Business Intelligence for San Bernardino County Logistics and Manufacturing
Your warehouse system knows what shipped, your ERP knows what it cost and your carrier portal knows what was late, but nobody can see all three on one screen before the morning stand-up. We fix that.
Business intelligence in San Bernardino County usually means one thing first: making sense of a very large number of small transactions. Picks, scans, loads, freight bills and timecards pile up by the million, and a spreadsheet stops coping long before the operation does. Lightray Solutions builds Power BI reporting that holds that volume and still answers in seconds, and Edward Pinela, MBA, does the work himself.
We serve distribution centers, carriers, manufacturers and the service businesses that support them from Ontario and Fontana to San Bernardino, Redlands and the High Desert. All delivery is remote: workshops by video and the build inside your own Microsoft tenant, so no one waits for a consultant to drive up the 15.
The first step is a free 30-minute strategy call. Use the form on this page or call; you get a reply within 4 business hours and, after a short discovery, a written quote with a fixed scope.
“Amazing! Lightray Solutions built us a Power BI dashboard based on my busy restaurant’s quickbooks data that allows me to see my entire business on a daily basis which has been a game-changer! Excellent communication and service!”
— Quinn R., Google review
Why does warehouse data break ordinary reporting?
Because a single building can write more rows in a week than a small company's accounting system writes in a year. Exporting that to Excel, pasting it into a template and emailing it out works for the first month, then the file gets too big to open, the refresh takes the whole morning and people start keeping their own copies.
The fix is a proper model rather than a bigger spreadsheet. Power BI's incremental refresh, which Microsoft documents for tables 'with potentially billions of rows', reloads only the recent days and keeps history untouched, so a daily update takes minutes instead of hours. It is available on Power BI Pro, which most companies already have through Microsoft 365.
What does a San Bernardino County BI project report on?
Data USA counts 972,221 employed residents in San Bernardino County in 2024, and the three largest sectors are health care and social assistance (131,447), retail trade (119,705) and transportation and warehousing (106,972). That third number is what sets the county apart from its neighbors, and it shapes most of the work we see here. The table below lists the questions each kind of business brings to its first workshop.
| Business | Questions the dashboard answers | Usual data sources |
|---|---|---|
| Distribution centers and 3PLs | Units per labor hour by shift, dock-to-stock time, pick accuracy, storage used against capacity | Warehouse management system, timekeeping, billing |
| Trucking and freight brokers | Revenue and cost per mile, empty miles, on-time delivery by customer and lane | Transportation management system, fuel cards, accounting |
| Manufacturers | Margin by product and customer, scrap, open orders against capacity | ERP or MRP, shop-floor spreadsheets, accounting |
| Multi-location retail and service | Sales and labor by location, inventory turns, returns | Point of sale, QuickBooks or NetSuite, scheduling |
| Clinics and care providers | Visits by site and payer, days in receivables, staff utilization | Practice management exports, accounting, Excel rosters |
How does the work run when we never meet on site?
In four stages, each one signed off before the next, so the expensive part only starts once the definitions are agreed.
- Discovery. A review of your WMS, TMS, ERP and payroll exports, the reports people use today and the decisions behind them. You receive a scope, a timeline and a fixed quote in writing.
- Definitions. One working session to agree what counts as on time, what a cost per order includes and which shift a late scan belongs to. Arguments settled here never reach the dashboard.
- Build and reconcile. Sources connected through a gateway or scheduled exports, incremental refresh set up on the big tables, and every headline figure checked against the numbers your finance team already reports.
- Rollout. Building-level and company-level views secured by role, a walkthrough for each audience and a round of changes after a few weeks of real use.
What does it cost?
A first dashboard on one warehouse system and the accounting data is a small fixed-price project. Joining several buildings, a transportation system and labor data is larger. Either way, the written quote after discovery names the scope before you commit.
Already on Power BI and fighting slow refreshes, or adding a building? A prepaid block of Power BI Flex Support covers that kind of work: from $2,500 for 20 hours, billed at $100 to $125 an hour, with no expiry on unused time. Power BI work carries a guarantee: if you don't like working with us within the first 4 hours, you get your money back.
Is a one-person consultancy the right size for a logistics company?
For reporting, usually yes. The person who hears the problem on the first call writes the measures and builds the model, so nothing is lost in a handoff. Behind that person: 20+ years in operations-facing analytics, more than 200 finished projects, a 4.9★ rating from Google reviewers and an A+ from the BBB.
What we do not do is run your WMS, your network or your help desk. If you need a systems integrator on the warehouse floor, we will say so on the first call and stick to the reporting layer that sits on top. For Power BI help in a specific city, see our pages for San Bernardino, Ontario and Fontana.
Further reading: Microsoft Learn — Incremental refresh for Power BI semantic models.
Want dock, freight and margin numbers in one place?
Book a free 30-minute call with Edward Pinela, MBA. You get an honest read on what to fix first — and if we are not the right fit, you will hear that on the call.
Frequently asked questions
Can Power BI handle our warehouse transaction volume?
Yes, if the model is built for it. Incremental refresh loads only recent data on each update, history stays in place, and summary tables keep the pages fast. Discovery checks your row counts and source systems first, and the written scope says how the large tables will be handled.
Our WMS is hosted by the vendor. Can you still connect to it?
Usually. Many hosted systems offer a reporting database, an API or scheduled file exports to SharePoint or an SFTP folder, and Power BI can read all of those. Where the vendor charges for data access, you will know before the quote is final.
Do you come out to our building?
No. All work is remote: workshops by video with a shared screen, and the build happens in your own Microsoft tenant. A short screen-share walk through your systems gives us what a site visit would, and it keeps the cost down.
Can each building manager see only their own site?
Yes. Row-level security filters the same report by the signed-in user, so a building manager sees one site, a regional manager sees several and leadership sees everything, without maintaining separate copies.
What if the first sessions don't go well?
Then you walk away with your money. On Power BI work, if you don't like working with us within the first 4 hours, you get it back. Later in the project, nothing moves to the next stage until you have approved the current one, so you are never committed past the step in front of you.
You Won’t Get Handed Off to Junior Staff.
At most consulting firms, the senior person who sold you shows up for the kickoff — then you get handed to a team of juniors learning on your dime. That’s not how we work.
When you hire Lightray Solutions, you work directly with Edward Pinela, MBA — a principal consultant with 20+ years of experience across Power BI, web development, SEO, and CRM systems. Edward architects every engagement personally, stays involved through delivery, and answers his own phone.
Read Edward’s Full Bio“Mid-market companies deserve senior-level expertise without paying enterprise-agency prices. That’s the gap Lightray fills.”
Simple. Transparent. Proven.
No black-box processes. No endless discovery phases. A straightforward three-step approach designed to deliver measurable results fast.
Discovery Call
Free 30-minute strategy session where we assess your data landscape, website, marketing — and where AI would genuinely pay off versus where it's hype.
Free · No ObligationCustom Roadmap
You receive a tailored plan with clear deliverables, realistic timelines, and expected ROI. You approve every detail before we start.
Fixed Scope · Clear PricingMeasurable Results
We execute, measure, and optimize. You get dashboards, regular check-ins, and full visibility — so you always know the impact.
Data-Driven · TransparentGet a clear plan in one free call.
Tell us what you are trying to fix. Your request goes to Edward Pinela, MBA — the principal consultant who would do the work — and you hear back within 4 business hours.
Prefer to call? +1 (714) 872-9606