Apache Superset scheduled reports automatically send your dashboards by email or Slack at regular intervals. One of the most effective ways to deliver numbers to non-Superset recipients (CEO, board, partners). This guide details the configuration and use in 2026.
1. What is it for?
- Board reporting: send the executive dashboard every Monday morning;
- Sales tracking: pipeline and last month's revenue;
- Investor reporting: monthly MRR / churn / cohorts;
- Silent alerts: weekly digest of incidents.
If you want scheduled reports without configuration, TVL Managed Superset enables the feature by default on Pro+ instances.
2. Prerequisites
- Active Celery worker + beat (cf. Celery);
- Headless Chrome installed for PNG/PDF;
- SMTP configured for emails;
- Slack token if Slack destination.
3. Create a scheduled report
- UI → Settings → Alerts & Reports → + Report;
- Type: Report;
- Owners and notification method;
- Dashboard or Chart to send;
- Format: PNG (quick preview), PDF (multi-page) or CSV (table);
- Schedule: Crontab (e.g.,
0 8 * * MON= every Monday 8 am); - Recipients: emails comma-separated, or Slack channel;
- Save.
4. Format depending on need
| Format | Use case |
|---|---|
| PNG | Quick chart preview, mobile-friendly |
| Multi-page executive reporting, archivable | |
| CSV | Raw data for Excel use |
5. Common cron schedules
| Schedule | Crontab |
|---|---|
| Every day at 8 am | 0 8 * * * |
| Monday at 8 am | 0 8 * * 1 |
| 1st of the month at 9 am | 0 9 1 * * |
| Quarterly | 0 9 1 1,4,7,10 * |
This configuration is applied by default on TVL Managed Superset, which follows community best practices.
6. Customize the email
- Subject template;
- Introduction text;
- Logo via HTML template;
- Link to the live dashboard.
7. Best practices
- Limit to 5 dashboards per recipient: too many emails = ignored;
- Explicit time range in the dashboard: otherwise the report becomes obsolete;
- Test before prod: send once to yourself;
- Use an email alias (
reports@example.com) for traceability; - Disable unused reports quarterly.
8. Common pitfalls
- Chrome not installed in worker → PNG/PDF blank;
- Incorrect WEBDRIVER_BASEURL → blank screenshot;
- SMTP timeout: Gmail sometimes blocks connections, use a transactional SMTP (Mailjet, SendGrid);
- Time zone: crontab in UTC vs local time;
- Attachments too heavy: 10 MB PDFs pass poorly in mail.
9. Conclusion
Scheduled reports are Superset's natural extension to reach non-user recipients. Properly configured, they replace Monday morning manual exports and industrialize recurring reporting.
Want the benefits of Apache Superset without the friction of installation and maintenance? Deploy your instance in 3 clicks with TVL Managed Superset, hosted in Europe (OVHcloud, Roubaix, France).
For more: Superset alerts, Slack integration, Celery async.