Benefits of accessing Xero data via PowerQuery from Excel

What is Xero, excel and Powerquery?  

Xero is cloud-based accounting software with built-in reports and analysis tools. However, its standard functionality can be limited leaving users to look for 3rd party apps with the ability to aggregate your data over multiple Xero accounts or cross-reference your Xero data with other cloud services. 

Everyone knows Microsoft Excel and it might have been around for a long time, but it is hard to beat from a functionality point of view. An excel spreadsheet allows you to organise data in columns and rows that can be manipulated through formulas, something most accounting software cannot compete with. 

PowerQuery is a business intelligence tool built into Microsoft (or downloaded as an add-on) that allows you to import data from many different sources (including Xero, via Accounting.BI). PowerQuery may change, adjust or shape data to suit your data analysis needs - before loading it into your Excel workbooks. 

Where can I get PowerQuery in Excel? 

Excel 2016 and above versions have built-in PowerQuery under the Data tab in the Get & Transform group. However, Power Query is available in Excel 2010 and Excel 2013 as a free add-on downloadable from Microsoft's website.  

What are the advantages? 

By using Microsoft Excel together with PowerQuery when working with Xero Data - accountants, bookkeepers, and businesses stand to benefit in the following ways: 

Automatically syncing management account data  

Power Query lets you automate your report by creating a query that pulls data from Xero to create a single data set. From this single data set, you can quickly create a PivotTable in excel to summarise the transactions by general ledger account and by month. 

Merging excel data to online data  

Power Query in Excel is programmed to import data into Excel from different popular data sources, including CSV, XML, JSON, PDF, SharePoint, SQL, and many more. Once data is in Excel from Xero and other data sources, it's ready to change shape to what you want using Power Query and other Excel data properties. The ‘shaped data’ can then be imported by different data sources, shared as reports, charts, or even exported to Power Apps. 

Improve and optimise reporting with the power of Excel 

When you pull Xero data into Excel using PowerQuery, you can adjust and customise your reports to your preference. Moreso, you can take advantage of the advanced Excel functionality - VBA and Pivot Table - to exceed the standard spreadsheet system’s capabilities and manipulate, visualise and transform information by integrating your Excel document with PowerBI. 

Xero to excel live connection via Accounting.BI 

PowerQuery exports Xero accounting data and reports to Excel in real-time. You can connect PowerQuery to your Xero data via Accounting.BI to shape your accounting data in ways that meet your needs - before loading your query into Excel to create your management reports. To get automatic data updates, you can refresh the data periodically to help your business operate on the latest insights. 

Visibility into your business performance 

Powerquery allows you to import Xero Invoices, Payments, Purchase Orders, Profit and Loss, Balance Sheets, and other reports to Excel. If you blend this information with data from other systems and visualise it with charts and graphs – you can review the outcomes - to get a complete picture of your company's results. 

Automating business processes 

If you have multiple Xero organisations and must manually export data at regular time intervals, it becomes hard to create the data correctly. However, if you set up PowerQuery via Accounting.BI - a query is stored in the system - every time the information needs to be imported and formatted similarly, the instructions are repeated using the refresh option. It eliminates repetitive manual work and makes the process more efficient.  

Power Query then provides the option of combining different data sets. For example, if a single report needs to be made on the amount of revenue earned by each company over one year, data from each month is added to that from the previous months, and figures are correctly added up. The revenue reports from each month can be combined with those of the prior months - by specifying the necessary instructions in PowerQuery. 

Need further guidance? 

Even with its host of benefits, Microsoft Excel’s Power Query feature remains undiscovered and unused by most business professionals. When working with Excel - this tool offers business professionals unparalleled options for linking and transforming data and automating many reporting processes. Learning how Power Query can help you advance and automate your reporting processes is crucial. 

To keep learning and developing your business intelligence and data analysis knowledge - we highly recommend visiting the AccountingBI website. 

 

learn more

Why is PowerBI important for Accountants?

As an accountant, you may find yourself referring to multiple sources to track the performance of your client’s cash flow, profitability, business trends and even bookkeeping cycle. What if you could access those results and comparisons automatically refreshed, on-demand, from your tablet, smartphone, PC, or even wearable device? Business intelligence and data visualisation systems can provide accountants with – the critical data and organisation summary in a custom format in one (or more) visuals or a dashboard. One of these powerful business intelligence tools is PowerBI.
READ MORE

Power BI: What is DAX?

DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is a formula expression language developed by Microsoft to interact with data in different analysis services and visualisation tools platforms like Power BI, PowerPivot and SSAS tabular models. DAX can seem familiar to competent excel users as the language uses similar formulas and expressions.
READ MORE

How to connect your Xero account(s) to AccountingBi

This guide will walk you through two methods for connecting your Xero accounting software to AccountingBi
READ MORE

How to call your profit and loss account reports from Xero to AccountingBi

We have outlined a step-by-step process of calling your profit and loss report data from your Xero account to AccountingBi - article and video.
READ MORE

How to call the balance sheet reports from Xero to AccountingBi

We have outlined the steps of calling balance sheet reports from Xero to AccountingBi in a video (watch below) and an article.
READ MORE

How to connect Microsoft excel to Xero through AccountingBi

This video and article provide steps for connecting Xero to PowerBi through AccountingBi. It assumes that you've already pulled the Xero API from accounting BI for your various reports.
READ MORE
1 2 3 7
READ MORE
Accounting.bi - Business Intelligence Software
HOW IT WORKS...
Copyright © 2024 Accounting.bi is a brand owned and operated by Accounting SQL Limited, incorporated in the United Kingdom. ​
Terms & Conditions - GDPR