Why a SharePoint export is a weak link in the monthly figures
A SharePoint list is a good place to run a process. It is a poor place to report from, because getting the data out by hand loses things along the way.
Microsoft's own export to Excel takes the items in the current view, so a filtered view quietly produces a filtered export. The connection it creates only runs one way, and a CSV export stops at thirty thousand rows. So the figure in the pack depends on which view was open and who did the export.
Then there is history. Version history is off by default on lists, so when a status changes from open to closed, the date it changed is often not kept anywhere. A month-end export shows where each item stands today, not how long it took to get there.
None of this is a fault in SharePoint. It was built for teams to work in, and the reporting simply happens somewhere it was not designed for.
Questions a list cannot answer until it meets the ledger
Each of these needs a SharePoint list and at least one other system. They are examples; the audit finds the ones that matter to you.
Request to invoice
Days from the request logged in the list to the invoice posted in the accounting system, by client and by team.
Work done, not yet billed
Jobs closed in the tracker with no matching invoice, listed every morning instead of found at the year-end.
Contract terms against what was charged
A contracts list holds the agreed rate; the ledger holds what was invoiced. Joined, the gaps show.
Approvals against spend
Purchase approvals recorded in a list, matched to the supplier invoices that followed them.
Workload against margin
Open items per person from the tracker, set beside the revenue and cost of the work they handle.
How a list is read without anyone changing it
The warehouse reads each list through Microsoft Graph, the interface Microsoft provides for other software to read SharePoint. Access can be limited to the sites the reports need, using Microsoft's Sites.Selected permission, so the warehouse sees nothing else in your Microsoft 365. Your administrator grants it, the grant is read-only, and it can be withdrawn at any time.
Read through Graph, lookup and person columns come back as ID numbers unless they are asked for by name, so the load names them, and the warehouse holds the client, the project or the owner rather than a number. Each night's read is kept as a dated snapshot. That way, even on a list without version history, the warehouse can tell you when an item changed status and how long it sat at each step.
Microsoft sets a list view threshold of five thousand items, which limits the views people open in a large list. The overnight read fetches items page by page rather than through one view, and the audit checks that each of your larger lists loads in full before anything is quoted.
If someone renames a column or adds a new choice, the next load flags it to the person responsible instead of guessing, and the mapping is corrected before that list feeds the reports again.
A fit-out company that runs its jobs in SharePoint
A fit-out and maintenance company in Malta logs every client request in a SharePoint list: the client, the site, the job type, the engineer and a status. Invoices are raised in the accounting system, and quotes are tracked in a spreadsheet.
- Each month an office manager exports the jobs list, fixes the client names that came out as numbers and pastes it into the pack.
- Nobody can say how many closed jobs have not been invoiced until the year-end review.
- How long jobs take is a feeling, because the list keeps only today's status.
- The jobs list is read overnight into a warehouse the company owns, matched to the accounting system by client code.
- Closed jobs with no invoice appear on the finance lead's screen each morning, oldest first.
- Nightly snapshots show days from request to close and from close to invoice, by job type and by engineer.
The engineers still update the same list on their phones. The difference is on the finance side: the list is now acted on each morning instead of rebuilt each month.
A health check before a list becomes a source
Status is a choice column
A status typed freely produces closed, Closed and done. A choice column gives the warehouse one value to count.
Dates are date columns
Request date, due date and completion date held as dates, not as text, so durations can be worked out.
Money is a currency column
Values held as currency or number columns, never inside a text field or a title.
Clients and projects are lookups
A lookup to a clients list, ideally carrying the same customer code as the accounting system, is what lets the list meet the ledger.
Someone owns the list
A named owner who decides when columns change, so a renamed field is a planned change rather than a broken report.
What we do not do
- We do not sell, license, implement or support SharePoint or Microsoft 365. Your IT provider keeps doing that.
- We do not build SharePoint sites, workflows or Power Automate flows, and we do not move documents into SharePoint.
- We do not change a list, its columns or its permissions. If the health check suggests a change, your list owner makes it.
- We do not hold your lists anywhere of ours. The copy the reports use sits in your own warehouse, in your account.
How it works
- A strategy callThirty minutes with Glen, free, with no pitch deck. Bring the systems you run and the question none of them answers on its own. You leave knowing whether joining them is worth doing, and where to start.
- The data auditAbout three hours with your team, mapping where each figure comes from, which system holds it and which steps are done by hand. The audit confirms how each system can be read, and it ends with a quote.
- The buildThree to four weeks from an accepted quote to a live dashboard. Implementation is the first month. Your team agrees the definitions with us; we do the building.
- The fractional teamAn ongoing senior team keeps the loads running, follows changes made to your systems and connects the next source when the business needs it.
Glen Sultana founded 110 Analytics after a career built where the numbers move daily. Our people have run analytics for tier-one companies, S&P 500 firms and high-growth technology businesses. Glen is the person on the first call, and he runs every data audit himself.
- Built in your environment, under your account
- No lock-in: if we part company, it keeps running and stays yours
- Based in Malta
Straight answers
Do you replace SharePoint?
No. Your teams keep working in the same lists. The warehouse reads a copy of what the reports need, so nothing about how the lists are used has to change.
Will you need administrator rights on our Microsoft 365?
No. Your administrator grants read access to the specific sites the reports use, through Microsoft's Sites.Selected permission, and can withdraw it at any time.
How do you connect to SharePoint?
Through Microsoft Graph, the interface Microsoft provides for other software, with read access only. The audit confirms which lists the reports need and who on your side grants the access.
Our list has more than five thousand items. Is that a problem?
Usually not for reporting. The five thousand item threshold limits the views people open in the list, while the overnight read fetches items page by page. Your larger lists are test-loaded during the audit.
Can you read Excel files kept in SharePoint libraries too?
Yes, as long as they are saved in the current Excel format. Workbooks have their own page, because deciding which ones to keep is a separate conversation.
What happens when someone changes the list?
A renamed column or a new choice value is flagged by the next load to the person responsible, rather than being guessed at. The fractional team updates the mapping, and the list owner is asked before anything about the list itself changes.
Terms on this page
- List view threshold
- Microsoft's limit of five thousand items for a single view of a list. It shapes how people work in a large list.
- Lookup column
- A column that points to an item in another list, such as a client. Read by name, it becomes the key that joins the list to other systems.
- Sites.Selected
- A Microsoft permission that gives an application access only to the SharePoint sites an administrator names, and nothing else.
- Snapshot
- A dated copy of the list as it stood at each nightly read, kept in the warehouse so changes over time can be measured.
Where the product facts come from
Every product fact on this page comes from the vendor's own documentation, read on 8 October 2026. Vendors change their products, so the audit checks the version you run.
- Microsoft Support: Export to Excel from SharePoint or Lists
- Microsoft Learn: items exceed the list view threshold
- Microsoft Learn: list items (Microsoft Graph)
- Microsoft Learn: field values, lookup fields (Microsoft Graph)
- Microsoft Learn: selected permissions overview (Sites.Selected)
- Microsoft Support: version history of an item or file in a list or library