A business is made up of transactions. If the transactions are rich in information you can extract great BI out of it which will enable you to make more informed decisions when managing your business.
Creating rich inputs is the starting point of quality and valuable BI reports. To create rich transactions it is important to understand the input fields at your disposal in your financial system.
The better you understand these fields, its limitations and characteristics the better you can use each to reflect the essence of your business.
For instance in Pastel when you issue an invoice you have the following fields at your disposal when using items (Type 4):
>> Detail lines << 1. Item code - 15 characters (Alpha-numeric-special) 2. Description - 40 characters (Alpha-numeric-special) 3. Quantity - Up to 2 decimals (Numeric) 4. Unit of measure - 4 characters (Alpha-numeric-special) 5. Unit price - Up to 2 decimals (Numeric) 6. Project - 5 characters (Alpha-numeric-special)
I have seen how SME's upgrade their ERP systems far earlier than required just because they didn't understand the depth of their system. Moving system is risky and costly, so first optimise your current system fully, before moving.
