Interview with Johan Smith from XLReporting

1. Your Role & Leadership at XLReporting

Can you tell us about your role at XLReporting and what your main responsibilities are?

I’m one of the founders of XLReporting, and I still like to stay close to the action, especially when it comes to our technology, operations, and IT security. But beyond the job title, what really matters to me is making sure we stay focused on helping our clients make better decisions. That’s what this whole journey is about.

What drives you as a leader within XLReporting?

After a long career in senior roles, I reached a point where I didn’t want to stop working. I just wanted to work on something that truly mattered to me. Something that reflected what I’ve learned over decades in finance and tech.

I’ve seen too many companies spending fortunes on systems that promised the world but delivered little. I knew it didn’t have to be that way. So, I set out to build a product that’s different: practical, powerful, and priced fairly. No consultants charging you triple for features you’ll never use. Just a clear, web-based platform that gives you back control over your numbers.

That’s what drives me: knowing that we can help finance teams move away from reactive reporting and start making real, confident, data-driven decisions.

How would you describe XLReporting’s company culture, and how do you foster it within your team?

We’re a small team with a clear focus: help our clients succeed, and enjoy doing it. Our culture is rooted in three principles:

• Empowerment: Just like our product empowers users, we trust our team to own their work and make decisions. There’s no micromanaging, just support and shared ownership.
• Collaboration: Even though we work remotely, we stay tightly-knit. We check in often, listen to each other, and make sure everyone’s voice is heard.
• Continuous improvement: We’re always learning. Whether it’s a better way to serve clients, a new feature idea, or how we work as a team, there’s always room to grow.

Ultimately, we treat our company the way we hope our clients run theirs; with clarity, purpose, and a little humanity.

2. Vision & Product Perspective

What makes XLReporting different from other reporting and budgeting solutions?

Honestly? It’s built by people who’ve lived the frustrations of traditional tools.

We created XLReporting to be the tool we wish we’d had during our careers. It’s flexible without being complicated. You don’t need coding skills or a team of consultants to get started. You can fully customize your reports and dashboards, and it integrates with over 40 systems including Excel, which let’s face it, isn’t going anywhere soon.

So many platforms force you to adapt to them. We flipped that around. XLReporting adapts to you.

How do you keep XLReporting innovative and aligned with what businesses need?

We stay close to our customers. A lot of our best ideas come straight from user feedback. It keeps us grounded. We also release updates regularly, so we can respond quickly to new needs or tech changes.

Our mindset is simple: keep listening, keep improving, and keep asking, “What do our customers need to make smarter, faster decisions?”

What’s one feature users love most and why?

People love our integrations. Being able to automatically pull data from accounting, sales, and business systems (and to know it’s accurate and up to date) saves a lot of headaches. It’s about peace of mind. No more chasing spreadsheets or asking, “Which version is this?” Just reliable data, ready when you need it.

3. Customer Impact & Business Growth

How does XLReporting help businesses make better financial decisions?

Here’s a simple truth I’ve learned: you can’t make good decisions with bad forecasts.

What we do is help companies get a clearer picture - fast. We automate data imports, eliminate errors, and give users tools to build reports and forecasts that truly support decision-making. It’s not about drowning in data; it’s about seeing what matters and acting on it.

Whether it’s scenario planning, rolling forecasts, or department collaboration, our goal is to help teams stop guessing and start knowing.

Can you share a customer success story?

One I really like is Massarella Catering Group. They were managing dozens of retail locations with outdated systems and lots of manual effort. We helped them centralize everything (wages, sales data, reporting) all automated and cloud-based.

Now, their managers can access accurate financial data in real time. It completely changed how they operate, and it’s that kind of impact that reminds me why we built this in the first place.

What advice would you give to companies struggling with reporting and budgeting?

Don’t aim for perfection. Just start.

Simplify. Automate where it makes sense. Create one version of the truth. And focus on what helps you make decisions, not just what fills a spreadsheet.

A lot of organizations think they need a huge overhaul, but real progress comes in small, practical steps. Tools like XLReporting let you improve without turning everything upside down.

4. Future & Personal Insights

Where do you see financial reporting and budgeting heading in the future?

We’re headed toward a world where data is always connected, always current, and always actionable.

Forecasting will be more dynamic, less about setting targets once a year and more about adjusting on the fly. Teams will model “what-if” scenarios, plan for multiple outcomes, and act faster.

Finance teams will move from being the reporters to being advisors: strategic partners who help shape business direction. And tools will be built to support that role, without more bottlenecks or IT dependency.

That’s the future we’re building for.

What’s the most rewarding part of your role at XLReporting?

For me, the joy is in building, it's not just a product, but something that actually helps people.

After a long corporate career, I didn’t want to retire. I wanted to build. And now, every time a client tells us we’ve made their life easier, or a teammate comes up with a brilliant idea, I feel like I’m exactly where I should be.

If you could give one piece of advice to finance professionals?

Build your reporting around decisions, not data.

Reporting isn’t just a monthly ritual. It’s a tool to guide strategy, create alignment, and move the business forward. So focus on clarity. Start with the questions you need answered. From there, the right structure (and the right tools) will follow.

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Recent blogs:

Interview with the founder
Forecasting Income in the Healthcare Sector
Forecasting Income for Non-Profit
The Top 5 Pitfalls in Budgeting
If You Break It, You Own It

Popular blogs:

A Guide to Consolidation with QuickBooks
A step-by-step Guide to Financial Consolidation
Build the Right Budget Structure for your Business
Report on Xero Tracking Categories
Build effective Budget Models

More about Reporting:

Interview with the founder
The Top 5 Pitfalls in Budgeting
If You Break It, You Own It
When Control Becomes a Constraint
Fixing the Reports is not Fixing the Problem

More from Johan Smith:

Interview with the founder
Forecasting Income in the Healthcare Sector
Forecasting Income for Non-Profit
The Top 5 Pitfalls in Budgeting
If You Break It, You Own It

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