Strategy for standby reporting with different database versions
The easiest options are to either upgrade the source instance to the same version as the target (or otherwise ensure the database engine versions are compatible), or perform a restore from a full backup every day to refresh.
For example, say the source was SQL Server 2008 and the target was SQL Server 2012. Upgrading the source installation from SQL Server 2008 to SQL Server 2012 would help ensure a database version match so STANDBY could be used.
Applying changes to a lower SQL Server version will require a bit of development effort.