Are you recreating that same Excel export every week? Copying data from one system to another, only to paste it into a presentable report? And do you repeat this entire process whenever a single figure changes? You're not alone. Controllers spend a significant portion of their time manually cutting and pasting, when that time could be better used for analysis and strategic advice. In this blog, Thomas Werkhoven, director of Exsion365, explains how he overcame this time-consuming task as a controller and how you can do the same.

When cutting and pasting becomes your biggest enemy 

In my years as a controller, I've experienced firsthand how time-consuming and frustrating manual reporting can be. For example, at Van Wijnen I worked with 187 different companies in a single ERP system. For a simple column balance, I had to create an export from Business Central to Excel for each company and then paste them one below another. And it got even worse when I wanted to make a comparison with another period.

For instance, to compare revenue data for 10 companies, I had to make 20 exports. And if I wanted to see this again a month later, I had to repeat the entire process. The standard functionality of Business Central didn't offer a simple solution because you can't easily report across multiple companies.

This problem isn't unique to Van Wijnen. As a Group Business Controller and later in my role at BAM and other organizations, I saw that every construction company in the Netherlands faces the same challenge. And it's not just in the construction sector – financial professionals in retail, healthcare, production, and services struggle with the same issues.

In construction, they want insight into work budgets, realization, contracts, expenditures, and expected costs. Retailers want insight into revenue per store, inventory levels, and margins. Healthcare organizations need insight into occupancy rates, personnel costs, and reimbursements. But the core remains the same: you want to be able to see all this information at different levels in the organization and have it available in real-time, not from yesterday but from today.

Flexibility brings calm to a chaotic environment 

Each executive has slightly different wishes. The CFO might want column headers in bold, numbers displayed in millions, or a different name for a particular column. Other stakeholders have other preferences.

This flexibility is difficult to achieve with standard reports. It means you have to create and maintain a customized report for each stakeholder. Through automation, as a controller, you can continue to work in Excel – the environment where you feel comfortable – but switch between project, branch, or concern with one button press. You don't have to leave Excel to do the analysis you need, and without being dependent on the IT department or external consultants.

From reactive to proactive financial management 

When I automated my reports, I could finally reserve an hour in my schedule every Monday to analyze the changes from the past week – time I didn't have before due to all the manual work.

The best part was that I could answer any follow-up question that arose from my analysis within 20 seconds. Every controller knows that analysis always leads to ad-hoc questions about specific periods, projects, or deviating figures. You then want to be able to quickly dig down to the cause of an unexpected deviation or a notable number.

Normally, investigating this takes a lot of time. With the right tools, you answer these questions within seconds. You can click directly through to the underlying details, without creating new exports or collecting data.

This enables you to steer proactively instead of reporting retroactively. Instead of bringing bad news about what went wrong last month, you can now help prevent things from going wrong.

First steps toward a future without cutting and pasting 

Start by automating the most time-consuming operations. At Exsion365, we always help new customers with their first report. We not only show that this is faster than the old method, but we also ensure that you as a controller can continue with the report yourself, for example by adding a column, a specific field, or filter.

Take back control of your time 

The most effective controllers aren't those who can cut and paste the fastest. They're the ones who spend more time analyzing data and advising management. Map out your most repetitive reporting processes today. Which report costs you a lot of time every time? Which data do you use repeatedly? Automate this process first.

As Elielma wrote earlier in her blog, your strength as a controller lies not in collecting data, but in interpreting it. The shift from manual work to automation is more than a time-saver – it's a fundamental change in how you as a controller add value to your organization.

Want to know more? 

Would you like to know more about how you can free yourself from repetitive cutting and pasting work? Contact us for a no-obligation conversation. We'll show you how you can save time in your specific situation and add more value to your organization.