What does an external recipient get in a scheduled report?

A scheduled report goes out as a PDF by email — and a recipient may be someone who is not a user of your organisation (an owner’s representative, an auditor, a contractor’s manager). This article explains how much data such an external recipient receives, how the system decides who is internal and who is external, and who is responsible. The setup steps are in Schedule a report.

Who counts as internal, and who as external?

Under the recipients field the page says: “An internal recipient is an active user of your organisation who can also access this site. Any other address takes plant data outside the organisation — we still send it, but we flag it.”

Internal is an address that belongs to an active user of the organisation who can access the schedule’s site.
External is every other address. The email is sent — an external recipient is not an error but a deliberate decision, which the system flags.
If an address belongs to a user of the organisation who is no longer active, or can no longer access the site, they get no email — the dispatch log shows “no longer has access” next to them. The system re-checks this before every dispatch: someone who lost access (account disabled, site access withdrawn) does not receive the data by email either — even if they were internal when the schedule was saved.

How much data does the external recipient get?

It depends on whether you scheduled a site-level or a company-wide view.

Scheduled view	What the report covers	Effect of the external recipient
Site-level	The schedule row’s site.	None: they get the same single site as everyone else.
Company-wide (with internal recipients too)	The sites that the owner (the scheduler) and every internal recipient can access — their intersection.	Does not narrow it. The external recipient gets the same document as the internal ones.
Company-wide, external recipients only	All of the owner’s sites.	The full company-wide summary goes out.

One dispatch is one document: every recipient gets the same PDF, and the PDF names the sites it summarises.

Example. The organisation has three sites: Nyírmező, Hegyalja and Tank farm. The scheduler can access all three.

Company-wide view, recipients: an internal colleague who can access Nyírmező and Hegyalja, plus an external address → the report summarises Nyírmező + Hegyalja. Data beyond the internal colleague’s access cannot go out by email, so the tank farm is left out — and the external recipient gets these two as well.
The same view with only the external address → the report summarises all three sites, and on saving the page warns: “The external recipient receives the full company-wide summary (3 sites) — whoever sets up the schedule is responsible for the recipient.”

How does the system handle it?

Only a manager can add one. A schedule — and therefore an external recipient — can only be saved with analytics:manage.
It warns, it does not block. Next to an external address the page says: “External recipient: {list} — plant data leaves the organisation.” For a company-wide view it also states how many sites the summary covers. The schedule list shows it on the row too: “External recipients: {n} — plant data leaves the organisation.”
The responsibility is the person who sets it up. Adding an external recipient is the decision of whoever sets up the schedule (or the administrator) — the system does not ask the external party and does not check what they should be allowed to see. If they may see less, schedule a site-level view for them, or add an internal recipient whose access narrows the set to the right sites.
Every dispatch is traceable. The “Dispatch log” records when, to whom and what went out, and who did not receive it (“Did not receive it: {list}”). “Dispatched PDF” opens exactly the document the recipients got — but only for someone who can access every site it summarises (otherwise: “The dispatched PDF also covers sites you cannot access — no access.”).
Stopping it: remove the external address from the recipient list, or deactivate the schedule. The scheduled report emails carry no separate unsubscribe link.

When does this matter — and when not?

Site-level view: the external recipient changes nothing — they get the same single site.
Company-wide view with internal recipients: they get no more than the internal ones — the internal recipients’ access sets the scope.
Company-wide view, external recipients only: the only case where the external party receives the owner’s entire access, summarised. That is why the page states the number of sites on saving.

Schedule a report (PDF by email)The steps: view, rhythm, recipients, run now, dispatch log.

Build a dashboard viewSite-level and company-wide views, personal and shared visibility.