Reporting automation: how to save time on creating reports?

Problem: manual reporting blocks efficiency

Imagine that you are a manager in a dynamically developing company. Every day, you need to make business decisions based on accurate data analysis: how to allocate a budget, which products to promote, how to optimize operational processes or when to increase team resources. The problem? The statistics on which you base your decisions are scattered, out of date, or full of errors. Manual reporting consumes hours, generates confusion and delays operations, which makes it difficult to manage your business accurately.

Such challenges have been reported by our clients. One of them, a B2B company in the screw sales sector, could not determine how long it takes to prepare an offer, why some are losing or where resources are being lost. Manual summaries were time-consuming and did not provide a complete picture of the situation.

Likewise, a 3D printer selling company which came to us because it was struggling with information chaos. Files about orders were scattered in emails, accounting systems and notes, leading to delays in deliveries and loss of customer trust.

One of the universities, struggled with manually analyzing information about teaching materials. Answers to questions such as “which materials are ready?” or “where are the gaps?” required hours of searching the sheets, and the data was often out of date or incorrect.

In the retail sector, one of our customers could not assess which products generate profit and which generate losses. Manual sales reports were time-consuming, and the lack of precise data led to overstocking and suboptimal pricing.

The service company, which specializes in consulting, could not link marketing data to sales results. The lack of integration between campaign statistics and CRM meant that management did not know which channels generated the most profitable projects.

These problems point to a key problem: the lack of a consistent data collection and reporting automation system results in uncertainty, delays and costly errors. In a world where every decision affects a company's bottom line, manual data processing is a risk that cannot be accepted.

Need: Consistent and up-to-date data in BI reports for better management

Managers need analysis tools, that enable data-driven decision making in real time, and not intuition. The key requirements are:

• Consistency of analytical data: information from CRM, ERP, accounting or marketing systems in one place, without discrepancies.
• Topicality: information available in real time to respond to changes in the business.
• Precision: elimination of errors resulting from manual reporting.
• Transparency: visualization of data in a way that allows them to be interpreted quickly.

Without these elements, managers waste time and resources on manual data preparation, and decisions — from price optimization to inventory planning — are fraught with risk. You need a tool that will automate the reporting process and provide a clear picture of the situation in the company — and such a tool can be, among others, Airtable.

Below you will find a demo of the financial report prepared by the interactive dashboard, set up in the Airtable tool. It presents key financial indicators in a clear, easy to filter form. Such solutions allow you to quickly analyze information, identify deviations from the budget and make better business decisions. Each dashboard created by us is tailored to the individual needs of our customers. The one below allows e.g.

• Filtering and sorting financial data — instant access to specific time frames, cost categories or revenue sources.
• Automatic accounting calculations — aggregate values, budget vs. execution differences, percentage changes.
• Data Visualization for Managers — charts and tables for quick detection of trends and irregularities.

Solution: Tools for automating reporting as a response to chaos — examples

Reporting automation and dashboards are powerful tools that turn raw data into a strategic advantage. They allow you to integrate data from different sources, automatically generate reports and visualize data in real time. How does it work?

Automation starts by combining data from different systems — CRM, ERP, databases, accounting or budget system data — into a single platform. Below you will find several implementations of reporting automation for our clients:

Company engaged in the sale of steel products
We have integrated information with CRM and internal systems to monitor the timing of the preparation of quotes and the workload of merchants. Then the reporting process was automated: instead of manually creating reports, the system generates recurring statements based on defined KPIs.

Company providing services in the field of e-learning
We have created analytical interfaces that show in real time the progress in the preparation of teaching materials. Statistics are now presented in the form of graphs, tables and key indicators, which facilitates the interpretation of the data.

E-commerce dedicated to the sale of 3D printers
The system implemented by us monitors the statuses of orders, shortening the response time to problems. We have integrated marketing intelligence with CRM to analyze campaign ROI and save specialists time while ensuring data consistency and precise business analytics.

You can find more information about our business process automation implementations here: https://www.sagiton.pl/en/services/business-process-automation

From chaos to control: what is reporting automation and how to implement it?

Transforming chaos into precise management requires a concrete approach.

1. First identify areas where lack of information hinders business decisions — be it sales, logistics, marketing or other internal processes. For example, one of our customers needed to monitor order statuses in real time, and another company wanted to optimize product pricing and inventory management.
2. Then identify relevant metricsthat support your business needs: lead time, campaign ROI or product profitability.
3. The next step is Integration of data from different sources — from CRM to financial data — into a single platform that provides data aggregation and automatic data updates. Set up dashboards, (to visualize data in real time) and automatic reports that cyclically deliver analysis files. The creation of such an automated process in one of our clients allowed to increase the efficiency of the offer by 30%, and in another to reduce excess stocks by 20% (thanks to trend analysis and price optimization). If the analysis of these steps seems complicated or you do not have the time to carry it out, you can commission an audit to external experts who will identify the business needs and design a dedicated solution for you.

Benefits that drive business transformation

The stories of our customers show that automation of reporting is not just technical improvements, but the transformation of data into a competitive advantage. With dashboards and automated reports, these companies not only organized the reporting process, but gained analysis tools that changed their approach to management. Reporting automation saves time, increases efficiency, and supports data-driven decision making. Here's how automation can achieve real results:

• Faster business decisions: Real-time data enables immediate response. You can reduce the response time to possible delays in orders from days to hours, while improving customer service.
• Less risk of errors: Automation eliminates errors resulting from manual data processing. One of our clients reduced reporting errors by 95%, ensuring high data quality.
• Saving time and resources: Automating the reporting process replaces manual reporting.
• Better optimization: Accurate statistics support business analytics — increase campaign ROI by focusing your budget on profitable channels, or optimize pricing and stocking to reduce excess inventory.

A real example of the implementation of automation of reporting and data analysis in the marketing department

Companies often come to us who are aware that their marketing activities are increasingly advanced, but at the same time suffer from increasing information chaos. They lack a single source of truth, information is scattered across multiple tools, and evaluating data and reporting campaign effectiveness is becoming increasingly difficult. Typical problems are the need to manually copy or generate reports, lack of integration between marketing systems and CRM, and limited ability to react quickly to changes. With such a challenge, a client came to us for the business process automation service — a medium-sized service company that was in the phase of intensive development.

The main problems of our client:

Lack of centralization of marketing statistics Managers ran multiple campaigns in parallel, but the information was scattered and out of sync.

Difficulties in assessing the effectiveness of channels — the analysis of the effectiveness of individual marketing channels was time-consuming and inaccurate.

No link between marketing and sales Marketing statistics were not linked to sales results, which made it impossible to calculate ROI accurately.

Inability to make data-driven decisions — Due to scattered and outdated data, it was difficult to make the right decisions.

Lack of automation and problem warnings — the company did not have a system to report critical events, such as budget overruns or campaign performance declines.

Inconsistent conversion model — the lack of a uniform way of evaluating the different forms of activity (online vs. cold-call) led to an unfair analysis of the results.

Solution: Analytical dashboard integrating different data sources

In response to customer issues, we implemented an automated dashboard in Airtable that integrates information from all marketing and CRM channels. It allows you to dynamically filter, compare statistics, and analyze and report campaign performance in real time. With a unified conversion and reporting model, it allows for a fair comparison of different activities, both online and offline. The alert system automatically notifies you of key events, allowing you to react faster and make decisions based on current data.

Below you will find a demo of the analytics dashboard that allows you to:

• collecting and combining data from various marketing sources,
• dynamic filtering of information according to any values (e.g. per campaign, date range or channel),
• effective, graphical representation of statistics, which allows easier analysis,
• comparison of marketing and sales data in order to prepare them for further analysis of lead conversion.

Summary: Take control of your data with automation

In business, statistics are the foundation of every good decision. Manual reporting and distributed data sources lead to chaos, delays and losses. Reporting automation and dashboards solve these problems by allowing you to integrate data from different systems, generate reports in real time, and visualize data for better interpretation. They are tools that increase efficiency and support the transformation of data into a business advantage.