How Do You Keep Dated Copies of Tableau Reports Without Overwriting Previous Files?

Imagine the finance manager asking why a figure changed since the previous close. The team opens its shared folder and finds Sales.pdf, overwritten by this month’s delivery. Nobody can compare the original documents.

The reporting routine needs to preserve the file that supported each review. Re-running an old period against a changed source may produce different figures, even when the title looks familiar.

ATRS can apply custom output names and date/time suffixes and deliver another copy to an archive destination. The team can keep the accepted close document instead of relying on the next export to reconstruct it.

Conceptual illustration: Report files routed to the people and locations that use them.

A stable filename can be useful when another system always reads the latest report. It is less useful as the only record of a monthly review.

Give the two copies separate purposes. The working location can hold the current file while the archive uses a reporting-period name, with a run timestamp when several versions of that close need to remain distinct.

Agree that naming with finance. A file produced today for last month’s close should identify last month in its reporting-period label. The generation timestamp answers when that version was made, which is a different question.

Begin with finance’s accepted close report and a test archive folder. Select the Tableau Cloud report and period in ATRS, then add the archive destination beside any normal reader delivery.

Choose a filename that finance can recognize later. Include the reporting month through the supported naming inputs, and add a generation timestamp where replacement versions must remain distinguishable.

Run the same test period twice and inspect the resulting files. Check the actual names and whether both copies remain. Then run the next period and ask a finance colleague to find the earlier close without opening every file.

Open that retained copy and compare the figure the earlier review used. Once finance can find and read the intended record, enable the recurrence and agree who maintains the archive location and retention process.

Configure the output name and date/time suffixes around the reporting period and version the archive needs.

Your finance application can keep the reporting period, ATRS execution reference and archive file reference together. That makes an earlier close easier for a colleague to find.

When the application requests a replacement, label it as a new version and preserve the original where policy requires it.

GET /api/Schedule/GetExecutionStatus?ExecutionId=<retained-execution-id>
Authorization: Bearer <ATRS-access-token>

Finance can return to the document used at the earlier review and discuss what changed. The next scheduled report can arrive without replacing the only copy of last month’s figures.

Start with one report the team currently overwrites. Its period, filename and retrieval needs give you a concrete archive rule to test in ATRS.

Explore ATRS report delivery and archives