We rebuilt a client's reporting from 3 days of Excel into a 10-second dashboard

1. Why the Excel report was slow

Most manual reports share the same shape: someone exports data from two or three systems, pastes it into a workbook, fixes the formulas that broke, and sends a PDF. Each step is small, but together they eat days — and the numbers are already stale when they arrive.

• Data lives in several places (accounting, CRM, spreadsheets).
• Formulas and formatting are rebuilt or patched every week.
• Only one person really knows how the file works.

2. What we replaced it with

We connected the source systems once, stored the cleaned data in a database, and built a small web app that shows the same report live. The team opens a link instead of waiting for a file. Filters (date, branch, product) replace the copies of the workbook that used to circulate.

• Data layer: scheduled imports that clean and validate the numbers.
• App: a simple dashboard with the handful of charts and tables the team actually used.
• Access: logins, so each person sees only what they should.

3. Pitfalls we hit along the way

The hard part was never the charts. It was agreeing on what each number means. Two departments defined “revenue” differently, and the old workbook hid that by mixing both. We also had to handle messy dates, duplicate records and exports that changed format without warning.

4. What we'd do differently

We would write down the metric definitions with the client before building anything, and keep the old Excel report running side by side for one cycle so the team can compare results and trust the new one. We would also start with the single most-used report instead of trying to replace everything at once.

5. Questions people ask

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