Overview
Once you start creating custom reports in Shopify, they pile up fast. Before long, your Reports page is a wall of vaguely named explorations that no one remembers building. This guide walks you through every report management action available in Shopify Admin: renaming, pinning, filtering by author, working around the 250-report display limit, deleting old reports, and using Sidekick to generate new explorations with plain language. By the end, your analytics workspace will be organized, efficient, and built for scale.
Contents
When should you organize your reports?
Custom reports that have been created and saved display in the list on the Reports page of your Shopify admin. If you have a handful of reports, management is straightforward. But when multiple staff members are creating explorations, or you are running seasonal campaigns that each need dedicated views, the list grows quickly.
Many merchants discovered that their familiar reports felt harder to navigate after Shopify rolled out the new analytics interface. Keeping your report list tidy is one of the easiest ways to reduce that friction and make sure the data you need is always a click away.
Good times to audit your report list include the start of each quarter, after a major campaign wraps up, or whenever a team member leaves the business.
Step 1 - Rename custom reports
Clear names make reports discoverable. A report called "Custom report 3" tells you nothing six months later. Renaming fixes that. You can rename a custom report at any time, but the names of default Shopify reports can't be changed.
On desktop:
From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports.
Click the pencil icon next to the name of the custom report that you want to rename.
In the Rename dialog, enter the new name for the report.
Click Save.
On mobile (Shopify app):
Tap the menu icon, then in the Analytics menu, tap the icon and then tap Reports.
For the custom report that you want to rename, tap … > Rename, enter the new name in the dialog, then tap Save or ✓.
What if I want to rename a default Shopify report?
You cannot rename default reports directly. Instead, open the report, make any small change (or leave it as-is), then click "Save as" to create a custom copy with the name you prefer. Click Save as, enter a name, and click Save. You can then open your custom report from the Reports page.
Step 2 - Pin frequently used reports
Pinning pushes a report to the top of the list so you never have to scroll or search for it. This is especially useful for daily-check reports like "Net Sales by Channel" or "Inventory Snapshot."
You can pin your most-used reports to the top of the reports list to make them easy to find. Click at the end of the row with the report name to make that report always display at the top of the list.
Tip - Pin no more than five to seven reports. If everything is pinned, nothing stands out, and the feature loses its value.
You can also surface key metrics directly on your Analytics overview dashboard. Saved explorations can be pinned as metric cards on your main dashboard. This gives you an at-a-glance view without needing to visit the Reports page at all.
Step 3 - Filter reports by author
When multiple staff members build reports, the list can become cluttered with explorations from across the team. Shopify lets you narrow the view by author to find exactly what you need.
All custom reports are considered to be user-generated, as opposed to being authored by Shopify. The name of the staff member who created the report is listed as the author in the Author column of the Reports list.
Go to Analytics > Reports.
Filter the list by Authors and then select only Users to display a list of only your custom reports. If applicable, you can then filter the list down further by the staff member who authored the report.
Shopify reports are divided into categories based on the type of information that they include, such as Acquisition, Inventory, or Sales. You can use these categories to quickly filter down your Reports list to display only the type of reports that you want. Combine the category filter with the author filter to zero in on, say, only the sales reports your marketing lead created.
Step 4 - Manage the 250-report display limit
This is the limitation that catches most growing stores by surprise. Up to 250 custom reports are displayed on the Reports page at one time. You can create more than 250 custom reports, but only the top 250 most recently viewed are displayed in the list.
Reports beyond the 250 threshold are not deleted; they just disappear from the visible list. Here is how to stay on top of this:
Bookmark report URLs externally. If you commonly work with more than 250 custom reports, then you can export your reports or store the unique report URLs externally, so that you can view and access the full list whenever you want. A shared spreadsheet or Notion page with report names and direct URLs works well.
Open old reports periodically. Because the displayed list is based on "most recently viewed," simply opening an older report bumps it back into the visible 250.
Prune aggressively. Delete reports tied to one-off campaigns or past seasons you no longer need (see Step 5).
Use naming prefixes. Prefixes like "WEEKLY -" or "Q1-2026 -" help you quickly identify which reports are still relevant during clean-up.
Tip - Any store staff with the Analytics permissions can access all the reports that you modify or create, and they can duplicate and modify those reports. Keep this in mind: if five staff members each build 60 reports, you are already over the display limit.
Step 5 - Delete reports you no longer need
Deleting old reports keeps the list manageable and makes room within the 250-report display window. Deleting a report cannot be undone. If you think you might need the data structure again, consider saving the ShopifyQL query in a text file before deleting.
On desktop:
From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports.
Click the trash can icon next to the name of the custom report that you want to delete.
Confirm that you want to delete the report, and then click Delete.
On mobile (Shopify app):
From the Shopify app, tap the menu icon, then in the Analytics menu, tap the icon, and then tap Reports.
For the custom report that you want to delete, tap … then tap Delete and confirm.
What if I accidentally delete a default report?
You cannot delete Shopify's default reports; the trash can icon only appears next to custom reports. Default reports always remain in the list. If you modified a default report and saved it as a custom copy, only the custom copy can be deleted; the original default stays intact.
Step 6 - Create new explorations with Sidekick
After cleaning up your report list, you may realize you need entirely new views of your data. You can use Sidekick to create and edit reports based on your prompts in plain language. This feature uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand the context of the current report you've accessed, whether it be a default Shopify report or custom data exploration created by you, and generates a valid ShopifyQL query to match your request.
To create a new exploration from scratch:
From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports and click New exploration.
In the "What do you want to explore?" field, type your report request in plain language, then click or hit Enter to submit your request to Sidekick.
Continue to customize your report by submitting prompts in the Refine query field. After you finish generating your report, click Save.
To customize an existing report:
From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports and click the name of any existing report that you want to customize.
In the ShopifyQL query editor's Refine query field, type your customization request in plain language, then click or hit Enter to submit your request to Sidekick.
After you finish modifying your report, click Save as.
Example prompts to try:
"Show me total sales for Canadian customers over the past 60 days"
"Break down average order value by traffic source for the last 30 days"
"Compare returning vs. new customer revenue week over week"
Side note - All merchants have access to the ShopifyQL code editor directly in the Shopify admin. Navigate to Analytics and select New exploration, or open an existing report and click on the editor to expand it and edit the code. You do not need to know SQL to use it; Sidekick handles the translation for you.
Naming conventions that scale
Good names prevent report clutter from forming in the first place. Here is a pattern that works well for teams:
[Category] - [Description] - [Cadence or Context]
Sales - Net Sales by Channel - WeeklyInventory - Low Stock SKUs - DailyMarketing - Email Campaign ROAS - Q1 2026Finance - Tax by Province - Monthly
This pattern groups related reports together in alphabetical order, tells you what the report measures at a glance, and indicates whether it is recurring or tied to a specific period. When a quarter ends, reports tagged with that quarter's label are easy to identify and archive or delete.
Tip - Name the report descriptively (e.g., "Q1 2026 Product Profitability by Channel"). Avoid generic names like "Test" or "New report" because they are nearly impossible to distinguish later.
FAQ
Can I rename default Shopify reports?
You can rename a custom report at any time. The names of default Shopify reports can't be changed. To work around this, open the default report, click "Save as," and give the copy whatever name you like.
Is there a maximum number of custom reports I can create?
Up to 250 custom reports are displayed on the Reports page at one time. You can create more than 250 custom reports, but only the top 250 most recently viewed are displayed in the list. There is no hard cap on how many you can create, just a display limit.
Can other staff members see my custom reports?
Any store staff with the Analytics permissions can access all the reports that you modify or create, and they can duplicate and modify those reports. There is no concept of "private" reports in Shopify Admin.
How many rows can a single report display?
Reports display a maximum of 1,000 rows. This limit ensures that the report loads quickly. For reports that display total amounts, the totals are for all the rows, even if only 1,000 rows are loaded. If you need to access all the rows of a large report, then you can export the report.
Can I recover a deleted custom report?
No. Deleting a report cannot be undone. Always back up the ShopifyQL query or export the report data before deleting if you think you may need it again.
What Shopify plan do I need for custom reports?
You can filter and edit the new default Shopify reports to display different information as you want. You can save your changes as custom data explorations, regardless of your Shopify subscription. All current Shopify plans support creating and managing custom reports.
Can Sidekick help me schedule reports?
On Shopify Advanced and Plus plans, you can schedule any saved report or exploration to be emailed automatically. You can set daily, weekly, or monthly delivery by opening a saved report and clicking the "Schedule" button. Sidekick does not currently set up schedules for you, but it can build the report itself.
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