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Manufacturing · Production Optimization · Inventory Management

Power BI Executive Reporting on a Custom ERP for a Fruit Processor

Anonymised engagement
Client
Fruit processing group · Bulgaria · a leading European processor, seasonal and export-driven
Industry
Manufacturing
Department
Finance & Accounting
Region
Bulgaria

In a seasonal fruit business, stock drives every sales and production decision, and the CEO and the board were making those decisions without a clear picture. The custom-built ERP recorded everything, reported almost nothing and came with no documentation. Now leadership reads stock, sales, production and finance in Power BI, on live ERP data, each audience seeing what it should.

A working model of the approach on sample data. It plays on its own and pauses when scrolled away; nothing here touches a live system.

The results

4
reporting areas in one model
Available stock, sales, production and finance, on live ERP data.
0
pages of ERP documentation to start from
The database was analysed and mapped from scratch. Scope, not a saving.
3
audiences with role-based access
CEO, executives and the board of directors, each seeing what it should.

The challenge

Our client is a leading European fruit processor, and this engagement covered its operations in Bulgaria: a seasonal, export-driven processing business. The Bulgarian business runs on a custom-built local ERP. It held the operational data, but it produced too few reports, and nothing visual, for leadership to run the business on.

There was no vendor reporting to lean on, and no documentation of the ERP's database to build reporting from.

What it was costing them

  • Deciding blind on stock. In a seasonal business, stock levels of raw and processed fruit drive every sales and production decision.
  • No clear sales or production view. Leadership could not see performance clearly enough to manage the season.
  • Finance in pieces. Financial figures were assembled by hand rather than read from the system of record.
  • No documentation. Nobody could easily build reports on a database nobody had described.
  • A board without a market view. The board of directors lacked a clear understanding of the company's market position.
What leadership could not see from the ERP
  • Custom ERP, no documentation → Available stock
  • Custom ERP, no documentation → Sales
  • Custom ERP, no documentation → Production
  • Custom ERP, no documentation → Finance

The approach

We built a Power BI reporting layer on the ERP's live data, starting by working out the database ourselves.

From an undocumented database to board reporting

  1. ERP database reverse-engineered. With no documentation available, we analysed the database to find where stock, sales, production and finance data lived and how it fitted together.
  2. Extracted and transformed. The data was extracted and transformed with Power Query and SQL against the ERP database.
  3. Modelled for decisions. Organised into one reporting model that leadership can read, rather than a copy of the ERP's tables.
  4. Connected to live ERP data. Reports reflect the system of record, not exported files.
  5. Four reporting areas. Available stock, sales, production and finance.
  6. Role segregation. Access controls so each audience, the CEO, the executives and the board, sees what it should.
From ERP database to board reporting
  • Live ERP database
  • One Power BI model
  • Role-based reports
The CEO, the executives and the board each see what they should.

Technology

LayerWhat we used
Source systemCustom-built local ERP, database analysed without documentation
Data preparationPower Query and SQL against the ERP database
Reporting modelMicrosoft Power BI data model
ReportsPower BI reports for stock, sales, production and finance
AccessPower BI role-based access and row-level security

The outcome

The CEO, the executives and the board read the same model, built on live ERP data, each with the view their role allows.

BeforeAfter
Stock, sales, production and financeFew reports, nothing visualOne Power BI model, four reporting areas
Finance figuresAssembled by handRead from the system of record
ERP databaseUndocumentedAnalysed and mapped for reporting
Board view of market positionUnclearClear, from the same model
  • Vital reporting for the CEO's decisions, used internally across the organisation.
  • Executives and the board with a clear understanding of the company's market position.
  • Stock, sales, production and finance in one model, on live ERP data.
  • Reporting delivered on an ERP with no documentation and no native reporting to build on.

No time-saving or usage figures were recorded for this engagement; the figures above describe its scope.

The risk most teams miss

Reporting on an undocumented custom ERP is fragile in a way standard ERP reporting is not: column names that mean something other than what they say, records that are cancelled but not deleted, and a schema that can change with the next update from the ERP developer. Reports that look right but count cancelled stock or double-count transfers erode the board's trust fast. The work is in validating the model against figures the business already trusts, documenting what was learned about the database, and isolating the reporting model so an ERP update breaks one mapping, not every report.

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