A successful feed ingredients broker was not satisfied with the reporting provided by its commodity trading software. Reconciling estimated costs at the time of transaction for commodities purchased, sold, and transportation versus actual costs could not be done on the brokerage system. The software adequately tracked trading activity and basic financial reporting. However, it did not allow the company to determine profitability by commodity trader, a calculation essential to understanding overall profitability and individual broker performance and trader commissions. In order to calculate profitability, the company used spreadsheets with data extracted from the source system.

This method caused several problems:

• Overpayment of commissions
• Reconciling estimated to actual costs in spreadsheets was labor intensive, prone to errors, and difficult to secure
• Ability to analyze history and detect developing trends was very difficult