1. An automated method of providing data regarding the status of a clinical trial study to a first set of users who have access to a virtual data room that is used to distribute information associated with the clinical trial study, the data including real-time patient clinical data stored in a database of a clinical database management system (CDMS) associated with the clinical trial study, wherein the data includes a plurality of data records, at least some of the data records having a status of being either cleaned or not cleaned, the method comprising: (a) designating a subset of data records that must be in a cleaned status to be used in electronically viewable first reports regarding the status of the clinical trial study and identifying data records in the subset that have a status of being cleaned; (b) providing a first set of report specifications in a first memory for creating the electronically viewable first reports regarding the status of the clinical trial study for the first set of users who have access to the virtual data room, wherein for the designated subset of data records, the first set of report specifications use only real-time patient clinical data associated with the identified, cleaned data records for creating the first reports; and (c) automatically generating the first reports using a processor and electronically communicating the first reports to one or more of the users in the first set of users via the virtual data room.