Creating Excel dashboards from info stored on SQL

Question

Hi all,

I'm creating an Excel dashboard that imports a variable number months' worth of financial/accounting information from a database to an Excel sheet. Using this information I have a Calculations sheet that computes some financial indicators, again, month by month. Finally, this information is displayed in graphs on a separate sheet (one indicator per graph, with the monthly information plotted to see the tendencies). Currently I have written VBA code that formats the sheets to accomodate the number of months requested, pull the data from the SQL server, and update the graphs. Since there are 53 indicators for each operation (6 operations), this process takes about 3 minutes.

Does anyone recommend a better way to do this? The current way 'works' but I've often thought that there must be a more efficient way to do this.

Thanks! Chris

Answer 1

You could look at skipping out the excel part and using SQL server reporting services (SSRS). If you have ever used business objects or crystal reports its kind of the same thing and I would imagine would offer better performance than doing things in excel.