The migration, move by move
Out of the spreadsheets, into a governed model.
Six moves took the business from four systems and a wall of Excel files to one Fabric model and eight reports it runs on daily. Follow the pipe.
Scroll to run the migrationReplacing manual Excel reporting with a unified Fabric and Power BI platform
A single source of truth in place of team-by-team spreadsheets — real-time insight, standardized definitions, and decisions the whole organization can make from the same numbers.
Results
4Systems unifiedOne Fabric-based model
40+Trusted KPIs in the modelDefined once, reused everywhere
8Interactive Power BI reportsProjects, operations, financials
DailyReporting cadenceUp from monthly cycles
Software used
Microsoft FabricAnalytics platformPython & SQLTransformation logicPower BIReporting and self-service
Related services
Where it startedFour systems and manual Excel
01
01The challenge · Spreadsheets as infrastructure
Every team maintained its own spreadsheets.
Manual Excel reporting ran the business: every team kept its own spreadsheets, business rules were duplicated across files, and extracting data from four separate systems took extensive manual work every cycle.
Each team on its own spreadsheetsBusiness rules duplicated file to fileFour systems, extracted by hand
Before · spreadsheets as infrastructureDuplicated
Finance team
Projects team
Operations team
Commercial team
Same business rule, restated in every file
Four systems, extracted by hand into files each team maintained alone.
02
02The context · What the cycle cost
Insight arrived once a month, and only from the people who built it.
Slow cycles meant insight landed monthly at best, with no central source of truth for project, financial, or operational KPIs — and definitions differed by team. Analysts and managers had no way to self-serve.
Monthly insight delivery at bestInconsistent definitions across teamsNo self-service for analysts or managers
Before · the reporting cycleMonthly at best
Month startsReport deliveredweeks late
Reconciliations before every reportmanual
Analyst and manager self-servicenone
Insight arrived long after the month it described.
03
03The approach · Consolidation
All four systems centralized into Fabric.
The four source systems were ingested and centralized into Microsoft Fabric, guided by our STEAM framework so the platform would scale cleanly and report transparently from day one.
Four systems ingested into FabricSTEAM framework guiding the buildOne environment instead of four extract routines
Approach · four systems into FabricCentralized
01Four systemsSource data, as captured
02IngestInto Fabric, scheduled
03CleanseReconciled centrally
04ServeOne governed model
STEAM framework guiding the build
One governed environment replaced four extraction routines.
04
04The approach · Standardized logic
One star schema, and business rules defined once.
A unified star schema and semantic model standardized business rules across the organization — over 40 trusted KPIs implemented once in the model and reused by every dashboard, instead of restated per spreadsheet.
Unified star schema across all four systemsBusiness rules standardized in the model40+ KPIs defined once, reused everywhere
Approach · unified star schemaOne model
FactProjects · operations · financials
ProjectCost codeCalendarTeamClientAccount
40+ trusted KPIs implemented once and reused across every dashboard.
05
05The approach · Automation
Automated transformation logic replaced the spreadsheet maths.
Transformation logic in Python and SQL took over the calculations that had lived in Excel, wrapped in clear lineage, validation checks, and operational logging — full transparency on pipeline health and data quality.
Excel-based calculations eliminatedValidation checks and operational loggingFull lineage from source to report
Approach · automated transformationTransparent
PythonTransformationLogic that used to live in formulas
SQLModellingConformed, reconciled, reusable
ChecksValidationOperational logging and lineage
Pipeline health, data quality, and lineage became visible rather than assumed.
06
06The solution · Delivered to the business
Eight modern reports that replaced every manual spreadsheet.
Eight interactive Power BI reports covering projects, operations, and financials replaced the manual spreadsheets outright, sitting on a governed semantic layer analysts can query themselves — and built to run daily rather than monthly.
Eight interactive reports, all spreadsheets retiredGoverned self-service for analystsDaily cadence rather than monthly
Solution · eight Power BI reportsSpreadsheets retired
Interactive reports deliveredeight
Manual spreadsheets replacedall
Self-service on the semantic layeropen
Reporting cadence supporteddaily
A complete set covering projects, operations, and financials — built to run daily.
Where it landedOne Fabric and Power BI platform
The people who built it
Team responsible.
A small delivery team, named and accountable from kickoff to go-live.
Luke Matthews
Co-Founder, Head of Project Delivery & Data Architecture
Still reporting out of spreadsheets?
Monthly spreadsheets can become daily insight.
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