Have you ever spent hours reconciling multiple Excel exports only to discover your team is working on different versions of the same report? Nearly 40 percent of CFOs admit they do not entirely trust their organization’s financial data, undermining strategic decisions at every level. Meanwhile, finance teams that rely on manual reconciliation spend their time on data entry and transaction matching, which could be spent on analysis and forecasting. 

These challenges underscore the need for a robust data governance framework that defines roles, processes, policies, metrics, and standards to ensure data accuracy, accountability, and security across the enterprise. In Orbit Analytics, data governance is enforced through a unified control plane: single sign-on authentication, fine-grained permissions, and immutable audit logs to ensure every edit and access event is recorded and compliant. 

To bridge the gap between siloed data sources and team collaboration, Orbit Websheets connects data from your platforms – Azure, Databricks, AWS, BigQuery, S3 buckets, or Snowflake and your applications – Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle PeopleSoft, Oracle NetSuite, Salesforce to a browser-based spreadsheet interface inside Orbit. Rather than exporting static snapshots, you benefit from real-time/near real time data retrieval, in-platform reporting, and built-in governance without ever leaving the platform. 

Why Is There a Need for Websheets? 

Studies show that up to 94 percent of spreadsheets used in business decision-making contain critical errors that can lead to financial losses and operational missteps. At the same time, a Deloitte survey of 600 global finance leaders found that companies spend 48 percent of their time creating and updating reports, leaving only 18 percent for interpreting and communicating insights. These figures highlight two fundamental challenges: 

1. Error-Prone Processes: Manual spreadsheets introduce risks at every stage, with data entry mistakes, broken formulas, and version drift undermining confidence in report accuracy. 

2. Inefficient Workflows: Repeated exports to Excel, offline reconciliation, and email exchanges bottlenecks are quite cumbersome and also invite human errors and delay the overall decision-making. 

Furthermore, modern enterprises demand governance and auditability that static spreadsheets cannot deliver. Organizations struggle to maintain consistent access controls, trace data lineage, and enforce compliance without a unified platform. Orbit Websheets was designed to overcome these challenges by uniting real-time data retrieval, in-platform reporting, and baked-in governance, eliminating spreadsheet errors and driving efficiency across finance, operations, and BI teams. 

Orbit Websheets Architecture 

Orbit Websheets is built on a modular architecture that delivers scalability, security, and seamless integration across enterprise data platforms. The three core components are: 

Data Integration Layer 

• Connectors to Multiple Data Sources 
  Orbit Websheets provides prebuilt connectors for Azure, Databricks, AWS, BigQuery, S3 buckets, Snowflake, Oracle Fusion, and E-Business Suite. These connectors bridge the gap between disparate systems, enabling direct queries against live data without manual export. 
   

• Bridge Model 
  By decoupling data retrieval from in-sheet calculations, Websheets issues lightweight queries to source systems and streams results into the browser. This ensures minimal latency and reduces load on transactional systems. 

Security and Access Controls 

• Authentication and Single Sign-On 
  Orbit Websheets integrates with corporate identity providers via SSO or OAuth, ensuring that users authenticate through existing directory services. 
   

• Fine-Grained Permissions 
  Administrators assign permissions at the workbook, sheet, or cell level. Role-based access control ensures that only authorized users can view or modify sensitive data. 

Orbit Websheets embeds compliance, traceability, and security directly into every report, removing blind spots and manual handoffs. It’s integrated controls and audit features ensure that organizations can enforce policies and demonstrate regulatory adherence without added complexity. 

Role-Based Access Control 

Orbit Websheets lets administrators define custom roles such as Finance Analyst or Operations Lead with precise view, edit, or comment privileges at the workbook, sheet or even individual cell level. All permissions are managed centrally through a unified console and sync automatically with your corporate directory via SSO or OAuth, ensuring access policies stay aligned with your organization’s user groups. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

What are Orbit Websheets and how do they work? 

Orbit Websheets is a browser-based spreadsheet interface built into the Orbit Analytics platform. It connects directly to enterprise data sources, retrieves live data into sheets, and applies a client-side formula engine for calculations. All edits and sharing happen within Orbit, so there is no need to export or import files. 

Which ERP systems can Websheets integrate with in real time? 

Orbit Websheets provides native connectors for ERP applications like Oracle Fusion ERP, Oracle Fuison HCM, Oracle Fusion SCM, Oracle Fusion EPM, Peoplesoft,  Oracle E-Business Suite, and cloud Datawarehouses like Oracle ADW, Azure, AWS, Databricks, and Snowflake. These connectors issue live queries against the source systems, enabling direct access to general ledger, sub-ledger, and custom data tables. 

Conclusion  

Orbit Websheets transforms team reporting by combining live data retrieval, robust governance, and seamless collaboration within a single platform. It eliminates version drift, reduces manual reconciliation, and enforces audit-ready controls, empowering finance, operations, and BI teams to focus on insights instead of spreadsheet management. 

To experience Orbit Websheets firsthand, schedule a live demo or start a proof-of-concept with our solutions team today.