Finance teams forgive an ugly report. They don’t forgive a wrong number. Before any Acumatica report goes live, I run a value check: every measure on every visual, compared to the matching Acumatica screen. Here’s the process.
1. List every measure exactly as it appears in the report
Use the titles users see on the visuals, not internal measure names. That way the client can read the checklist and repeat it later.
2. Pick test cases
- The total across all projects
- Two or three individual projects (one big, one small, one with change orders)
- Two periods (a closed month and the current month)
3. Find the matching Acumatica screen
Examples for project reporting:
- Original, change order and revised budget: Projects screen, Cost Budget and Revenue Budget tabs
- Actual cost to date: Projects screen, Balances tab (expense totals)
- Committed cost: open purchase orders and subcontracts for the project
- AR/AP outstanding: the customer and vendor balance or aging screens
4. Record PASS / FAIL in a simple sheet
Columns: report page, visual title, test case, Power BI value, Acumatica value, difference, status. No colors or commentary needed. Don’t panic if the first run has a lot of fails. They usually cluster around a handful of root causes.
The usual root causes
- Missing transaction types or credits in the source inquiry, so cost comes out higher than Acumatica.
- Relationships on the wrong key, for example a text financial period joined to a date, so measures go blank when filtered by year.
- A static table accidentally related to the calendar, so values change with a period filter when they shouldn’t.
- Retainage counted in full in outstanding balances when only part of the document is still open.
- A sign convention missing for debit adjustments, cash returns or voids on AP documents.
- Visual-level filters nobody remembers adding, which explain why a card shows half the total the model returns.
5. Re-run after every fix
Keep the sheet and rerun it. It becomes the acceptance test for go-live, and the client has proof the numbers tie out.
A tip: document how every measure is calculated
Add a hidden documentation page built from the model’s own metadata (INFO.VIEW.MEASURES() in recent Power BI versions): measure name, description and DAX. When someone asks “how is this calculated?”, the answer is one click away.
Need your numbers to tie out?
I build and validate Power BI for Acumatica reports. See the pricing guide or get in touch.
