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ExGL Reporter - Overview

ExGL Reporter “ExGL” is a powerful and flexible "All in One" business reporting system.   ExGL links Microsoft Excel to a secure and powerful central SQL Server reporting database.   ExGL users get the ease and flexibility of Excel for reporting, but also, the power and security of a central verified data source providing a unique and facilitated means of seamless reporting.

ExGL will work with most versions of Excel, however, we favour the Office 2007 version.  Excel 2007 is a quantum leap from other versions in terms of power and efficiency. Workbooks are now typically 90-95% smaller, hence loading takes 5%-10% of the previous time taken, plus 2007 has many more features. These include much improved formatting options, including conditional formatting enabling "Traffic Light" type reporting. In addition, a unique feature of the ExGL set up is that professional data mining tools are available as an add in to Excel 2007, facilitating very sophisticated data analysis. This makes ExGL an ideal, robust and flexible On-line Analytical Processing “OLAP” system with full drill-down capability  Reports created in worksheets, pivot tables and charts can easily be converted to other formats e.g. PDF or Flash for distribution via email or WEB publishing.

When implemented with Quote Master, interfaced to business systems and the general ledger, ExGL enables the execution of straight through processing “STP”. All reporting needs can be met from the same system and data is only ever entered or uploaded once, thus saving time and money and also makes a fast close a reality.  

ExGL Reporter - Why MS Excel? 

Excel is installed on nearly every PC and has over 150 million users.  Most business executives are familiar with and use Excel and it is therefore the obvious choice for reporting and analysing corporate data. There are some excellent business reporting & planning tools on the market, nevertheless, users of these systems have demanded a requirement that data can be downloaded into Excel for further analysis.  For these reasons and the fact that Excel comes at no extra cost, it is unlikely that Excel will be usurped from this dominant and favoured position.

Despite this prominence, spreadsheets have many well known weaknesses and are particularly the distain of IT professionals.  The very fact that spreadsheets are readily available, user-friendly and have powerful functionality, results in them being used  for complex reporting and analytical tasks; however, it quickly becomes apparent how easy it is to lose the integrity of data in this process, particularly when a number of different people and process steps are involved.  Consequently, a large amount of time is then lost in making comparisons and undertaking reconciliation to determine which report is correct, if any are, at all? 

The ExGL set up, that links Excel 2007 to SQL Server eliminates these weaknesses and also makes full use of the vastly improved functionality of Excel 2007.

ExGL Reporter’s distinct advantages:

• A familiar Excel front-end, but the power and security of a SQL Server database  

• Automatically interfaces & integrates, business systems and the general ledger to a central data source

• Provides "One Version of Truth" using double entry principles & data consistent with the company's books of account

• All reports are refreshed automatically from one central database in which it is easy to maintain version control

• Report design is rapid and flexible, minutes not days, delivered with full OLAP and drill down capability

• Reports can be delivered in many formats (e.g. PDF & Flash) via WEB services or email