Velixo is More than Financial Reporting

One of the most rewarding parts of my job is meeting dedicated people from all types of industries and learning how they leverage Microsoft Excel in creative ways to run their businesses and solve unique challenges. From budgeting and financial reporting to managing complex pricing structures, projects, or commissions, the use cases and possibilities with Excel are endless.

Velixo, our Excel add-in, is supercharging our customers’ workbooks by eliminating manual effort with a bidirectional connection between Excel and the several ERP systems we support. I am incredibly impressed to see how our tool, combined with the ingenuity of our users, is saving hours (and sometimes days) of effort each month.

I firmly believe that Excel (with Velixo) is the best tool for building professional-looking financial reporting packages. But I also want our current and future users to know that Velixo can do so much more. In this blog, we will highlight several ways Velixo can support you beyond financial reporting.

Quoting

Sure, there are fantastic CPQ tools out there that offer impressive functionality, but those can be costly and difficult to implement. If you are already quoting in your spreadsheets, all you need are a few Velixo formulas to significantly cut down on estimating time. Here are a few highlights to consider:

• Data validation ensures accuracy. Rather than type out a customer’s name, or add an inventory item from a static catalog, why not select from a dropdown list full of live ERP data?
• Hide or protect any data source tabs you wouldn’t want sales representatives to modify (intentionally or accidentally).
• Import the quote into the ERP and create any other relevant records (customer record, project, etc.) with Generic Writeback.

Sales Commissions

Most ERP systems offer some type of advanced commissions module with fantastic functionality for calculating complex sales commissions with splits and a variety of special incentives. Though we find that for a lot of folks, this functionality surpasses what is truly needed, so at the end of the day, a lot of people just export sales data from their ERP and perform the calculations in Excel.

Here are a few reasons why calculating commissions in Excel (with Velixo) is a great option:

• Pull in the necessary sales data from the ERP with a simple refresh.
• Manage your incentives, tiers, and anything else you require in your Excel workbook, which you can effortlessly update whenever you need.
• Use Velixo’s Writeback functionality to push records back into the ERP, such as AP Bills to pay external sales reps.

Project Accounting

Every company has unique requirements for how to view and manage projects. The out-of-the-box reports and dashboards available in your ERP system are helpful for sure, but we are constantly running into Velixo users who prefer to see their project data in Excel.

Do you need to see a Project P&L by GL Account, rather than just account groups? You’d have trouble figuring that one out in the ERP! This requirement came up recently, and we were able to achieve this fairly simply with Velixo. See below for a sample.

To learn more about the possibilities available for project management with Velixo, see our sample reporting pack and read our case study about one of our projects super-users: Mid-States Companies.

Allocations

 Have you ever found yourself spending days creating a budget but then also requiring allocating budget values to granular sub-accounts (or depending on your ERP: dimensions) to better plan or report on your Profit & Loss?

Two other examples I have in mind:

• DCAA Compliance and the process of allocating indirect costs. Some of our customers use Velixo to automate this highly complex and error-prone process to remain compliant with cost rates under accounting for government contracts.
• The calculations and allocations of complex interest expenses by sub-account across periods and branches using various interest patterns was a game changer for one of our Not-For-Profit customers.

With Excel, Velixo’s functions, and our Writeback features, the process of allocating data is made easier, more flexible, and automated. Our customers have created workbooks that automate such allocations for actuals with our Journal Entry Writeback feature, or budgets with our Budget Writeback feature. They then integrated these workbooks into their business processes, allowing them to cut days of manual work every month and remain compliant with accounting requirements.

Queries & Inquiries

One of our customers has dozens of Velixo users who are constantly reviewing view-only Excel workbooks throughout the workweek. Why? Because the Velixo-enhanced spreadsheets provide all the data they need to do their jobs well. Those folks don’t ever even need to log into the ERP!

Velixo does more than just pull account balances. If there is an inquiry or query in your ERP that you frequently export, for one reason or another, then why not skip the manual step and access the data right from Excel?

Reconciliations

Is there data that currently takes a lot of time to reconcile inside your ERP? For instance, are you clicking from screen to screen to view different transactions and reports from different modules? While this is achievable inside your platform, Excel is probably a better option.

We have a customer who was spending a significant amount of time reconciling purchase orders to receipts and invoices and then using Excel calculations to identify important metrics and KPIs. With Velixo, they now have a single spreadsheet that, upon purchase order selection, returns all necessary information in an easy-to-digest format in a matter of seconds.

Sometimes, there really isn’t a substitute for Excel!

Skip the Customization

Velixo works with world-class ERP systems, each with its own capabilities to customize business logic and add unique functionality. Yet anyone with ERP implementation experience knows that customization is not always the best option when you consider cost and upgrade concerns.

There are many cases in which Velixo is filling a gap in the ERP that would otherwise require customization, saving lots of time and money. Some examples include:

• Unique requirements for updating standard costs.
• Easily modifying the form design of documents before distribution.
• Configuring complex sales or project quotes.

Planning & Budgeting

Then comes all the strategic tasks of planning and budgeting. With Velixo, the process of first planning your strategic goals, then creating budgets by distributing forecasted data across accounts, periods, branches, departments, etc… is made much easier thanks to Excel’s flexibility and Velixo’s functions and Writeback features.

Some of our customers who used to create their budgets once a year have been able to automate their entire budgeting process, saving countless manhours. Many customers then introduced monthly rolling budgets, which are performed and automatically recalculated at month-end. This opened a completely new phase in their business and allowed them to be more accurate, enabling them to make better decisions for their business.

Financial Reporting

Let’s be clear: we aren’t trying to knock those who are only using Velixo for real-time financial reporting. The flexibility of Excel and added functionality of Velixo is transforming how our customers are slicing and dicing data while simultaneously saving countless hours per month in manual effort. It is for good reason that we are a fan-favorite among CFOs and Controllers across all industries!

Once reports are built, a simple refresh ensures you are working with the latest ERP data. Review the reports in Excel and leverage the many collaboration features of Excel, SharePoint Online, Teams included with your Microsoft 365 subscription.

Want to Learn More?

We are blessed to be a part of a community of innovative Excel users achieving great feats in their worksheets! With Excel and Velixo, it is easier than ever to report, plan, and automate your workflows. If you are ready to join our customers who are using Velixo to bring their ERP data to life in Excel, click here to schedule a demo.