Sage Intelligence - Business Intelligence Reports
Get Advanced Insights Into Your Business With the Power of Sage and Microsoft Excel
SAGE INTELLIGENCE REPORTING OVERVIEW
Get meaningful insights into your business information with Sage & Excel
Sage Intelligence is a simple, flexible reporting solution that gives you meaningful insights into your business information, on the go. Available for Sage Accounting, Business Management (ERP) and payroll solutions, Sage Intelligence empowers you with immediate access to ready-to-use reports and dashboards that offer instant insights into your business without having to leave your Sage solution.
Analyse your business data the way you want to with Microsoft Excel
Because we know everyone loves Excel, Sage Intelligence enables you to view your data in Excel—where you can take full advantage of the graphs, charts and slicers that make it easy to see what is going on in your business.
Microsoft Excel is the standard data manipulation and reporting tool for today’s managers. As an Excel user, you already use Excel to analyse data, make projections, simulate situations, generate graphs, and so on. Excel is a specialist tool built to let you manipulate, slice and dice your data, and it does it superbly.
The central issue is getting data into Excel so that you can manipulate it in the ways you want. That data is sitting in your accounting system. As your operators enter accounting data, and generate the day-to-day reports and analyses that you require, they are also generating the base data that you need for management analysis. This type of analysis moves beyond the strictly accounting realm into the realm of advanced management, reporting, and planning.
Sage Intelligence Centre does two main things for you:
- It creates base data in Excel right out of your accounting system that is as accurate and as up to date as possible.
- It provides you with useful reports and analyses as an optional starting point.
By extracting the data into a worksheet, Sage Intelligence Centre lets you work with the data outside of the accounting system, where you can manipulate it at your leisure. To do this, Sage Intelligence Centre makes extensive use of workbooks. This allows you to:
- Separate data from reports
- Generate multiple reports in a single worksheet
This makes your management workflow efficient and easy to control. Once the data is in an Excel worksheet, you can create new reports, analyses, and graphs yourself, or you can use the tools supplied with Sage Intelligence Centre. You can use these tools as is, or you can modify them to suit your requirements. One of the tools, for example, is a set of management accounts that will produce professional looking income statements and balance sheets for various period ranges.
Extracting the Data Required for a Report:
Sage Intelligence Centre has various tools for extracting the data you require from your accounting database. You can use the system in a relatively automated fashion, or, if you have the expertise, you can source data from multiple accounting databases or any third party ODBC-compliant data.
Sage Intelligence Centre makes use of the following objects to extract all and only the data you require:
- A Data Connection Object holds the relevant connection information to connect to a supported ODBC or OLEDB compliant Data Source. You use this Data Connection object for all connections to this Data Source. An automatic connection system links to your accounting database system. A single Data Connection typically represents a set of company data. You can create as many connections as you require.
- A Data Container is a set of Data which is made available by the System Administrator. It allows users access to the data using a Report Manager interface. The source of this data can be either a database table, a view, a stored procedure or a join based on two or more tables/views. You use the latter, for example, to access invoice headers and their associated lines. Typical data containers could be the set of general ledger transactions for the year, customers over their credit limit, and so on. You can create as many Data Containers as you require.
- A Data Expression is usually a field in a Data Container chosen by the System Administrator to be available through the Report Manager interface. For example, the Administrator chooses which fields on a customer master file are available. A Data Expression can also be a SQL Expression or an Excel formula. You can create as many Data Expressions as you require.
Once all the containers and expressions are set up (if you do not use the standard ones), you create or edit a report to move the data. Most of the time, all you need to actually do is to choose the fields from the various database tables in the system. Besides choosing which fields, you can also include powerful filters to ensure that you only have the data you require. You can also specify a sort order for the data you are generating.
There are Two Different Versions of Sage Intelligence Reporting
The Sage Intelligence Centre – Standard Edition
This provides ready-boxed intelligent Excel reporting on your standard data. In addition, you can use the existing reports to create new reports. You can also write your own reports in Excel.
Some common applications include:
| Application | Details |
|---|---|
|
Monthly Boardroom Pack |
This lets you customise and automate a boardroom pack. You can include drill-down to detailed ledger transactions, all in one Excel workbook. |
|
Dynamic Transactional Reporting |
The system contains standard, customisable, and automated sales reporting using Excel’s powerful Pivot tables. |
|
Write Excel Reports from Scratch |
The system makes tables and fields available to you so that you can create your own customer reports. |
|
Import Reports |
You can import reports written by certified consultants. |
The Sage Intelligence Centre – Advanced Edition
The Advanced Edition adds additional tools for skilled users and/or consultants. This powerful and cost effective report writing solution allows you to deliver Excel reports from any ODBC compliant data source.
| Application | Details |
|---|---|
|
Consolidated Excel Reporting |
Generate consolidated financial reports from any number of companies into one Excel workbook. |
|
Connect to Any ODBC-Compliant Data Source |
Create Excel reports that combine data from one or more Sage companies as well as any other third-party compliant database. |
|
Create Virtual Fields |
Use SQL or Excel formulas to convert data into new fields. For example, convert a date into a week. |
|
Extend Reporting Views |
Create new containers (views) to write reports that combine data in ways the standard reports do not. |
Need a specific report? Whether you customise an existing Sage Intelligence Report or create one from scratch, you are in control of the look and feel of your report.
You can also download additional reports through the Report Utility, with additional reports such as Stock Aging, Sales Trend Analysis, Income Statements, Profitability Ratios, Cash Flow Reports – to name a few.