Comparison by task
How Reporting Compares
Reporting on a client's tenant 3 ways: a PowerShell script, the admin centres' own reports, and Altivane. What each gives you, and what each suits.
Reporting with PowerShell, the admin centres and Altivane
| What matters | PowerShell | Admin centres | Altivane |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the reports come from | A script for each report, with the module for each service it reads, such as Microsoft Graph or Exchange Online. | The reports and lists of each admin centre, opened 1 at a time. | Ready-made reports for Exchange Online, Entra ID, Intune, SharePoint, Teams, Defender and Azure. Select the ones you want, then Run. |
| What a run gives you | The columns your script writes, as a CSV file or a workbook. | The report on screen, and a CSV file where the page has Export. | An Excel workbook for each tenant, with a sheet for each table. Each table also shows in a grid you can filter and export. |
| What couldn't be read | What your script catches and writes to its log. | The message the admin centre shows on the page. | Each table says Done, Partial or Not read, and the workbook's Not read sheet lists the items that couldn't be read. |
| Rating what it finds | Thresholds you write into the script. | The scores and recommendations some admin centres show, such as Secure Score. | Scorecard reports rate what they find as OK, Warning or Critical, against thresholds you set for each table. |
| A document for the client | Written from your exports, manually or in a tool of your own. | Written manually from the exports. | Build documents writes a Word document and a workbook for each tenant, from a template with your look and the client's name and logo, and an optional AI summary from your own provider. |
| Working with several clients | A loop in your script over the tenants it can connect to. | A separate sign-in or browser profile for each, or delegated admin links from Partner Center. | Select the tenants on Build documents and they build 1 after another, each with its own template, folder and results. |
| On a schedule | Task Scheduler with your script and its stored credentials. | Opened manually. Some reports can be emailed on a schedule, such as the Defender portal's email and collaboration reports. | Task Scheduler runs the selected reports, or builds the documents, without a window, signing in with each tenant's certificate. |
| The same each time | The same script, kept up to date as the modules change. | The same steps, repeated for each report. | Your selection of reports, the templates and each table's thresholds are saved with your settings, and every run uses them. |
| A question no report answers | A cmdlet or query, with the result in exactly the shape you want. | Filter the list, then export it. | Filter and export any Explore page. |
| Best for | A report in exactly the shape you need, or data no ready-made report reads. | A quick look at 1 tenant, or a report only that admin centre has. | The same reports and client document for each client, on a regular cycle, done the same way each time. |
Running reports changes nothing in a tenant. Client reporting has more on the documents, and every guide on this site shows its task all 3 ways.