CASE STUDY
Automating Financial Planning & Budget Reporting for a Global Management Consulting Firm
Project Overview
As part of an ongoing partnership with a global management consulting firm, Distillery supports a variety of data initiatives that improve operational efficiency and business decision-making. One such initiative focused on modernizing a highly manual financial planning and budget reporting process used to track forecasts, investments, and planned spending.
The goal was to reduce the time spent collecting, validating, and reporting financial data while creating a more scalable and reliable reporting process.
Business Need
The consulting firm’s planning and reporting process relied heavily on manual Excel-based workflows and data gathered from multiple sources. Preparing reports required significant manual effort, making it difficult to produce timely insights and increasing the risk of inconsistencies across reporting.
The team needed a more efficient way to consolidate data, automate repetitive tasks, and provide stakeholders with greater visibility into budgets, forecasts, and planned investments.
Distillery’s Solutions
Working alongside the client, Distillery helped modernize the reporting process by:
- Automating data collection from multiple source systems.
- Consolidating data into a more structured and reliable reporting workflow.
- Replacing manual Excel reporting with centralized Power BI dashboards.
- Leveraging Microsoft Fabric to support scalable data integration and reporting.
- Using Claude to assist with automating portions of previously manual reporting tasks.
Together, these improvements significantly reduced manual effort while creating a more efficient and consistent reporting process.
Project Overview
As part of an ongoing partnership with a global management consulting firm, Distillery supports a variety of data initiatives that improve operational efficiency and business decision-making. One such initiative focused on modernizing a highly manual financial planning and budget reporting process used to track forecasts, investments, and planned spending.
The goal was to reduce the time spent collecting, validating, and reporting financial data while creating a more scalable and reliable reporting process.
Business Need
The consulting firm’s planning and reporting process relied heavily on manual Excel-based workflows and data gathered from multiple sources. Preparing reports required significant manual effort, making it difficult to produce timely insights and increasing the risk of inconsistencies across reporting.
The team needed a more efficient way to consolidate data, automate repetitive tasks, and provide stakeholders with greater visibility into budgets, forecasts, and planned investments.
Distillery’s Solutions
Working alongside the client, Distillery helped modernize the reporting process by:
- Automating data collection from multiple source systems.
- Consolidating data into a more structured and reliable reporting workflow.
- Replacing manual Excel reporting with centralized Power BI dashboards.
- Leveraging Microsoft Fabric to support scalable data integration and reporting.
- Using Claude to assist with automating portions of previously manual reporting tasks.
Together, these improvements significantly reduced manual effort while creating a more efficient and consistent reporting process.
Outcomes Achieved
Distillery helped automate approximately 80% of the client’s previously manual financial planning and reporting workflow. By streamlining data collection and reducing reliance on spreadsheet-based reporting, the team improved operational efficiency while providing stakeholders with more timely visibility into budgets, forecasts, and investment tracking.
Technologies
About the Client
A global management consulting firm that helps organizations solve complex business challenges across strategy, operations, technology,
and performance improvement.