The real-time engine behind FastClose 360.
Using Virtual OLAP, Core reads your live ERP database and presents it as a multidimensional source to the rest of FastClose — no extract, no cube, no warehouse, no overnight processing.
Installs in under an hour · SaaS, on-premise or Epicor public cloud
Analysis without a copy of your ERP underneath it.
Conventional analytics moves and processes data to prepare it for analysis: Extract it, Model it, Load it (ETL) into a cube or warehouse, refreshing periodically. By contrast, Virtual OLAP runs in real time, crafting the most efficient query possible to retrieve the slice of data required, modelling in memory, adding insight through various additional post processing engines, against the live ERP data — so what you work with is what the ERP holds right now.
Nothing is copied, so there is no pipeline to break and no reconciliation to do between the ERP and the reporting layer.
New account, new cost centre, new site? They appear in the reporting because they appear in the ERP. There is no model to redeploy first.
A posting made two minutes ago is in the report. This makes in-month management, not just month-end reporting, possible.
Because Core reads the real tables, a summary figure knows exactly which transactions it was built from. Drill-down is a property of the engine.
From ERP to insight in four steps.
No separate reporting database, no transformation pipeline and no waiting for a cube rebuild. FastClose turns ERP information into a multidimensional analytical environment at the moment it is needed.
Direct ERP Connection
A purpose-built connector understands your ERP's schema — GL, sub-ledgers, sales, purchasing, stock, jobs — read-only.
FastClose Query Engine
Creates the most effiicent query for the report or template and shapes it for analysis without copying the entire ERP database. Companies, accounts, cost centres, sites, warehouses and periods become dimensions and hierarchies you can pivot and slice on.
Virtual OLAP Engine
Applies chart of account structures and adds calculations, aggregations, currency translation, bucketing and consolidation in memory at run time.
Excel (Addin), Web Reader or FastChart Dashbaordds
The same report reaches a designer, an Excel user, a dashboard or a manager reading on the web.
What's inside Core.
Four specialist financial and analytical engines sit on top of the Virtual OLAP cubing technology to do the work that a warehouse project would otherwise be built to do. The result is much more than a fast query. It creates new data from the data retrieved giving users the structures, calculations and time-based analysis needed to turn live ERP transactions into meaningful consolidated management information - with drill down.
Because the same Core sits in Designer, the Excel Add-in, Read & Drill and FastCharts, they deliver the same output.
Hierarchy engine
Builds and maintains reporting structures such as P&Ls and Balance Sheets over your chart of accounts and dimensions — including hierarchies that the ERP itself doesn't hold, and group structures that span separate instances.
Calculation engine
Ratios, subtotals, conditionals, variance columns and FX translation with the correct treatment for P&L and Balance sheet. Unit Costs, Days Late and more for Operational reports.
Bucketing engine
Take transactions by date and dynamically allocate them to the time buckets of any size, that you need for AP, AR aged debt and cash-flow forecasting.
Drill & Analysis Engine
Move from high-level analysis to the detailed ERP transactions that make up the number.
Why Virtual OLAP isn't a warehouse, a cube, or native ERP reporting.
All four can produce a P&L but they differ in what they cost you to keep producing one.
| DATA WAREHOUSE | OLAP CUBE | NATIVE ERP REPORTS | FASTCLOSE CORE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How current is it | Last load | Last process | Live, one report at a time | Live, every report |
| Who builds a new report | BI team | BI team | IT, via a BAQ or query | A finance power user |
| Drill to transaction | If it was modelled in | To cube grain only | Within one module | Always, across modules |
| Cost of ERP change | Re-model and re-load | Redeploy the cube | Rewrite each report | It just appears |
| Time to first value | Months | Weeks to months | Days, per request | Under an hour |
?Common questions about FastClose Core
Does Core write anything back to the ERP?
No. FastClose is read-only with regard to data in your ERP. Reporting cannot alter a posting, which is one of the attributes that makes it safe to access to live data.
Will querying live data slow the ERP down?
Core is built to query ERP schemas extremely efficiently with the vast majority of data processing being handled inside the core engine rather than being handed off to the ERP and thus slowing it down. So no, generally we would not expect to slow downs due to querying workload.
How long does installation take?
Under an hour, and standard report content is available immediately after. There is no modelling phase before the first report runs.
Can Core report across separate ERP instances?
Yes. Core is able to query multiple ERP instances in a single report and as long as codifications (such as Chart of Accounts or Product Codes) match, combine the results. The hierarchy engine can then build a group structure spanning multiple databases and companies, which is frequently the only practical route to consolidated group accounts.
Where can Core be deployed?
Core can query SaaS, on-premise, or Epicor public cloud sources and can be hosted by the customer or by FastClose.
Do we need SQL or BAQ skills to use it?
No. Core presents the ERP as dimensions and hierarchies, so reports are built by choosing structure rather than writing queries. No specialist IT skills are required.
See the engine on your own ERP.
Installs in under an hour, value on day one.