One wrongly filled field in Business Central, and as a controller you can spend half a day working out why the figures do not add up. Sound familiar? Much of the hassle in reporting does not start in the reporting, but at data entry. Thomas Werkhoven, director of Exsion 365 and still a controller himself, explains why Exsion has been using Field Validation from 2-Controlware since this year, and how clean data at the source keeps reporting reliable.

Errors in your reporting start at data entry

Poor data in your reporting almost always starts at entry, not in the reporting itself. Thomas sees this from both sides. "I own Exsion, but I also come in at clients as a controller or CFO. And then you see where it goes wrong: someone fills in a field incorrectly, and from that moment the error sits in your data." One forgotten field carries through into every report you run afterwards. You only notice once the figures are already out, and then you are fixing errors instead of looking at what the figures are telling you.

Exsion can already spot errors, preventing them is the next step

Exsion Reporting is good at spotting. You run a validation report and see straight away where something is off, for instance an entry on the wrong account or a missing dimension. "Exsion is the detective, it establishes what is going wrong," Thomas explains. You can adjust your report as much as you like, but then you keep spotting errors after they have already been made. Next month someone types the same field wrongly again. So the real gain is not in better spotting, but in prevention, and that only works if the data is right at the source.

What Field Validation does

Field Validation from 2-Controlware sets rules on fields in Business Central. If something is forgotten or filled in wrongly, you cannot proceed until it is right. You decide yourself when a rule applies, so users do not get messages at the wrong moment. Thomas gives examples from Exsion's own administration. "For a customer with an EU VAT business posting group, a VAT number has to be entered. An invoicing email address has to be there, so the invoice ends up in the right place. And for contracts we record the right deferral code, together with the end date and the partner dimension."

The combination is what makes it strong

Field Validation and Exsion Reporting reinforce each other. "Exsion establishes what is going wrong, and with Field Validation you make sure it does not happen again," says Thomas. Sometimes you catch an error with Exsion within the Business Central standard. In other cases a validation on a field is exactly what you need. That way you cover the whole chain, from entry to reporting.

Why 2-Controlware

That it became 2-Controlware felt logical. "The founder is a chartered accountant, like me, and he has worked with Exsion for years himself," Thomas says. They met at a client day of a shared partner and now run webinars together. "Where he has been a fan of Exsion for years, I have become a fan of his Field Validation." No coincidence, because they look at data the same way: better right at the source than fixed afterwards.

The first experiences

Exsion has been using Field Validation for a few months, so Thomas is careful with hard figures. "What I notice is that the source data comes in cleaner and that we spend less time on rework." He sees a wider shift. "In recent years controllers have increasingly used Exsion not only to report, but also to check their figures." For him, Field Validation is the next step: not just seeing that something is wrong, but preventing it from happening.

Want clean data at the source yourself?

Do you work with Business Central and recognise that stream of data entry errors? Clean data at the source and reliable reporting in Excel belong together. Get in touch with Exsion 365, and we will show you how that combination works in your situation.

Thomas Werkhoven is director of Exsion 365 and still works as a controller.