In a world where data is prevalent, your business needs a solid financial reporting tool to help you stay competitive in your field. This blog article will explore the Business Intelligence (BI) options you have for software, particularly looking at features and functionalities, so you can choose the best report writer to navigate your company issues in managing and analyzing your data as a Sage 100 customer.
Financial reporting is the practice of building statements that reveal an organization’s financial status. A reporting tool allows the user to produce customized reports that utilize transactional information from your data source, integrating live from Sage 100, a data warehouse (DW), or an online analytical processing (OLAP) cube.
Most enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have built-in reporting functionalities, but there are third party tools that you can invest in for a more powerful, business user-friendly reporting. Independent software vendor (ISV) solutions enable finance departments to build report templates that give easy and accessible analyses for corporate leaders, for smarter decision-making about the future of your company. When it comes to accessing your company’s data, it will be crucial for you to examine options such as Excel, web, mobile, cloud, and/or proprietary interfaces.
When looking to invest in a report writer, how you consolidate your data is a foundational element when it comes to making business choices. For instance, if you are running reports live from Sage 100 or if you are integrating with a DW or an OLAP cube. Integrating live from Sage 100 means that you will have access to real-time analytics, right from the ERP system. Some Excel-based report writers also provide a live integration to Sage 100 and other ERP systems, while many third party options exclusively integrate information for reporting from a separate reporting database. You should consider the types of platform that will work best for you and your organization to design reports.
Experienced Excel users can view report writing as a way to automate reports based on end user selection. Users no longer have to rely on Excel to view and process data, but they can create a report that can be effective enough to report whatever they need without doing more work. Excel-based reporting tools are an add-in tool that upgrades Excel’s spreadsheet function with features that focus on secure collaboration and accounting logic. Other platforms such as web- and cloud-based solutions enable users to securely reach their data from anywhere as long as users have an internet connection. Web reporting works best for organizations that are structured similarly, particularly where remote users are regularly connecting to the company’s network out of the office.
To continue learning more about the best report writers for Sage 100, read the rest of this article here.