When a client report does not arrive, check the data before you check the delivery. A report is only as fresh as the last successful sync, and a sync that fails overnight can leave you with a report that is missing, stale or half empty. Which of the three you get depends on the tool, so find out what yours does before a client does.
TLDR: Run seven checks in this order: platform connection, last sync time, date range, recipients, schedule and time zone, report contents, and file size or link access. Then send a manual copy the same day with two lines of context, and fix the cause before the next scheduled send.
The seven checks, in the order they usually fail
| # | Check | What you are looking for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Platform connection | Any profile showing as disconnected or needing re-authorization |
| 2 | Last sync time | A timestamp older than a day, or a profile with no recent data |
| 3 | Date range | A report set to "last month" sent on the 1st, before final numbers land |
| 4 | Recipients | Typos, an old address, or a client mail filter holding it |
| 5 | Schedule and time zone | A send time that fell before the sync, or in a different zone than you assumed |
| 6 | Report contents | A removed profile or an empty section that stopped the build |
| 7 | File size or link | A large PDF bounced by the client's mailbox, or a share link with the wrong access |
Start at row 1. In Mydrop's publishing data the most common hard failure was an expired platform connection, and in our experience the same cause is behind most reports built on stale numbers.
Why the data fails before the email does
Platforms expire access tokens, ask for re-authorization after a password change, and sometimes revise numbers a day or two after posting. A report sent at 06:00 on the 1st of the month can pull day-old totals and look wrong without anyone seeing an error.
Two habits prevent it. Schedule reports for the 2nd or 3rd of the month, not the 1st. And add yourself as a recipient so you see every report when the client does.
Check the inbox side, too
If the data is fine and the report still is not there, look at the recipient:
- Ask the client to search spam and any quarantine folder, and to allow the sending address.
- Confirm the address with a short plain email. A typo here sends reports into the void.
- Large PDFs with many charts can exceed a mailbox limit. Send a share link instead of an attachment.
- If the client uses a company link-scanner, a shared link may be blocked once and work the second time.
The same-day fallback
Do not wait for the next cycle. Export the report as a PDF or open its share link yourself and email it with a message like:
"Hi Sam, here is June's report. The automatic send did not go out, so I sent it manually. Headline: reach up 14%, three leads from tagged links. Happy to walk through it on Thursday."
Two lines of context, no apology paragraph. The client cares about the numbers, not the plumbing.
A pre-send routine that takes five minutes
Run this on the day before each scheduled send:
- Open every connected profile and confirm none is flagged.
- Check the last sync time on each one.
- Skim the report for empty sections or zeroes that look wrong.
- Confirm the recipient list matches the client's current team.
Five minutes before a send beats an hour of apologizing after one.
What to do about a report that is wrong rather than late
A report that arrives with strange numbers is worse than one that does not arrive. If reach or followers show a sudden drop to zero, assume a sync failure, not a real collapse. Compare against the native platform insight for one profile, and hold the report until the two match. Sending a wrong report and correcting it costs more trust than a one-day delay.
Fix it for good
Once the cause is found, write it in the client's workspace notes. Mydrop's scheduled reports support recurring delivery and share links, and a no-login client portal gives clients a place to open the latest report even if an email goes missing. If numbers still look wrong after a re-sync, read our checklist for analytics data that stalls.
Next step: open your next scheduled report today, confirm all profiles are connected, and add your own address as a recipient.
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