Developing custom queries, reports, analyses
We have reports ready in our existing ERP tool – but they are not that perfect. Written by programmers, not by users – and the latter were not involved… The lists are incomplete, the reports cannot be accurately filtered, they are hard to load into Excel. We face this situation many times.
We offer the creation of a specific list or report suitable exactly to the required purpose or task. In many cases the direct loading into Excel can be achieved.
Frequent problems of lists or reports
- The final list has to be composed of several source reports, as a repetitive task it is time consuming
- Some necessary data, column is missing from the existing report, those have to be supplemented from other sources all the time
- The format of the output report is simply unusable at first. It has to be reformatted, transformed in order Excel to digest
- Data comes from a web page, text file, CSV file, it means a lot of work before it can be analysed, processed
- It takes an eternity while the report is downloading from a web site
If a certain data is available in the ERP system, but the available report does not contain it, then with the creation of custom-made reports it is possible that the necessary set of information which is used day by day, be available at your disposal with a press of a button.
This has 2 prerequisites:
- We know the authentication data to the core database
- We know or get know the structure of the database
Usually the first point is harder to obtain, the IT staff is sometimes not willing to give out this information. But in cases when the ERP system itself is custom-made or hosted locally by the company, it’s far from being impossible.
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Custom-made report in Excel, sourced from an external system
With modern data connections, it is possible to download the necessary data directly into Excel from a system, be it on our own server or a remote server, without manual import of any kind.
When the points above are fulfilled, the next step is the creation of the report. In this step we identify the followings:
- What is the target area of the custom report: shop floor data, outstanding orders, outbound invoices, accounting?
- What filter, sorting should be applied on the report: by date, supplier, material number?
- What columns should be present in the report: it can be a basic set of columns with only the summary of the data or can be a detailed, verbose list containing as many data as possible.
As an outcome, we can use this custom report any time in our daily work: we supply the filter parameters into Excel (as of today, only the last week, custom time period, given material number of material group, anything), press the button and
in a matter of seconds the result is there in Excel from the source system. No download of files, transfer, reformatting, column ordering - directly to Excel into a separate sheet.
Uses of the custom-made report or list
Many times the task does not end when the list is created – who likes to browse a long report day by day? Excel was designed to help such a work too.
As soon as the report arrives to Excel with a press of a button, even its automatic analysis can be created: which invoices, which materials, which suppliers shall we put extra care on? Which are the articles that are in shortage? Is there a late truck that risks the production flow? Is there an inbound material that was accidentally not put on stock? Is the scrap cost of certain products too high?
The possibilities are endless, more precisely determined by the task at hand.
We provide a free consultation, where we assess the task in advance and give an overview on whether it is feasible with the existing tools and, if so, how much resources it requires.