Reports That Assemble Themselves

The work is assembly

Ask a team what monthly reporting involves and you get a sequence: export this, export that, reconcile, format, distribute, explain. Only the last part needs a person.

The first four are mechanical, repetitive and deadline-driven, which is exactly the profile that automates well.

We start by writing down the recipe

1. Every source, named, with how the data is obtained today
2. Every transformation, including the ones done by hand in a spreadsheet
3. Every check performed, including the undocumented ones
4. Who receives what, in which format, by when

The undocumented manual adjustments are the interesting part. Nearly every month-end contains a step that exists only in one person's head, and that step is the real project.

The checks are what make it better than manual

• Totals agreeing between sources, to the penny
• Period-on-period movements outside an expected band, flagged not hidden
• Record counts against expectation
• Missing data for any entity that reported last month
• A visible statement of what was checked and whether it passed

A careful person does these when they have time. A system does them every cycle, which is the actual quality improvement.

Distribution in the format each audience wants

A PDF for the board, a spreadsheet for the analysts, and a three-line summary in the channel everyone already uses. The summary is the one that gets read.

We keep the raw extracts too, so when a figure is questioned three weeks later you can answer in minutes rather than rebuilding.

What it costs

£10,000–£30,000 depending on the number of sources and how consistent your definitions are. Definitions usually take longer to agree than the build, and that conversation is worth having regardless.

Frequently asked questions