Word Templates, Excel Templates, Automated Reporting,
Access Databases, Macros, Spreadsheets
Word Templates, Excel Templates, Automated Reporting,
Access Databases, Macros, Spreadsheets
Automated Reports using Microsoft®
Office If you or your staff spend more than a few hours each month producing reports, then it might be worth automating the process with Microsoft® Office. If you spend hours and hours manipulating data in Microsoft Excel® or Access™, and copying and pasting into other applications, such as Word, an automated report would be an ideal solution.
Microsoft Excel is the analytical business tool of choice for many organisations. However, as much of the key data are held in other systems, which process the accounting, marketing, sales and distribution data. Creating meaningful reports can involve tedious work in importing or re-keying data, and pasting it between various applications to create report packs. It is typically time-consuming, error-prone and requires a significant investment in time and resources.
Automating the reporting process can save time and money and allows managers to focus on interpreting the data rather than collating it.
Automated reports take advantage of Microsoft's integrated development language Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA). Microsoft Office applications, such as Excel, Access and Word, can access and control another Microsoft Office program entirely through VBA code.
An automated report can extract and manipulate the data from a number of sources, create graphs, calculate any required ratios and percentages, and insert the results into a Word template together with different preformatted text paragraphs, depending on the results. The automated report can also be converted into a different format such as an Adobe PDF file, or HTML for displaying via a web browser on an Intranet or the Internet.
As reports using Microsoft Office support multi-application procedures, you could store your data in Access, export it to Excel for analysis, add it to an article in Word, email it to interested parties using Outlook® and publish it to a website - all at the press of a button!
An automated report would be straightforward to use and the report could handle all necessary steps automatically so performing the process could be delegated. It would also reduce training and supervision costs and ensure greater accuracy.
Customising Microsoft Office enables the building of a cost-effective reporting system for use by everybody in an organisation. Reporting on demand allows staff to monitor the key business metrics dynamically and therefore make decisions based on accurate data rather than a gut feel or hunch.
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Microsoft, Access, Excel, Visual Basic, Outlook and PowerPoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
