Business analytics has revolutionized how CFOs plan, organize, and execute your visions for your businesses. No matter the size of the business or industry you operate in, the ability to accurately report, visualize, access, and analyze data is more important than ever before, and will continue to grow in importance as systems evolve.
A recent poll of CFOs found that over half of the most important trends in your business were about data reporting and analytics, meaning that forward-thinking CFOs need every tool and advantage possible to position yourselves, and your business, as leaders, not followers. Using Dynamics 365 Business Central for your business’ ERP is exactly the leg-up that CFOs are searching for.
With powerful data analytics and visualization tools, BC will help CFOs take your entire business in a modern, data-driven direction.
An ever-present challenge for CFOs who are looking to make your business more data-driven is how to access, present, and analyze data in a way that suits your business’ needs and preferences. As every CFO faces different scenarios for success, a one-size fits all approach for data is simply not tenable. Different tools and approaches are required depending on needs and desired outcomes, meaning that flexibility is paramount.
Dynamics 365 BC solves this problem with an approach they dub the “BI Triangle”, a comprehensive set of tools designed for flexibility in addressing the needs of finance leaders.
The BI Triangle is formed by four classes of tools:
Microsoft Power BI finance reports - Through Power BI, Business Central offers a vast suite of pre-made reports and visualizations that are available directly after implementation. With seven apps populated with dozens of reports, Power BI is a game changer for data-hungry CFOs. Featuring full drill-down ability and interactivity, these reports allow for deep dives into the data, easy sharing amongst teams, and customizable dashboards, allowing CFOs day-one insight into the nuances of your financial situation.
Ad-hoc data analysis - BC allows users to filter, group, and pivot data from directly within the system without having to export it. This allows for rapid consideration of scenarios not covered by pre-created reports, eliminating the need to wait for custom reports to be created and compiled. BC also integrates with Excel for easy data export.
Excel Finance Reports - Working hand in hand with the above point, BC allows for easy integration of data with Excel, utilizing its industry-standard tools to create tables and charts, add formulas, and format and organize data. Excel also features its own suite of reporting options to augment the reports found in Power BI.
No-code financial reporting - If those reporting options weren’t enough, BC offers users the ability to generate custom reports with low to no coding knowledge necessary.
These four tools are the pillars of the BI triangle, allowing CFOs and users across the business to see, analyze, and visualize your businesses’ data to power innovation, savings, and growth. The different reporting options are ideal for businesses that present to multiple audiences, and all flow from the same system, meaning the data is always matching and up to date.
Dynamics 365 BC uses Microsoft’s AI assistant tool CoPilot, allowing for a wide variety of AI powered innovations. Perhaps most exciting for data-driven CEOs is the ability to have CoPilot generate executive summary dashboards for easy presentation of data, project updates, and financial overviews. CoPilot can answer questions about your businesses’ data such as “how much did we grow last year” or “what was our income last quarter” and create visually stimulating, easy-to-read charts, tables, or basic text answers, depending on preferences.
Power BI allows CFOs to create, customize, and monitor metrics for your users, allowing for easy tracking of goal progress. Thresholds and targets can be created for any number shown in Power BI’s financial reporting, and these metrics can be tracked over time to chart sustainability and growth.
KPIs can now be integrated with Teams, allowing leadership and users to be alerted when certain thresholds are met, such as revenue shortfalls or projects going over-budget. This instant, granular visibility is a game-changer, as problems can be addressed immediately, rather than days, weeks, or months later.
The bread and butter of BI is its offering of in-depth reports on your financial data. Designed specifically for the system and accessible out of the box, these reports cover finance, purchasing, sales, inventory, and projects. These reports, like all of the data in BC, are accessible anywhere, anytime, from any internet-connected device. As of today, there are over seventy reports available to help give CFOs in-depth insight into every aspect of your financial picture.
While Power BI is the engine that drives the data analytics train forward, it is not the sole tool data-focused CFOs have at your disposal. Dynamics 365 BC allows users to create custom financial statements such as invoices, balance sheets, and cash flow statements from within the system with no coding skill required.
Using fully customizable templates, businesses can create exactly what you need for any situation. Users can drill-down into the data from these statements while viewing them within the system, and are able to easily export them as PDFs or Excel to share with outside vendors or partners. Speaking of Excel, BI comes with a suite of pre-created Excel reports, available directly from implementation, to assist in financial reporting.
The ability to collect, parse, analyze, and present data is one of the key differentiators between leaders and followers, no matter the size or line of business. CFOs are embracing the data revolution, realizing that data can be the fuel that keeps the engine of business running. By partnering with Enavate to implement Dynamics 365 Business Central, CFOs can create a data-first culture in your business, and give themselves the tools to harness the power of data for better reporting, decision making, efficiency, and cost-savings.