The reality in the companies

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are on everyone’s lips. The end of many jobs is being proclaimed on various platforms and conferences and the radical transformation of the world of work is being announced. This change will certainly happen – but let’s be honest. What is the current reality in many small and medium-sized companies?

The reality is never as sparkling as in glossy brochures. Instead, it shows that the technological possibilities available to us are often only utilised to a limited extent. Instead of using state-of-the-art tools, many companies are still using ‘hammer and chisel’ to manage their day-to-day work.

Microsoft first released Power Query as a separate add-in for Excel in 2010. It was originally known as part of the “Data Explorer” project. Later, in Excel 2016, Power Query was included as an integrated function in Excel and was part of the “Get Transform” data area in the ribbon. Since then, Power Query has become an important part of Excel and is available in various versions of Microsoft Office.

Why is technology not being used?

There are many reasons for this:

  • Ignorance: Many people don’t even know that there are solutions that could make their lives easier.
  • Convenience: Some people shy away from the effort of getting to grips with new tools and techniques.
    Because it’s very tiring to deal with things you can’t do yet?
  • Tradition: People often stick to tried and tested methods simply because that’s the way it’s always been done.

Everyday life in finance departments

The picture is similar in many finance departments of small and medium-sized companies. Monthly financial statements, controlling analyses and liquidity forecasts are created in large Excel spreadsheets, copied together and provided with formulas. If Excel then crashes too many times in a row (too many SVERWEISEs, too much data or some other problem) and you have unfortunately forgotten to save and the work of the last hour is gone, you look exasperated for better tools and solutions to relieve you of this pain – because your own IT department has no capacity to support you in increasing efficiency.

However, it often turns out that these tools are not flexible enough and do not fulfil the specific needs of the company. So back to Excel, back to endless VLOOKUP functions and endless loading times. And one or two ruined keyboards more….

The solution: Microsoft Power Query

If only I had discovered Microsoft Power Query much earlier – my life would have been so much easier! Power Query is a real blessing in company departments with regular, recurring tasks that work a lot with Excel. But unfortunately, only a few people know and use it.

Advantages of Excel Power Query

Power Query offers a wide range of possibilities without the need for programming skills. The user interface is intuitive and makes it possible to work efficiently even without in-depth knowledge of M-code (the language behind Power Query). With just a few hours of familiarisation, you can get started and benefit:

  • Automation of recurring tasks: Month-end closings can be created at the touch of a button.
  • Extensive data sets: Power Query processes large amounts of data without any problems.
  • Efficient data cleansing: Data sources are automatically updated and cleansed.

Application examples in the financial sector

  • Month-end closing at the touch of a button
  • Liquidity planning
  • Dashboards with different data sources
  • Regular reporting
  • Posting templates for provisions or personnel costs, for example
  • Settlements from payment partners (e.g. Adyen, Paypal, Amex, Amazon etc.)
  • Clean-up of balance sheet accounts
  • Personnel cost controlling
  • and many many more…

Conclusion

While glossy brochures proclaim the end of accounting careers due to intelligent robots, in reality many medium-sized companies struggle with Excel spreadsheets to create a proper monthly financial statement. The main problems here are time, motivation and knowledge. The people responsible are often too busy with day-to-day business and firefighting activities to focus on more efficient methods.

If the month-end closing is not completed on time, expensive automation tools or consultants are often used, but in practice these rarely bring the hoped-for improvements. Instead, the processes remain inefficient and the company poorer.

Power Query is an underestimated tool that every financial expert should know and use. It offers the possibility of automating recurring tasks efficiently and without programming knowledge. This leaves more time to analyse the content of the figures.

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