Computron

Financial managers and analysts have long used spreadsheets to view and manipulate financial data. While spreadsheets offer a flexible means for analysis and decision making, the effort required to construct consistently formatted spreadsheets and to ensure data integrity is costly and error prone. Computron’s GL Excel can help. GL Excel allows you to extract financial information from Computron’s General Ledger module and merge this information into pre-formatted Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets. GL Excel gives you the flexibility to extract information on-demand or via an automated process in which you define the extract parameters and GL Excel automatically populates a spreadsheet and e-mails it to recipients across your organization. With GL Excel, ad-hoc data calls and periodic report generation and distribution are handled quicker and more efficiently than ever before.

The core functionality of GL Excel is comprised of:

• An authoring tool that enables you to design and manage Microsoft Excel templates and specify which General Ledger fields the spreadsheet should include.
• A Microsoft Excel add-on that enables you to select a spreadsheet template, choose limiting criteria (month, year, department, etc.), and immediately populate the spreadsheet with data.
• An organization tree builder that enables you to define an unlimited number of departments, business units, and divisions and the organization-level reports that each should receive.
• A distribution list manager that enables you to define which reports should be sent to specific users.
• A web portal to give report recipients drill-down access to underlying details within a report to support analysis.

If your organization relies heavily on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that utilize data from Computron’s General Ledger module, implementing the GL Excel solution could significantly improve the timeliness of reporting and distribution, improve data integrity by reducing errors caused by re-typing data, and reduce the manual effort expended within the monthly reporting process. GL Excel empowers departmental managers by giving them access to transaction-level details through an intuitive self-service portal.

Flexible Authoring Tool

With the GL Excel authoring tool, you can create an unlimited number of spreadsheet templates to meet many reporting needs, including simple departmental expense reports, profit and loss statements, and key performance indicators. You can create these templates within the authoring tool itself or you can convert templates already defined in Microsoft Excel. Each spreadsheet template supports an unlimited number of worksheets, an unlimited number of data rows, and up to 24 combinations of period and data class.

Security

GL Excel retains the same security policy as Computron’s General Ledger module and restricts access to information based on a user’s profile. In addition, you can lock generated reports to prevent further changes, thereby preserving data integrity.

Implementation

GL Excel requires two the conversion of a sample template from Microsoft Excel to GL Excel, and the design of organization trees and distribution lists where an email engine is to be utilized. Users unfamiliar with Computron GL and the family of Power Report Writers may require additional training. Converting existing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to GL Excel templates depends upon the number of templates to create, their complexity, coupled with the overall complexity of the business.