# Reports overview

> Reports shows how visible your brand was in AI answers over a period and what your work delivered. It is one live report with six screens and one filter bar, and every window ends at the last complete day.

sourcesignal documentation, Reports. Updated 2026-10-17. The page for people: https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/reports-overview. Every article: https://www.sourcesignal.ai/llms.txt

Reports is where you read what changed over a period and show it to someone else. It is one live report with six screens that share one filter bar. Each screen opens on a cover band: one lead number, its change where one is measured, and one sentence that explains it.

Open Reports in your project, or press g then r. Use it at the end of a week or a month, before a client call, or whenever you want to know whether visibility moved. The Overview gives you the period at a glance. For a full read, follow the order further down.

## Who the report is for

The report is written to be shown. The same report reaches three readers:

- **You and your team, in the app.** You get every screen, plus the parts that only make sense inside: agreed placements waiting for confirmation, placements awaiting a live check, pitch lines, working lists and the buttons that connect Google Analytics 4 or Search Console.
- **Your client, on a share link.** This is a white-label, read-only copy of the live report, marked "Prepared by" with your organization's name. Your client can change filters and switch screens. They see delivered wins, the movement that followed them and your commentary.
- **Anyone, as a PDF.** "Export PDF" on the Overview builds a document from the report with the filters you have open.

You add your own read of the period on the Overview with "Add agency commentary" (up to 4,000 characters). It appears on the share link and in the PDF. See [Sharing, printing and briefings](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/sharing-printing-and-briefings.md).

For your team only, the "Internal analysis" link in the tab row opens analysis tabs beside the client report: Briefing, Prompts won / lost, Prompt coverage, Citation gatekeepers, Portfolio and Data Scientist. They never appear on a share link. "← Client report" takes you back. Citation gatekeepers is covered in [Citation sources](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/citation-sources.md).

## The six screens

| Screen | What it answers | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | How visible you were in AI answers this period, and what moved | [Visibility and share of voice](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/visibility-and-share-of-voice.md) |
| Impact timeline | How visibility moved before and after each verified placement went live | [Impact and outcomes](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/impact-and-outcomes.md) |
| Topics | Where visibility is gained or lost, topic by topic | [Topics and competitors in the report](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/topics-and-competitors.md) |
| Competitors | Share of AI voice gained or lost against a fixed set of brands | [Topics and competitors in the report](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/topics-and-competitors.md) |
| Traffic & search | Supporting evidence from Google Analytics 4 and Search Console | [Traffic from Google Analytics 4 and Search Console](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/traffic-from-analytics-and-search-console.md) |
| Outcomes | The placements verified live, then the lift after pitching and your working lists | [Wins and verification](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/wins-and-verification.md) |

On the share link and in the PDF, Outcomes is called "Wins" and shows the verified placements only.

Every tab carries your filters and your chart line selection, so switching screens never resets the view.

## The time window: complete days only

Every report window ends yesterday. Today's checks are still being collected, and a half-finished day would read as a finished rate. So today stays out of every total until it ends.

- The end of the filter bar names the period every number covers, for example "25 Jun → 22 Sept · complete days".
- On the Overview, under "Visibility over time", a line shows today's progress: "Today · data collection in progress", the checks so far against the number expected, and how many named your brand. Today joins the chart once collection finishes.

## Choose the window and filters

The filter bar at the top of every screen holds one set of filters for the whole report.

| Filter | Choices | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Date range | Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, Last 180 days, Year to date, All time | Last 90 days |
| Comparison | Vs previous period, Vs previous year, Since campaign start | Vs previous period |
| Dataset | Tracked prompts, Ahrefs market | Tracked prompts |
| Platform | All platforms, ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok | All platforms |
| Topic | All topics, or one of your topics | All topics |
| Granularity | Daily, Weekly, Monthly | Weekly |

What each one does:

- **Date range** sets the period. "Year to date" runs from January 1 to yesterday. "All time" starts on the first day the screen has data for. Picking "Last 7 days" switches the charts to Daily. Leaving it switches back to Weekly unless you pick Daily again.
- **Comparison** sets what every change is measured against. "Vs previous period" is the same number of days just before. "Vs previous year" is the same dates a year earlier. "Since campaign start" is a window of the same length from your first day on record. All time has no earlier period, so the picker reads "Nothing to compare". Your choice comes back on any other range.
- **Dataset** switches between your own tracked prompts and the Ahrefs Brand Radar market benchmark. The two are never blended, and every tile and chart carries its dataset tag. The market view has no topic breakdown.
- **Platform** and **Topic** narrow the numbers to one AI engine or one topic. A win's before-and-after comparison on the Impact timeline always reads all platforms.
- **Granularity** sets the chart buckets. Weekly buckets are labeled by their Monday.

While new numbers load, the screen dims and the bar says "Updating…". Your filters live in the page address, so they survive a refresh, and a share link you copy opens with the same period, filters and chart lines. Traffic & search ignores the dataset, platform and topic filters, because traffic has no prompt or platform dimension.

Internal analysis has its own window selector with "7d", "30d" and "90d". It compares that window with the one before it ("Period: last 7d (vs. prior 7d)") and does not follow the report's date range.

## Read the report in order

1. Open Reports and set the date range and comparison you want to talk about. Keep the dataset on "Tracked prompts" unless you want the market view.
2. Read the Overview's cover band: the lead number, its change in points and the sentence under it.
3. Read "What moved". Its two or three sentences name the strongest topic movement, the wins that went live before or during it, and your share of voice and rank.
4. Scan the tiles: "Prompts visible", "Tracked share of voice", "Verified wins", "AI-assistant sessions" and "Key events from AI sessions".
5. Look at "Visibility over time". Each numbered marker is a verified win. Open one to see the movement around it on the Impact timeline.
6. Check "Topic movement" and "Competitor position". Click a topic row to open that topic on Topics.
7. Open Outcomes to confirm what you delivered this period. Then add your agency commentary on the Overview before you share.

> **Tip:** Set the period, filters and chart lines you want a client to see before you press "Share report". A link you create or copy there opens on the Overview with that period, those filters and those chart lines.

## Reading the numbers

- **Changes are in points.** 40% to 45% is +5 pts: the difference between two rates, not a relative change. The "How changes are measured" hint in the filter bar says the same.
- **A dash is never a zero.** "Insufficient data" means too few checks ran to show an honest number. "Not connected" means the source is not set up. A 0 appears only when it was measured.
- **Movement is association.** When visibility rises after a placement, the report says it followed the placement, never that the placement caused it.
- **Every definition is one step away.** Hover over or tap a hint or chip to see what it means. Open "View chart data" under any chart to read the plotted numbers as a table.
- **The report is live.** Numbers come from your latest data each time the report opens, so fixes and new data show up in the app, in new PDFs and in links you already sent.
- **A failed load says so.** If a screen cannot load, it shows "Report data unavailable" with a "Retry report" button.

## Related

- [Visibility and share of voice](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/visibility-and-share-of-voice.md): Mentions, citations, share of voice, stance and position each describe a different part of how AI answers treat your brand. Here is what each one counts, where you see it and what it leaves out.
- [Impact and outcomes](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/impact-and-outcomes.md): See what followed your work: prompts newly won and lost, the movement after each pitch and each win, and the weekly what-worked read. Every read reports association, never cause.
- [Wins and verification](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/wins-and-verification.md): A win is a live page confirmed to carry your brand, or a post you published with its link. Outcomes lists your wins and each one is checked about once a week. When a mention comes down, the account's owners and admins get an email.
- [Topics and competitors in the report](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/topics-and-competitors.md): The Topics and Competitors tabs show where your AI visibility rises or falls, subject by subject, and how your share of AI voice compares with a fixed set of rival brands.
- [Sharing, printing and briefings](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/reports/sharing-printing-and-briefings.md): Send a client the live report as a read-only link or a PDF with your organization's name on it, and share the written briefing your team gets every Monday.