Your business in 360° Rivilė, Excel and Power BI: how to combine data for reporting
There are two ways to get Rivilė data into Power BI. The first is to export it to Excel and connect that file to Power BI. The second is to connect Rivilė to Power BI directly, so that the reports refresh themselves. Excel works well for a quick one-off analysis. But if a manager needs to see revenue, costs, profit, debts or stock levels every week or every day, manual exports end up costing far more time than they first seem to. Below we describe both routes, their technical requirements, the steps for preparing the data, and how to make sure the figures in a report can be trusted.
In brief
- Exporting to Excel is the quickest way to start. However, every refresh takes manual work, and errors between versions often go unnoticed.
- Rivilė ERP data can be accessed via an API key. Each key is valid for one company and is shown only once.
- A Power BI model brings together data from Rivilė, Excel, SharePoint or a CRM into a single view. Revenue, costs and profit can then be analysed by department, customer or product.
- Automatic refresh removes the work that has to be repeated every month with Excel and reduces errors from manual copying.
- A ready-built package for Rivilė users costs from €59 a month, so there is no need to build the model yourself from scratch.
Contents
- Three ways to connect Rivilė, Excel and Power BI
- How to get data out of Rivilė
- What you can analyse once the data is combined
- How to prepare the data and build a report
- Refresh: how close to real time can you get
- Data accuracy, access control and maintenance
- Our view: Excel stays, but not as the main channel
- Ready-built Power BI packages for Rivilė users
- FAQ
- Sources
Three ways to connect Rivilė, Excel and Power BI
Companies choose one of three routes. Which one suits you depends on how often reports are needed, how many people use them and who will maintain them.
| Method | How it works | Best for | Weak point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rivilė → Excel | A report is exported and analysed in a spreadsheet | One-off analysis, small volumes of data | Everything is repeated by hand each time, with many versions of the file |
| Rivilė → Excel → Power BI | The exported file becomes the Power BI data source | When visualisations are needed but there is no direct connection yet | The report is only as fresh as the last file uploaded |
| Rivilė → Power BI directly | Data is pulled via an API or a ready-made connector, and the model refreshes automatically | Managers, finance teams, accountants with several clients | Access and the data model need to be configured at the outset |
Most companies start with the first route, move on to the second, and reach the third once reports become an everyday management tool. Excel stays in that case, but it becomes a supplementary source, for example for budgets or targets that are not held in the accounting system.
How to get data out of Rivilė
Rivilė GAMA: exporting through reports
In the older Rivilė GAMA version, data is usually extracted through reports. The official Rivile ERP guide states that GAMA reports can be used to export products, customers, stock balances, general ledger journal entry balances and debts. These report templates are not built into the system, so they have to be imported separately.
In practice, this means someone has to set up the necessary templates before the first export. After that, the same export is repeated every time more recent figures are needed.
Rivilė ERP: access via an API key
The cloud-based Rivilė ERP lets other applications pull data directly. As described in the instructions for connecting via an API key, the key is created in the Rivilė ERP settings, is valid for one company and is shown only once.
This leads to three practical rules:
- Save the key in a password manager as soon as it is generated. You will not be able to view it again later.
- Each company needs its own key. An accountant serving several clients must have a key for each one.
- Only share the key over a secure channel. Do not send it by ordinary email or keep it in a shared Excel file.
What you can analyse once the data is combined
Power BI turns accounting data into management indicators. For Rivilė users, these areas are usually the most useful:
- Revenue, costs and profit by month, department, project or site, compared with the previous year and with the budget from Excel.
- Sales by customer, product, sales manager and region. We cover this in more detail in our article on Rivilė sales analysis.
- Warehouse: stock levels, turnover and slow-moving items. We discuss this further on the page about Rivilė warehouse reports.
- Debts: receivables and payables by ageing bucket. See Rivilė debt analysis for accountants.
- Balance sheet and how it changes between periods, especially before year-end close. See Rivilė balance sheet analysis.
The greatest value comes when accounting data is combined with other sources: SharePoint lists, a CRM, logistics or point-of-sale systems. For example, a restaurant chain can see each restaurant’s sales and costs side by side, and a construction company can compare each site’s costs against its estimate.
How to prepare the data and build a report
Whether you are working with an Excel file or a direct connection, the sequence of work is similar:
- Define the questions. Write down 5–10 questions the manager wants answered every week, for example: “Which customers are more than 30 days late in paying?”
- Map the chart of accounts. Decide which general ledger accounts make up revenue, cost of sales, operating expenses and the other lines. This mapping is the foundation of the profit and loss statement.
- Clean up the master data. Customer, product and department codes must be consistent across all sources. Duplicate or incorrectly completed records distort any report.
- Build the data model. In Power BI, fact tables (transactions, general ledger entries) are linked to dimensions (dates, customers, products). We explain how to structure this in our guide to the data model for finance.
- Define the measures. Profit margin, turnover or average days overdue are calculated once in the model, not separately in every spreadsheet.
- Lay out the visuals. Put the key figures at the top, trends below, and the option to drill down to an individual document.
- Reconcile with the accounts. Before publishing the report, check the totals against Rivilė reports for the same period.
If you work with financial reports for accounting purposes, you will find more practical examples in our article on accounting reports in Power BI.
Refresh: how close to real time can you get
With Excel, a report is only as fresh as the last export. If the file is updated once a month, the manager is making decisions on month-old figures.
Once Rivilė is connected to Power BI directly, the model refreshes on a set schedule without anyone having to intervene. How many times a day the data refreshes depends on the Power BI licence and how the connection is configured, so it is worth matching the frequency to how quickly the figures change in your business. Sales and point-of-sale data usually benefit from daily or more frequent refreshes. For the balance sheet and profit after month-end close, less frequent refreshes are enough.
It is also important to understand the limit: a report shows what has already been entered into the accounts. If documents reach Rivilė a week late, no automatic refresh will remove that delay. So alongside automation, it is worth reviewing how quickly documents make it into the accounts.
Data accuracy, access control and maintenance
When a report is seen not by a single accountant but by the whole management team, errors and access questions become more important.
- Checks. At the end of each month, compare a few key totals (revenue, receivables, inventory value) with Rivilė reports. A discrepancy usually points to a new account that has not been mapped in the model.
- Access rights. A department head should see their own department’s data, not the whole company’s. Power BI uses row-level security for this, which we describe in our article on row-level security.
- Personal data. Customer and employee data is subject to the GDPR. We discussed how to assess this in our article is Power BI GDPR-compliant.
- Maintenance. Appoint a person responsible for monitoring refresh errors, changed accounts and new users. Without one, even a well-built report starts showing inaccurate figures within six months.
Where you need to check how the GDPR applies to a specific data set before making a decision, for example employee salaries, consult your company’s data protection officer or lawyer.
Our view: Excel stays, but not as the main channel
Working with Rivilė and Finvalda users, we see the same picture again and again: the company keeps good accounts, but every month someone puts together the management reports by hand in an Excel file. The work is repetitive, depends on a single person, and the figures reach the manager too late.
That is why we do not suggest giving up Excel. It is excellent for budgets, plans and data that are not held in the accounting system. But the key indicators (revenue, costs, profit, debts, warehouse) should refresh on their own. In our experience, the best results come when Rivilė data, Excel plans and other sources such as SharePoint or a CRM are combined into a single Power BI model. Then everyone is looking at the same figures.
It makes sense to start with a ready-built set of reports and only then adapt it to your own processes. That way, the first useful reports reach the manager sooner than if everything is built from scratch.
— Analitika360
Ready-built Power BI packages for Rivilė users
Analitika360 has developed Power BI report sets that refresh Rivilė data automatically, with no extra work on your part:
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Rivilė Basic | €59 a month | Core financial and sales indicators |
| Rivilė PRO | €89 a month | Broader analysis and more reports |
| Custom projects | €70 an hour | Integrations with Excel, SharePoint, CRM or logistics systems, sector-specific reports |
We can also supply Microsoft Pro and Premium licences. You will find a comparison of all packages on the page Rivilė, Finvalda and Power BI packages.
FAQ
Can Power BI be connected to Rivilė without Excel?
Yes. Rivilė ERP data can be accessed via an API key created in the application’s settings. Excel is then no longer needed as an intermediate step and remains only as a supplementary source for plans or budgets.
Will I see Rivilė data in Power BI in real time?
Reports refresh automatically on a set schedule, so they show the latest data entered into the accounts. The refresh frequency depends on the licence and the connection settings. A report cannot show documents that have not yet been entered into Rivilė.
What if we use Rivilė GAMA?
GAMA data can be exported through reports: products, customers, stock balances, general ledger balances and debts. This requires importing the report templates. We can help you assess which connection method suits your version during a consultation.
How much does a Rivilė and Power BI solution cost?
The Analitika360 Rivilė Basic plan costs €59 a month and Rivilė PRO €89 a month. Custom adaptations cost €70 an hour. Power BI licences are purchased separately.
