedometer. Gauges show one key metric against a target. An SLA compliance gauge showing 87% against a 90% target communicates the performance gap instantly without numbers in a table.

Heat Map

A grid where cell colors show intensity. A heat map of incident volume by day of week and hour of day reveals when the service desk receives the most tickets — useful for scheduling staff shifts to match peak demand.

Building a Report

Navigate to Reports > Create New. The report builder walks through four steps:

Step 1: Choose Data

Select the table to report on. Most operational reports pull from the Incident, Task, Change Request, or Requested Item tables. Dot-walking makes related table data available — report on incidents but show the caller's department from the User table.

Step 2: Choose Type

Select the chart type from the visual picker. Hover over each type to see a preview and a description of when to use it.

Step 3: Configure

Set the grouping field (what the X-axis or pie slices represent), the aggregation (count, sum, average), filters (only show open incidents, or only last 30 days), and date ranges for trend reports.

Step 4: Style

Set the report title, color scheme, labels, and whether to show the data table below the chart. Preview the report with real data before saving.

Filtering in Reports

Filters restrict which records the report includes. A report on SLA breaches adds a filter: SLA breached = true AND created last 30 days. Without filters, reports return all records in the table — often millions of rows — making the output meaningless.

Sharing Reports

Reports are private by default. The owner adds other users or groups as viewers. Reports set to "global" appear in every user's report library. Adding a report to a dashboard makes it visible to anyone who has access to that dashboard. Scheduled reports send the output automatically by email to a distribution list at a set time.

Report Scheduling

Administrators schedule any report to run and email its output automatically. A daily email of yesterday's unresolved critical incidents goes to the IT manager at 8:00 AM every morning. Weekly trend reports reach executives every Monday. Scheduled reports eliminate the need for anyone to manually run and forward reports on a recurring basis.

Exporting Reports

Every report supports export to CSV, Excel, PDF, or image formats. Exporting a report to Excel gives business users a raw data file for further analysis in spreadsheet tools. PDF exports are suitable for management presentations. CSV exports feed other tools or dashboards that sit outside ServiceNow.