From AFAS Limitations to Data Freedom

Many organizations run into limitations when reporting data from AFAS. At E-mergo, we're convinced that the combination of TimeXtender and Power BI offers the solution to these challenges. In this blog, BI consultant, and former controller and AFAS consultant, Mark de Boer shares how we used this powerful combination to overcome these limitations and achieve a new level of ease, flexibility, and up-to-date data.

Goodbye Excel, hello up-to-date data

The importance of always having up-to-date data became clear to me once again during an important meeting where valuable time was lost discussing which figures were actually the correct ones. Two colleagues had run the same analysis that morning, but changes made in the meantime led to different results. Discussions like this can undermine trust in analyses and waste valuable decision-making time. With the switch to TimeXtender and Power BI, these concerns are a thing of the past. You always work with the most up-to-date data, which gives you a reassuring feeling and enables you to make well-informed decisions.

Version control and central storage of forecasts and budgets

Managing different versions of forecasts and budgets can be a complex task, especially when multiple people are involved in updating the data. TimeXtender offers the solution here with simple version control, integrated with SharePoint. With just the click of a button, we always have access to different versions and can compare data in our analyses.

Dynamic dashboards allow us to compare data in a fast and intuitive way. Are you in a monthly meeting and want to compare the data with last month's forecast? No problem – with a simple click, you adjust the data and immediately see the results. Is a new forecast submitted and do you want to quickly see the differences? At the push of a button, you get insight into the differences. Thanks to this functionality, we experience a new level of flexibility and efficiency, allowing us to make better-informed decisions and respond more quickly to changes in the data.

Historical data

The importance of historical data is often underestimated, but as a controller I've often experienced the challenge of retroactive corrections being carried out differently than agreed. This made it difficult to figure out what costs and revenue were based on, because hours or bookings in the past had been adjusted or even deleted.

Fortunately, TimeXtender offers the perfect solution by storing monthly copies of all data. This means we always have a reliable historical overview, allowing us to quickly find out why certain events or changes occurred, such as fluctuations in absence rates or deleted project hours. This not only allows us to simplify the review of annual figures, but also to save valuable time when analyzing data and gaining valuable insights.

Central management of KPIs and formulas

With TimeXtender, we can centrally store and manage all calculated KPIs and formulas. Manually repeating calculations for every new analysis is a thing of the past. If a KPI calculation needs to be adjusted, we can change it in one place instead of in every individual analysis. This efficiency saves valuable time and minimizes the chance of errors, allowing us to focus on valuable insights from the data.

With the combination of TimeXtender and Power BI, we've said goodbye to Excel and embraced the flexibility, reliability, and ease of working with up-to-date data. This powerful combination has taken our data analysis to a higher level and allows us to better support our customers with valuable insights and decision-making.

Written by Mark de Boer
Business Intelligence Consultant
E-mergo