Every year, Kinderhulp provides support over a hundred thousand times to children in the Netherlands who are growing up in poverty. Behind these impressive numbers is an organization that is constantly working smarter and more efficiently to increase its impact. For instance, how many bicycles have been donated in a specific municipality? What trends can they identify in the requests? And how can you retrieve all the data needed for the annual report with just one click? In this article, Maarten Zilverberg, project leader for internal improvement projects at Kinderhulp, shares how the organization is becoming more efficient with the help of Exsion Reporting.

Kinderhulp: support for children living in poverty

Kinderhulp is a charitable organization. It helps children and young people up to 21 years old who are growing up in poverty in the Netherlands. This support can be something small, like a warm winter coat, but also something bigger, such as a bicycle, a pair of glasses, or a laptop. Kinderhulp always works together with social professionals, who submit applications on behalf of the children who need help.

From static reports to flexible dashboards

The collaboration between Kinderhulp and Exsion365 has a long history, one that even predates Maarten’s arrival at the organization almost four years ago. “We have been working with Verito, our partner for Business Central, since 2011,” he explains. “And our collaboration with Exsion365, which used to be part of HB Software and has since become an independent company focused on reporting and consolidation solutions, has been ongoing since at least 2017. Exsion Reporting was already integrated into our work environment when I started here. In the past, we could only extract static information from our ERP system, Navision. Building dashboards, keeping them live, and easily refreshing them used to be a challenge. Nowadays, we can do all of that effortlessly.”

Build your own reports and easily update them

One of the biggest advantages that Exsion Reporting offers Kinderhulp is the ability to build reports independently. “We have enough knowledge in-house to handle that,” Maarten explains. “We’re lucky to have inherited a strong foundation from our former financial manager, who took pride in perfecting every detail of the reports. Those reports are still in use today, even though he left three years ago and we’ve since switched to Business Central.”

The transition to the new system posed no problem for the existing reports. “They only needed a small adjustment in the data connection to the new source—Business Central instead of Navision. Other than that, we hardly had to change a thing, and it still works perfectly. That says a lot about how robust this solution is. You just click a button to refresh the data, and everything you need for the annual report is ready.”

Deep insight into all business processes

Kinderhulp currently uses Business Central for two key processes: financial administration and processing support applications. “We can easily retrieve all data related to those areas using Exsion Reporting,” says Maarten. “If someone asks me how many bikes we provided in a specific municipality over a certain period, I can produce that information in no time with the tool. And my finance colleague benefits too, because they can generate reports themselves.”

Generate information flexibly and quickly

What makes Exsion Reporting so valuable for Kinderhulp? “It saves a huge amount of time, because you can refresh all the data in a dashboard at once, without manually exporting from Business Central and linking tables together,” Maarten explains. “The fact that you can do some 'low-code SQL-ing', as I call it, and immediately update everything with the most current data is incredibly valuable.”

Although Kinderhulp also uses Power BI dashboards, Maarten often finds Exsion Reporting more practical: “We can also create Power BI dashboards, but those require a lot more preparation and are more rigid. When you just need something quick from the system, a solution like Exsion365 is much more practical and lean.”

Growing organization, growing user base

As Kinderhulp grows as an organization, the number of employees with access to Exsion Reporting has also expanded significantly. “In the past, all new report development went through me,” says Maarten. “But we don’t have time for that anymore. So, we’re giving several other colleagues access and enabling them to work with the tool independently, to a certain extent.”

To support these colleagues, workshops are available. “What’s also great is that Exsion365 offered us a full day of consultancy support that’s incredibly valuable for a nonprofit like ours.”

Tips for Other Organizations

For organizations considering Exsion Reporting, Maarten has clear advice: “The great thing is that you don’t need any IT knowledge to use this tool. We have found it helpful to appoint one person in the team—such as a controller or financial analyst—as the main point of contact. This doesn’t have to be a tech expert, but someone who understands how the solution works and can help colleagues with data-related questions. That way, you can make the most of everything Exsion has to offer.”

Maarten also emphasizes the importance of good communication: “This point of contact should be able to communicate effectively with the vendor’s consultants. That mutual understanding ensures smoother and more efficient collaboration.”

Do you also want to report quickly and flexibly?

Would you like to experience the benefits of quick and flexible reporting from your Business Central environment, just like Kinderhulp? Contact Exsion365 for a free demonstration of the possibilities.

Maarten Zilverberg is the project leader for internal improvement projects at Kinderhulp.