Insights
Insights is the next step in building powerful reports from your cloud data. With Insights, you can begin transforming your raw data into a reportable format, and then share that data with others, in the form of email notifications or charts & dashboards.
> Got a little more time? We have a [detailed blog post here](https://blog.synchub.io/insights).
## How does Insights work?
Insights is a multi-tier architecture. Each layer builds on the one before it, but they can each be used independently as well. Not coincidentally, the tiers coincide with a typical BI workflow:
1. Build a SQL query
2. Stage/cache your data into a reportable format
3. Visualize & share your report
### Step 1/3 - Building a query
If you haven't already done so, build your query using our [Query Editor](/kb/snippets?api=employmentheropayroll).
### Step 2/3 - Stage your data
Each Insight creates a dedicated SQL table in your data warehouse, then populates that table with the results of the query you created above.
You can run this procedure automatically every day, ensuring that your data is up to date and ready when you need it.
### Step 3/3 - Share your data
If you're using your existing reporting tool, like [Power BI](/kb/powerbi?api=employmentheropayroll) or [Tableau](kb/tableau), then this may be as far as you need to go with Insights.
However for many, these tools are overly complicated. And if you are one of these people, we offer a suite of simple Reports and Dashboards to help you visualize your Insight and share it with others.
Visit the _Dashboards_ link under your main menu to get started.
## Stuck for ideas?
Insights are much more than pretty reports. Here's a few ideas to get you started:
- localize dates to your preferred timezone
- speed up your dashboards by staging just the last few days of orders
- import supplementary data that is not provided by your cloud service, such as customer birth dates or employee salaries
- segment financial data so that only approved colleagues can view it
- obfuscate sensitive data such as employee bank accounts or identifying information
You may also like to check our [Services Store](https://www.synchub.io/services/reports) for a ready-made report offered by one of our approved partners.