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Remember, your data model is just a set of tables linked by a relationship. This relationship could be 1-*, 1–1, *-1 or *-*, each having a unidirectional or bi-directional cross filter. For a unidirectional cross-filter, your dimension table filters the fact table and can’t be otherwise, while for a bi-directional cross-filter, both tables can filter each. Here is an example of a data model showing both cardinalities with a bi-directional relationship between the Sales and Product tables. *Cardinality is simply the direction of your relationship If the cardinality of all relationships in the model were unidirectional, the Date, Product and Customer tables would filter the Sales table. The date table cannot filter the customer or product table. Say you are interested in how many of your products were sold in a particular year, not the number of times they were sold that year. Just the list of products that were sold that year. Your guess is as good as mine; I will do a distinct count of the Product key on the Sales table. Below is an image of the result without the bi-directional cross-filter. Because the filter direction is from the Products to Sales table, the DAX measure returned a single value of 2517, which is the total inventory in the store. After enabling bi-directional cross filter So, the question is, why enable bi-directional filtering when I could get the same result without it? My answer is, what if your product table contains more information than just the product name and product key, and there is an additional drill down you want to do? Note that with an excellent model, you can do without bi-directional, but with complex DAX comes complex wahala you didn’t sign up for. If your no. of products is based on the Products table, there will be trouble, as seen above, where I had 2517 for all years. With just the product key, I can see that as the year progresses, the no. of different products bought increases which is a good thing. I’m not a champion of just a few products when over 2000 other products are in my inventory. This increase could be attributed to better marketing, discounted products etc., but that is not the topic of discussion. Now I want to drill down into how each product category is fairing yearly. This is where your knowledge of the cardinality of your relationship comes into place because of a direct relationship between the date and product table. Use case — I want to see which product category was sold each year and how many. Because I’ve enabled the bidirectional filtering, I’ve indirectly created a relationship between the product and calendar table. Result below. Note that the count of the product key on the sales table is a distinct count. If I remove the bidirectional filtering, I get the wrong figures—the same set of numbers each year. So the question is, how does this work? Now you have seen what a bi-directional relationship is and how it works. Cheers mate

Data-driven decision-making is the key to project management success in today’s fast-paced business environment. Project management is a complex and dynamic field that requires organizations to make quick, informed decisions. With the growing demand for better results and greater efficiency, project managers must have access to data-driven insights that enable them to make informed decisions and drive better outcomes. Jira, a powerful project management tool, that collects data on various aspects of project management, providing valuable insights into project progress, team performance, issue trends, lead and cycle times, resource utilization, customer satisfaction, and prioritization. To take advantage of these data, organizations need a way to visualize and interpret the data effectively, and that’s where PowerBI comes in. By combining the power of Jira and PowerBI, organizations can turn their data into actionable insights, drive better outcomes, and achieve their goals. In this article, we will explore how organizations can leverage the power of Jira data with the visualization capabilities of PowerBI for truly data-driven project management success. Project progress By tracking the status of tasks, issues, and projects in Jira, organizations can monitor their project’s progress over time and identify any potential roadblocks or delays. This information can be used to make informed decisions about the project’s direction and to take proactive measures to address any issues that arise. Team performance Jira data can be used to analyze the workload and efficiency of individual team members and teams, which can identify areas for improvement, such as underutilized team members or allocate resources more effectively. Additionally, by tracking the time it takes for team members to complete tasks, organizations can identify exceptionally skilled individuals in certain areas and allocate tasks accordingly. Issue trends With PowerBI, organizations can identify patterns in the issues that arise, their causes, and the steps taken to resolve them. Understanding this can lead to improving processes and preventing similar problems from arising. For example, if a particular type of issue frequently occurs, organizations can take steps to address the root cause and prevent it from happening again. Lead and cycle times Organizations can measure the time it takes for tasks, issues, and projects to be completed from start to finish while identifying bottlenecks in the process, such as long approval times, and making changes to improve efficiency. Resource utilization Jira data can be used to evaluate how effectively resources, such as time and personnel, are being utilized. For example, organizations can identify opportunities to optimize resource allocation and allocate resources more effectively by tracking the time spent on each task. Customer satisfaction Organizations can use Jira data to improve products and services by tracking customer feedback and satisfaction levels. For example, if customer feedback indicates that a particular feature is necessary, organizations can prioritize the development of that feature. Prioritization With JIRA & PowerBI, organizations can prioritize tasks, issues, and projects based on data-driven insights. For example, by analyzing the time it takes to complete tasks, organizations can prioritize tasks that are taking longer than expected and make informed decisions about which projects to focus on. Overall, Jira data provides a wealth of information that can be used to gain insights into projects, processes, and performance. By leveraging PowerBI, organizations can make data-driven decisions to improve their operations and achieve their goals.

I’ve always said if you call PowerBI a visualization tool, you don’t entirely know its capabilities. Also, for entry-level analysts, the analysis goes beyond exploratory analysis. You can take your analysis one level higher with anomaly detection and ask why it is happening. Good news, you don’t even need to learn any new thing. So, what is anomaly detection? Anomaly detection is simply identifying behaviour or patterns that differ from the norm. In terms of data, it merely recognizes the data points that are different from the normal behaviour of all other data points. How, then, do we do this in PowerBI? Let’s see how it is not complicated at all. I’m using the popular SuperStore data, and the model I’ve created is the one you’ve made if you’ve worked with this data. Nothing complicated, as you can see. Measures used include the following; As you can see, the measures are nothing complicated; they are things you are used to—pretty straightforward, right? I’ve also created a set of charts using the model and DAX measures above. The first chart is a scatter plot comparing each city’s total sales and year-on-year sales differences. The bar chart shows the current sales and sales LY by Product, while the line chart shows cumulative totals. Let’s focus on Q2 2017. We are comparing the Year on year sales with Q2 2016 Here we drill down to the dates. Let’s compare performance in Q4–2016 with Q4–2015 You can see with just a simple model coupled with simple DAX, you can do more than just saying so, so made the highest/lowest sales. You don’t need to understand complicated dax to take your analysis to the next level. I hope you can now see PowerBI as more than just another visualization tool.

Had a chat with a friend, and the issue of colours came up. That brought about the need for this article. Some of us are bad with colours; that’s who we are. I am one. The best we could do is find a way around this with technology. For me, I believe if there is a problem that technology can’t solve now, it’s just a matter of time before something is created/invented. So, what do you do if you are bad with colours like me? The answer is simple, deploy technology to solve the problem. You don’t need to have sleepless nights worrying about which combination of colours is suitable enough for your report. Two technologies you can deploy are; There are some people, who have the gift of mixing different colours. If I come across one of their reports and I love the colour combination, I either save it as an image somewhere or take a screenshot Then what next? Take the image to either of those websites and get the colour codes from there. Straightforward. People post dashboards almost every day; I let them worry about colour combinations for me. There is no award for best in colour combination. Let’s take a quick tour of how I go about it. For now, we will be using google search. Step 1 — Search for a lovely report online. Step 2 — Upload saved image and extract colour codes. You can also create your own colour combination. Note that while using coolors.co to create your own matching colours, you don’t need to lock in two colours. You can just lock in 1, which will suggest four other colours that match the one you locked in. You can also decide to use colour picker. Do you know the most exciting part? You don’t need to go through this step of selecting colours every time; you can just create a reusable theme that you can always import. This is how. First, export the pallet. Select Code and download Open the downloaded file, and you have something like this. What we need are these sets of numbers. Here is the theme template file you will edit and load into PowerBI. PowerBI theme template.txt You will paste the colours generated into the square bracket. Then put an # sign in front of each colour code to make it look like this. By saving this, you’ve created a theme template which you can always reuse. All you need to do is go to the view tab in PowerBI. Select the drop-down arrow and click on browse for themes Locate the theme template and select it. If you can’t find it, set it to All files. Notice how the colours in my powerbi are precisely the same as those extracted on the websites. For reuse purposes, you can now always import this theme and use the same set of colours. With those two websites, you don’t need to worry about colours. If you see any design and you feel it’s nice, screenshot and save it somewhere, it doesn’t always have to be a dashboard.

In today’s competitive business environment, understanding your customers is more important than ever. With the help of customer analytics, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their customer’s needs, behaviours, and preferences and use this information to improve their products and services, increase customer satisfaction and ultimately, drive sales and growth. One of the key benefits of customer analytics is that it allows businesses to segment their customer base and tailor their marketing efforts to each group. For example, a clothing retailer might use customer analytics to segment their customers based on age, income, and purchasing behaviour. They could then create targeted marketing campaigns for each segment, offering promotions and discounts to specific groups of customers. This type of targeted marketing is much more effective than blanket marketing campaigns, as it speaks directly to the customer’s needs and interests. I wrote about how you segment your customers by putting them into several clusters here. Another critical aspect of customer analytics is predicting future customer behaviour. Businesses can identify patterns and predict future behaviour by analysing historical customer data. For example, a retailer might use customer analytics to predict which customers will purchase next month. This information can then be used to create targeted marketing campaigns for these customers, increasing the chances of a sale. Understanding new customer metrics is an essential aspect of customer analytics as it helps businesses gain insights into the performance of their customer acquisition efforts. By tracking and analyzing metrics such as the number of new customers, the cost of acquiring new customers, and the revenue from a customer, businesses can make informed decisions about their marketing and sales strategies and improve their customer acquisition efforts. Some of the key benefits that can be derived from understanding new customer metrics include the following; Improved customer acquisition: By tracking the number of new customers, businesses can understand the effectiveness of their customer acquisition efforts and make improvements where necessary. For example, suppose a company is acquiring fewer new customers than it would like. In that case, it can analyze its customer acquisition metrics to identify areas for improvement, such as its marketing campaigns or customer onboarding process. Increased customer revenue: Understanding revenue generated from new customers can help businesses determine the long-term potential of their customer base and make informed decisions about how much to invest in customer acquisition and retention efforts. Better return on investment: By tracking the cost of acquiring new customers, businesses can understand their customer acquisition efforts’ return on investment (R.O.I.) and make adjustments to maximize the R.O.I. For example, suppose the cost of acquiring a new customer is higher than the revenue generated. In that case, the business may need to reevaluate its acquisition strategy to make it more cost-effective. Improved marketing effectiveness: By analyzing customer data, businesses can identify the marketing channels that are most effective for acquiring new customers and allocate their marketing budget accordingly. This can maximize the return on investment of their marketing efforts and improve the overall effectiveness of their customer acquisition strategy. Sadly, there is a but To achieve all the benefits stated, you need to be able to dynamically identify the new customers out of thousands of transactions being processed monthly. That’s where PowerBI comes in. PowerBI to the rescue. Let’s get started The model required for this is nothing complicated. All you need are your sales, product, customer and date table. You can download the data here. The DAX that calculates the number of new customers is seen below. Using February 2023 as an example, the DAX measure does this. February 2023 provides context to the DAX measure. The Customers_this_month variable gets a list of customers that purchased a product in February 2023. For the Previous_customers, the minimum date is 01/02/2023. The churn_period_start is the minimum date minus 90 days which gives us 03/11/2022 Still, with the February 2023 context, the Previous_customers variable creates a new table containing a list of customers who purchased any product between November 4, 2022, and January 31, 2023. This means that customers on this table have not churned and shouldn’t be regarded as new customers. The RETURN function returns the number of customers on the left table(cutomers_this_month) that are not on the right table (previous_customers). Likewise, you can get the total sales for these customers using the Dax below. The percentage is way easier to picture than the actual number. Let’s calculate the % of new customers and their sales respectively. Total customers 2. Percentage of new customers to total customers 3. Percentage of new customers sales to total sales Now that we have gotten that underway, let’s see the output. It goes beyond the table if your model is built correctly. You can play around with the report here. In conclusion, understanding new customer metrics is a valuable tool for businesses looking to gain a deeper understanding of their customers and drive growth. By leveraging customer analytics, companies can gain insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and purchasing patterns, allowing them to make informed decisions and improve the customer experience. The benefits of customer analytics are vast and far-reaching, from personalized marketing campaigns to optimized pricing strategies. By embracing new customer metrics, businesses can gain a competitive edge and stay ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving market.

Data-driven decision-making is the key to project management success in today’s fast-paced business environment. Project management is a complex and dynamic field that requires organizations to make quick, informed decisions. With the growing demand for better results and greater efficiency, project managers must have access to data-driven insights that enable them to make informed decisions and drive better outcomes. Jira, a powerful project management tool, that collects data on various aspects of project management, providing valuable insights into project progress, team performance, issue trends, lead and cycle times, resource utilization, customer satisfaction, and prioritization. To take advantage of these data, organizations need a way to visualize and interpret the data effectively, and that’s where PowerBI comes in. By combining the power of Jira and PowerBI, organizations can turn their data into actionable insights, drive better outcomes, and achieve their goals. In this article, we will explore how organizations can leverage the power of Jira data with the visualization capabilities of PowerBI for truly data-driven project management success. Project progress Photo by IA SB on Unsplash By tracking the status of tasks, issues, and projects in Jira, organizations can monitor their project’s progress over time and identify any potential roadblocks or delays. This information can be used to make informed decisions about the project’s direction and to take proactive measures to address any issues that arise. Team performance Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash Jira data can be used to analyze the workload and efficiency of individual team members and teams, which can identify areas for improvement, such as underutilized team members or allocate resources more effectively. Additionally, by tracking the time it takes for team members to complete tasks, organizations can identify exceptionally skilled individuals in certain areas and allocate tasks accordingly. Issue trends Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash With PowerBI, organizations can identify patterns in the issues that arise, their causes, and the steps taken to resolve them. Understanding this can lead to improving processes and preventing similar problems from arising. For example, if a particular type of issue frequently occurs, organizations can take steps to address the root cause and prevent it from happening again. Lead and cycle times Photo by Sonja Langford on Unsplash Organizations can measure the time it takes for tasks, issues, and projects to be completed from start to finish while identifying bottlenecks in the process, such as long approval times, and making changes to improve efficiency. Resource utilization Jira data can be used to evaluate how effectively resources, such as time and personnel, are being utilized. For example, organizations can identify opportunities to optimize resource allocation and allocate resources more effectively by tracking the time spent on each task. Customer satisfaction Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash Organizations can use Jira data to improve products and services by tracking customer feedback and satisfaction levels. For example, if customer feedback indicates that a particular feature is necessary, organizations can prioritize the development of that feature. Prioritization With JIRA & PowerBI, organizations can prioritize tasks, issues, and projects based on data-driven insights. For example, by analyzing the time it takes to complete tasks, organizations can prioritize tasks that are taking longer than expected and make informed decisions about which projects to focus on. Overall, Jira data provides a wealth of information that can be used to gain insights into projects, processes, and performance. By leveraging PowerBI, organizations can make data-driven decisions to improve their operations and achieve their goals.

You've been doing your business accounting since ever, you know what you need, and you know the drill but want to supercharge your reporting process and focus on what really needs your indispensable input. Otherwise, you're just setting up your company, everything seems to need your focus, you're challenging your abilities and expertise on every level and accounting software to ease the headache that the running of a business brings with it sounds so sweet! Whether you better relate to the former or the latter, or even if you perhaps find yourself somewhere in between the two extremes, here's what you need to know about your accounting software. One of the most important features of accounting software is the ability to generate financial reports, such as income statements and balance sheets. These reports provide businesses with a clear overview of their financial health and can be used to make informed decisions, invoicing and billing. Integrated Financial Reporting Financial reporting is a vital aspect of accounting as it allows businesses to track their financial performance over a period of time. It helps in identifying trends and patterns that can help businesses make informed decisions. Accounting software with robust financial reporting capabilities can provide businesses with a wide range of reports, including: Income statement: Also known as a profit and loss statement, an income statement shows a business's revenue and expenses over a certain period of time. It helps businesses understand how much money they are making or losing and where their money is coming from and going. Balance sheet: A balance sheet shows a business's assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time. It helps businesses understand their net worth and assess their financial position. Cash flow statement: A cash flow statement shows a business's inflows and outflows of cash over a certain period of time. It helps businesses understand their liquidity and identify any potential cash flow problems. Budget vs. actuals report: This report compares a business's budgeted financials to actual financials, which can help identify variances and take corrective action. Other reports like Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and General Ledger reports Having the ability to generate these reports with the click of a button, and the ability to customize the reports based on the business's needs can save businesses a significant amount of time and resources. Additionally, having the ability to export these reports to different formats like excel, pdf, etc, can make it easier to share them with stakeholders or use them in presentations. Automated Invoicing and Billing Accounting software should also have the ability to create and send invoices and manage bill payments automatically, scheduled or in bulk. This can save businesses time and reduce the risk of errors associated with manual invoicing. One key advantage of using accounting software for invoicing and billing is the ability to automate the process. Businesses can set up recurring invoices for regular customers and set up automatic reminders for overdue payments. This can save time and reduce the risk of errors associated with manual invoicing. Accounting software should also provide businesses with the ability to customize invoices to reflect their branding and include important information such as payment terms and contact information. Additionally, it should also allow for multiple payment methods, such as credit card and bank transfer, to make it easy for customers to pay. Another important aspect of accounting software is the ability to track and manage outstanding invoices. This feature allows businesses to see which invoices have been paid, which are overdue, and which need to be sent out. It also allows businesses to set up reminders for overdue invoices and generate reports on outstanding balances. In summary, invoicing and billing is a crucial feature of accounting software. It allows businesses to streamline the invoicing process, reduce errors, manage payments and track outstanding balances. This can save time and increase efficiency, allowing businesses to focus on growing their business. Key Takeaways ✔️ Saves Time ✔️ Reduces risks of errors through automation ✔️ Tracks and manages outstanding invoices Bank and Credit Card Integration The software should be able to connect with a business's bank and credit card accounts. This feature allows businesses to connect their bank and credit card accounts to the software, which enables the software to automatically import and categorize transactions. This can save businesses a significant amount of time and effort when it comes to tracking financial transactions and reconciling accounts. One of the key benefits of bank and credit card integration is that it eliminates the need for manual data entry. Instead of manually entering each transaction into the accounting software, businesses can simply connect their bank and credit card accounts and the software will automatically import the transactions. This reduces the risk of errors associated with manual data entry and saves businesses time. Another benefit of bank and credit card integration is that it allows businesses to have a real-time view of their financial transactions. This is particularly useful for businesses that need to make quick decisions based on their financial performance. By having real-time access to financial transactions, businesses can make more informed decisions and respond to changes in the market more quickly. In addition to these benefits, bank and credit card integration also improves the accuracy of financial reports. By having all of the transactions automatically imported and categorized, businesses can be sure that their financial reports are accurate and complete. This is especially important for businesses that are subject to audits or need to provide financial reports to investors or other stakeholders. Key Takeaways ✔️ Eliminates the need for manual data entry ✔️ Automatically imports transactions ✔️ Real-time view of their financial transactions Tax compliance Accounting software should have the ability to assist with tax compliance by generating tax reports and helping businesses stay up-to-date with tax laws and regulations in any country your business is operating in. One important feature is the ability to generate tax reports, such as sales tax reports and payroll tax reports. These reports provide a detailed breakdown of transactions and can be used to determine the amount of tax that needs to be paid. Additionally, accounting software should be able to calculate and automatically file the necessary tax returns, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring that the business is in compliance with the law. Another feature that can assist with tax compliance is the ability to track expenses and deductions. Many businesses are eligible for tax deductions and credits on certain expenses, such as employee benefits, equipment purchases, and research and development. Accounting software should be able to track these expenses and provide detailed reports that can be used to take advantage of tax deductions and credits. Lastly, it's important for the software to be able to adapt to the tax laws changes, for example, if there's a new tax law that is implemented, the software should be updated and ready to implement the changes. This will ensure the business is always in compliance with tax regulations. Key Takeaways ✔️ Assist with tax compliance in any country your business is operating in ✔️ Positions you to take advantage of tax deductions and credits ✔️ Ensures the business is always in compliance with tax regulations Accessibility The software should be accessible from any device with internet access, allowing for real-time access to financial data and collaboration among team members. The present-day term is usually referred to as SaaS or Cloud Software. Additionally, it should also have a user-friendly interface that's easy to navigate and understand. The accounting software should also be accessible on multiple devices, such as desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. This allows users to access and update financial information on the go, which can be especially useful for businesses that frequently travel or have employees working remotely. Another important aspect of accessibility is the ability for multiple users to access and update financial information simultaneously. This can increase collaboration among team members and reduce the risk of errors associated with manual data entry. Some software allows for role-based access control and user permissions, enabling businesses to limit access to sensitive financial data to specific individuals or groups. In addition to accessibility, the software should also have a user-friendly interface that's easy to navigate and understand. This can help to reduce the learning curve for new users and increase productivity. Good accounting software should have intuitive features, such as drag-and-drop functionality and context-sensitive help, that make it easy for users to complete tasks and access the information they need. Key Takeaways ✔️ Accessible from any device ✔️ Increase collaboration among team members ✔️ User-friendly interface to reduce the learning curve These are the essential features that accounting software should have, however, other features like inventory management, payroll, budgeting, and forecasting can also be important depending on the business's needs and industry. It's important to evaluate the software based on the business's needs and budget.

Cloud accounting refers to the use of cloud-based software to manage financial transactions and record-keeping for businesses. This technology allows for real-time access to financial data from any location with internet access, as well as increased collaboration and automation capabilities. One major advantage of cloud accounting is the ability for multiple users to access and update financial information simultaneously. This is particularly useful for businesses with multiple locations or remote employees, as it eliminates the need for paper-based record-keeping or using separate software programs. Cloud accounting also offers improved security measures compared to traditional on-premise software. Data is stored on secure servers and is regularly backed up, reducing the risk of data loss due to physical damage or computer crashes. Additionally, cloud accounting providers typically have strict security protocols in place to protect against hacking and other cyber threats. Another benefit of cloud accounting is the ability to automate many financial tasks. For example, invoicing and bill payment can be set up to be done automatically, reducing the need for manual input and minimizing the risk of errors. Additionally, many cloud accounting software programs integrate with other business tools, such as point-of-sale systems, to streamline data entry and reduce the need for manual data entry. The subscription-based pricing model of cloud accounting is also beneficial for businesses. Instead of having to make a large upfront investment in software, businesses can pay a monthly or annual fee for access to the software. This allows for more flexibility and scalability, as businesses can easily adjust their subscription plan as their needs change. However, there are also some potential drawbacks to cloud accounting. One concern is the dependency on internet access and potential issues with connectivity. Businesses may also have concerns about the level of control they have over their data, as it is stored on servers owned and operated by the cloud accounting provider. Additionally, some businesses may be hesitant to trust third-party providers with their sensitive financial information. Overall, cloud accounting provides a number of benefits for businesses, including increased collaboration and automation capabilities, improved security, and more flexible pricing. While there are some potential drawbacks, such as dependency on internet access and concerns about data control, the benefits of cloud accounting generally outweigh the drawbacks. As more businesses move towards digital solutions, cloud accounting is becoming an increasingly popular choice for managing financial transactions and record-keeping.

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful business intelligence and data visualization tool that allows users to easily connect, analyze, and share data. It is a cloud-based service that can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, making it easy for users to collaborate and share insights with their teams. One of the key strengths of Microsoft Power BI is its ability to connect to a wide range of data sources, including Excel, SQL Server, and various cloud services such as Business Central, Salesforce and Google Analytics. This allows users to easily bring together confusing data from different systems and create a single source of truth for their organization, through meaningful charts, graphs and insights. Data Visualisation Another key feature of Power BI is its data visualisation capabilities. The software includes a range of pre-built visualizations, such as charts, tables, and maps, that can be easily customized to meet the specific needs of any organization. This allows users to quickly and easily create engaging and informative dashboards that can be shared with their teams. In addition, Power BI also includes a range of advanced analytics features, such as data modeling and machine learning, that allow users to perform more complex analysis and gain deeper insights into their data. This allows users to identify patterns and trends that may not be immediately obvious, which can help inform strategic decision making. Analytics and Insights Microsoft Power BI also has strong collaboration and sharing features, which makes it easy for users to share insights and dashboards with their teams and stakeholders. They can also access, comment, and collaborate on dashboards and reports in real-time, which helps to improve communication and collaboration within an organization. Overall, Power BI is an excellent tool for organizations that want to easily connect, analyze and share data. It is a powerful and flexible solution that can help organizations gain deeper insights into their data and make better decisions. The ability to connect to a wide range of data sources, the strong visualization and advanced analytics capabilities, and the robust collaboration and sharing features make it a valuable tool for any organization.

🔔 Your phone beeps - delivery has arrived. 🔔 Your phone beeps - special offer. 🔔 Your phone beeps - all your international transactions have been seamlessly settled in different currencies with the least possible charges. Wait… what?! Is this even possible? It might sound too good to be true yet it is true indeed. We are thrilled to announce that On Point has partnered with Fyorin to integrate your financial system with online banking transactions. This power duo has been developed with care as a crucial solution for our esteemed clients. So what is Fyorin for Business Central? In the competitive world, we are living, businesses must operate cross-border which means that finance teams must interact with multiple financial institutions. This brings several challenges for finance teams, one of them being the management of treasury across different financial providers, maintaining different relationships with banks and continuously sourcing for the right financial providers tailored for their business needs, with less transactional cost. This is putting pressure on finance teams since it continues to add up the manual workload around payments operations. And as the business scales, operational costs also increase. Fyorin's solution solves this challenge. It developed a payments and financial operations platform that seamlessly automates the receivables and payables for a business, across a curated network of Financial Institutions. With Fyorin, 90% of the manual workload around payment operations will be removed, and a business can scale globally, while the financial operations team remains the same size. Some of the products it offers apart from the automation of Account Payables and Receivables with Business Central are; Multi-currency accounts with dedicated IBANS to send and receive payments globally like local (SEPA, ACH, SWIFT), Corporate Virtual Cards to better control online spending and earn cash back on every purchase, sub-accounts that enable businesses to segregate their receivables to speed up reconciliation. With over twenty years of experience in implementing ERP software, On Point, is committed to provide the best business software solutions while staying abreast of opportunities. Microsoft Dynamics Business Central 365 is a business management solution embracing inventory management, sales and marketing, service management, human resources, manufacturing, retail, project management and finance management. It is a one software solution for everything which can be accessed from wherever you are thanks to this mobile solution. Customisation is fundamental to meet all your business needs and On Point is dedicated to create your entire ERP/accounting solution to cater for your particular necessities. A natural match? Every business has its own story and with every story come along circumstances and needs which are particular to the business in question. In such a diverse environment, working on a case-by-case basis is not only necessary, but it is also essentially a strength, for what’s better than having all your needs met? Fyorin for Business Central is a built-in integrated solution that connects your existing ERP Business Central to Fyorin. The application integrates your financial system into online banking transactions. Tailored to companies' needs and adapting the latest technology makes this integrated solution a must for your Business Tech Solutions Portfolio. The integration has been designed to automate the Accounts Payables, from synchronizing vendor information, supporting multicurrency bank accounts, to making faster payment transactions in real-time. This allows for more accuracy between your Finance and Banking without the need to log into your bank account to perform payments. Users will still be working on their familiar pages in Business Central and with a one-time simple setup, they can have the information mirrored in Fyorin automatically. In awareness of the benefits and flow brought about by Fyorin’s integrated solution, it was inevitable for On Point to partner with Fyorin and embark on this journey. This collaboration helps you be smarter with your payment operations by automating such workload. 🔔 Your phone beeps. Again? You’re invited for this match to start freeing your time, today! Book a demo now to see how this integration can start helping your business.

Photo by Ray Reyes on Unsplash One of the three statements used in corporate accounting and finance is the income statement. The statement shows the business’s revenue, gross profit, selling and administrative costs, other expenses and income, taxes paid, and net gain over a certain period. If I were an accountant, I wouldn’t want to create an income statement every month, quarter or year. How, then, can I make my life and work easy? Photo by Diana Parkhouse on Unsplash PowerBI is the solution. Create a report once and let it auto-refresh as you have more data Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash Download sample data here The following tables are needed for the income statement report and loaded into PowerBI. The Company expenses data looks somewhat like this, which is unsuitable for our data model. Hence the need to unpivot. After unpivoting, the data is now suitable for the data model. The final model looks like this. The format I usually stick to is dimension tables at the top with fact tables underneath it, while supporting tables are at the bottom. DAX measures tables are always by the right. That way, I have a clear overview of all tables in my model. An income statement speaks to the organization’s revenue and expenses. The tricky part is merging the sales data and company expenses data. Put in mind that both data have different granularity, i.e. the sales data is on a day-to-day basis while the expense data is monthly. How, then, do we ensure they have the same granularity? Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash Create a supporting table from the Sales data Photo by Ameen Fahmy on Unsplash To do this, let’s first calculate our total revenue using the Sales table. Next, we create a supporting table from the sales table whose granularity is a monthly interval. To do this, we use the DAX seen below to create a new table. The SUMMARIZE function is similar to SQL Group BY. It groups the specified table based on the columns in that table or related tables. In our case, we are grouping the sales table by the sales channel and the Month & Year columns on the calendar table. Now we have a sales table with the same granularity as the company expense table. Then we combine both the Sales data and the company expenses data into what will be our income statement data using the UNION function. The Union function returns a table that contains all rows from both tables. The caveat with this function includes; The two tables must have the same number of columns Columns are combined by position in their respective tables, irrespective of the column content. Hence the need for another summarize function to ensure the data merge appropriately. The column names in the return table will match the names in the first specified table, i.e. the Company Expenses column names will be inherited. The result is seen below. The type and type index columns were added using an if statement. The reason why I added these columns would be seen later on. If we look at the income statement template, we have the following items; Total Revenue Total COGS Total Gross Profit Gross Profit % Total Other Expenses Total Net Profit Net Profit % Since they are not included in our data, we would have to write dax measures to calculate them individually. Calculate Total Revenue 2. Calculate Total COGS In accounting, expenses are recorded with negative values, hence a need to multiply the calculated function output by -1. 3. Calculate the Total Gross Profit 4. Gross Profit % 5. Total Other Expenses 6. Total Net Profit The addition is done here because the COGS and Other Expenses will have negative values. 7. Net Profit % Now we have created all the individual totals. We need to reference all these measures in a single DAX. We are almost there Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash All that is left is to calculate the actual values. The DAX below will help us achieve this. This will return the row item values on the income statement template. The recipe to prepare our income statement is fully ready. Photo by Eden Constantino on Unsplash Let’s create our income statement You know the sweet thing with PowerBI Photo by Blake Cheek on Unsplash You can run comparisons. This year vs last year, Q2 vs Q1. Let’s take a quick look at the DAX that lets us achieve this year vs last year. Total Revenue LY 2. Total COGS LY 3. Total Gross Profit LY 4. Gross Profit % LY 5. Total Other Expenses LY 6. Total Net Profit LY 7. Net Profit % LY 8. Actuals LY What is the difference between this year’s and last year’s performance? I know what you are thinking, so why not use this? Sadly you will get the error below. This is a result of the format function used in our DAX measure. What is the percentage of this difference? All that is left is just for you to add these new measures to your table, and you are done. View the completed report here. Next year, next quarter, or next month, you don’t have to spend minutes or hours creating an income statement. All you need to do is ensure the data source is updated. Your finance manager does not need to wait days to get the report, and the award is yours. Congratulations on winning the employee of the month/year award.

Bringing together, art, business, design, lifestyle and self-expression, fashion is an industry like no other. Unfortunately it also substantially contributes to excessive waste and pollution. In this interview, Elisa Ann Scerri explains the impact of fast fashion on the world. What is the difference between fast fashion and slow fashion? Fast fashion: The term is inspired by fast food and was coined in the 1990s to describe ZARA’s mission of taking only 15 days for a garment to go from the design stage to being sold in stores. In a few words, fast fashion means the production of low-quality garments which are sold at a very low price. Such clothing is manufactured with mass-production system using machines. Fast fashion largely contributes to waste in landfills. Slow fashion: this makes up the handmade garments which are given attention to detail, thus very time-consuming, showcase the designer’s skills, are of a finer quality, and more expensive. This bears a resemblance to the traditional way of looking at and producing clothes before the industrial revolution. Slow fashion does not follow trends and sticks only to staple pieces. At its centrepiece, this concept has fair labour, supporting local businesses, an eco-friendly supply chain, and clean and efficient production, among others. The impact of the fashion industry on the environment is often under-estimated. Why is sustainability important and how can we make a difference as consumers? We must first understand that sustainability is made up of 3 pillars: environment, society, and economy. They are equally essential and affect each other directly. Environment: The fashion industry is the 2nd most polluting industry in the world, after the oil industry. Society: One example is that fashion workers in developing countries are being exploited: they are paid very little and work in disastrous conditions. Economy: Companies should be able to make a profit without compromising the two other pillars. Companies should opt for a circular economy system instead of a linear economy (the take, make, use, throw away cycle). An example of how companies are being unsustainable is not being transparent about their practices with their stakeholders. As consumers, there are several ways how we can make our part: Firstly, get educated on the subject from reliable sources Avoid purchasing garments from fast fashion companies, like SHEIN or ZARA Support sustainable brands Choose natural fibres. Manufactured fibres, like polyester, release microplastics every time they are washed. These then go into our oceans, get consumed by seafood & fish, and then we eat them. Donate, swap, sell: don’t throw out Opt for secondhand clothing Purchase organic clothing e.g., made from organic cotton Opt for clothing made of sustainable fibres like hemp and bamboo. Take sewing classes: you will be able to upcycle your clothes or even make your clothes from scratch! Research on the companies “behind the scenes”. Such info can usually be found on their website (if none can be found, there is a great possibility that they are using unsustainable practices). A great document is the yearly Fashion Transparency Index by Fashion Revolution. Remember to check the details for all 3 sustainability pillars. Dry your clothes outside instead of a tumble dryer What are the main challenges for sustainable fashion? Fast fashion is very incorporated in today’s society. Young people do not even know a world without fast fashion so it is very difficult to act otherwise. Lots of damages were made to the different aspects of sustainability and it is now extremely difficult to reverse them. The only way how we can make a difference is by everyone giving their part. We should not rely on activists or the government to work on this matter. We all should. What is your research about? My research focuses on sustainability, which is a term often heard in today’s society. It answers these 3 questions: Do we know the significance of sustainability, and how it relates to fashion? Where do we, as an island, stand in the process of building a more sustainable future for the coming generations? What do the present and the future of the fashion industry look like, and what can we do to make it brighter? It mostly focuses on the damages of fast fashion on the three pillars of sustainability, and then it discusses some case studies of foreign fashion companies and organisations by highlighting the sustainable projects that they have adopted. Surveys with different groups of stakeholders of the fashion industry: consumers aged 18-26, retail employees of the fashion industry, and local fashion designers were conducted. The questions mostly focused on discovering if these groups know the real meaning of sustainability, fast fashion, and slow fashion, and then they were asked specific questions on their lifestyle with regards to fashion. Perceptions influence behaviour. What were the main findings of your research? Education regarding fashion sustainability is key, as many may only have a superficial understanding of the topic. The social dimension of sustainability and fast & slow fashion is overlooked. Tapping the creativity of key stakeholders in the Maltese fashion industry has the potential of a transition toward a sustainable future for the fashion industry. The engagement of all stakeholders, from policymakers to employees, is needed. What does fashion mean to you? It is a way of expressing yourself through your unique style to show off a glimpse of your personality. It is an art form. Why did you choose fashion as your main area of research? I have always loved fashion. This course gave me the opportunity to study different aspects of fashion. So it was a no-brainer that I would choose fashion as my main area of research. What are your career aspirations? I want to be a Fashion & Textiles teacher. I also want to be involved in organisations related to fashion to contribute towards spreading knowledge about sustainability in the field, which is very much needed in Malta. ELISA ANN SCERRI is a B. Sc. (Hons) Home Economics, specialising in Fashion, Textiles and Interior Studies at the University of Malta. She will be reading a Master in Teaching and Learning course in October. Her main interests are drawing, travelling, the arts, partying, fashion & interiors as well as nature. Describing herself as resilient, easy-going, and open-minded, she believes that mindset is truly important for a positive approach to life.