Edgar de Wit
If you're still juggling spreadsheets or dealing with limited functionality in your current software, this list is for you. These are the top 20 features in XLReporting that show up in real-world planning and reporting processes. Which of these would make your life easier?
This list applies to a typical mid-size for-profit company. Let's say they sell physical products in multiple countries. They use cost centers for budgeting, consolidate monthly to report to the board, and give each manager access to only their own cost center.
Use QUERY() to pull data from any dataset into your model. Because it’s a function, you can reference it dynamically and reuse the data in flexible ways.
Our import system allows full ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines. For example, you can extract raw accounting data from Exact Online, transform it by mapping account codes to your internal structure, and then load it into XLReporting as a clean, ready-to-report dataset. Imports can be started manually or bundled into automated batch processes, and support everything from trial balances to non-financial metrics like headcount or units sold.
These time-aware functions are essential in every report. They allow you to retrieve data for current period, previous month, last year, or YTD comparisons. For example, when your cost center manager opens their report, SELECTPERIOD lets them choose the relevant month, and PERIODSUM automatically recalculates totals like actuals YTD or budget versus last year for that period. It means no hardcoding—just accurate, context-driven reporting.
Apply dynamic filters by department, project, or company. Useful when building inputs or reports scoped to specific users or data sets.
Look up specific values or totals from queried data. For example, in a product planning model, you might use DGET to fetch the latest unit price of a selected item from a reference table. If a user selects product 'X123', DGET can automatically pull the corresponding price from the product dataset and apply it in the calculation of revenue forecasts.
Tables and pivots are great, but visual data often tells the story faster. For example, you can create a pivot report that shows revenue by product line across different regions, then quickly switch to a chart view to visualize which regions outperform others. Use charts in reports for instant insight with default formatting, or build advanced visualizations in models if you need more control over design and interaction.
Plan seasonal patterns across months, quarters, or years. Just enter a total amount and the planner distributes it based on predefined logic. For example, you can use the Monthly planner to evenly distribute costs over 12 months, the Quarterly planner to allocate by quarter, or choose Summer/Winter if your organization has seasonal peaks (e.g. higher costs in summer for tourism-related services). These presets help you avoid manual spread logic and make planning much faster and more reliable.
Use past data to automatically generate future values. For example, if your sales department logs actual monthly revenue, PREDICT can identify the trend over recent periods and generate a projection for the next three to six months. This helps create a data-driven baseline for short-term planning—without building a complex model from scratch.
One of the most practical functions in XLReporting for generating quick forecasts is simply: FORECAST(). This function uses a linear trend. Essentially a straight line through your existing data, to project future values.
For example, if your personnel costs have steadily increased from €10,000 to €40,000 over the past four months, you can use FORECAST("10000,20000,30000,40000", 5) to estimate the fifth month. In this case, the result would be €50,000.
You don’t need to build complex models or write custom formulas. XLReporting handles the regression logic behind the scenes.
In short: FORECAST() is a powerful shortcut for anyone who needs a simple and fast trend-based projection—without extra overhead.
The ROLLING() function is specifically designed for rolling forecasts. Instead of using a fixed period or manually managing forecast scenarios, this function automatically calculates values based on the most recent X months of data.
For example, if you want to forecast each new month using the actuals from the past three months, simply use ROLLING(3) in your formula, and XLReporting handles the rest. The model automatically shifts forward with time, so you don’t need to maintain separate versions or make manual updates.
While building models, you can instantly preview the result with one click. See how it will look and behave before publishing.
Toggle financial subtotals in your reports. Based on account categories, XLReporting automatically calculates Gross Profit, EBITDA, EBIT, Net Income, and more.
Unlike static tables in other CPM systems, you can build your own datasets—structured collections of fields (text, dates, values, etc.). These are used for lookups, transactional data, and everything in between.
Export any model or report to Excel or PDF. What's special? You can build completely custom reports and still export them perfectly formatted—something many platforms only offer for fixed templates.
Control what happens per row in a model: add, copy, delete, or hide rows dynamically. Yes, there's a function for that.
The PERIODNAME() function lets you display friendly and readable period names, such as "February 2025" or "Feb 2025" in your reports, instead of working with raw codes like 2025-02.
This handy function makes a big difference in the clarity of your reports, especially when sharing them with non-financial stakeholders.
It works seamlessly with SELECTPERIOD(), so once a user selects a reporting period, your headers can automatically adapt to show the full name of the month, the year, or both. You can choose the format that fits best: "February 2025", "Feb 2025", or simply "February".
We support 40+ integrations, including Exact Online, Twinfield, QuickBooks, and Xero. Beyond financials, you can import non-financials like units sold, cost center labels, or CRM data.
The IFS() function helps you build logical conditions without the hassle of deeply nested IF statements. Instead of stacking multiple IFs and counting parentheses, you simply define your conditions in pairs.
For example: IFS(value > 10, "High", value <= 10, "Low")
This reads like a sentence and is easy to follow, even when your model grows in complexity.
A good rule of thumb: if it takes longer than 30 seconds to explain your formula, it’s probably too complex. IFS() keeps your models clean, readable, and maintainable—especially in budgeting scenarios with multiple thresholds or categories.
User roles don’t just control access to features, but also filter what data a user can retrieve or save. Filter by company, region, account group, whatever makes sense.
Read more about this on our blog about Role Based Accounting Access.
Turn any model or report layout into a dashboard. Configure layout, widget size, and grouping, no coding or BI skills required.
Let's imagine a company called Horizon Gear, a mid-sized Dutch manufacturer and distributor of high-end cycling apparel and gear. They sell across Europe and North America through retail partners and a direct-to-consumer webshop. Horizon Gear has 6 cost centers: R&D, Production, Sales NL, Sales DE, Sales US, and Marketing.
Each cost center manager logs in and sees their own dashboard—powered by role-based filters (#19) and dashboards (#20). For example, Sales NL and Sales DE managers only see data for their respective regions, while the R&D manager sees only project-related expenses. These filters are applied at the company and cost center level, ensuring that each user accesses only the data relevant to them. They enter their budgets in PLANNER (#7), forecast future values with ROLLING or FORECAST (#10, #9), and track performance through dedicated reports that use SELECTPERIOD and PERIODSUM (#3) to present real-time figures for actuals, budgets, and year-to-date values—making it easy to compare planned versus actual performance for their scope of responsibility.
The CFO views consolidated reports with eliminations and P&L totals (#12), using QUERY and DGET to build detailed drilldowns (#1, #5). All data comes in through imports and integrations (#2, #17)—this includes trial balances, revenue and expense transactions, headcount data, CRM entries, and even cost center mappings. These are structured into custom datasets (#13) that feed directly into planning models and financial reports. Reports are shared with the board in PDF (#14), and every model is tested before use with Preview & Test (#11).
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