Everything your program records in UAS Dashboard — flights, training, custody events, DFR incidents — can become a document you file, hand to an attorney, or attach to a records response. This article covers the reports the product generates, the Reports page charts, branding on exported PDFs, and the audit trail.
You need a supervisor role or above to reach the Reports page; pilots see an "Access denied" message. Reports appears under Dashboard when the reports_pdf feature is enabled for your plan.
Before you start. Reports are only as complete as the underlying records. Import or sync flight logs, log training and custody events, and close out checklists first — a report reflects exactly what was in the database when you clicked Export.
Where reports live and who can run them
Open Reports from the sidebar. The header reads "Reports & Analytics," or "Reports & Compliance" when your agency's state is CA and AB 481 reporting is enabled. Two controls scope what you see: a date range picker, defaulting to January 1 of the current year through today, and a unit filter only global and system admins get — everyone else is scoped to their own unit by the server, and cannot widen that by editing the URL.
Below them, six cards show Deployments, Flights, Flight Hours, Night Flights, DFR Responses, and Avg DFR Response for the range, over charts for Monthly Activity, Deployments by Purpose, Flights by Unit, and DFR Calls by Type.
The reports the product generates
Every report below is produced on demand from live data. The personnel and equipment reports sit under Additional Reports, each on a card with an Export PDF button; they honor the unit filter but not the date range, and are stamped with the day you ran them.
| Report | What it contains | Minimum role |
|---|---|---|
| AB 481 Deployment Report (PDF) | Deployment and flight totals, day/night split, field vs. DFR flights, deployments by purpose, usage by aircraft, unit and month, DFR incidents by call type and outcome — then the § 7072 block: fleet inventory, complaints and concerns, internal audit and policy violations, annual cost by type, and planned acquisitions | Supervisor |
| Deployment export (CSV) | One row per flight: id, date/time, unit, mission, title, purpose, address, rPIC, duration, night Y/N, aircraft and serial | Supervisor |
| Pilot Currency | Per-pilot Part 107, night, and proficiency currency against the configured windows, total and night hours, and a compliance summary | Supervisor |
| Pilot Training Records | Per-pilot certification date and training history: course name, kind, completion and expiration dates | Supervisor |
| Equipment Usage | Fleet summary, per-aircraft airframe hours, flights, hours since service and service-due flags, battery cycles and cycle warnings | Supervisor |
| Equipment Custody | Current custodian and status per item, plus every logged check-out, check-in, and assignment event | Supervisor |
| Flight detail | One flight: map snapshot, aircraft, rPIC, altitude/distance/speed, participants, captured weather and TFRs, post-flight checklist answers | Any user with access to that flight's unit |
| Shift activity log | Shift window, pre-shift briefing snapshot (weather, METAR, airspace class, TFRs), checklist answers, flights flown, activity entries, shift summary | The owning pilot, or a supervisor in its unit |
The personnel and equipment cards appear only with the matching feature enabled: pilot reports need training, Equipment Usage maintenance, Equipment Custody custody.
Exporting the AB 481 deployment report
The AB 481 card appears when the agency state is CA in Admin and the ab481 feature is on. Both exports use whatever is selected above, so set the scope first.
- Set the reporting period — a fiscal or calendar year for an annual report.
- Global admins: pick a unit, or leave it on All units.
- Click Export CSV for row-level flight data, or Export PDF for the formatted report.
The CSV downloads as uas_deployments_<from>_<to>.csv, the PDF as uas_ab481_report_<from>_<to>.pdf. Purpose comes from the DFR call type whenever an incident is linked to the flight, and otherwise from mission and flight names — one named for a search, a pursuit, training, or scene documentation is classified accordingly, and anything unrecognized lands in "Other Field Deployment." Consistent mission naming and linked DFR incidents are what make that breakdown usable. The CSV's purpose column applies the name heuristic only, so a DFR flight can carry a different label in the two exports.
The PDF is only half the job — the § 7072 sections it prints are assembled from data you enter through the year. AB 481 annual reporting covers that whole cycle, and the AB 481 transparency guide covers what the law requires.
AB 481 exports are an Enterprise capability. The CSV and PDF are gated behind the
ab481feature, which shared Core plans do not include. The statistics and charts on the Reports page are not gated and work in every state.
Per-flight and per-shift PDF exports
Two exports live outside the Reports page, and are usually what an attorney or records officer asks for.
- Flight detail. Open a flight from Flights and click Export PDF. It captures the live map as an image and places it at the top, so the document shows the actual track. It downloads as
flight_<date>_<id>.pdf. - Shift activity log. Open a log from Activity Logs and click Export PDF. It includes the completed pre-shift log — the weather and airspace snapshot the pilot saw at briefing, plus every checklist answer — so the PDF is the complete shift record. Timestamps print in your browser's time zone, not the server's.
Customizing the Program Charts
The Program Charts section is configurable. It is built from your flight records and checklist answers, and shows the last twelve months regardless of the date range above.
Global admins edit the layout in Admin → Report Charts (on single-agency instances, system admins only):
- Drag a row by its grip handle to reorder, and set each chart to Half width or Full width.
- Use the color swatch to recolor a series, or the reset arrow for theme colors.
- Pick from ＋ Add a chart… to add one, or the X to remove it, then Save layout.
Six built-in charts are available: flights per month, flight hours per month, flights by aircraft, flights by unit, day vs. night, and flights by pilot (top 10). Beyond those, every number, select, toggle, and checkbox item on your checklist templates is offered as a chart automatically. With no saved layout, the page shows four defaults.
Branding on exported PDFs
Every PDF uses the same branded scaffolding: your agency name in the header, an optional logo beside it, and a footer carrying the agency name and "Page X of Y" on every page. Set both in Admin → Agency Branding:
- Agency name (for reports/exports) is the full legal name printed as the report header. If blank, the sidebar title is used, then "UAS Program."
- Agency logo accepts PNG, JPG, SVG, WEBP or GIF under 500 KB.
Use a PNG or JPEG logo for reports. Report PDFs embed raster logos only. If your uploaded logo is an SVG, WEBP, or GIF, the report header falls back to the app's default mark instead of your seal.
See admin and agency setup for the rest of those settings, including the state field that enables AB 481 reporting.
The audit trail and what it records
Open Audit Log from the Management group in the sidebar. It is an append-only record of views, changes, exports, and custody actions — nothing in the product edits or deletes an entry.
Each row records the timestamp, the user (by email) and their role at the time, the action, the resource type, the record id, and a free-text detail. Actions are view, create, update, delete, export, custody, and login; resources include flights, pilots, users, units, equipment, reports, DFR incidents, training, checklists, weather and airspace records, and integration credentials.
What you see depends on your role: global and system admins see every user across every unit, a unit admin sees every user in their own unit, and supervisors and pilots see only their own activity.
Filter by action and resource, or search by user, record id, or detail text. The table pages 25 rows at a time over the 500 most recent matching entries.
Exports write their own entries: the AB 481 PDF records an export on report detailed "AB481 PDF 2026-01-01_2026-08-30", so the log shows who took data out, not just who changed it.
Assembling a records-request or oversight response
A records request, a discovery demand, or an oversight question about a deployment is answered by combining several exports, not any one of them.
- Fix the scope. Set the date range, and the unit if the request names one, at the top of the Reports page.
- Produce the activity summary. Export the deployment CSV for row-level data an analyst can filter, and the PDF for a readable summary of totals and purposes.
- Pull the specific flights. For each flight named, export its flight detail PDF — map, weather, TFR check, participants, and checklist in one document.
- Add the shift context. If the request concerns a period of duty rather than one flight, export the shift activity log.
- Attach personnel and equipment records if qualifications or custody are at issue. Pilot Currency and Pilot Training Records show the pilot was qualified; Equipment Custody shows who held the aircraft. See training and currency and fleet maintenance and custody for how those are built.
- Document the response. Each export is now in the audit log with your name, timestamp, and parameters, letting you attest to what was produced and when.
What an agency is required to retain and produce is a separate question from what the product generates. The UAS recordkeeping and Remote ID audit guide covers retention obligations and what an FAA or public-records audit asks for.
Exports are snapshots, not live links. A PDF reflects the database at the moment it was generated. If records change afterward, re-export and note the new generation date rather than editing the document you already sent.
Frequently asked questions
Who can run reports in UAS Dashboard?
Supervisors, unit admins, global admins, and system admins can run every report; pilots cannot open the Reports page at all. Supervisors and unit admins are scoped to their own unit, and only global and system admins get the dropdown that reports on other units or the whole agency.
Why does my agency logo not appear on report PDFs?
Report PDFs embed PNG and JPEG images only. If the logo uploaded in Admin is an SVG, WEBP, or GIF, the header falls back to the application's default mark. Re-upload the same seal as a PNG or JPEG under 500 KB and it appears on every report beside your agency name.
Can anyone edit or delete an audit log entry?
No. The product writes audit entries and reads them back, and offers no way to change or remove one. That is what makes the log usable as evidence of who viewed, changed, exported, or took custody of something. Visibility is limited by role, but that is not deletion — a supervisor simply sees fewer rows.
Do the Program Charts follow the date range picker?
No. The date range and unit filter drive the summary statistics, the built-in charts, and the AB 481 export. Program Charts always show the most recent twelve months of flight activity, and checklist-derived charts the last 365 days. Use the AB 481 export for figures bounded to a specific period.
Can I export a single flight or a single shift?
Yes. Open the flight from Flights and click Export PDF; the document carries a snapshot of the flight map, participants, captured weather and TFRs, and the post-flight checklist. Open a shift from Activity Logs and click Export PDF for the full shift record, pre-shift briefing included. Both are open to any user who can view the record itself.
Next steps
Setting up reporting for the first time? Start in admin and agency setup to set the agency name, logo, and state so exports come out correctly branded. Then keep the underlying data current — training and currency feeds the currency report, fleet maintenance and custody the usage and custody reports.