Still combining PowerBI with Excel for your management reports?

Edgar de Wit

If you’re reading this, there’s a big chance that you, just like many organizations, have invested in PowerBI and similar BI solutions. The idea was simple: a modern tool that visualizes all figures in dashboards and KPI overviews. Great in theory, however in practice, there is a bit more to it than meets the eye.

The reality: Dashboards are just not enough

True, PowerBI excels at data visualization, but a huge chunk of our (prospective) clients come to us because they experience limitations when they need more than just visually appealing dashboards.

One major challenge is the complex setup and reliance on external factors. Sounds familiar? Keep reading. Implementing tools like PowerBI often requires external specialists, technical expertise, and a complex data structure. Organizations expect an intuitive solution but end up facing a strong dependency on outside support.

Additionally, most tools are designed for data visualization, great for a quick scan "first thing" in the morning with a cup of coffee to get an idea of proceedings, but not for generating structured management reports as required by stakeholders and investors. As a result, many companies still rely on Excel to create their reports.

Another limitation is that forecasting and planning almost always take place in Excel. BI tools are primarily designed for analysing historical data and displaying dashboards but are unfortunately not quite suitable for scenario analysis and financial planning. This forces organizations to continue using Excel for these critical processes.

The consequence: Data spread across multiple tools

Due to limitations across the board, organizations often use multiple systems for financial reporting and planning: PowerBI is used for dashboards and KPIs, Excel for forecasting and management reports, and ERP or accounting software as the data source. So here we are again, back to square one with a gazillion open tabs. Efficient? No. Error-prone? Yes.

This fragmentation introduces risks. Data is stored in multiple locations, leading to inconsistencies and outdated information. More manual actions are required, increasing the risk of errors. Furthermore, there is no single source of truth, making alignment between departments more difficult.

XLReporting: All-in-One Platform

At XLReporting, we’ve all been there, and we sincerely believe (know!) organizations should not have to choose between visualization, reporting, and planning. We cannot stress this enough: our solution allows organizations to connect directly to their data sources without a complex setup. Our tool creates both management reports and dashboards in a single tool while forecasting and planning without relying on Excel. And XLReporting talks to existing Power BI solutions, for example - we can match the XLReporting forecasting and planning tool with PowerBI for an overview of actuals versus budget dashboard. Neat!

Another huge advantage of XLReporting is that you will have full authorisation. You can create user accounts and give accessibility accordingly: In-or-exclude departments, businesses, projects etc. But also manage permissions like view and/or edit dashboards and reports as well as create/view/edit budgets.

By combining everything into one platform, a single source of truth is established. This ensures that businesses always work with up-to-date and reliable data without the risks of fragmented information.

Enough food for thought already, but we can’t end our blog without giving you some extremely valuable information: If you’re already using a Power BI solution you will have the benefit of an effortless integration with XLReporting. With just a few clicks, you can securely connection between XLReporting and Power BI.

This integration gives your existing Power BI dashboards more detailed insights from your planning, budgeting, and forecasting. It allows you to easily compare actuals versus budgets in real-time, providing a clearer financial overview.

Want to see how XLReporting can improve your reporting and planning? Schedule a Discovery Call and discover the benefits for yourself.

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