The Pitfalls of Augmenting Transactional Data with Excel for Reporting

The Dashboard Effect

In the latest episode of The Dashboard Effect Podcast, Brick and Caleb discuss a common challenge businesses face when trying to extend their data for reporting purposes using Excel files to categorize or group data in ways not supported by the original system.

While this approach may seem simple and straightforward, it can lead to several problems down the road, such as:

• Difficulty matching numbers between the transactional system and the reporting tool (e.g., Power BI)
• Inconsistencies in categorization when new data is added
• Maintenance overhead and potential for errors as the Excel file grows

The golden rule, as emphasized in the podcast, is to handle as much data categorization and grouping as possible within your transactional systems. While it may seem like a pain to make updates there, it will save you time and headaches in the long run.

Watch the full Youtube episode.
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