This month’s New in Calxa release includes our new Outbound Data Feed. This new feature allows you to access OData (Open Data Protocol) queries. The Outbound Data Feed facilitates the export of structured financial datasets like budgeting, forecast, and actuals from Calxa into external systems.
How to Use the Outbound Data Feed
Some of our customers finalise their organisational reporting in external visualisation tools such as:
- BI tools,
- Spreadsheets,
- Data Warehouses,
- Or other operational platforms.
These platforms are great in combining financial and non-financial datasets that are created in various specialist systems (like Calxa).
Used well, it becomes a powerful way to extend Calxa beyond financial reporting. Our article on OData Queries highlights when to use OData queries.
Calxa Datasets Accessed via the Outbound Data Feed
It is important not to see the Outbound Data Feed as a way to export finished reports.
Instead, what it does is give access to components, or data sets, within Calxa like budgets, actuals, forecasts to mention but a few. These ‘components’ then are converted into a visual or merged with other data in the BI platform.
Also important to understand is that this function is not suitable for exporting highly formatted reports, commentary or other summaries. You are still best to handle these in Calxa using the dynamic report builder and the report bundles to delivery these.
Some Caution when using the Outbound Data Feed
Here are some tips on making this a great experience for you:
- Avoid pulling excessively long data ranges or unused historical scenarios.
- Connect only datasets your external tool actually needs. This will give you a better experience with refresh speed and data reliability.
- To make good use of the Outbound Data Feed advanced technical skills are required in navigating the external systems like Power BI or whatever tool you are planning to use.
Setting Up the Outbound Data Feed
The initial set up of the connection is quite simple in Calxa.
Go to Settings, Billing & Admin, Outbound Data Feed. Here you simply add credentials to your provided URL. After that, you copy the credentials over to your external platform.
This help note will guide your setup.
To see the recent changes, look out for our change logs with all the details. There’s lots more we’re working on and coming up as new in Calxa over the next few months.
Feedback is Always Welcome
We value your feedback. To make the most of this feedback, we record every scrap of information we pick up from our day-to-day conversations with you. Here, our quest is to learn what you need. Ultimately, we want to deliver what will help you get your work done easier. So, feel free to give us unsolicited suggestions at any time. Some will take time to implement. However, sometimes we get ideas from customers that are very simple to change and make a big difference.