Automating Investment Reporting for a UK Financial Services Firm

Overview

A UK-based financial services firm specialising in investment advisory and fund operations needed a faster and more reliable way to deliver performance and risk reporting to clients and internal stakeholders. Their existing Excel-based processes were manually intensive, error-prone, and increasingly unable to keep up with the scale and complexity of the business. The leadership team wanted to enhance decision-making by reducing reporting lead times and eliminating dependency on a handful of key personnel.

Challenges

Background Context:

The client's core business involves analysing, managing, and reporting on investment performance across multiple funds. They relied on Excel spreadsheets as their main tool for producing internal and external reports. The leadership team sought to reduce operational risk, speed up reporting cycles, and create a foundation for more advanced analytics in the future.

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Specific Challenges:

Reports were assembled manually from multiple data sources.

The process took days each month and was prone to human error.

Only a few people had the knowledge to update or troubleshoot the reports.

Leadership couldn't get real-time views of key performance metrics.

The firm lacked a scalable system for standardising and automating reports.

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Previous Attempts:

The client had tried using Excel plug-ins and manual macros, but these solutions quickly became fragile and failed to scale as data complexity increased. No reliable system existed for integrating data sources or enforcing consistency in reporting logic.

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Solution

Initial Planning:

We started by exploring the current reporting processes, key data sources, and the logic used for performance and risk calculations. A discovery phase focused on mapping data flows, identifying repeatable patterns, and gathering requirements for how reports should look and function.

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Proposed Solution:

Synetec's solution centred around a secure data platform built on Microsoft Fabric, which allowed us to bring together data from different internal and external sources, including Excel spreadsheets and CSV files, which are common formats in financial services. We set up automated data ingestion processes to ensure the latest information flowed into the system without manual intervention. We replaced manual reporting tasks with Power BI dashboards that replicated the structure of the existing reports while introducing automation, consistency, and realtime visibility. The underlying data model was managed in SQL Server, ensuring clean, structured data across all reporting layers.

Monitoring tools were also introduced so the team could track the success of data refreshes and quickly resolve any issues. In addition, we enabled full data lineage, which gave users transparency into where each data point originated and how it was processed, ultimately increasing the team's trust in the reports. By applying tools from the Microsoft Power Platform, the firm now benefits from a robust, scalable system that delivers professional reports with minimal manual effort while working in a way that feels familiar to the team.

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Results

Quantifiable Results:

• Monthly reporting time reduced by approximately 63%.
• The team's manual involvement in the reporting process dropped significantly.
• Senior leaders can now view near realtime performance dashboards without waiting for month-end reports.

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Qualitative Results:

• Reduced operational risk and keyperson dependency.
• Increased confidence in the accuracy and timeliness of reports.
• The team can now focus on analysis rather than time-intensive data prep.

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Post-Implementation Support:

We provided ongoing support and coaching, with an option for capacity on demand as the firm's needs evolve, ensuring continued alignment with wider business goals as they scale and grow.

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Long-Term Impact:

The new reporting system has positioned the firm to scale efficiently, improve client service, and pursue more data-driven decision-making. It also lays the groundwork for AI-powered insights in the future.

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Client Perspective & Reflections

The client praised the speed of delivery, collaborative working style, and ability to quickly understand their domain. By solving a businesscritical pain point with a modern, automated solution, Synetec has become a trusted partner for future innovation.

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