Most users of Acumatica will lean on an external tool for their management reporting. Acumatica is great for managing the operational side of a business and provides some basic financial reporting. However, where it is not so well suited is producing reports for senior management or boards. This leaves users with few options. The main one, and most obvious, are manual spreadsheets. Alternatively, some have been using Excel with Velixo or a dedicated reporting app like Calxa. Let’s explore some of the pros and cons of using Calxa vs Velixo.
What is Velixo?
Velixo is an Excel add-on that integrates with Acumatica and other ERP systems to bring their data into a familiar environment. For accountants who love their spreadsheets, it gives the ability to develop budgeting and reporting models without the hassle of manually exporting and importing data. The live link ensures that data is always up-to-date with the accounting system. It includes the option of writing back to Acumatica as well as reading the information.
What is Calxa?
Calxa is a management reporting platform used by thousands of businesses, not-for-profit organisations and accounting practices. By integrating with accounting systems, including Acumatica, it makes it easier to produce attractive, meaningful management reports on a regular basis. It includes the ability to create a full 3-way forecast, for one company or a multi-national group. As a stand-alone software it controls its output and is not reliant on a third-party tool like Excel. Its structured and flexible budgeting engine builds budgets from the ground up, starting from cost-centres and up to the company and group level.
Comparing Calxa and Velixo for Budgeting
Budgeting is the foundation of forward looking plans and are the basis of a good forecast. Essentially, they are paramount for a comprehensive set of management reports.
Velixo’s Excel Budgets
Velixo’s budgeting is built on Excel with additional functions to make use of the data and budgets contained in Acumatica. In this kind of environment, the budgets are generally stored in Acumatica and updates are written back to that system. To create budgets in Velixo there is not much extra to learn, if you know how to use spreadsheets.
Being skilled with Excel and if you are disciplined, you can produce workable budgets across organisations. As said, with anything spreadsheet-based, the output is very much dependent on the skills of the creator.
Powerful Calxa Budgeting Platform
Calxa, on the other hand, provides a much more structured interface for developing budgets. You don’t get the infinite flexibility of a spreadsheet, but it makes it easier to use and reduces the risk of errors dramatically. There are quick ways to get started with budgets based on previous actuals. Also the option of importing them is a quick task. Furthermore, you can also build them from drivers to create formula-driven budgets. Calxa’s budgets include the balance sheet as well, which is vital for cash flow forecasting. And then, there is scenarios that can be layered on top of budgets for ‘what-if’ analysis.
Consider Velixo if you’re an Excel specialist and need the real-time integration and writeback to Acumatica. Calxa is probably a better choice if you need more structure and no dependence on error-prone spreadsheets.
Velixo vs Calxa: Reporting Comparison
You could, if you had good skills and lots of time, produce reports in Velixo that look as modern and stylish as the Calxa reports.
The difference is that in Calxa, there is a library of pre-built report templates ready to go. Spend and extra minute to choose your colours, font and logo and you can create bundles of reports that are easy to read and look polished and professional.
These are the kinds of reports that make the data clear and understandable to accountants and non-accountants alike.
However, use Velixo for your reporting if you are attached to spreadsheets. On the other hand, use Calxa if you care more about the efficiency and scalability of your processes.
Comparing Performance in Calxa and Velixo
Velixo and Calxa take different approaches to the Acumatica connection. With Velixo it’s live all the time so you always have immediately up-to-date data. That can be important if you’re interested in reporting on what has happened today but not so much if your focus is monthly management reports.
Calxa extracts the data overnight automatically, with the option to re-sync at any time for an immediate update. This results in much snappier performance, with reports generating instantly, when you need them. Calxa doesn’t push anything back to Acumatica.
Choose Velixo if you really need the immediate updates and the writeback ability and can cope with the time lag. Calxa is the better option if you want your app to run smoothly and quickly, and your focus is mostly on reporting on the past month or week.
3-Way Forecasting with Calxa and Velixo
It’s possible to create a 3-way forecast in Excel but does that mean you should? It’s one of the most challenging financial reports to put together manually. Movements in the P&L need to be reflected in bank, debtors, creditors and equity. Or accruals and prepayments. The tendency is always to simplify the assumptions, eg we always get paid in 30 days. This is regardless of the complexity of the real world. If you take the time and care, and keep everyone else out of your model, you can build a decent forecast. Start adding layers of scenarios and you complicate it further. Each step creates a web of information that increases the risk of errors.
Velixo solves one key problem for Excel forecasters by linking directly to the accounting data and providing functions to extract that data. That’s a big improvement on manually exporting and importing but it only solves that first part of the overall task.
With Calxa, the complexities of the forecasting model are handled in code. Code that has been thoroughly tested in the real world for the past 20 years. And, that is designed to take the hard work away from the user. The inputs to your forecast are isolated and structured so that you can have different versions of your forecast. You can layer scenarios on top of it, even extend it for 20 years if you need to. And then the reports are all waiting for you. Run them at summary level for senior managers or detailed for the CFO. Produce charts and dashboards for the non-accountants on the board.
3-way forecasting is one of the key separators of Calxa and Velixo/Excel. Unless you are an Excel expert, Calxa is clearly the quicker, more robust way to create and manage forecasts.
Should you Choose Calxa or Velixo for your Management Reporting?
Now, our focus here has been on management reporting, budgeting and forecasting. Let’s summarise Calxa vs Velixo to find the key points.
Velixo will work well for you if you:
- Have advanced skills in Excel
- Enjoy the creativity of working in Excel
- Know what reports you need and don’t need to make regular changes to them
- Collaborate with a limited number of colleagues on building your forecasts
- You have a good eye for design and can produce your own professional and polished reports to satisfy your audience
Calxa is the best choice if you:
- Leaving spreadsheets is a key motivation
- Prefer structure to give you confidence in your results
- Value speed of working over up to the minute data
- Need a system that will grow and scale with your business
- Want to pass on some responsibilities to your colleagues without them breaking your work
- Appreciate the professional look of the Calxa report library, combined with your own report styling
There’s no right or wrong answer here but these points should help you make the best decision for your reporting challenges. We hope this Calxa vs Velixo comparison helps you on your evaluation journey. If you want to learn more about management reporting, have a look at our best practice guide.
Note from the Calxa Team
It is not uncommon for our new and existing Calxa customers to ask us how we compare to other apps. This usually prompts us to have a closer look at other reporting tools on the market.
This article is designed to be helpful when you are evaluating functionality of a reporting app.
We want to acknowledge that the world around us moves fast and changes are inevitable. Of course, technology developers make improvements to their apps all the time. This means, that some of our discussion may be outdated by the time you read this. So, please, keep this in mind when you digest this article. It simply reflects our point of view at the time of making the comparison.