Situation
This report was a technological masterpiece, given the tools that were available to the business and the technology that existed at the time. The business used stage 50 and before this report, trial balances and other daters were manually exported from Sage and then manipulated to create any report that was needed, which meant that the business was at least 3 to 4 days behind getting any more meaningful data.
Task
As part of my process, streamlined and automated elements could be automated in the tasks and functions that the accounting and finance department conducted. As part of that, I wanted to make the reporting quicker. Before this, the only reporting that existed was some manual reports from Sage, which did not give an overview of the business to the management. The management did not ask for this report. On the contrary, I wanted to create a report for the business that would allow the leadership to make informed decisions as I knew what date I could provide for them, which they did not know.
Action
I contacted Sage with limited help, but they gave me some ways which allowed me to then further develop my understanding of how the raw data fields are used to create the reports that already exist in Sage. Are use these raw data fields to then create SQL query with MS query plugging into excel. I then further refined it to create sequence, refreshes on pivot tables and other data tabs, which pulled information from other data sources, combining it with sage data to give much more meaningful information to management.
Result
You would observe from the image that this was laid out to look like a financial Times newspaper. Reports often get overlooked and the management do not pay attention. I wanted the management to pay attention to this. Therefore I made it eye-catching and informative and concise.
The design of the report is not vanity. It forms as an essential purpose to get the attention of the key decision-makers. The layout needs to be such that highlights the key information and enabling the decision-makers to have all the relevant information at their fingertip and make timely informed decisions.
Before
👎 No finance reports produced
👎 Management not sure what information they should be asking for and what can be produced
👎 Archaic systems, limiting the level of meaningful information that can be extracted
👎 Team not sure how to present the information
👎 Management not engaged in looking at reports
👎 Existing reports not enabling management to drive effective decision-making
After
👍 Proactively produced the report to information management of key information
👍 Started with the information available and then constantly improve
👍 Created bridging workbooks to effective extract data for this report and also use as stand alone
👎 Build reports in MS Query and used ODBC drivers to build connections so future reports could be produced at the click of a button, thus improving the reports from archaic systems and easy data production for this report
👍 The exercise improved business partnering and staff skillset and information collated from various parts of the business and teams understanding how it all comes together
👍 Elements used in the workbook separated to create Excel workshop classes
👍 Management used to reading FT in the morning which led to the idea of this presentation so it can be added to their morning reads