ERP data and reporting
Your ERP has the data. It won’t answer the question.
ERPs are built to record transactions, not to answer questions. What you want usually exists already, spread across modules that were never designed to be read together. We assemble it into reporting that answers what leadership actually asks.
Does this sound like your business?
The information exists somewhere in the building. It just isn’t where the decision gets made, at the moment it gets made.
- A simple question takes three people and two days to answer.
- The real reporting happens in spreadsheets somebody maintains by hand.
- Two departments bring two different numbers to the same meeting.
- Nobody can say where a given order is without asking around.
- You’ve been told the fix is a new ERP, and that answer costs a lot.
What the work involves
Hands-on work in the system you already run, not a platform you have to buy first.
Find where the answer lives
Which module holds it, which spreadsheet patched around it, and which part only exists in somebody’s head. That last one is usually the expensive part.
Agree on definitions
If sales, the floor and accounting define a number three ways, no report fixes it. Agreeing on one definition per number comes before anything gets built.
Build the reporting
Macola and Prophet 21, hands on. Reporting that answers the question asked, rather than every number the system can produce.
Take out the re-keying
Where the same data is entered twice, the two copies will disagree eventually. We remove the second entry instead of reconciling it forever.
Questions about ERP data and reporting
Why can’t I get a straight answer out of my ERP?
Because ERPs are built to record transactions, not to answer questions. The data you want usually exists, spread across modules that were never designed to be read together. Standard reports show what each module knows, which is why the answer to a cross-department question has to be assembled rather than run.
Do you work with Macola or Prophet 21?
Yes, both, hands on, for years. That includes reporting, margin and pricing analysis, data cleanup, upgrades and full migrations. We get answers out of ERPs that were not built to give them up easily, and we plan cutovers so the business keeps running while the move happens.
Do we need to replace our ERP to get better reporting?
Usually not. Replacing an ERP to fix reporting is one of the most expensive ways to solve the problem, and it often recreates it. In most cases the data is already there and the gap is how it’s structured, defined and presented. We’ll tell you honestly if a replacement is genuinely the answer.
Why don’t my ERP, sales and accounting numbers match?
Usually because each department keeps its own version. Sales quotes from one place, the floor tracks another, and accounting reconciles after the fact. The numbers were entered at different times, under different rules, with manual steps in between. The fix is agreeing on one source for each number and removing the re-keying.
Tell us the question nobody can answer.
We’ll tell you whether the data to answer it is already in your ERP.