Spreadsheets are familiar and flexible. But as a business grows, compiling reports by hand from multiple sources starts to take too much time, introduces errors and gets figures to managers too late.
Signs it is time to change
- A routine report takes days to complete
- Departments report different numbers for the same metric
- Only a few people know how to “build” the report
- Leadership needs figures more often than the team can deliver
A four-step path
- 1Agree on metrics
- 2Identify data sources
- 3Automate data pipelines
- 4Design dashboards
First, agree on definitions for key metrics so every department reads them the same way — when “revenue” is recognised, what counts as a “new customer”. Second, identify the source of truth for each metric.
Third, build automated data pipelines that cleanse, standardise and centralise the data, replacing manual copy-and-paste. Finally, design reports and dashboards around the questions their users actually need answered, rather than trying to show everything.
A good dashboard answers its viewer’s question in seconds.
Choosing a reporting tool
Tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Qlik and Superset each have their strengths. The right choice depends on the ecosystem you already use, how many people will view reports, access-control needs and budget. More important than the tool is that the data behind it is clean and consistent.
Run in parallel before switching over
In the early stage, run the old and new reports side by side and reconcile the figures. Once users trust the results, the switch happens more naturally and lasts.
Reporting development is one of Fetek’s core data services, from data transformation to automated reports and dashboards for management.