Scheduled reports

Summary#

A schedule pairs a workflow with a target and a cadence. When it comes due, Metric Vault records a run against it, raises a notification, advances the next run date, and sends the Scheduled report ready email when the schedule carries a recipient address. Creating schedules is free and unlimited, and needs the Starter plan or above.

Schedules belong to the website you had selected when you created them, and the list shows only that website's schedules. Switch website to see the others. See Working with multiple websites.

Purpose#

Recurring analysis is the sort of work that survives exactly as long as the person who remembers to do it. A monthly competitor review, a weekly technical audit on a client site, a Monday morning domain check — each is valuable and each is the first thing dropped in a busy week.

A schedule makes the recurrence a property of the account rather than of your memory. It also gives you a dated record of when each review came due, which is what an agency needs when a client asks what was done and when.

Requirements#

• The Starter plan or above. Free accounts cannot create schedules.
• A signed-in account.
• A target: a domain, or a keyword for the keyword-led workflows.

Creating a schedule costs no credits. Running the workflow it names is priced normally when you run it. See How credits work.

Permissions#

A Free account's attempt is refused by the server with This feature requires the Starter plan. Your account is on Free. Upgrade to unlock it. That message is not shown on this screen, so a refused creation looks like nothing happened — see Troubleshooting below.

Navigation Path#

Track & Report → Scheduled Reports

Step-by-Step Guide#

Create a schedule#

1. In the Create a New Schedule card, choose a workflow in Workflow to Run. The options are Competitor Intelligence (5 tools), Domain Overview, Brand Health, Technical SEO Audit, Keyword Strategy and Backlink Profile.
2. Enter the domain or keyword in Target (Domain or Keyword), placeholder e.g. nike.com.
3. Choose a Cadence. The options are Weekly (Mondays, 9am UTC), Monthly (1st, 9am UTC), Daily (9am UTC) and Bi-weekly (every other Monday, 9am UTC).
4. Press Create Schedule.

The new row appears in Your Active Schedules below, and a confirmation reads Schedule created. First report runs Mon, Sep 7, 09:00 AM UTC. with the real first-run date, so you know exactly when it fires.

Schedule from a tool result#

Several tools carry their own weekly scheduling button on the result — Backlink Profile, PageSpeed, Top Pages, Security Headers, the On-Page audit and others. Pressing it creates a weekly schedule for the domain you just analyzed and stores your account address on it as the recipient, which is what makes email delivery work.

A confirmation toast reads nike.com scheduled for a weekly report. On a Free account the refusal is shown directly: Weekly scheduling is available on paid plans. Upgrade to schedule automatic reports. The On-Page audit variant reads Weekly scheduling is available on paid plans. Upgrade to schedule automatic audits. If you press it before running the tool you get Run the tool on a domain first, then schedule it.

This is the route to use when you want the report to reach an inbox.

Read the schedules table#

Refresh re-reads the list. Before you have created anything it reads You have no scheduled reports yet. Create one above., and signed out it reads Sign in to see your schedules.

The four tiles at the top of the screen — Active Schedules, Runs Completed, Next Run and Setup Cost — are fixed labels rather than live counters. The table is the live view, and its Runs column is the real count.

Delete a schedule#

Press Delete on the row. The confirmation reads Delete this schedule? with a Delete button. The schedule and its run history are removed, and it stops firing immediately.

There is no edit. To change a workflow, target or cadence, delete the schedule and create a replacement.

What happens when a schedule comes due#

When the next-run time passes, on the following pass of the scheduler:

1. A run is recorded against the schedule.
2. The schedule's Runs count increases by one and Next run advances to the next scheduled time for its cadence (the next Monday, the 1st, and so on).
3. Nothing is sent yet. A due schedule records that it came due; it does not produce a finished report by itself. Open the workflow and run it to produce and save the analysis. That run is charged at the workflow's normal credit cost and is saved to your library like any other. See Saved Work.
4. Once that saved report exists, the scheduler matches it to the waiting run on its next pass, marks the run complete, and only then notifies you: a feed item titled Scheduled report ready: Domain Overview on nike.com, and the Scheduled report ready email if the schedule carries a recipient address.

Clicking the notification opens this screen. A failure reads Scheduled report failed: nike.com at High severity, and is sent when it happens.

Up to 20 due schedules are processed on each pass of the scheduler, and passes happen every fifteen minutes.

Email delivery#

Two conditions have to hold for the email to be sent: the schedule must carry a recipient address, and Email Notifications must be on.

The Email Report To (optional) field on this screen is not sent with the schedule, so schedules created here are recorded with no recipient and their Email column reads in-app only. Use a tool result's weekly scheduling button when you want the email, since that route stores your account address. My scheduled report never arrived covers a report that did not arrive.

Limitations#

• Each cadence runs on its real calendar boundary at 09:00 UTC: the next Monday for weekly, the Monday after next for bi-weekly, the 1st for monthly, and the next 09:00 for daily. Next run shows the exact date.
• A schedule cannot be edited or paused. Delete and recreate.
• Times are in UTC, so 9am means 09:00 UTC, not your local morning.
• A due schedule records the run rather than producing the report.
• Deleting a schedule deletes its run history.

Troubleshooting#

FAQs#

How many schedules can I have? There is no cap. Creating them is free; only the workflow runs cost credits.

Which plan do I need? Starter or above. Free accounts can open the screen but not create a schedule.

Can I send a report to a client rather than to myself? Not from this screen, because the recipient field is not stored with the schedule. The weekly scheduling buttons on tool results send to your own account address. For client-facing delivery today, export the report and send it, or share a public link. See Exporting results and Sharing a result by link.

Does a schedule spend credits on its own? No. Nothing is charged when a schedule comes due. The workflow is charged when you run it.

Can I pause a schedule for a month? No. Delete it and create it again when you want it back.

Do my teammates get the notification too? The notification is raised for the account the schedule belongs to. Teammates see the schedule itself in the list, because schedules belong to the workspace.

How soon after creating a schedule does the first run happen? At the next calendar boundary for the cadence, at 09:00 UTC: the next 09:00 for daily, the next Monday for weekly, the Monday after next for bi-weekly, and the 1st for monthly. The create confirmation shows the exact date.