Sage BusinessVision Users can Benefit from Business Intelligence Software and Reporting in Sage ERP X3 – Part 2
Earlier this week we looked at how Sage BusinessVision users can benefit from business intelligence software and reporting by upgrading to Sage ERP X3. With Sage ERP X3, companies enjoy real time, financial reporting that is automated, leading to hours of work saved weekly. Sage ERP X3’s different modules use the data captured from the system, delivering to users advanced and detailed reports – such as worksheet reports, graphical reports, and dashboard – on the business’ performance.
The advantages of Sage ERP X3’s reporting when compared to Sage BusinessVision go well beyond the substantial improvement in functionality that X3 delivers. Below we explore a few of these advantages.
Automating Reporting – Saving Hours of Accounting and Bookkeeping Time
Financial managers along with bookkeeping and accounting staff will no longer have to go through the drag of manual report preparation. That means no more cutting and pasting, and repetitive data extracts. Sage ERP X3 automatically processes data, extracts it from the system when a report is being built, and fills out reports based on defined database connections.
Users can then organize, copy and modify reports within Sage ERP X3. By easily setting up report fields and the parameters they are looking for, as well as sort and summation criteria, users can create new reports that quickly bring to light the information needed for their activities.
Leveraging Existing Microsoft Excel Skills
Since X3’s BI modules come equipped with predefined Excel reports (including Excel based Income Statements, Balance Sheets, Sales, Purchases, Inventory, and online Dashboard), users will be familiar with editing and drilling down for specific information. This applies not only to financial reporting but to all aspects of the company, as all data residing in the ERP system, such as business management or the payroll database, can also be delivered automatically into Excel-based report templates.
Immediate Reporting with Standard Reports and Dashboard
Through Sage ERP X3’s Intelligence Dashboard, users can access real-time reports that deliver critical information in one easily accessible place. Users are able to access current metrics and key performance indications (KPIs) in a graphical format, making trends visible, and getting meaningful information at the hands of the appropriate personnel.
The BV dashboard pales in comparison to X3’s dashboard as the latter comes fully equipped with a variety of processes right out-of-the-box. While the BV intelligence dashboard comes with four processes (sales analysis, sales orders, purchase analysis, and purchase orders) that pull up transaction figures, X3 has every process within the company available for further drill down (see images below).
Multi-company Reports and Consolidations
Businesses using Sage ERP X3’s Business Intelligence module are able to connect multiple data sources, allowing users to consolidate data from multiple companies, divisions, and databases. This is ideal for businesses that consist of multiple organizations, where Sage ERP X3 supports multi-ledger, uses a shared chart of accounts across an unlimited number of companies, and allows for an unlimited number of fiscal calendars.
This means that the system can automatically consolidate accounting and financial data from different business units and consolidate them into the necessary reports.
The system allows you to create consolidations of unlike data in one Excel report, making year-end consolidations of multiple companies a much easier process.
Mobile Access to Intelligence and Reporting
Users of Sage ERP X3 can access the command center for Business Intelligence from their smartphones or tablets since the system’s web-based architecture allows access from anywhere, simply through a web browser. While it’s technically possible to have web access to BV by hosting it on a server and accessing through Remote Desktop Connections, this is certainly a more limited option, and definitely doesn’t allow smartphone or tablet access.
The advanced reporting functionality of Sage ERP X3 is an example of how the system automates simple yet burdensome processes saving users hours of work while delivering in-depth visibility into company operations.
Learn more about why it makes sense to upgrade from Sage BusinessVision to Sage ERP X3, or contact us for more info.