What keeps human services competitive? It's the ability to interpret and act on information quickly. This is true for any business or organization. Acting promptly and decisively puts organizations on an upward, positive trajectory. When integrated with Sparkrock 365's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, Microsoft's Power BI offers a better approach to handling data. Power BI is the proverbial treasure map, but instead of gold, the treasure is valuable insights that guide decision-making and improve an organization's operations.
Data is obsolete if organizations don't use it. But it can be a major asset to organizations who want to
Power BI started as a simple add-on for Excel to help with financial and budgetary analysis. Over time, it's evolved into a powerful tool that pulls together data from all over—like finance, accounting, and HR—and turns it into easy-to-understand visuals. It lets organizations see all their essential data in one place. It also shows charts and graphs that make sense of everything, like budget spreadsheets and financial databases. HR, business, and finance staff find Power BI useful because it helps them get a clear, unified view of all the numbers they care about.
Integrating Power BI with Sparkrock 365 bolsters data for organizations. Many health & human services organizations add different software to their finance systems because their primary ERP or finance and payroll software can't be customized. When you blend Power BI with Sparkrock 365, health & human services get top-notch data analysis and visualization across their organization. This combination eliminates data silos and enables departments to collaborate and make informed decisions based on reliable data.
Power BI provides basic charts and graphs, but it does so much more than that. It brings machine learning and connections to the Azure cloud so organizations can do predictive modelling and get AI-driven insights. They can see their finances, predict future trends, and make better budget decisions.
Plus, when Power BI works with an ERP, especially in human services, it transforms a choppy system of separate platforms and manual reports into a sleek, efficient process. Organizations get fast, actionable insights, making everything from managing finances to tracking trends much more straightforward.
At Rehoboth Christian Ministries, Power BI combined with Sparkrock 365's ERP solution is making a lasting impact. Janice Gerbrandt, the Director of Corporate Services, found that it slashed the time needed for complex tasks like RSP reporting and handling source deductions. For example, when an issue popped up with an employee's RSP contributions not adding up, Janice used Power BI to dig into a year's worth of data and quickly spotted discrepancies ranging from $50 to $250. This type of data analysis, which would have been a headache using traditional methods, allowed her to make the necessary corrections promptly to ensure that everyone received their total contribution.
Imagine checking 2023's payroll for 600 employees—a task that would normally take several days. With Power BI, Janice knocked it out in just one day. That's the power of streamlined data analysis.
Power BI hands the power of data analysis over to everyone in an organization. It builds trust in the ERP system's ability to support quick, informed decisions. Power BI makes data-driven decision-making accessible to everyone, not just a few specialists, by simplifying data insights unilaterally across an organization.
Power BI lets organizations customize their data visualization and analysis to fit their needs perfectly. For instance, Janice transformed complex financial data like vacation accruals from dollars to hours, making it more straightforward for employees to understand their benefits without wrestling with the numbers. By pulling together data from various sources—financial forecasts or operational metrics—Power BI keeps data fresh and accurate, which is essential for maintaining efficiency and strategic planning.
For Janice, the real strength of Power BI is its easy and customizable reports. Here are just a few of the helpful Power BI reports organizations can use:
Many human service roles require specific qualifications. They need to comply with legal and professional standards. These include degrees, certifications, or licenses, especially in social work, counselling, healthcare, and education. Business administrators can easily track each employee's training status with Power BI. They can do this in real-time and even send weekly reports. When all staff meet training requirements, human services continue to comply and maintain high-quality service delivery.
Power BI makes keeping an eye on employee vacation days easier. With its attendance reports, human services can quickly identify who's stacking up too much leave. This is helpful for many reasons, including:
It helps HR managers plan better. When HR sees who has a lot of vacation time left, they can ensure all the bases are covered throughout the year and avoid surprises where too many people are off at once.
Attendance reports keep everyone in line with the company's vacation policy, like limits on how much time employees can carry over to the next fiscal year.
Encouraging staff to take time off when needed promotes a healthy work-life balance. Notifying staff of vacation time shows an organization's investment in staff well-being. Plus, everyone needs a break to stay sharp.
Bonus budgeting assists industries that pay out unused vacation time by helping them keep track of who has what, which is helpful for financial planning.
Power BI maintains up-to-date employee contact details, including
It also tracks employees' ages to anticipate retirement trends and succession needs. Updated contact lists help organizations maintain high levels of communication. Consider the implications of incorrect spellings of town names or employees. Duplicate communications lead to confusion, wasted resources, and potential embarrassment for the company.
Power BI simplifies employee scheduling by attaching individuals to specific units to eliminate excessive communication. Supervisors can quickly check an employee's schedule, which supports the scheduling process. When organizations have full-time, part-time, and contract employees, checks and balances need to be embedded into the ERP solution to avoid payroll errors, compliance issues, and scheduling conflicts. Power BI and Sparkrock 365 ensure that all employees are well-managed according to the rules and policies that fit their roles. This keeps everything fair and efficient at work.
Finance and payroll teams can easily tailor their payroll data to exactly what tax and revenue agencies like the CRA require. Health services can avoid compliance headaches, save time tweaking numbers, and trust that their financial records are accurate. It makes payroll reporting much smoother and keeps organizations from getting into trouble with tax authorities.
Integrating Power BI with ERP systems removes the burden of manual data manipulation and reformatting. For Janice, generating RSP reports for carriers used to take hours, but now it's a matter of minutes. This highlights a remarkable efficiency gain.
For many human services, the source deduction process is a lengthy chore. Power BI helps turn it into a fast, few-minute task. Accurate financial documentation is now more rapid and less labor-intensive.
Power BI can quickly find and fix system errors. This makes operations smoother and builds trust in the ERP solution for users. Janice cites, "Power BI is the starting point of being able to find your errors and to fix them so that ongoing you're saving your time. It also gives trust in the Sparkrock system because it serves as our audit and verification of the Sparkrock system." This gain is in both efficiency and reliability, and it shows a transformative upgrade in what organizations can do with their data.
Power BI integration with Sparkrock 365's ERP marks a significant data management and analysis step. Yes, Power BI simplifies data handling, but its ability to wield organizational information for better outcomes sets it apart from other data tools. Power BI gives health services:
Imagine if every time you needed to make a choice, you had a helper who could quickly look through all your past experiences and the outcomes to suggest the best option. Power BI does something similar for health services by analyzing data from the past to help predict the best moves for the future.
Instead of spending hours or days sifting through piles of papers or spreadsheets, Power BI organizes data in a way that is easy to understand. This means less time looking for information and more time using it.
Power BI helps organizations see patterns that might not be obvious. For example, it can show employees who took a vacation at similar times of the year, suggesting that more coverage could be needed. HR managers can proactively adjust staffing plans to provide smooth operations during peak times.
When something goes wrong, or there's a chance to improve something, Power BI helps find the exact data needed to understand the issue and find a solution quicker.
By transforming complex data into clear, actionable insights, Power BI empowers organizations to make informed decisions, streamline their operations, and ultimately achieve their strategic goals. What would your organization look like with better data management tools?
Embrace the power of Power BI and Sparkrock 365 to strengthen your data management capabilities and drive your organization forward. Contact a Sparkrock representative today to discuss how your organization can benefit from Power BI and Sparkrock 365.