Insight · ~4 min
Data cleaning before dashboards
Clean data before BI dashboards
A polished dashboard on messy masters looks authoritative and misleads leadership. Fix the foundation first.
In plain terms: agree what “revenue”, “outlet”, and “donor line” mean, then make Odoo match. Only then build KPIs.
Why teams skip this step
Pressure to “show a dashboard” wins over slow master-data work. The result is parallel Excel truth and board packs nobody fully trusts.
What cleaning usually involves
- Consistent customers, products, and accounts
- Opening balances that tie to bank and funder reports
- Imports validated before they hit production
- Dimensions aligned across retail, NGO, or group structures
Signs you need cleaning first
- Two finance teams maintain parallel Excel “truth”
- POS or operations totals do not match accounting
- Donor or management reports need manual fixes every period