Full Cycle Corporate Performance Management in Power BI

[NOTE: This blog, originally posted in 2017, was updated Oct 2022 to reflect the latest enhancements and functionality supported in Power BI and Power ON.]

The term Corporate Performance Management (CPM) may be going by the wayside, but the underlying principles still exist. Whether you call it CPM, EPM, xP&A, or one of the many other newer terms, it comes down to this question:

How do you monitor business performance with an eye to the future, with real-time, collaborative data-collection, forecasting, commenting, and what-if scenario modeling, with the ease of a filtered spreadsheet, on a single platform that users are familiar with?

Did you know that key components of a Corporate Performance Management approach: Integrated Planning, Financial and Operational Planning, and Forecasting can be done directly in Microsoft Power BI?

In this blog we cover how 6 key capabilities needed to support the process of Planning and Analysis (aka CPM) can be done using Power BI to successfully drive better results across your organization.

1. Driver-based Revenue Planning

With driver-based Revenue Planning, users can enter and modify metrics that drive their business directly and do so in Power BI.

When users make changes, all metrics in the model are recalculated on the fly, and all Power BI visuals are updated instantly.

The slicers represent different years and Versions. By selecting a year and version, users can easily compare different Scenarios side by side.

Screenshot: Power BI report built by Centida using the Power ON Visual Planner tool set.

Different versions of data are created in the back-end with the help of SQL triggers. Using Power ON’s Table Editor visual, you can add, update, or delete different versions of data. After creating a new version, you can test different scenarios or see how metrics will change based on different drivers.

Above: Changing metrics based on different drivers using Power ON’s Bar chart visual.

Microsoft Power BI customers are taking advantage of the ground-breaking platform of Visual Planning from Power ON, which is built 100% on Power BI.

2. Driver-based Expense Assumptions

Similar to Revenue Planning, Expenses can also be driver-based. It is easy to enter and edit projected costs or expenses and immediately observe the impact. Power ON’s ability to do an immediate write-back and see changes in real-time is a powerful feature. With different industries under pressure and costs changing daily, one needs to carefully track all price fluctuations.

Screenshot: Power BI report built by Centida using the Power ON Visual Planner tool set.

By building a solution in Power BI and Visual Planner from Power ON, companies can take advantage of all the standard and custom visuals in Power BI.

Users can download any custom visual from the Microsoft Custom Visual Repository, and implement them into their solution, like the map-visual below. Coupled with Power ON’s write-back enabled custom visuals, Power BI becomes a powerful planning solution.

3. Search and Filter Expense Planning

Users can search and pin the metrics they are interested in, with the Attribute Slicer from the Microsoft Custom Visual repository, and then change the numbers directly in the grid.

Like a true BI solution, users can change the Years or the Scenarios by simply clicking on them.

Power ON’s write-back enabled visuals are totally compatible with the standard Power BI visuals. The Power ON write-back engine can read and understand all filter context in the report.

Based on the selected filters and slicers, the write-back engine changes data at the tuple level. When the filters are removed, the changes affect subtotals and totals.

By adding write-back functionality to Power BI, The World’s Largest Procurement Alliance, BuyIn, was able to eliminate the manual, error-prone pain points associated with data collection at scale, which they used to have with standard Excel project analysis and data validation. Adopting a Power BI solution with Power ON write-back, BuyIn was able to modernize key elements across their Corporate Performance Management processes.

4. Financial Reporting Statements

Even though data collection is very important, visualizing the ultimate impact of the data is equally important.

As such, Power BI can used not only as a BI tool but can also as a Financial Report Writer. With Power BI and Power ON, organizations go beyond Planning and Forecasting to include Financial Statements, to help better understand their data and drive better results.

The P&L not only visualizes the data but provides a formatted Income Statement Report. Power BI + Power ON provides the best of both worlds.

A Waterfall chart (below) can also be created to provide insight into the biggest expense buckets and where management needs to pay focus to drive overall shareholder value.

A line-graph visualizes how the different scenarios are driving EBITDA. This can easily be filtered by clicking the different elements in the pie-chart.

Screenshot: Power BI report built by Centida using Power ON apps

5. Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Reports

Equally as important as the income statement in supporting the Full Corporate Performance Management cycle is the Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement.  With Power ON’s Visual Planner and Power BI, users can create, filter, and modify any important Financial Report.

Screenshot: Power BI report built by Centida using Power ON apps

Users could even add a line-graph to enhance visualizing the evolution of Cash and Debt, and they can pick and choose from the Power BI Custom Visuals library.

6. Corporate Evaluations

Many companies are eventually looking for an ‘exit’. The Corporate Evaluation visualization makes it easy to simulate different Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) scenarios.

By changing the values in the drop down, users can see the direct impact of the total evaluation of their business based on the Driver Based Revenue, Driver Based Expenses, and other metrics that is easy to change in the model.

Screenshot: Power BI report built by Centida using Power ON apps

This goes back to the power of write-back. Everything can be changed instantly while still following structured user access control – new versions created, the older ones deleted, inputs changed; all of this will allow users to see different what-if scenarios.

The other important benefit of Power ON’s write-back visuals, in Corporate Evaluations, is the ability to collaborate in real-time. Not only can team members change their numbers, but they can also leave dynamic comments at any data point. This is very helpful for the iterative planning process.

By selecting different Scenarios from the Slicer, business owners can get a complete picture of the right time to sell their business.

In Summary

As we’ve seen, it’s possible to do Full-on Corporate Performance Management (CPM) in Power BI.

By taking Power BI up a notch, adding the ability to write-back, and seeing changes in real-time, companies can improve their planning, forecasting, and what-if scenario modeling processes.

With Power ON everything updates instantly: new versions of reports created, new data inputs added, the old ones changed, and even dynamic commentary, it all updates on the fly.

The cherry on top is that Power ON tools easily snap on top of Power BI. For organizations already using the Microsoft stack, Power ON is a natural way to capitalize on existing investments and take things to the next level.

If you would like to learn more, take a look at Power ON’s products and demo videos or contact us today for more information.

~ Until Next Time… Power ON