Monitoring and automating user reports in Google Admin

Introduction

In this blog, you will learn how to automate user report generation with the help of Foresight. IT Admins must fetch and monitor user reports in the Google Admin Console to observe user activity. Also, it helps the Admin discover any security loopholes that might exist for their domain. This way, they can manage their OU’s reputation and protect it from cyber-attacks.

What are user reports?

Google user reports show the users’ activity and account status to the Google Admin. The Admin can create and consolidate the view of the account status and activity through these reports. 

What information does the user reports include? What do the columns mean?

The user reports in Google Admin provide the status-related information of the user accounts, such as - 2-step verification enrollment, 2-step verification enforcement, user name, user account status, password length compliance, password strength, less secure app access, and more.

What are the benefits of user reports? How can admins utilize it?

These reports provide the following benefits -

• You can get an overview of your organization’s key metrics, such as - usage of Google Workspace services, basic security metrics, file-sharing activity, storage space, etc.
• You will get information about the security highlights, such as app usage by users in Google Admin, audit logs for the app usage, etc.
• The user reports Google Admin provides information about Drive and Gmail usage of your organization, email activity type, Drive storage usage, etc.
• You can retrieve information about whether your team is using 2-step verification or not, whether they are using any third-party apps, or sharing any document outside your domain.

From the reports of these user usages, Google Admins can-

• Track the users who sign in and the time of signing in.
• Find out and check potential security risks.
• Determine if there is any configuration problem and more.

How to use the user reports feature in Google Admin?

To use the Google Admin user reports feature, you should follow these steps -

1. Sign in to the Google Admin Console.
2. Click on Menu > Reporting > Reports > User Reports > Accounts.

Why should you automate user reports?

Automating user reports in Google Admin can save a lot of time. Also, in this way, your business productivity is improved.

Monitor and automate user reports in Google Admin with Foresight

Foresight is a Google Cloud partner that provides automated solutions for your regular business workflows. It efficiently automates Google Admin and use cases and eliminates the necessity of manual tasks. It's no-code automation streamlines your business process and saves time. For this use case, Admin Console provides reporting tools to get the user reports manually. The Admin can filter out the user reports using the organizational units, group filter, and view by latest dates. But Foresight allows you to automate the generation of Google Admin user reports. So, it creates four interconnected rules to complete a powerful tool kit for this purpose. This is another edge of Foresight over Admin Console. 

Note: Google usually takes 1 to 3 days to collect user reports. So, it would be best to wait for the complete report.

Video Demo

This video demo will help you learn how to monitor and automate user reports in Google Admin. 

Instructions

We will create 4 rules here. They are -

Rule 1:  Create a user report for Google Drive using a Google form.

Rule 2: Bulk generating and importing user reports in Google Drive. This rule has two parts – the first is to help get the CSV file, and the second is to import the CSV. The purpose of this rule is to manage and optimize user reports in databases and for other complex requirements.

Rule 3: Get daily user reports and save them to Google Drive. The purpose of creating this rule is to automate the retrieval of user reports on a regular basis and save them to Drive. 

Rule 4: To schedule sending the user reports to the manager. The purpose of this rule is to automate the process of sending the user reports to the managers.  

Rule Creation

1. First, create a Google Form. Design this form with two questions - your email and date of joining. Go to Settings and create Responder input to get the responses from the users. Give a name for your form - User Report. Then, send the form and copy the link. Open the link with another tab and find the form.
2. Create your rule with the New Rule (+) button. Select the Form response submitted trigger.
3. Select the form and click Next. 
4. Click Add Next Action and select the Get form response info. Select the form. Then, select the Form Response Id. 
5. Click Add Next Action. Select the List user usage action. Then select the columns such as - User Email, First Name, Last Name, Is suspended, Password Strength, Two-Step Verification Enrolled, Is Super Admin, Is Delegated Admin, and Is Archived.

6. Click on Add Next Action. Select the Upload data to Drive action. Select the CSV file URL. Next, select the Google Drive folder.

7. Click Add Next Action. Select the Email action. Select the Respondent Email. Give a subject for this email, such as - User Report Details in Google Drive. Create an email body and add the User Usage CSV Download Link. Click Review.

8. Give the Rule Name (Automates user Report submission to Google Drive via Google Form). Click Create.

9. Now, you have to submit the Google Form to execute this rule. So, fill up the form - Email and date. Here, you should choose a past date approximately 3 days ago. When you retrieve the data, Google delays user reports for the past three days. Thus, you should select a date of 3 days ago. Finally, submit this form.

10. Now, you will get notifications about the successful rule execution. Also, check the results from the Logs page. Also, you can see the user report from Google Drive.

11. Verify the user report details from your email.

12. After that, create the second rule. So, click the New Rule button. Select the Manual trigger.

13. The next step is to select the List user usage action, and then to select the same columns as before - First name, Last name, User email, On suspension, Password Strength, Enroll in two-step verification, Is Super Admin, Is Delegated Admin, and On Archived, then click Review.

14. Give a Rule Name (Rule1 - Bulk get reports to Google Drive). Click Create.

15. Trigger the rule to get the CSV. Check the notification through the bell icon and also find out the result from the Logs page. Now, download the CSV file from here link.

16. Create the second sub-rule of Rule 2. Click the new rule button and select the Data uploaded trigger. Upload the same CSV file. Click Next.

17. Select the List user usage action. 

18. Click Add Next Action. Select Upload data to Drive action, then select the CSV file URL. Select the Google Drive folder. Click Review.

19. Give a Rule Name (Second Rule- Bulk User Report Import to Google Drive).

20. Upload the CSV file to execute the rule. After the successful rule execution, you will get the notification. Also, you can check the result from the Logs page. Again, you can verify the result from the link of Rule History. You will find that all the user reports have been downloaded to Google Drive. Moreover, you can check the email to verify the result. 

21. Next, create the third rule. So, click on the + icon. Select the Recurring times trigger. Select a date and time. But the time should be at least 15 minutes after creating this rule. Also, you can set the frequency here, we will set 1 hour. Click Next.

22. Select the Convert date action. Select the Source date. Then, select the Date change steps. So, enter Subtract 3 Days. Also, give a Variable name - Report delivery date.

23. Again, click Add Next Action. So, select the List user usages action. Again, select the same columns, such as - First name, Last Name, User Email, etc. 

24. Click Add Next Action. So, select the Upload data to Drive. Then, select the CSV file URL and the Google Drive folder. Click Review. 

25. Give the Rule Name (Upload Daily User Report to Google Drive). Click Create. For this rule, you need to check the result after 15 minutes as you set the recurring time.

26. So, move to the fourth rule. Set the Time trigger. Again, you need to set the trigger time as 15 minutes delayed from the time you’re creating this rule. Click Next.

27.Select a List user usage action. Select the columns as previously.

28. Click Add Next Action. So, select the Email action. Give your manager’s email ID within the To field. Give a subject - User Usage Report. Create the email body. Also, add the User Usage CSV Download Link.

29. Give the Rule Name (Scheduled User Reports Delivering to Manager). Click Create.

Verifying the result

You will get the notification within 15 minutes. So, you can verify the rule from the notification and the email.

Conclusion 

With Foresight, you have learned how to monitor and automate user usage in Google Admin reports. This platform designs a robust automated solution to generate your user reports and save them in Drive. So, it saves you time from manually searching the reports in the Admin Console. Thus, it helps to increase your business productivity. So, try a 14-day free trial with Foresight and start your journey through automated workflows. You can learn more topics related to this - Monitor usage & security with reports, etc.