Your model is only as good as its data.
The data quality, availability and technology stack that feed your costing model - from ERP and ERP exports to automated pipelines.
What is Data & Technology for Costing?
This dimension covers the data quality, availability, and technology stack that underpins your costing model. It includes how you extract transaction data from your ERP or accounting system (API, exports), the quality of that data, and how it flows into your costing tool for analysis.
Bad data corrupts every allocation.
Costing models are only as good as the data they consume. Poor data quality - incomplete transactions, wrong cost centre coding, inconsistent time records - corrupts your cost allocations and makes outputs unreliable. Technology enables scale: manual data collection limits frequency and granularity.
Where does your organisation stand?
Data extracted manually from ERP or accounting system. Error-prone and infrequent.
Regular data exports (CSV, ERP) with defined format. Manual cleaning required.
Semi-automated data pipeline from ERP to costing tool. Quarterly or monthly refresh.
Automated, validated data feeds. Near real-time or monthly refresh with quality controls.
Three moves toward trustworthy data.
Map all data sources needed for your costing model: GL transactions, headcount, time records, volume data. Assess quality and completeness.
Establish coding standards for cost centres, accounts, and products. Ensure consistency so allocations are reproducible.
Implement a repeatable extraction process - ERP API or structured CSV export. Automate where possible to reduce effort and error.
Manual, export, or integrated?
| Data Approach | Data Quality | Scalable Refresh | Automation Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual Data Collection | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Periodic CSV / ERP Export | ~ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Automated ERP Integration | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
