Improving Real-Time Visibility with Power BI and DAX
The Challenge
A high-growth fintech company was struggling with a manual, month-end reporting bottleneck. The finance team was spending several days every month manually reconciling marketing ad spend against actual subscription revenue in massive Excel workbooks. This delay meant leadership was making budget decisions based on data that was often 2-3 weeks old, leading to inefficient capital allocation.
The Solution
Lina Lula architected an end-to-end automated BI solution to bridge the gap between marketing and finance:
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Direct API Integration: Integrated marketing spend data (Google/Meta Ads) and revenue data (Stripe) directly into an Azure-backed Power BI environment.
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Advanced DAX Modeling: Developed complex DAX measures to calculate “True CAC” and “CAC-to-Payback” ratios in real-time, accounting for churn and localized currency fluctuations.
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Currency Normalization: Automated exchange rate calculations for global markets, ensuring the finance team could view consolidated performance in a single base currency.
The Outcome
The transformation moved the finance team away from “data cleaning” and toward “strategic analysis.”
100% elimination of manual month-end reconciliation Enabled mid-month reallocation of $50,000 in underperforming spendBy providing real-time visibility into unit economics, the company could scale profitable channels instantly rather than waiting for the next reporting cycle.
