Accounting Matters

CHRIS BURNS Complete Business Strategies

CHECK YOUR SPEED WITH YOUR BUSINESS DASHBOARD

Financial reports for your business are about more than keeping the ATO off your back.

The cloud allows business owners to access data anywhere, anytime, from any device but what do the reports and tables of numbers really mean and how can you most easily see your progress? A few simple charts can give you a snapshot of your business and allow you to see in seconds whether you are achieving your key performance objectives.

By selecting critical areas of your business, you can see at a glance whether your business is on track to achieve your goals. For example, one area of business that requires continual

GRAPH 1

GRAPH 2

monitoring is sales. With a graph you can quickly spot your sales trend. (Graph 1)

The news in this chart is great, sales revenue is up and down but the trend is on the rise. That Business Matters advertising looks to be working. However, as we have learned from previous articles, sales growth can create cash issues so perhaps you also need a quick snapshot of your debtors and cash position. (Graph 2)

Notice that as the debtor days increases, the bank balance decreases. We can see immediately that if we continue as we have been, we may run out of cash soon. Perhaps it is time to pay urgent attention to collecting our debtors.

Summary 1. Your key business reports do not need to be presented in a table of numbers. 2. Modern t ools enable a single page dashboard to be totally customised to your business to provide immediate visual feedback on the performance of your business. 3. The cost of the se reports is low, starting at around $40 a month. 4. See the sam ple dashboard below for how your business dashboard could look.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chris is a Chartered Accountant and a Director of Complete Business Strategies. During his 20 year career Chris has helped hundreds of clients improve their business outcomes and looks forward helping many more.

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