ERP Data Struggles: How To Get Real-Time Reporting in Excel
insightsoftware is the most comprehensive provider of solutions for the Office of the CFO. We turn information into insights, empowering business leaders to strategically drive their organization.
You can never have too much data, right? But sometimes it feels like that’s the problem when you’re trying to get your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to play nice with Excel and quickly give you the reports you need.
It’s a common challenge for finance teams, and you can fix it. Creating a bridge to make all that ERP data easily accessible in Excel is the key to getting the business intelligence (BI) reports you need quickly.
Appearing on an episode of the podcast “Don’t Panic! It’s Just Data,” Mike Wiley, Senior Product Manager for Spreadsheet Server from insightsoftware, noted that many finance professionals are struggling with BI reporting, no matter which ERP system they are using. “They all have similar challenges of empowering their users to build the reports they want.”
The challenges go beyond reporting. John Miller, VP of Product Management at insightsoftware, said, “We’re trying to help finance teams become more strategic partners.”
He shared an example: Top leaders are in a meeting discussing potential business strategies and expressing curiosity about how their data might influence their decisions. A financial planner who’s sitting in the meeting looks at a dashboard, runs the numbers, pulls up the data analysis, and very quickly says, “This is how that would play out.” Or “this is what might happen.” Miller said, “That is the Utopian dream that we’re driving toward.”
Connecting Your ERP Data to Excel
Finance teams working in the Office of the CFO want an easy way to access their data and make sense of it. They also need a tool that they will feel comfortable using.
Many finance professionals are comfortable using Excel. But they need a convenient way to get their enterprise-wide data from their ERP to Excel for analysis.
“ERPs do a fantastic job of organizing data, classifying it, structuring it,” Wiley said. By combining data from different parts of your business, you’re dealing with different layers and a lot of depth. “It becomes very complex,” he said, “and then you want to grab that data and put it in a meaningful format for the leadership.”
Spreadsheet Server can bridge the gap between more than 140 ERPs and Excel to provide meaningful real-time financial reporting. “We’ve seen accounting and finance teams save hours and hours and hours of time in their month-end close process by adopting Spreadsheet Server,” Wiley said. “We’ve seen returns from 30% to 90% of your time back just being able to generate reports dynamically.”
Watch the podcast episode now to learn how to bridge the gap between ERPs and Excel with Spreadsheet Server.
Takeaways:
The current state of financial reporting often trails behind real-time needs.
Finance teams aim to become strategic partners within their organizations.
Spreadsheet Server connects ERP data to Excel dynamically.
Automation can cut the time spent on repetitive tasks.
Real-world examples show efficiencies you can gain with Spreadsheet Server.
insightsoftware offers a range of solutions beyond Spreadsheet Server.
Evaluating time spent on tasks can reveal areas for improvement.
Understanding user needs is vital for choosing the right technology.
The complexity of financial data requires multi-source integration for reporting purposes.
Optimizing your processes can lead to better decision-making and efficiency.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guests
02:59 Current State of Financial Reporting
06:29 Challenges in Real-Time Reporting
10:26 Spreadsheet Server: Bridging the Gap
13:39 Real-World Examples of Spreadsheet Server
20:16 insightsoftware's Broader Solutions
22:37 Key Takeaways for Decision Makers