Who can build a Power BI dashboard for my business that connects to our accounting and operations data?

The real problem isn't the dashboard - it's the data behind it

Almost every business that asks us to "build a Power BI dashboard" has the same underlying problem: the data they need lives in five different systems and nobody has ever connected them properly. Sales lives in the CRM. Invoices live in Xero. Stock and jobs live in the ERP. Time and project costs live in a separate scheduling tool. Marketing spend lives in a Google Sheet someone updates on Fridays.

A pretty Power BI dashboard on top of bad data is worse than no dashboard at all - because now you have nice-looking charts that everyone trusts and nobody verifies. The real work is the integration layer underneath, and that's the work most providers either skip, outsource, or get wrong.

The data stacks we see most often in Australia

Most Australian SMEs and mid-market businesses we work with run some variant of these combinations. If you recognise yours, the integration is well-trodden territory:

• Xero + Shopify + a CRM (Pipedrive, HubSpot, Salesforce)
• MYOB + a job-management tool (ServiceM8, simPRO, AroFlo) + custom Excel
• QuickBooks or Xero + WooCommerce + Google Ads / Meta Ads
• SAP Business One / NetSuite / Microsoft Dynamics with bolt-on operational tools
• Custom ERP / line-of-business app on SQL Server or PostgreSQL, plus Xero for finance
• Anything legacy - on-premise databases, flat-file exports, AS/400, mainframe drops

SolveBI has built Power BI dashboards against every one of these. We also build the parts most projects ignore: the orchestration that keeps the data fresh, the deduplication that reconciles a customer who exists in three systems with three different names, and the security so the right people see the right numbers.

What a connected accounting + operations dashboard actually shows you

The exact KPIs depend on your business, but every connected dashboard we deliver lets a leadership team answer questions like these without opening another system:

• Revenue, by customer / product / region / channel - sourced from Xero or MYOB, sliced by CRM segments
• Gross margin by job, project, or product line - combining sales (accounting) with cost-of-delivery (operations)
• Cash position vs. forecast - real Xero balances against your forecast model
• Aged receivables and overdue invoices - tied to the customer's CRM contact and account manager
• Pipeline-to-revenue conversion - CRM opportunities matched to actual invoiced revenue, not just notionally-closed deals
• Stock turnover, job utilisation, technician productivity - whatever 'operations' means for you
• Marketing spend vs. attributable revenue - ad platforms joined to actual invoices, not just leads

Who can actually build this for you?

Building a Power BI dashboard that looks like it connects everything is easy. Building one that genuinely does, refreshes reliably, and survives a year of business change is where most projects fall over. Three categories to know:

1. Your accounting partner / bookkeeper

Some Xero or MYOB partners offer light reporting add-ons. They're great for finance-only dashboards (P&L, cash, AR/AP) but typically can't reach into your ERP, CRM, or custom operational systems. If your question is purely accounting, they might be enough. If it crosses into operations, they're not.

2. A generalist developer or freelance "Power BI guy"

They can usually build a dashboard. What they can't do reliably is design the semantic model that makes 'revenue' mean the same thing whether it's coming from Xero or your ERP, set up incremental refresh so the dashboard doesn't get slower every month, or implement row-level security so your sales reps see only their territory.

3. A specialist BI consultancy - SolveBI

SolveBI is Microsoft-certified, Perth-headquartered, and built specifically for multi-source Power BI dashboards. We do this work every day - which means we've already solved the awkward problems your project will hit (Xero API rate limits, MYOB AccountRight ODBC quirks, deduplicating customer records across systems, handling FX, dealing with deleted invoices, and so on).

How SolveBI actually builds a connected Power BI dashboard

1. 1

   1. Map the data sources and the decisions

   We start with the decisions you want to make better - not the data we happen to have. Then we map every system that holds the relevant numbers: accounting, CRM, ERP, ops tools, ad platforms, spreadsheets. Output: a one-page architecture diagram you'll actually understand.

2. 2

   2. Build the integration layer

   This is where most of the engineering happens. We connect Power BI (often via Microsoft Fabric or Azure Data Factory) to each source, set refresh schedules, handle pagination and API limits, and normalise the data so the same customer is the same customer everywhere.

3. 3

   3. Build the semantic model

   A proper Power BI model with relationships, hierarchies, DAX measures, and conformed dimensions. This is the layer that makes 'gross margin' a single, trusted number whether you're slicing it by product, customer, region or salesperson.

4. 4

   4. Design the dashboards

   Each dashboard answers a specific set of questions for a specific audience - the CEO view is not the operations manager view is not the salesperson view. We design for the screens people actually use (phone, tablet, conference-room display).

5. 5

   5. Security, governance, training

   Row-level security so people see only what they should. Workspace governance so changes don't break production overnight. Hands-on training so your team can build new reports themselves once the foundation is right.

6. 6

   6. Iterate weekly until it's right

   We don't disappear for three months and reappear with a finished product. You see progress every week, give feedback, and we adjust. By go-live, the dashboards already look the way you want them.

Realistic costs and timelines

We work on fixed-scope quotes, not open-ended day rates. After a free 30-minute scoping call we'll send a written quote with a clear price, timeline and deliverables. If the project doesn't make sense for your business, we'll tell you so honestly.

What you need to get started

Less than you'd think. To give you a real quote we typically just need:

• A short list of the systems you're using (e.g. "Xero, HubSpot, SAP B1, ServiceM8")
• A rough idea of the questions you want the dashboard to answer (we'll help you refine these)
• Whether you already have Power BI licences (if not, we'll advise on the right tier)
• A 30-minute call - in person in Perth, or via Teams anywhere in Australia