Rev. Date March 19, 2024
This feature is currently available on a limited basis. To access Report Lab, please reach out to your Client Solutions representative. Additional fees apply.
General
What is the purpose of Report Lab?
Report Lab enables the creation of client-ready, customizable, branded reports, using the power of Two Sigma’s Venn analytics and data visualization library. Upon opening Report Lab, you can either choose from a menu of Venn provided Templates, which are designed to support common workflows, or you can create your own custom Templates.
How do I get started?
Clicking on the “Report Lab” icon on the left-hand navigation will launch the feature. Once opened, a set of “Venn Created” Templates will be displayed.
Selecting one of these Templates will launch a modal that allows you to provide additional setup options, including document name, subject(s), and benchmark.
A default subject “Demo Portfolio” will be pre-selected to illustrate how a sample portfolio could be reflected in that report. The Demo Portfolio can be removed at any time and replaced with investments or portfolios of your choice, and saved as a new template or report.
The “Venn Created” Templates have pre-configured pages and blocks, any of which can be modified and then saved as a new template.
How can I customize Templates to include my firm’s branding?
Organization-wide customization is available by clicking on “Settings”, then “Workspace Configuration,” and scrolling down to “Report Lab Print Configuration”:
Within this menu, you can customize:
Organizational Display Name - This is the name of the organization that appears across pages in all reports.
Cover Page Disclosures: Text that appears at the bottom of the cover page of all reports.
Disclaimers - Text that appears at the bottom of every page in all reports.
Disclosures - Text that appears in a specific Disclosures page. The Disclosures page can be added anywhere. In the “Venn Created” templates, the Disclosures are on the final page of the report.
Logo - Appears on the cover page, and the top of each page in all reports.
To learn more about setting disclaimers and disclosures, please refer to the FAQ here.
Advanced
What Types of Pages Can I Add?
Users can add different types of pages into a report or Template by clicking the “+” icon near the top of the left side panel of Report Lab:
New Page - A blank page that any customizable block can be added to.
Title Page - Edit text on the Title Page of each report. The Title Page image is customizable in the “Report Lab Setup” after clicking on the “Settings” gear icon, which is accessible at the top left corner of Report Lab.
Section Page - Separate out different sections of your report using a text-only “Section Page.” The color of these pages is customizable in “Report Lab Setup.”
Disclosures Page - Contains organizational disclosures that can be added in “Report Lab Print Configuration” within the “Workspace Configuration” section of Venn Settings. This Disclosure Page content appears in addition to any Two Sigma Venn disclosures at the end of each report.
How Can I Add Blocks?
Users can add blocks to any page by clicking on the left side panel within Report Lab and navigating to the “Insert” Menu and dragging the desired block type onto the page.
What Types of Blocks Can I Add?
There are a wide variety of block types available within Report Lab [1]:
Performance and Risk
Performance and Risk - View key historical or forecast metrics. Examples of layout styles include transposable tables or scatter-plot visualizations.
Time Series - View historical time series returns or derived analytics. Examples of layout include a line or bar chart visualization for Calendar Returns, Cumulative Returns, Cumulative Residual Returns, Historical Drawdown, and Rolling Return/Volatility/Sharpe.
Correlations:
Compare Correlation - View a correlation matrix for each subject added to the block.
Portfolio Correlation - View a correlation matrix for each constituent investment in a single portfolio.
Residual Portfolio Correlation - View a correlation matrix for each constituent investment’s residual return.
Compare Downside Correlation - View a downside correlation matrix for each subject added to the block.
Portfolio Downside Correlation - View a downside correlation matrix for each constituent investment in a single portfolio.
Distribution - View a histogram visualization of historical returns.
Notable Historical Periods - View a table or bar chart of returns across a set of default and customizable historical periods.
Asset Growth Simulation - View a graph of how investment or portfolio values may grow over time (see FAQ: Asset Growth Simulator for more detail).
Portfolio Composition - View a pie chart breakdown of the top-level strategy composition of a single portfolio.
Portfolio Comparison - Visualize the allocations of two portfolios, as well as the changes in allocation between them.
Factor Analysis
Factor Exposure and Contribution - View a table, or horizontal bar chart reflecting Factor Exposure, Factor Contribution to Risk, or Factor Contribution to Return. The “Percent Contribution” toggle can be applied to see results out of 100%.
Factor Portfolio Contribution - View portfolio constituent’s impact to each factor.
Factor Trend - View a single subject’s exposure to a factor, factor contribution to risk or return, over multiple time periods in a heatmap visualization. View multiple subjects as a line chart visualization.
Holdings (see FAQ: Holdings for more detail)
Asset Class - View a table or pie chart breakdown of the investments’ or portfolios’ holdings by asset class.
Geography - View a table or map chart breakdown of the investments’ or portfolio’s holdings by geography.
Sector - View a table or bar chart breakdown of the investments’ or portfolio’s holdings by Equity and Fixed Income sectors.
Private Assets - Cash Flow Pacing (Beta) - view the historical and projected cash flows and the typical profiles for contributions, distributions, NAV, and net cash flows of a private asset investment or portfolio.
Private Assets - Performance (Beta) - view the performance metrics of private asset investments and portfolios, such as IRR % and PMEs.
Private Assets - Metadata (Beta) - view the fund information of investments underlying a private asset portfolio, such as the vintage, asset class and strategy, fund size, etc.
Formatting Blocks
Custom Text - Add formatted free text.
Image - Add images. For example, images can be screenshots from other sources, or content about the organization.
Can I modify the shape and size of blocks on the page?
Yes, users can resize any block by dragging the bottom corner of the block to the desired dimensions and the block will snap into place. Users can also rearrange the position of the block on the page by clicking and dragging from the top right corner of the block.
What else can I modify at the block level?
All blocks allow users to customize the “Title” and “Subtitle”. Users may also be able to customize a variety of additional settings depending on the block type, such as available metrics, ordering of metrics, or visualization type.
To access the settings for a specific block, you can click on the block within the Report Lab page, and begin adjusting the settings in the right side panel.
How do I Export to PDF and retrieve Archived Documents?
Users can export a PDF version of the report by navigating to the “Export” menu at the top right and then clicking on the “Export to PDF” icon furthest to the right. Users can choose to designate the PDF as either “Draft” or “Final.”
A “Draft” PDF will include the text “For Internal Use Only” on the bottom of each page.
A “Final” PDF will omit “For Internal Use Only” text, and save a copy of the PDF in the “Document Archive”, while providing a copy for immediate download. The Document Archive provides a copy of the PDF that can be searched for and retrieved by users in the organization at any time.
Users can access the Document Archive by clicking on the Document Archive “File Box” icon at the top right corner of Venn next to “Settings”.
How can I create and designate Templates for my organization to use?
You can create Templates that will appear in the main Report Lab navigation panel so that all users in an organization can start from the same location.
To convert to an “Organization Created Template,” create or open an existing Report, click on the “Settings” gear icon in the top left corner to open the “Report Lab Setup” modal, and check the box next to “Assign as Template.” Click “Close” on the modal, then click the “Save” icon on the Report. This Template should now appear in the Report Lab navigation panel.
What Permissions are available?
By default, every Venn user at an organization can customize and edit any report or Template using Report Lab. For organizations that want to establish different levels of access for Template creation and report customization, Venn offers customized user permissions. For example, only certain users can create and customize Templates and modify which metrics appear in reports.
Please contact your Client Solutions and Strategy team member for more information about Permissions customization.
What Layout and Viewing options are available?
Reports can be viewed in three different layouts. Each provides a slightly different form to display the pages on the screen. The Layout does not affect the PDF export:
Vertical Scroll (default)
Horizontal Scroll
Side-by-Side
Pages can be zoomed in and zoomed out. The left and right side panels used for configuration can be collapsed for a more focused presentation-mode of the report pages.
Can I change the orientation (portrait and landscape) of a report?
Yes, however it is easiest to do so when creating a new report. Changing the orientation of an existing report will require the user to reconfigure the size and location of the blocks on each page, they will not automatically reformat to fit the new orientation. Users can change the orientation in the “Report Lab Settings'' modal after clicking on the “Setup” Icon near the top left of Report Lab.
Can I drag blocks from page to page?
Users can drag blocks to different positions only within the same page at this time.
Can I change the font or colors in a report?
Users can modify the color only on the “section page” at this time.
Can I remove Two Sigma Venn disclosures?
Organizations can add their own set of disclosures to the bottom of each page in a report, as well as to the end of every report. These are in addition to the Two Sigma Venn disclosures that must remain. See Setting Custom Disclaimers and Disclosures for more details.
I don’t see the left or right side panels. How do I configure Report Lab?
The panels may be collapsed to show more of the page. Click on the “<<” icons on the top right corner of the panels.
[1] While this is an initial menu, additional block types and underlying customization options may be added over time as features develop.
Not all data available on Venn is currently available in Report Lab. Certain data vendors will require your organization to have an additional license for external use cases such as sharing reports with clients outside of your firm. Reach out to your Client Solutions representative to determine which licenses your organization may need.
This document highlights certain aspects of this feature. As an overview, it does not discuss all material facts or assumptions. Please see Important Disclosure and Disclaimer Information.