Overview
The Activity Reporting feature lets you track the performance of individual posts on your screens. Once tracking is enabled on a post, Pilot CMS records every activation, deactivation, and on-screen display, giving you a clear picture of how long and how often content has been shown.
Reports include:
- Total time the post was in the active queue
- The number of times the slide was actually displayed on a screen
- Calculated screen time (displays × slide duration)
- A visual activity timeline showing active and inactive periods
- A full event history of every on/off toggle
⏱Tracking is not retroactive. Activity is only recorded from the moment tracking is enabled on a post. Historical data before that point is not available.
1. Who can use it
Access to reports is controlled per user. Admins always have full access. Standard users need to be granted permission explicitly by an admin.
| Role | View Reports | Grant Report Access |
|---|---|---|
| 👑 Admin | ✔ Always | ✔ Yes |
| 👤 Standard User (with permission) | ✔ Yes | ✘ No |
| 👤 Standard User (without permission) | ✘ No — button is hidden | ✘ No |
How to grant report access to a user
- Go to Manage Users from the sidebar menu.
- Click Edit next to the user you want to give access to.
- In the permissions section, check “Allow this user to view activity reports”.
- Click Save User Account.
💡Users you have granted report access to will show a Can view reports label under their name in the user list.
2. Enabling tracking on a post
Tracking is opt-in per post, it is not enabled by default. This keeps storage lean and ensures you only collect data on content that matters to you.
- Open the post editor by clicking Edit on any post in the list.
- Scroll to the bottom of the form, below the Publish to Screens section.
- Check the box labelled “Track activity for reports”.
- Click Save Post.
ℹ️Once saved with tracking enabled, every time the post is activated or deactivated — and every time it is displayed on a connected screen — the event is logged automatically. You do not need to do anything else.
When tracking is active on a post, a purple 📊 Report button appears in the post’s row in the table (visible to users with report access). Posts without tracking enabled do not show this button.
3. Viewing a report
Click the purple 📊 button at the end of any post row. The Activity Report panel opens immediately with all recorded data for that post.
Understanding the stats
The top of the report shows five summary cards:
| Stat | What it means |
|---|---|
| Time in Queue | Total time the post had its status set to Active. This includes all active periods combined, even across multiple on/off cycles. |
| Times Displayed purple | The actual number of times the slide appeared on a screen. Counted by the player every time it transitions to this slide. This is the most accurate measure of real-world visibility. |
| Screen Time green | Calculated as: Times Displayed × Slide Duration. For example, if the slide was shown 342 times and its duration is 15 seconds, screen time = 342 × 15s = 1h 25m. The formula is shown in small text beneath the value. |
| Activations | How many separate times the post was switched from Inactive to Active. |
| Active Since | The date the post was most recently activated (if it is still active now). |
ℹ️Time in Queue vs Screen Time: these are different numbers. If you have 10 posts in a playlist, each post only shows for roughly 1/10th of the total loop — so a post active for 2 days does not mean it was on screen for 2 days. Screen Time gives you the real figure.
Activity timeline
The horizontal bar below the stats visualises the post’s entire tracked history in one glance.
- Green segments — periods when the post was active and being shown on screen.
- Gray gaps — periods when the post was inactive.
- The left edge is the date of the first recorded event; the right edge is now.
Event history
Below the timeline is a full table of every recorded on/off event, newest first. Each row shows when the event happened and how long the post stayed in that state before the next change.
| Date & Time | Event | Duration in State |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 17, 20:44 | ▶ Activated | Ongoing (2h 15m) |
| Jun 17, 14:30 | ■ Deactivated | 6h 14m |
| Jun 10, 09:00 | ▶ Activated | 7d 5h 30m |
- ▶ Activated — the post was switched to Active.
- ■ Deactivated — the post was switched to Inactive.
- Duration in State — how long the post stayed in that state until the next toggle. If it is still active, this shows Ongoing with the running time.
4. Printing a report
Click the 🖨 Print Report button at the bottom of the report panel. A new window opens with a clean, formatted version of the report — optimised for printing or saving as a PDF.
The printed report includes:
- Post title, template name, current status, and scheduled dates
- All five stat cards
- The activity timeline bar
- The full event history table
- Generation date and time
💡To save as PDF, choose Save as PDF as the destination in your browser’s print dialog instead of a physical printer.
Data retention
Activity log entries are automatically deleted after 90 days (3 months). This happens in the background each time a post is toggled — no manual cleanup is needed.
⚠️If you need to keep a permanent record of a post’s performance, print the report or save it as a PDF before the data reaches 90 days old. Once purged, it cannot be recovered.
FAQ
The Report button is not visible on my posts. Why?
There are two reasons the button may not appear:
- Your account has not been granted report access. Ask your admin to enable it under Manage Users → Edit → Allow this user to view activity reports.
- The post does not have tracking enabled. Open the post editor and check “Track activity for reports”.
My report shows 0 Times Displayed. Is something broken?
No, display counting requires the post to be shown on a connected screen running the Pilot player. If no screen has loaded and played the post since tracking was enabled, the count will be zero. The post being Active in the CMS is not enough; the player must have actually rendered the slide.
Why are Time in Queue and Screen Time so different?
Time in Queue counts every second the post is set to Active, regardless of how many other posts are in the same playlist. Screen Time is the real figure: how many seconds the slide was actually visible on a screen. In a playlist with many posts, each slide only shows for a fraction of the loop.
Can I track all posts automatically?
Tracking must be enabled individually per post by editing it and checking the “Track activity for reports” option. This is intentional — it keeps the database lean and gives you control over what you measure.
Can I see which screen the post was shown on?
The current report shows aggregate totals across all screens. Per-screen breakdowns are not available in this version.
What happens to my data if I disable tracking on a post?
Existing log entries are kept and will still appear in the report. Disabling tracking simply stops new events from being recorded going forward.