On this page
Side by side
Why we compare BI and reporting tools on these topics
| Topic | Power BI | Control.dev |
|---|---|---|
| 01 The work around the report | A warehouse and a semantic model come first Microsoft calls a dimensional model in a Fabric Warehouse a recommended prerequisite for enterprise semantic models and a serious undertaking1, and its adoption guidance describes enterprise content owned by IT, a BI team or a Center of Excellence2. | Your team changes it, or asks Claude Your finance team edits the functional P&L, its allocation keys and a layout per audience, AI suggests the account mapping for the team to accept, and Claude drafts a dashboard you apply or discard, with no consultants to pay. |
| 02 When the second ledger arrives | Each ledger joins through Power Query or a warehouse Microsoft’s connector list names no connector for Netvisor, Procountor, Fortnox, Tripletex, Xero or DATEV3, and Microsoft recommends a data warehouse and ETL processes first when volumes are large or history must be tracked4. | Eliminations in their own column, CTA kept apart Control.dev consolidates the ledgers each entity keeps, calculates Currency CTA and Elimination CTA apart from the eliminations, your AI client lists the intercompany pairs that do not match, and every figure opens to its entries. |
| 03 Planning on the same numbers | Planning in Fabric, on F or P capacity Microsoft offers Planning in Fabric for budgets, forecasts and scenarios on Fabric semantic models5, and the models it plans on must sit on Fabric F or Premium P capacity6. | A budget from a prompt, versions you can lock The P&L, balance sheet and cash flow are planned together, every version keeps its history and a locked one refuses every write, and your AI client drafts values with a reason on every cell. |
| 04 AI on the numbers | An AI assistant on paid capacity, MCP servers for models Microsoft’s AI assistant in Power BI needs paid capacity, Fabric F2 or Premium P1 and up7. Microsoft advises preparing the semantic model first8, and two MCP servers create models and answer questions over them9. | Claude, ChatGPT or Codex on the consolidated group They work over MCP with the user’s own role in every plan, and that MCP is built and tested for group accounting. The client starts from the statements and the group structure, not a raw export of the general ledger: it finds what needs attention and traces it to the entries. It also reviews a month’s bookings on request and drafts the board pack, and Control.dev’s own AI chat processes data in the EU. |
| 05 Time to live, and how you leave | Licences per user paid yearly, capacity by the hour or the year Pro costs EUR 12.10 per user a month, billed yearly10, below F64 every viewer needs a paid licence too11, and the smallest capacity, F2, works out at about EUR 244 a month pay as you go12. | Live in under two hours for most companies, no setup fee, billed monthly Our team sets up the integrations and the mapping and most companies have live data in under two hours, the prices are public with no setup fee and no multi-year contract, the notice period starts from one month, billing is monthly and the free trial runs 30 days. |
Control.dev consolidates the ledgers a group already runs into one group view with eliminations.
Where Power BI is the better choice
- Company-wide analytics beyond finance. Microsoft positions Power BI as a unified analytics platform13, with models a central team owns or business users build2. Control.dev works on the group’s ledgers and Stripe billing data.
- A low list price per report creator: Pro is EUR 12.10 per user a month, billed yearly10. Below F64 capacity, every report viewer needs a paid licence too11.
- Planning on the same platform for teams already on Fabric capacity, with budgets, forecasts and scenarios on the semantic models they have56.
Keep Power BI for company-wide data
- Consolidated data for the warehouse On the Enterprise plan, tell us what your warehouse needs and we set up the versioned Parquet snapshots your Power BI model reads.
- Transactions to CSV or Excel For a one-off analysis, the Transactions Browser exports the matching transactions to CSV or Excel, up to 100,000 rows.
When teams look at Control.dev
From what finance teams have told us about the moment they started looking. We name no customers.
- Round trips. The numbers went from the BI tool to a spreadsheet for analysis and the forecast, then back into the BI tool for the report.
- Years of modelling on top of an ERP, where finance was a small part of the model. The hours went into the work around the report, not into the report itself.
- Ask instead of build. Teams wanted to ask a question in plain language rather than build another report, and to keep the BI tool for the wider company data.
Which fits your finance team
Choose Power BI if you want one analytics platform for finance, sales and operations, with a data team or partner to build and run the model.
Choose Control.dev if your finance team wants the group P&L, the eliminations, the plan and AI on the ledgers it keeps, without building a model first, while Power BI keeps the company-wide data.
30 minutes on your ledgers and your first question.
Working with Control.dev
- Live in hours or days, not months Our team sets Control.dev up with you. Most companies have live data in under two hours from the first call, a larger group takes days, the hardest a few weeks, and there is no setup fee at any size. The comparison hub shows how long each vendor says its own rollout takes.
- Prices on one page, nothing billed on the side EUR 249, 499 and 999 a month excluding VAT, on the pricing page, with no multi-year contract and a notice period from one month. Support, user changes and settings changes are in the price, and nothing is billed per ticket or per request.
- Close support from the people who build the product Your questions go to the team that builds Control.dev, most are answered within minutes and almost all the same day, and we work through accounting and group-structure questions with you, not only software questions.
- Your AI client on a structure built for group accounting Claude, ChatGPT or Codex works on Control.dev over an MCP built and tested for group accounting. The client starts from the statements and the group structure, not a raw export of the general ledger: it finds what needs attention and traces it to the entries, within the access your role allows.
- Built with the finance teams that use it, at pace Our roadmap comes from our customers, demanding finance professionals, and a gap in a feature list is the best news we can get. A missing feature typically ships in days and a larger one in weeks. A ledger connector we would build anyway comes at no extra cost; today Control.dev connects Netvisor, Procountor, Easor (Talenom), Fortnox, Spiris (formerly Visma eEkonomi), Tripletex, e-conomic, Xero, QuickBooks, Zoho Books, Odoo, Xledger and NetSuite, plus Stripe.
- A younger product, and who it is for Control.dev is built by Finata Oy in Helsinki since 2024, by a team from finance roles and finance systems. It fits a team that already works with AI tools, or wants to, and would rather not keep data engineers or system consultants for its reporting. If AI is not something your company wants to work with, we are probably the wrong partner, and where another tool covers more than Control.dev, the page above says so.
What switching looks like
- 1 Run both side by side for a period. Control.dev reads your ledgers with read-only access by default, so Power BI and your ledgers stay as they are while you compare the numbers. The 30-day free trial covers up to three integrations.
- 2 Send us screenshots of the three or four reports your board already knows, and we rebuild them in Control.dev first, so the first month looks familiar.
- 3 Your contract and notice period decide when you leave the current tool. Control.dev has no implementation fee and no multi-year contract, and its notice period starts from one month, so the parallel run can start well before then.
Questions
Is Control.dev an alternative to Power BI?
For the finance view of a group, often. For company-wide analytics, no: Microsoft positions Power BI as a unified analytics platform13, on semantic models that a central team or business users build2. Control.dev consolidates the ledgers a group keeps and plans on the same numbers, so Power BI can stay for the wider company data.
What do setup and later changes cost?
With Control.dev, our team sets up the integrations and the mapping with no setup fee, and most companies have live data in under two hours. Later changes to a mapping, a layout or a dashboard are made by your team or its AI client, with no consultants to pay. Microsoft lists Power BI Pro at EUR 12.10 and Premium Per User at EUR 20.80 per user a month, billed yearly10, with Fabric capacity priced separately14. We computed the F2 figure on this page from Microsoft’s retail price list: about EUR 244 a month pay as you go, or about EUR 145 a month reserved for a year12. What the model costs to build depends on who builds it. Control.dev publishes its monthly prices, excluding VAT: EUR 249 for one entity and one integration, EUR 499 for consolidation with three integrations and EUR 999 with five, where a Stripe connection counts as one integration, with no implementation fee, no multi-year contract and a notice period from one month.
Can we ask Claude or ChatGPT about our group numbers?
With Control.dev, yes: Claude, ChatGPT and Codex work with the consolidated group over MCP in every plan, from the statements down to the transactions, within the user’s own role. The client starts from the statements and the group structure, not a raw export of the general ledger. Microsoft documents MCP servers that create semantic models and answer questions over them9. Its own AI assistant in Power BI runs on paid capacity, Fabric F2 or Premium P1 and up7; Pro users can use it when an admin assigns them to such a capacity15.
Which ledgers does each connect to?
Microsoft’s list of Power Query connectors names Business Central and SAP, but no connector for Netvisor, Procountor, Fortnox, Visma, Tripletex, e-conomic, Xero, QuickBooks, DATEV or NetSuite3. Control.dev connects Netvisor, Procountor, Easor (Talenom), Fortnox, Spiris (formerly Visma eEkonomi), Tripletex, e-conomic, Xero, QuickBooks, Zoho Books, Odoo, Xledger and NetSuite, plus Stripe, and a DATEV ledger comes in as an export through an AI client.
Will the board reports keep the layout they have in Power BI?
Yes. Send us screenshots of the three or four reports your board already knows, and our team rebuilds them in Control.dev first, so the first month looks familiar. Each layout sits on the same actuals, and changing a layout never touches the mappings.
Where is the data stored and processed?
Control.dev’s data is hosted on Google Cloud in Hamina, Finland, encrypted in transit and at rest, and Finata Oy’s security management is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified. Control.dev’s own AI features process data in the EU; an AI client you connect over MCP processes what it reads under your agreement with its provider. For Power BI, ask your Microsoft admin which region your tenant and capacity use.
What support do we get?
Close support on every plan. Your questions go to the team that builds Control.dev, most are answered within minutes and almost all the same day, and we work through accounting and group-structure questions with you, not only software questions. Support, user changes and settings changes are in the price, and Enterprise adds a dedicated Slack channel and priority support.
