How AASK has professionalized their reports

AASK, an Arizona nonprofit that runs its finances on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, cut its month-end reporting from two full days to several hours by professionalizing its reports with Exsion Reporting in Excel. Controller Mary Ellen produces around 30 month-end reports for the finance committee, board of directors, CFO and CEO; each one now refreshes and formats with a single click instead of being rebuilt by hand, saving 16 to 20 hours every month. This is her account of what changed.

Why was month-end at AASK taking two days?

Time. It is the one thing every financial controller runs short of. Month-end hits, the reports need formatting, the figures need double-checking. Someone always spots an error, and suddenly you are redoing everything from scratch.

Even with heavyweight systems like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central already in place, for most, financial reporting still ends up being slow, heavy, and fiddly. Especially when you are under pressure and trying not to lose sight of the bigger picture.

"I think one of the biggest strengths is that it works every time." Mary Ellen, Controller at AASK

At AASK, financial reporting used to mean one thing: hours lost to formatting. "Before Exsion, our reporting was slow," says Mary Ellen, AASK's controller. "Each report had to be manually manipulated to give it a finished look and consistent appearance to submit to the finance committee, board of directors, our CFO and CEO."

And it was not just about making things look nice. "Our biggest inefficiencies were formatting. The reports just didn't have any kind of consistency, and certainly didn't have a financial look to them." That meant more time on columns, fonts, and layouts, and less time analysing the actual numbers.

Worse still? Small mistakes meant starting again. "Especially if you did the report, and then there was a small minor error, you'd have to redo the report, and it was all about formatting."

It added up quickly. "I would say the old process was cumbersome, slow, and outdated." And with around 30 reports due every month, the pressure was constant. "I kind of dreaded month's end because I knew it was going to take about two days of my time."

That pattern, export from Business Central, paste into a template, fix the layout, repeat next month, is the standard route Microsoft describes in its guide to exporting Business Central data to Excel. It works for a one-off; it does not scale to 30 reports a month.

Results at a glance

[[TABLE_START]]

Metric | Before | After

Time to produce the 30 month-end reports | About two full days | Several hours

Hours saved per month | None | 16 to 20 hours

Formatting per report | Manual, every month, redone after each error | Formatted once, reused every month

Fixing an error found by the team | Redo the report from scratch | Fix one or all reports fairly quickly

Refreshing the data from Business Central | Manual manipulation per report | One click, change the month, data downloads and formats

Time to first working report | Not available | Within weeks of getting started

[[TABLE_END]]

How did the plug-and-play shift happen?

After years of slow, clunky reporting, AASK found Exsion Reporting, a tool built to work with Business Central, not against it. The onboarding? Instant. "I was able to start using the reporting system within weeks from when we first got started," says Mary Ellen.

For a small team with a big mission, being able to build reports without calling IT was a game changer. No more trial and error. No drama. "I think one of the biggest strengths is that it works every time." From the very first run, she knew: "The first report you helped me with showed that this was going to really be a time saver for me."

Part of why it works every time is that nothing sits between Excel and Business Central. Exsion connects through the API, with no data warehouse, no replica database and no gateway to break, and it inherits Business Central user permissions, so the controller sees exactly what she sees in Business Central. The add-in installs from AppSource in about five minutes and the query behind each report is written into the workbook as a readable grid, which is what makes a report reusable month after month.

"It is extremely useful that everything that is done in Exsion Reporting also looks like an Excel-like way. This is recognizable to financial controllers like me. Everyone can get started right away!" Mary Ellen, Controller at AASK

What changed for AASK?

• Reporting time cut by 20 hours monthly. What used to take two full days now takes just a few hours. For Mary Ellen and the team at AASK, automating their reporting was not just a time-saver; it was a complete shift in how they work.

• Reusable templates. No more rebuilding everything from scratch each month. "Most valuable tool for us has been the formatting, that you can format a financial report the exact way you need it and then use it over and over again every month." The result: more time, less grind, and 16 to 20 hours saved every month.

• One click, all data formatted and refreshed. "Really, the biggest difference now is that it's time-saving. Instead of taking two days to do these thirty month-end reports, it literally takes me several hours." And if someone catches an error? No stress. "If one of my team members finds an error, it's easy to fix one or all the reports fairly quickly."

• It downloads all the data from BC. With Exsion, the data just clicks into place. "With a quick click of the button, changing of the month, it completely formats and downloads all the data from BC in the format that I need. It couldn't be simpler."

• Better reporting, stronger impact. With 20 hours saved every month, AASK's finance team now has more space for planning and strategy. Clear reporting supports better decisions, and better decisions help more children.

How does changing the month work in practice?

The month is a filter on the query, written in Business Central's own filter syntax (for example a date range such as 01-01-26..31-01-26 on G/L Entry, table 17). Change that one cell, click refresh, and all 30 reports pick up the new period with the same layout. Exsion refreshes 700,000 G/L Entry rows in under five seconds, so at AASK's scale the wait is the click. The same approach is described step by step in how to build Business Central management reports in Excel in 7 steps.

Why does better reporting build trust and support compliance?

Reliable reporting also helps when it comes to audits and board updates. Now, AASK's team delivers full reports with all the right numbers in place. That means fewer surprises, and stronger oversight. Because in Mary Ellen's words: "You can't run a nonprofit without clear financials."

Good reporting is not just admin. It builds trust, shows impact, and helps organisations stay on mission.

"I would be very sad if you guys disappeared tomorrow. What I would miss the most is the ease of doing my financial reporting." Mary Ellen, Controller at AASK

For a nonprofit finance team, the cost side matters too. Exsion has public pricing and a 30-day full trial, so a controller can rebuild one month-end report on live Business Central data before anyone signs anything.

About AASK

AASK stands for "Aid to Adoption of Special Kids".

Founded in 1988, AASK was Arizona's first licensing agency dedicated to kinship care, placing children with relatives or close family connections. Since then, the nonprofit has helped more than 4,000 children find permanent homes, with an astonishing 95% placement stability rate.

Unlike traditional adoption agencies, AASK focuses on children who are often overlooked: older youth, sibling groups, and children with emotional, developmental, or physical needs.

Frequently asked questions

[[FAQ_START]]

How much time does AASK save with Exsion Reporting? | Between 16 and 20 hours every month. The 30 month-end reports that used to take about two full days now take several hours.

What was the biggest inefficiency in AASK's old reporting process? | Formatting. Each report had to be manually manipulated for a consistent, financial look, and a small error meant redoing the whole report.

How does AASK refresh its month-end reports now? | With a click of a button and a change of the month, Exsion downloads all the data from Business Central and formats it in the layout the controller needs.

How long did it take AASK to get started with Exsion? | Controller Mary Ellen was using the reporting system within weeks of getting started, and the first report already showed it would be a time saver.

[[FAQ_END]]