Purchase Order Health

A Power BI dashboard that tracks open purchase orders, highlights inbound risk, and improves vendor follow-up using Business Central data.

Power BIDAXPower QueryBusiness CentralPurchasing

Summary

Problem
PO status lived across multiple ERP screens, making it hard to see what was overdue and what to follow up on first.
Solution
Modeled purchasing + receiving data into a clean BI view with risk KPIs and follow-up prioritization.
Result
Faster weekly reviews, less manual hunting, clearer vendor accountability, and a repeatable leadership view.

Business impact

This dashboard was built to reduce time spent “hunting” across ERP screens and to surface inbound risk earlier, so follow-ups happen before shortages hit operations.

Time saved
Saved ~1–2 hours/week of combined purchasing + leadership time by reducing manual cross-checking across ERP screens
Risk reduced
Earlier identification of overdue / at-risk POs reduces inbound surprises and improves response time when a shipment is slipping (before it becomes a shortage).
Operational clarity
Standardized a consistent “source of truth” for purchasing + leadership, making vendor accountability and follow-up priorities visible instead of tribal knowledge.

Gallery

Screenshots and artifacts from the build (sanitized where needed).

1) Define the decision

The goal was to answer: “Which POs are at risk, why, and what should we do next?” — not just show a list of open orders.

2) Data sources + shaping
  • Pulled purchasing/receiving data from Business Central.
  • Cleaned and standardized dates/statuses in Power Query.
  • Created a model that avoids double-counting when slicing by vendor, item, or document.
3) KPI logic (plain English)
  • PO Aging: how long the PO has been open.
  • Overdue Risk: overdue relative to expected receipt date / lead time.
  • Follow-up Priority: aging + vendor patterns + impact.
4) Validation
  • Reconciled open PO totals against Business Central views.
  • Spot-checked individual POs to confirm aging/overdue logic.
  • Confirmed KPI definitions with stakeholders so the dashboard matched how the business thinks.
5) What I’d improve next
  • Add vendor lead-time trend tracking to quantify chronic delay.
  • Automate follow-up tasks based on overdue threshold rules.
  • Improve drill-through to show the “next best action” for each PO.