Our Power BI Consultant Saved a Client 500+ Hours a Year

August 4, 2025

In today’s business environment, time is a premium commodity. Every hour spent on repetitive manual reporting is time not spent on growth, strategy, or innovation. At The Bridge Digital, our team of experienced Power BI consultants recently helped a client reclaim 12 weeks of work every year using automated Power BI reporting—transforming their entire approach to data. 

This blog post outlines how we did it, what the impact was, and how other businesses can benefit from the expertise of Power BI experts.

1   The Challenge: Manual Reporting Wasting Valuable Time 

Our client – a well-established financial services company – was stuck in a cycle of manual reporting. The first week of every month was spent collecting month end data, cleaning it, and preparing charts for leadership meetings. The steps looked something like this: 

• Exporting data from multiple systems (including their investment platform and Excel) 

• Manually standardising, cleaning, and transforming the data 

• Creating monthly dashboards and performance reports in Excel 

• Copying data between spreadsheets, creating PDF reports, and emailing out updates 

In addition, every three months this work was replicated to produce quarterly reports as well. 

These processes were not only time-consuming – eating up nearly a week per month – but also error-prone and overly reliant on one individual. 

It worked, but it was fragile. If someone was out sick, the whole reporting process was delayed, the client’s operations lead admitted. And as the business was growing, so was the workload. 

That’s when they reached out to The Bridge Digital, looking for Power BI consultants to modernise their workflow. 

2   The Goal: Automated, Reliable, Scalable Reporting 

After reviewing their process, our Power BI experts identified key pain points: 

• Redundant manual steps 

• High risk of human error 

• No scalability as the business was growing 

We proposed a simple but powerful idea: 

“Let’s replace manual Excel reports with Power BI dashboards, a single source of truth and create multiple reports with minimum manual effort” 

3   The Solution: Built by Power BI experts 

Our implementation followed three core steps:

1  Collecting the data in one place

The first step was to eliminate manual copying of data between Excel sheets, and exports from their investment platform.  

We created a tailored Azure SQL database to be a single source of truth for the Power Bi reports. 

All historical data from Excel was imported and cleansed to the client’s satisfaction. 

Any future data from the client’s investment platform now flows directly into the database. 

This cleaned data became the foundation for all reporting

2  Automated Data Cleaning with SQL Server

All the client’s proprietary calculations they used in Excel were extracted and replicated in SQL Server. 

Anytime new data flows into the database, it is automatically run through the calculations to produce price listings, and income over QTD, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, etc. 

Power BI then simply picks up the data for lightning-fast results.

3  Interactive Power BI Dashboards

We replaced static Excel reports with dynamic dashboards that included: 

• Monthly internal reporting 

• Quarterly report for their individual clients 

• We even added automatic Fact sheet generation based on the same data 

With the help of our Power BI experts, the client’s reporting became not only faster, but also smarter and more proactive. 

4   The Results: Time Savings, Accuracy, and Insights 

The change was transformational. Here’s what the client gained: 

 Over 500 Hours Saved Every Year 

With all data automatically imported and cleaned, the team saved over a week every month.  No more late nights fixing formulas or hunting for missing data. 

Zero Human Errors 

Automated data pipelines removed the risk of broken links, typos, or outdated numbers. Confidence in the reports went up, and trust in data-driven decisions increased. 

Scalable Across the Business 

The client didn’t just save time—we completely changed how they use data.  And the business could scale without corresponding increases in cost and resourcing. 

5   Why Power BI Consultants Add Value 

You might be wondering: could the client have done this themselves? 

The answer with respect is probably not. While Power BI is a user-friendly tool, building a robust, scalable solution requires deep expertise in: 

• Data modelling and performance tuning 

• DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) 

• Security and compliance in Power BI Service 

• Integrating with other Microsoft services like SQL Server, SharePoint, and Power Automate 

That’s where Power BI experts come in. At The Bridge Digital, we bring: 

• Years of hands-on experience 

• Proven frameworks and templates 

• A deep understanding of business logic and user needs 

• The ability to deliver fast, maintainable and secure solutions 

Whether you’re starting from scratch or want to improve existing dashboards, partnering with Power BI consultants will accelerate your success—and avoid common pitfalls. 

6   FAQs We Hear from Clients 

Q: We already use Excel. Why switch to Power BI?
A: Excel is great for ad hoc analysis. But Power BI is built for automation, scalability, and sharing. Once set up, reports can refresh themselves—freeing up time and reducing errors. 

Q: Can Power BI connect to our custom systems?
A: Most likely, yes. Power BI supports direct connections to over 160 different data source types. From APIs to SQL databases, cloud apps, Excel, SharePoint, and more. As Power BI consultants, we’ve integrated dozens of platforms. 

Q: Is this expensive?
A: You can create Power BI reports with a free license. But if you want to publish or share your report, you’ll need at least a Pro license, which come in at around $21 per user per month. The real cost savings come from the time you reclaim by automating reporting—and the decisions made from better insights. 

Ready to Save Time with Power BI? 

If your team is stuck in the cycle of manual reporting, it’s time to level up. By partnering with experienced Power BI consultants, you can: 

• Automate your reporting workflows 

• Eliminate spreadsheet chaos 

• Unlock real-time insights for faster decisions 

• Empower your team to focus on what matters 

At The Bridge Digital, our Power BI experts are ready to help you modernize your reporting, connect your systems, and build dashboards that drive action—not just admiration. 

Contact us today using the form below for a free consultation—and see how much time Power BI could save your business every single week.