SAMPLE IT RESULTS

Most business systems can be configured to interact with other PC-based tools through ODBC. By using ODBC, programmes such as Excel can read the live data and produce reports specific to a customer's requirements and taking advantage of the power of Excel.
As an alternative to ODBC, an inexpensive tool called Monarch can be used to capture the data contained in basic reports and analyse it as required.

Sample P&L from Sage, Take 5, etc.
Most packages come with limited Nominal Ledger reports, or require you to master a report writer. By using ODBC, it is possible to design your own custom accounts layout which can be refreshed with the press of a button!

Alternative Summary P&L Analysis
Alongside other layouts, this horizontal layout of the P&L can be used to show trends across the year. This can also be refreshed with the press of a button.

Debtors Analysis
All packages come with debtors reports. However, you may soon find yourself hitting limitations. A more insightful analysis can be done in Excel, again with data refreshed from the main business system - Sage, Pegasus Opera, etc. Drill or summarise as you wish.

Using Monarch to capture data from reports
Monarch is an inexpenside Report Mining tool which takes a raw ASCII file (e.g. a report produced from you business system), and captures the data as a spreadsheet which can be copied to Excel. It can also carry out analysis directly itself.